my account was fine up until i lost my job

even at that i continued paying my debt

then as time went on i couldnt keep up with the interest

on this , now the funny part i borrowed £250 from my credit card

that the rsb has turned into 900

and when i said a would pay ten pounds a month they laughed

and said there taking me to court

now i live in ni so what can they realisticaly do

as the rules are different here to the mainland

i have also stopped ansering there harasment calls every other hour

It would probably be in their best interest to come to an arrangement with you, as if they proceeded to court your income & expenditure would be taken into consideration of any award the court would make...... RBS could even be awarded £1 a month by a judge if your income was really low.

However as with these things RBS believe it can intimidate and harass people to part with money they haven't got, despite it being against the law (protection from harassment act), and the administration of justice act which Trading Standards can use to prosecute in the instance of their phoning you at unreasonable intervals.

I would number one suggest that you write to RBS informing them that you now wish to deal with this matter only in writing, and that you are complaining to the Office Of Fair Trading regarding the frequency of their phone calls which you believe to amount to harassment..... i.e. if they phone every week it could be tantamount to harassment let alone daily, which is clear harassment.

OFTs address is:

Contact us - The Office of Fair Trading

If they continue to persist get in touch with your local trading standards and explain the situation, that you have tried to come to an arrangement with the bank, but they refuse to negotiate and continually call each day (or whatever the period is).

The threats to take you to court normally are just that, threats, they very, very rarely do so - as in the instance of yourself it probably wouldn't be to their benefit. Last thing they want to do is get a court order that restricts them to £1 a month, after all the expense of hiring solicitors to put in the leg work etc.

The cheek of this situation is that RBS were trading insolvently for a prolonged period, their reserves were dry and they went cap in hand to the government for bailout after bailout after bailout funded by tax payers. And now they put the thumb screws on the tax payer who also happens to be their customer to get you to pay up.

I am aware of a number of RBS customers who purchased shares in the issue shortly before they hit trouble who are challenging that the state of the company was misrepresented during the offer. So honesty is not the companies strong point.

So now the decision is yours?

You can either:

1) Try to achieve a negotiated plan with RBS, or there are services such as the Consumer Credit Counciling Service who should be able to help.

2) Or alternatively you can go the route to see if the executed agreement is legally compliant.

I am not sure of the legalities of your living in N.Ireland but I could enquire if you wanted.

yes any help form yourself would be great as the calls have continued

i have gave up ansering them as i know its the same old story

there now making calls to me 20 times a day even as late as 9pm

so any info you could give me would be great they say that the

account is in the hands of there soliciters now with possiable court

now im only like a couple of hundred pounds in debt so ad hate to see any1 in thousands of pounds lol

OK, firstly I think the thing is to remain calm.

A lot of collection activity is the manipulation of the customers lack of knowledge, a lot of banks and DCAs will ignore law, regulations, and the banking code.

I would suggest keeping a log of the phone calls which you receive, submit a complaint to the Office Of Fair Trading along with a copy of the sheet.

20 times a day also seems somewhat excessive, and definitely amounts to harassment, contact your local trading standards as well with a complaint.

Contact us - The Office of Fair Trading

Trading Standards Institute - Home page

You are in a situation of hardship, under the banking code of which RBS are a signatory they are meant to treat you in a fair and understanding manner. After all it's not that you are trying to escape the debt, but are trying to come to an arrangement which is affordable in your current circumstances.

From the banks point of view threats of legal action are normally that, again you are being reasonable, you are not trying to get out of not paying your debt. In fact if they were to take you to court (again very unlikely) a judge would take your circumstances into consideration and you could end up paying as little a £1 a month if your income is very low.

There is something that you could ask them, something of a side issue, ask them "what tangible asset backs the currency known as Pounds Sterling?", and refer them to RBS if they are unaware.

On another note you may find this video interesting, with relation to currency, politics etc:

BBC5.tv eyePlayer - It's an illusion 2

thanks for all your info greatly appreciated

i will keep you informed next time the ring im gonna record the call

so should be interesting

latest update is a letter from a solicitor who is part of rbs company

saying ave seven days till court proceedings so should be interesting

last phone call the person told me a was in big trouble then hung up.

It's likely that they probably used the word "may", or "could", a lot of these threats are idle and an attempt to extract money from you - pure and simple.

Though obviously you will never get RBS admitting to using intimidation tactics, or harassment as regard the amount of calls there are making - if an official body such as Trading Standards got involved, a company that used such tactics would either not address their previous actions or say it was an error.

Hi ulsterman,

As Triton (who are based in Telford) are involved it is more than llikely that your account has been passed to CMS Telford and that your account(s) have been allocated what is called a "Router Account" write to Triton and ask them if you have been allocated a " Router Account" and ask them to supply you with all the details of this Router Account including its Number.

This is RBS's achilles heel and is of severe embarrassment and trouble for RBS.

If and when you receive this infomration both myself and/or Paul Walton would appreciate copies of this information if you would kindly agree to supply it to us.

Call them first and record the conversation and ask Triton about the Router Account ...I have a feeling that this will stop them in their tracks

regards

sparkie

That will cause them a few problems

exellent info i will keep you posted and if i get the info i will pas it to yous

no problem as you have been a great help cheers