Thread: Abbey National - Help Required

Hi I had my account with Abbey about 6 years ago and went overdrawn without no overdraft facility. The amount was about £400. I couldn't pay this off at the time and changed my account. I forgot about the account until a debt agency contacted me saying it had been passed on and that the amount was now £1700. I am still paying this amount through the debt agency. The rest of the amount was charges!!!! Is there any way I can claim these back?

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Originally Posted by michaele

Hi I had my account with Abbey about 6 years ago and went overdrawn without no overdraft facility. The amount was about £400. I couldn't pay this off at the time and changed my account. I forgot about the account until a debt agency contacted me saying it had been passed on and that the amount was now £1700. I am still paying this amount through the debt agency. The rest of the amount was charges!!!! Is there any way I can claim these back?

Just to be clear, the balance of £400 was less than the total charges that had been applied to the account? Do you have statements showing charges applied to the account before you forgot about it?

How much have you paid to the DCA and how much are you paying every month?

Thanks.

Yes the charges were applied to the amount. I have paid about £400 to the DCA and pay £40 per month.

I do not have a list of charges. I believe they kept charging me £30 per month for being overdrawn and said it was because my account was still open, although I never received any letters from then! But I can't prove that.

Do you think it will be worth while sending a letter of to try and get a list of charges?

Sorry I didn't ask the first question very clearly. Before the £400 o/d arose, did you incur bank charges and did these equate in total to more or less than £400? If the balance is a real debt and not offset by unlawful charges then they can charge you interest on that debt up to the point at which it has been paid. Any charges for being overdrawn etc are unlawful. If the £400 mainly comprised charges then you are looking at claiming these back plus any others you have paid.

In any event it's very unlikely that you will need to pay any more to the DCA.

No the charges were applied after I went £400 overdrawn. I fully admit I definately owe that amount. But then they kept charging me £30 per month for being overdrawn and interest and money for the letters I believe.

Should I send a letter to ask for a Breakdown of charges and then apple for them to be taken off my bill?

Yes. It would have been easier if the £400 had comprised charges as you do need to establish exactly what you should have paid.

Send the DPA letter in the library to Abbey and copy it to the DCA.

The end result of this will be that you have repaid the £400 and you will need to pay the interest on that up to the point in time when it was repaid. Do you know exactly how much you have already paid. If it's enough to cover the o/d and the interest then you could write to the DCA and say that you will be stopping payments. If not then you will need to continue to pay for a while.

Finally, which DCA is it? Do you know if they have bought the debt from the bank or if they are just acting on their behalf?

I will have to look, but I estimate I have re-paid about £400.

I will send letters out and ask the DCA to send me a copy of the agreement. The agency is Wescot Credit Services and I believe they bought the debt but I am not sure.

Will this make a difference?

I will write to the Abbey and ask for a list of charges and copy to the DCA.

Thanks for your help, I will let you know the outcome.

If Wescot own the debt it makes things slightly more complicated as both companies will try to bamboozle and bully you into paying more than you should.

You need to make the request for charges to Abbey under the Data Protection Act. There is a template in the Library section. You should send this recorded delivery and include the £10 statutory fee. Abbey will try to avoid responding to you and you may have to be quite assertive with them.

I think that you should write to Wescot asking them if they own the debt. If they don't then you should tell them that the debt is in dispute and that they should return it to Abbey. If they do own the debt tell then you will pay interest due on the overdraft and no more than that.

Depending on when you started making the payments the interest charges on the o/d could be quite large and easily double the debt over 6 years. I would certainly pay the next couple of months £40 to Wescot (or Abbey if they do pass the debt back). Let us know how you get on with the DPA request.

Another shocking Abbey story. Good luck with your claim and let us know what happens.

Shouldn't the Abbey have issued you with a default notice and told you that the debt was being passed to a debt collection agency? Also did they not send statements during all this time or was your address out of date? It might be worth looking up the rules and your agreement to see if there is any breach. What does the Banking Code say about this and what are the legalities. Have a read around here and elsewhere, there will be plenty of information or try a debt management website, they may have published some useful information too

If you can establish any errors in procedure you will have a good bargaining tool as it may prevent any further action by the bank or the debt collection agency in the short term which will allow you time to get your action under way.

Thanks for your help.

I will do that and let you know how I get on in the future.

Very grateful