I would be so grateful if anyone could give me advice or help:

From when I was 16 (1990 onwards), I held a Bank of Scotland current account. I held this throughout my extensive univesity training. During those lean student years I several times went overdrawn (over my limit) and would be bombarded with very expensive (20-30 pound) letters from the Bank, to tell me I was over my overdraft limit.

I left the country to live in the US in 1999, and moved back to the Uk again last year.

When I left the country, I had an arranged overdraft, which I was within.

Whilst I was away, I had a limited correspondence with the BOS after I left the country, then heard no more.

When I returned to the Uk, I tried to access my account again. I was not sure what state it was in. However, the Bank of Scotland refused any knowledge of me ever having an account with them. At the time this was extremely inconvenient. I contacted head office to ask what had happened? Had my account been sent to a collections agency? They knew nothing.

Then about 6 months ago, i received an email from a collections agency based in the US to say they had bought my debt from the BOS, and it was for circa 3000pounds.

I wrote to the collections agency to say that I wanted to see what information they had re. my account, and have heard nothing.

I believe that once my arranged overdraft period had expired, the BOS were charging me routine fees which must have added up to the amount the collections agency are demanding.

I want to sort this out, but don't know where to start. My feeling is that over the years, the BOS have charged me extraordinary amounts in unfair bank fees, which resulted in both me being overdrawn initially, and presumably in how the debt I was informed about got so high, however, seeing as they are denying all knowledge of my account ever existing, I am finding it impossible to know where to begin with this.

If anyone can advise as to how I should proceed, I would be so so grateful. I feel stuck in a Kafka like nightmare with all of this.

I am very excited to have found your site, and really hope that you can help me sort this mess out.

Thanks in advance.

Your contract was with the bank here,unless there was another agreement drawn up,which is clearly not the case.

It was the bank here who took the charges so its them you need to be focusing on.

You should send the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to them and get what they have on you.

Presumably they were sending communications to an address here in the UK ?

You may be asked to provide evidence of your ID for this,they are entitled to ask for it.

There may be issues of limitations here,however all you can do is request what you need and see whats forthcoming.

The fact that they sold on to a foreign dca your account,should have no bearings on your ability to launch a claim against them here.To be honest I have not heard of such a case like this,but the procedures that you need to follow,should be no different to the ones that are practiced and followed here.

As regards the 6 year limitation period you may like to read here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/3598-do-you-have-charges.html

Thanks so much for getting back to me and so promptly. You are correct in all your assumptions, and I will definitely do the SAR, but I being a newbie, can you tell me is there a formal template for doing this? (I am trying to read up as much as I can from the site asap.)

Wish I'd known about you guys during my financially tormented student days. Thanks (again) in advance.

Template letters are here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/

thanks, you are a wonder.

Hi your posts moved into BOS bank group.