The decision was from the ombudsman following appeal. I've since received £500 compensation from the Independent Assessor however. There is very good reason why it's in arrears all down to RBS's mistakes which they haven't admitted to yet, although have commented on internally through information gained from FOS SAR. As explained previously however the accounts have not been terminated properly either.

An update on the situation for those still interested. Having received the letters mentioned in my previous post I have since received one letter from RBS stating that my overdraft account would be passed over to Wescot, who would be in touch. Soon after they placed a default on my CRA file for this account. Nothing else received regarding loan. Been receiving automated message phone calls everyday for well over a week now from Wescot and today received a letter stating that I owed nearly £5000 which I take must include overdraft and loan. This is interesting considering RBS have done nothing regarding my loan account and it is still on 6 late payments on my credit report. What are they playing at? Ignore or write back?

Hi been absent for a while but have some recent developments on this one. I sent off a LBA in the middle of March(no response) and I had intended to file the claim soon, however I have since received a couple of interesting letters. They both arrived on the same day, the first one explaining that my overdraft agreement was being terminated as I hadn't responded to a notice they sent under CCA. The second one was similar and for my loan and explaining that I hadn't responded to a default notice under section 87 of the CCA and so they were asking for the full amount by 25th April. Both of these letters received on the 23rd April. The funny thing is that I didn't receive any such notices and it looks like they are terminating the loan and overdraft without actually sending me them. Should I continue with court action or wait for confirmation of termination and SAR them to ask for any DN? Thanks in advance

Final Decision from the Ombudsman (ex Natwest employee)

Hi slick, There was some mes up with the final decision and they accidentally sent myself and the business an earlier draft of the final decision by mistake (good job FOS) however I have now received the final decision although the points are much the same. In the final decision they looked at 1. RBS asked me to pay money at a time when all accounts were in credit and I paid money when requested 2. I did not phone the bank as I had concerns over the charges of the 0845 number and my working hours meant that it was difficult to call them (I work from 8am-11pm in a catering environment) 3. RBS recorded missed payments on my credit report whilst the account was in dispute 4. RBS terminated the credit card account and should not have done so. The decision goes on to say that RBS had every right to cancel my card and chequebook as the original letter asked me to call to discuss my financial position which I didn't (it fails fails to mention that in fact the letter asked me to either call or to pay the shortfalls on my account, i chose to pay the shortfall) They also say that despite my working hours it was reasonable for RBS to ask me to call the 0845 number as they use that to divert calls across the country (no reference to OFT debt collection guidelines or to human rights act) They also claim that they were entitled to do so as they thought I was using my overdraft to pay off my loan (I was in fact transferring money to my current account to then pay off my loan, i continued to pay the overdraft fees every month) They say that recording missed payments was correct and with terms and conditions and they had every right to do so. They say that RBS were entitled to continue collection activity and send me a default notice for my credit card even though they had agreed not to do so in writing (this is a big wtf?) The reason being is that they acted in line with terms and conditions The FOS concede that in terminating my account twice and also sending a debit card despite them cancelling my original was confusing for me and suggested £75 was appropriate compensation. Nowhere in the Final Decision is there any reference to any relevant laws or banking codes despite me making them aware of the breaches in my initial complaint. oh, did i mention that the ombudsman is a former Natwest Stock Controller?!? I intend to take them to court under BCOBS but mainly under the data protection act for the handling of my credit card data, they should not have passed the information over to them whilst the dispute in place, they did in fact correctly put a query marker on my current and loan account, they failed to do so for the credit card, I am going to cite the Durkin case here for general damage to credit (pending the supreme court ruling on 28th Jan)

Hi, FOr those that have been following my previous thread regarding RBS treatment of me (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?380534-RBS-say-I-owe-them-money-my-account-s-are-in-balance) I am now commencing legal action against them due to unfair relationship, breach of BCOB rules and OFT guidelines. To recap I have an overdraft, loan account and CC with RBS and during November and December 2012 I experienced some shortfalls in payments for a number of these accounts due to financial circumstances. During the months I went into unarranged overdrafts and missed a couple of payments for my loan, however in January 2013 I paid everything off (including unarranged OD charges) so that it was completely up to date. During Novmeber and December 2012 I received two letters asking me to ring RBS or to pay the shoftfalls I owed to them, on both occasions I paid the shortfall. In January 2013 I was up to date and fully prepared to meet my payments in February, however I received a letter on the 28th Jan saying that I owed them money and that as a result they had cancelled my card and chequebook and that I may receive a default on my account and that "Power2Contact" would be in touch No reference to which account they were referring. Obviously I was confused why they sent that letter as there were no outstanding payments and so I sent a letter back to the address the letter came from asking them to explain. In response I received a templated letter which simply had the breakdown of my accounts showing that everything was in order. Further confused I sent a complaint. I stopped making payments on my accounts as I was unsure which accounts they were referring to and was worried that if I put money in my account it would be taken to pay a hidden charge. I explained this to them in the letter. It took them 10 weeks to respond, only to say that they were entitled to cancel the card and chequebook and that they were referring to the overall agreements and not shortfalls. During that time further charges were added. I referred the complaint to the FOS and RBS agreed that all collection activity would be stopped, they placed an "under query" status on my loan and credit account in march 2013 as a result however the CC stayed the same. I was sent a DN for the CC swiftly followed by a termination notice, the DN was defective however. I reminded them that they promised to hold all collection activity to which they responded agreeing they would and subsequently reinstated the account. However this was short-lived as a month later i received another TN. I complained again this time to the Executive HO to which they said the CC team were wrong to do so. The account however however appears to be active again and there are 6 late payment markers on the credit file and it is not under query like the others. I have a complaint in with the ICO regarding this. Today I finally received a Final Decision from the ombudsman and they are not upholding the complaint, however no clear reasons were given. I am now intending to send them a letter before action, however I would love to get any advice about how to proceed with this claim and what the best approach is, should i sue under BCOBS, section 140 of the CC or other? Thanks in advance

