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Just looking for some advice on where I stand and what process to follow.
Approximately 18 months ago I was given the boot from RBS and obviously as I had my staff account with them, they took an unexpected sum of money from me as a payment in leiu so to speak.
Obviously I had a few DD going out to gym membership and mobile phones, now bare in mind they'd already taken me for £200-300 the added stress of the DDS going out just got me into a spiral to the point of about £500-600 owed, I proceeded to take advantage of my cheque guarantee card and get pay advances at a local store to try and keep the other creditors at bay so to stop hassling me. This had a worse affect on my account with RBS and I've slowly racked up approx 1300-1400.
Moving on I've had numerous phone calls, threats etc I refused to enter into a loan plan with them at some stupid high APR, and now i've got threats of court action etc. Bare in mind this was 18 months ago, the total now is approx £2800* due to interest, o/d charges, and the guarantee payment fees, unpaid D/D etc - this has gone to an external debt company as far as im aware, I still get letters from both RBS collections in birmingham and the external company, but I haven't received anything for the past 2 months. I don't even think they're applying interest anymore because the last letters I received from the company were all the same figures, where as previously I was being charged £35 for being overdrawn and £62-70 in interest pair month.
Any help as to where I stand is much appreciated, can I get some of the money back? Should I ring the external debt company and barter for a lower settlement figure and request it in writing when paying?
Cheers!
Just like to add that the advice I get here's going to sway my decision in terms of getting a loan to sort the whole mess out once and for all, but i'm unsure as to if there's a point as non of the creditors are applying charges/interest as such, just RBS, cause at the moment im constantly using pay day loan companies to get by and then using them again once I've paid them off, ridiculous I know!
If you can help it I would suggest not taking out a loan to clear your debt with RBS, especially if it is made up of penalty charges.
Your obviously in a rock and a hard place, so I would suggest proceeding to start a reclaim for the charges levied against you through either the county courts where you can claim interest (there is a waiver on fees for people with low incomes), or submit a complain to the financial Ombudsman service. It is important that you state that you wish the claim/complaint to proceed in both instances, otherwise the matter could be stayed.
I was very interested that you were told to take out a loan with RBS to pay off a debt with RBS, as this is against Office Of Fair Trading debt collection guidelines.
Advice offered by ENRON is without prejudice and is for your judgement as to whether to take it. You should seek the assistance or hire of a solicitor or other paid professional if in doubt.
I was very interested that you were told to take out a loan with RBS to pay off a debt with RBS, as this is against Office Of Fair Trading debt collection guidelines.
Enron this is interesting. Can you elaborate on this for my own benefit. I did a have loan with RBS now in default as they told me to take it out to pay my overdraft.
2.5 Putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive.
2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
a. contacting debtors at unreasonable times and at unreasonable intervals
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further borrowing or to extend their borrowing
So they shouldn't be putting you under pressure to cover one debt by taking out further borrowing.
That said the people making contact are likely unaware of the OFT guidelines, or are breaking them being under pressure to achieve targets. Probably the later especially if they are working on behalf of an external DCA.
Advice offered by ENRON is without prejudice and is for your judgement as to whether to take it. You should seek the assistance or hire of a solicitor or other paid professional if in doubt.
Actually that's in house team not Triton, it's the birminghams collections department that I rang. They tried to coherse me into making a good-will payment of £250 into the account, to prove that I could afford the monthly repayments on the loan - the loan they offered was to cover the amount of debt and no more, but the rate of interest was a joke obviously.
What you'll find more intruiging is that telephone banking staff are actively told to look into your bank accounts with overdraft limits over say 1500+, and suggest that perhaps you'd like to consider "reducing your monthly repayments" - at which point they will check your "risk band" this is RBS/Natwest in house assesment graded 1-10. if you're 1-7 you'll be put through to standard loan department to assess if you'd end up paying more in interest on the OD, if so they'll work a loan out to pay it off. If you're 8-10 you'll be passed to Birmingham collections to discuss the same thing, but you'll only be offered an amount to cover what is owed.
Bare in mind you could end up "reducing your monthly outgoings" but being stitched up with owing more in the long run.
it was Birmingham Collections that set up my loan as they kept ringing me and writing letters. They said "I could reduce my monthly outgoings by taking out another loan to pay off my overdraft and my present loan. I wish I had never done it now but you know at the time it sounded fine. My previous loan certainly would not have a valid agreement. Felt like I have been well and truly stitched up.
The amusing aspect is hammy, if you had applied for a credit card or another overdraft increase you would be told simply no - but because they want you on the books for longer to earn more money out of unaware people, they will bend over backwards - or so it would seem, to get you that loan.
Another funny point is that whilst your discussing the possibilities of the loan they're all nicey nice, well that was the case with me. The minute I said no disrespect but I appreciate your time but I'm not willing to go through with it they went absolutely ape sh*t - threatening me with defaults and all the other usual crap.
This is the only debt worrying me that I have, I've finally got back on my feet and have about 6-7k in savings - I don't want to have any credit whatsoever in the future, but it would be nice to know I don't have to worry about a CCJ. But there's no way in hell that I will pay back £1500 in interest + charges - I've sent them a recorded SAR yesterday with £10 postal order, once I've got some form of reply I'll post it up here.
Could someone tell me where I stand in terms of maybe not claiming the charges as such, but getting them removed from the balance? Also as I was out of work at the time would I even have a case of hardship or am I missing the point of hardship. I wouldn't want to be seen to use something that was for genuine cases and come across as fradulent!
Ex-employee with unauthorised o/d
and obviously as I had my staff account with them, they took an unexpected sum of money from me as a payment in leiu so to speak.
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Originally Posted by Enron
