Hi,

Wondering if anyone can help.

I had a letter on the 28th from RBS saying that they have tried to contact me to ask me to pay money into my "account or accounts".It also threatens to impose a Default or Termination notice. On top of that they say they have passed my details on the Power2Contact and have cancelled cards and chequebooks.

Nowhere on this letter does it say what they think I owe nor to which account it relates and I have checked my online banking to see that I am within the agreed overdraft limits on my overdraft, my loan is paid up to date and my credit card is in balance.

They want me to call them on an 0845 number between Monday-Saturday 8-9pm. unfortunately I work from 8-11 everyday but sunday and have no time to contact them, nor do I wish to call them on a premium rate number.

I sent them a letter yesterday to ask what monies they think i owe and to which account it relates, i have also told them that I cannot call them on the hours they state.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? I'm not sure why RBS can't send me a letter telling me what monies they think I owe?

Thanks

Chances are this is an error, I do hope so.

If you get a letter from Power2Contact - simply respond with a short sharp letter advising the account is in dispute with the original creditor. P2C are a nasty company who make unpleasant statements and or threaten doorstep visits and or the selling of your first born.

You should keep any communication from them for a later complaint to the OFT.

Meanwhile, if you do not get a satisfactory response from your letter to RBS - then send another under the heading of an Official Complaint - to their Registered/Head Office.

Doing it this way ensures they are obliged to respond and within 8 weeks - you should make it quite clear that you require everything in writing - this is in your interests as it will ensure a paper trail should things get unpleasant and you have to go to the Financial Ombudsman.

Thanks for the response, will send a letter to Power2Contact telling them to back off.

I've kept all letters from RBS for the past two years, as I have had trouble with creditors in the past so I try to keep all corresponsce via letter or email now for my own safegaurd.

I shall let you know of any developments.

In response to my letter asking what monies I owe, I was sent a letter merely telling me what my account balances were, of which I already knew! Hardly a response to my query at all.

I also strangely received a letter yesterday regarding my loan account which read "in response to your recent request for an Early Settlement quote" something which I didn't request at all.

Some strange things going on here. Not liking the robot like responses from RBS either!

This is the reason you should write to their Head/Registered office - heading your letter "Official Complaint".

If you bullet point your concerns and what you require by way of resolution, chances are you will get some attention.

Almost certainly you are wanting to know how they can claim you are in negative balance when your statements say you have a positive balance ?

RBS are probably one of the worse banks to deal with and you do have to persist.

You might also want to point out to them that they are responsible for the actions of their 3rd party agents.. Power2Contact !!

Hi,

Just thought I would post an update on the situation.

Official complaint letter was sent on the 4th Feb. I have since received a letter stating that they are looking into it in more detail and that I would receive a response in 2 weeks. This has happened three times now. It is basically just a templated letter but with new dates on them.

I know they have 8 weeks to respond however I haven't been able to use my account since 28th January and they clearly have taken no notice of that as I have been sent several letters detailing charges and also letters stating I owe money for my loan. Of course I cannot pay my loan as my account has been restricted.

As of yet I haven't had an actual person contact me, all i have been getting is templated letters and I can only assume they haven't even looked at the issue at all because they would have at least explained what was going on or put my account on hold.

At the moment I believe the 8 weeks is up on 1st April, should I wait until then to do anything or do something now?

Thanks

You must send a follow up letter to your original complaint - this should advise that despite the fact you have an official complaint in place, which they are obviously not rushing to resolve, you are now being threatened with Debt collectors because your loan is not being paid.

Remind them that it is they who have frozen your accounts for reasons only known to them, that you are unable to pay the loan as it is usually dealt with by way of a Direct Debit/Standing order/Online transfer from the accounts that they have denied you access to.

That you do NOT have any other bank accounts, perhaps they could make sure that this letter is added to your complaint of DATE in order to come to a swift resolution.

Remind them that they have until April 1st, when you will take advice on what further action you will need to take.

Make sure you use any reference numbers they have given you to ensure that this "addition to Formal Complaint dated XYZ" finds it way to the original complaint.

Update: Today I received another templated letter (dated 21st march) saying they would be in touch by the 8th of April. To this day I have had no indication that any of my letter or original complaint have even had an eye glance over them.

I did a little bit of research around these forums and decided to contact Stephen Hesters Office to try and force things along. I received an email Tuesday 9.32am stating the following:

Thank you for your email which has been received by Stephen Hester's office.

 

We are sorry to hear of the problems you have encountered recently. Your complaint will be allocated to a case manager who will aim to be in touch in the next 48 hours. As you have contacted us by email, we will need to identify you for security purposes and your case manager will outline how we do this when they contact you.

 

If you do have any queries in the meantime, please feel free to contact us.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Group Executive Office

Not had anything back as of yet (50 hours after their email) and I am not holding my breath for anything today. With it being Easter this weekend I do not expect anything from them before the deadline.

Any ideas on what avenue I should go down next, small claims court or FOS?

Thanks

Ok, if you havent had a response by 8th of April or if you only receive a further "waiting time" response then it might be worth you giving them a final 7 day letter when you will then need to take your complaint to the FOS.

The deadline is 1st April (8 weeks from 4th Feb). Do you think I will have more chance of a satisfactory response if I tell them I will be taking them to court rather than FOS?

The deadline is 1st April (8 weeks from 4th Feb). Do you think I will have more chance of a satisfactory response if I tell them I will be taking them to court rather than FOS?

Unless you are definitely going to issue a claim - do not make the threat - they receive letters making threats of court every day which people do not follow up, so they treat this type of letter with contemp..

So yes, if you are going to follow through and issue a claim then you can advise that this is what you are going to do.