Update Today I have finally received a decision from the Financial Ombudsman, and I must say it is a disgrace. After having a complaint lasting nearly 12 months it has all come down to a one page document which does not uphold the complaint. The only thing the ombudsman touched on was about the actual cancelling of the card and cheque books and nothing on BCOB rules or the consumer credit act. No reasons just that they concur with the adjudicator. Nothing on the credit card termination, nothing on them ignoring my requests to communicate in writing. I can't say I'm entirely shocked that the ombudsman made this decision however I am quite appalled that there is no explanations or details on the decision. I guess my only option now is to take them to court, pending the outcome from the ICO on the inaccurate data on my credit file. Any help would be greatly appreciated in this.

Opus are a complete load of bullies. I stupidly went with them last November when we started our business as we were told they were the cheapest and their customer service was good. What a load of bull that turned out to be. We've sepnt the best part of 10 months fighting with them, initially they made up estimates and added charges to our accounts and also tried to take payment outside of the direct debit guarantee scheme. We took them to the energy ombudsman who have recently decided that they must remove all charges, send all statements and invoices and arrange a 12 month payment plan for the electricity. We've been receiving threatening and harassing calls and visits from "enforcement offers" ever since we accepted the ombudsman's decision. Not to mention the calls and visits we received prior to the ombudsman case. They are conducting illegal activities with their debt collection actives and we received many calls requesting us to pay up by 1pm that same day of face disconnection. The most ludicrous thing they did was to send a debt recovery letter from their internal debt collection agency "Aboott Debt Recovery" which was recieved on the 22nd of November asking us to pay up by the 18th November and the letter was dated the 11th November. I know this letter was backdated because the amount on the letter they were asking us for was the exact same amount on the invoice dated 21st November - How illegal do they want to be. We've already told them that they are breaking CPR rules and the Protection Against Harassment Act but they do not care, they have been ignoring our emails and only responded today after we asked the ombudsman to get in touch with them. At this moment in time I am sick to death of Opus and just want to get out, they have agreed to let us switch on our Gas but have send because we didn't request not to renew in August we cannot move our Electricity. However in August our accounts were in dispute and with the ombudsman so how on earth are we meant to cancel? I have forwarded on the details of my case to Ofgem and also to my local MP in the hope that things can be resolved and that Opus's appalling practices can be looked into and sorted out.

Ok I have some updates- The complaint has been sent off for review and will take 3-6 months. Had SAR information through and it doesn't include an agreement for my current account but there are agreements for loan and CC. Also this may make you laugh- In regards to the CC account, despite them "rescinding" the content of the termination letter they have now sent me another termination letter, this time with a higher amount of arrears. The last termination letter had £98 this one has £168. It also refers to a previous default notice which we already established was bogus and regardless was for £98 not £168. What a complete mess.

It's a response from the adjudictor and i have asked for it to be review by the ombudsman. I have actually just received another response in regard to the complaint, and once again it is a load of BS of specific note is " I note that RBS requested that you return your chequebook and cards on 28 January 2013, however, this does not mean that money cannot be credited to this account to pay off the outstanding debt." Well it would be quite tricky to pay off a debt that did not exist, I've asked him to clarify what debt was owed on the 28th Jan. I've contacted my local MP today also to see if they can help. I feel a court case coming on, the FOS just seem like a complete was of space to me!

Well, so much for the ombudsman being independent. I have received a letter today stating that they will not be upholding my complaint. Apparently RBS acted "correctly given your financial situation" and that they have acted in lines with "Banking: Code of Business Standards (BCOBS) 5.1.4" Also" I understand you were not happy with the charges being applied to your accounts. You stated how you believe that these charges had caused you to go over you agreed overdraft limit and subsequently caused further charges to occur. Once again these actions are reasonable as they are in line with the account terms and conditions to which you have agreed and signed." There is no attempt to look at how RBS failed to give me any reasoning for 10 weeks nor to the fact that my account was in balance on the 20th January when they cancelled my card/chequebook. Also on a side note I received a letter today stating that the card termination letter was rescinded and that the agreement remained in place! Any advice? I'm fuming here. (also ig this could be moved to a more active general forum that would be great)

Interesting to note that today I received an account statement for my credit card from the 3rd June . My account was terminated at this point.

Interesting letter back from RBS cards department They apologised for the termination letter being issued and claim it was an error in the system as the account was not removed from the "automated collections system" They also agreed that they did agree to withhold recovery action and that "the termination status has been removed" from my account. I am confused by the last line, am I right in thinking that once an account has been terminated it cannot be reinstated? or am I missing something?

Also just to note, I have not yet received a reference number from FOS, I assume this is because the complaint is quite large with a lot of appendices. In regards to the letter should i be accepting unlawful rescission at this point?

Thanks for that, will send a letter tomorrow. I imagine they will say they ad no idea of this complaint or that it doesn't relate to them. We'll see. I still have the faulty DN to spring on them.