Was wondering if anyone can help? My brother is mentally ill & a few year back his benefits were changed from post office to the bank. He didn't cope at all with his account, was given a loan at the time as well. He ended up back in hospital & social work took over his affairs.

Now, after a few year he is still paying money back to the RBS, but doesn't know why! We know for sure that charges were made to his bank account.

He managed to get me a few recent letters from the Bank, but they are from 'Unidebt Collections' who seem to be a trading name for RBS. This is all the information. Can anyone help as to where I go from here. I wish to claim back his charges for him. Anyone??

Can anyone help with above??? Please!!

Have to be a bit patient dude, 40 mins is a bit soon for a bump

Okay, first read http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/24031-frequently-asked-questions.html, then familliarise yourself with http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31460-example-step-step-instructions.html.

Just get your bro to sign the letters. In the unlikely event of ending up in court (and if you stick to 6 years and simple statutory 8% interest you will be paid long before court,) I think your bro can nominate you to represent him, you can certainly go along to advise him.

In fact, in view of your brother's health, I reckon the courts would be very helpful.

If there is a debt collection agency involved, get the SAR off and then write to the DCA informing them the account is in dispute and no more payments will be coming until it's resolved.

That should keep you busy for a couple of days, until wiser heads than mine can give some input.

I'll have my faithfull side-kick T4FF swing by, he has several successful actions under his belt and is a very nice, helpful fellow, even if he is Welsh :grin:

Cheers for that HydraUK. Sorry if I seemed impatient. SAR will be in the post tomorrow. Thanks again. Gil

Wow, it's like listening to my own story!!

Hydra pointed me in the direction of this but I'm not sure he realised how much of this I've been directly involved with! I'm in exactly the same situation as you with my brother gil.

I would firstly advise you to get your brother to sign a letter that gives you the ability to work his complaint for him - if his illness is anything like my brothers and he suffers from paranoia or similar, this might get a bit too much for him, so sending this will take any of the flak away from him.

"I hereby grant authority to ******* in order that he / she may deal with this matter on my behalf. You may disclose personal details accordingly"

It means you can have any letters sent directly to you therefore giving you the power to only let your brother know the key parts of what you're doing.

Next, send a letter to the DCA as Hydra says, telling them that the account is in dispute. This will mean that the account will be handed back to RBS until the dispute is resolved.

It has come to my attention that the debt alleged by ********* may contain a proportion of unlawful charges.

 

I have therefore sent a Subject Access request to ****** in order that I may examine my statements of account. A copy of this letter is enclosed for your records.

 

Please accept this letter as written confirmation that the account is “in dispute” until this matter is resolved. I am sure that you are aware of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines concerning legitimately disputed debts.

Note, this will need to be sent in conjunction with the SAR as this will be the letter that puts your account into dispute.

You are now sending an SAR so job done there but also you should get some information regarding the credit agreement for the loan so send a CCA request to them (haven't got this to hand sorry). You should have the opportunity to claim off this loan too (have a look into this).

Finally, in your brother's interests, I would advise you to either set up a parachute account and get his benefits paid there or return things back to him collecting his benefits from the post office.

This should be a good place to start with regards to charges being taken out of his benefits.

Hope this all is of help. Any more questions, do fire away.

Cheers for all that info. His benefits are changed back to post office. We may run into a bit of a problem with time as this happened 4-5 years ago & we are in Scotland. Will wait & see what comes back with SAR. They completely robbed him! Will get in touch if I need more help. Thanks T4FF!

Any relatives in England? It might be possible to go through English system if your relatives would permit you to send correspondance through them.

There is a service available that allows you to rent an English address if you live in Scotland, I've seen reference to it in another thread, I'll have a look for it and get back to you.

No relatives in England T4ff.

Cheers HydraUK. All help is greatly appreciated:) . Cheers to you both!! Gil

This is the thread, claimant is in Scotland and is setting up a London address...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/73131-english-addresses-scottish-claimers.html?highlight=carlisle