I do actually plan on going through with it. I have no doubt in my mind that I will win this so nothing to loose.

Should I do this alongside FOS or just court alone?

Thanks for your help

I finally received a response from the Group Executive Office on Friday 12th April. This response was only received after I sent an email to Stephen Hester's office. The case was transferred from the collections complaint department to the group complaints department.

The response itself details the following-

1. Regarding the delay they claim that although it must have frustrating for me, they kept me informed of their ongoing investigation- A templated letter saying they are still looking into it doesn't constitute keeping me informed as far as I'm concerned.

2. They claim that my account went into an unarranged overdraft on 2 occasions in November and December and that my account was passed to collections on the 7th November after the first instance- They fail to note that I covered the shortfall on both occasions

3. The letter they sent to me on the 20th of January was due to a "concern things could get worse" for me- on the 20th January my account was healthy and around 250 in balance.

I've sent a letter back citing BCOBS rules 5.1.1 and 5.1.4 and given them 7 days to respond before action.

Did you also respond to the points in their letter..

I find their response quite bizarre.. They sent you a letter saying you owe them money when your account is in credit.. and then say they sent it because they assumed things could get worse ?

Yes, I responded to all points and cited BCOBS rules 5.1.1 and 5.1.4 within those responses.

Yes it is quite bizzare, I feel like there is some sort of automated system that caused the error but they don't want to admit they are at fault.

Just to be clear, the original letter stated "We've been trying to contact you and we've been asking you to call us or pay money into your account or accounts"

There may have been missed calls when I was working but with no messages left I have no way of knowing. No other letters were sent previously relating to this.

Still awaiting a response from RBS.

Response received today.

"I remain of the view that the Bank has not acted unfairly by withdrawing partial access to your account, which you have confirmed you were made aware of" - Yes of course I was aware of this, it is the very nature of the complaint!!!!

"As you have stated in your letter, you understood you financial position at that time yet you have failed to make efforts to contact the bank to address the situation" - Why would I contact the Bank to tell them my account is in balance????

"With this in mind, I confirm that the Bank is not prepared to return you account to the position it was in on 20 January, and I re-iterate my recommendation that you contact our Collections Department as advised in my previous letter. I trust this clarifies the Bank's position"

Sorry for the overuse of punctuation there, I am still very angry about this response.

The points in my letter were not even touched upon and clarifies my opinion that RBS really do not care! What are your thought's on where to go next with this.

N.B. I have since found 2 letters dated November 2012 and December 2013 which notified me of the overdraft and loan shortfall, as mentioned previously, both of these letters say to either call RBS or make payment, on both occasions I chose to make payment. Is it worth sending copies of these letters to RBS to show that I did exactly what they asked in Nov and Dec?

Thanks for your support so far!

Just an update.

RBS have decided not to respond any further to the points I have made and so I have referred this case to the FOS. I also sent them a letter letting them know this and requested that all recovery action is suspended until the FOS have adjudicated, to which they have accepted to do.

I received a default notice yesterday on my credit card (which is part of the same complaint). Should I make them aware that I have this letter accepting that all debt recovery will be suspended?

Yes, I think you should send a letter along the lines of ..

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am in receipt of your Default Notice DATED.

You will be aware that I have now lodged a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman and I would remind you that in a telephone call/letter DATED, you confirmed that no further collection activity would be taken on this account until after the Financial Ombudsman had adjudicated.

Therefore the arrival of the Default Notice would appear to be a breach of that conversation/letter.

Yours etc.

Hi,

I have an ongoing dispute with RBS- see this thread

The complaint regards all accounts with them and was due to an action that RBS took to place restriction on my accounts.

Recently I referred the complaint to the FOS and also let RBS know about this, I also requested that all collection activity is suspended until the FOS adjudicate, to which they accepted.

My issue now is that the CC department have issued a default notice (dated 6th May). Is this enforceable considering I have a letter (from the Group Executive offce) saying that all collection activity will be suspended?

Thanks

Thanks citizenB.

I will word a letter today and send it back to them.

Just as a side note, i have created a thread reagrding the deafult notice here in case other people face similar issues.

If you have it in writing that they are going to suspend all collection activity, even better Sadly there is no joined up thinking with some banks.

shakuri, it might be better for the threads to be merged, so all the information is in one place. Would you like me to do that ?

I have responded on the other thread, I find it quite strange that they would issue a DN if you have in WRITING that they will cease collection activity and IMHO, quite foolish of them.

Once you have your reference number from the FOS, I suggest you copy the letter from the bank advising that they will cease collection activity and a copy of the DN along with a covering note asking for them to pop these in with the original complaint as it goes to show just how deceitful the bank is.

Yes citizenB, please merge them if you think that would be more beneficial.

Just to be clear, the DN date is 6th May, the letter I received informing me that collection activity will be ceased is the 10th May. Now it may just be that the DN was sent by the CC dept before they were informed that collection activity was being suspended by Group HQ, in which case perhaps I should take it as an assumption that no further action on this DN will be taking place. Surely it's not my duty to inform the CC dept that collection activity has been suspended?

Not got the FOS reference number yet, but will be sure to forward on any additional information such as this

I agree, it isn't for you to advise the Collection department. Send the letter to the department that advised that action would be suspended and they can filter it down.

Just out of interest, what date have the put on the DN for the remedy date ?

I suspect they have already fallen foul of it being compliant because the 6th May was a Bank Holiday !! It would not have gone into the post until the Tuesday and depending on whether it was sent 1st or 2nd class post (did you keep the envelope) would have a bearing on whether they have given you a clear 14 days to remedy the breach So it might have been a useless exercise them sending it anyway.

Threads merged for continuity