OK, it almost seemed to have been sorted, I received a settlement for £70, but I sent back a letter stating, whilst it was a reasonable offer, it did not mention anything about nullifying the existing 'debt' they are claiming for, nor of calling off the DCA. I answered a call from Frederickson International (the DCA they passed onto), and they seemed much more reasonable to talk to. I stated to them that I am not paying any of the claim, even their offered settlement, as the fact remains that the I tried to close the account with a zero balance, and that the currently ballooned figure is entirely all RBS's own doing. They said I should send a letter in writing to state what exactly happened so they can pass it back to DCA. Soon after that call, I received a letter from Bryan Carter & Co solicitors, claiming for around £500 on behalf of the RBS, and that hey would start proceedings if I do not pay up within 7 days. I'm guessing I should be writing letters to all concerned parties, and mentioning that the claims are entirely of unlawful charges.

Well, this never ends! I sent back a reply regarding the settlement letter, saying that, whilst it covered what I asked for back, it does not mention about the remaining charges on the account, plus I wanted it sent via cheque. I also wanted assurance that any debt collection agency will not contact me. Guess what? since the original DBA only knew my old address (in another city), they had stopped contacting me at some point. Now, I receive a letter, for £400 (previously it was £2-300!) from Frederikson International Limited, another DBA. This, my address must have been passed on by RBoS from the return address on those letters I sent them. I'm pretty incense as the point of the original letters I sent them was to stop all this balooney with the 'debt' which to my knowledge, is their own doing! Also with the claims being put on hold by the OFT, what leverage is there at all against all this?

I am still receiving calls from Interum Justica. The other day, a female representative called me, and I asked her to send it all back to RBoS. She asked me how would you know it's from them, etc etc I tell them that I've had a settlement offer from RBS. Anyway, she continues to say that it'd be better for them to send an agent round to talk, and that they can't send it back to RBS without a letter from them. She continues to say that I am very rude and wasting her time, when in fact I think I have been quite polite and clear, and she's the one being rude and wasting my time! If only I recorded this conversation!

I've finally received a reply from RBoS. The gist of the letter is on how they explain all their terms & conditions, and that they provide many services free of charge, however it is up to us to arrange suitable borrowing facilities to avoid charges they make for unauthorised excesses. To quote: 'we do not agree with the basis of your complaint. We believe that the charges we levy are for providing services and that they are not penalties or charges for default. Furthermore we believe that these charges are fair, reasonable and transparent.' Finally, they offer a settlement of the figure I asked for as a gesture of goodwill. Whilst the settlement figure is what I asked for, there is no mention of the £-300 that they levied entirely in charges, plus the possible default, and the situation with the Interum Justica still calling me.

Yeah, I called them up, and basically the guy said that the best he could do is put me on half price, but not the 2/3rd off that was the case for 6 months. However, most months I have not used the phone at all, and the agreement was that 'the costs will not change'. As far as I was told, there was no mention of 18 months or the line reverting to £17 + VAT after 6 months. The next step, the guy suggests, is to email the management.

Hi, I am currently on a contract which normally costs me £7 per month, for the past six months, but I noticed on my last bill that it has jumped up to £25! To put this into context, 6 months ago, I rang up Vodafone with the intent to cancel my contract, as it had long finished the original 12 months. The guy at the end somehow managed to convince me to stay on (the stop the clock thing did it for me, and I was calling large amounts through the mobiles back then), so to this end, I received a £7/month 75 anytime tariff, and no phone upgrade. Since then, I've actually not used this line much at all, in fact, some months go by where the phone is off, but it has been handy in 'emergencies' when my primary phone is unavailable. I would have been fine with this at £7/month (inc vat), but when I checked my bank statement, and noticed the larger-than-usual charge, that was when I checked my phone statement. £25 in charges! £17 of it from the tariff itself, exc. VAT! The bill states 'Min Term 18 not 12', so presumably I must have been entered into an 18 month contract. With the fact that there is no phone subsidary to pay for (and that's how contracts supply you with cheaper phones I presume), and the fact that I did not sign for this contract term, would I be able to cancel and/or be reimbursed for the extra charge? Please note that, the guy I spoke to 6 months ago, when I asked if the tariff costs would change at all, he said no no, it'll be the same all the way through. However he did not state it would be an 18 month contract term. Do I have a straightforward case for cancelling this contract?

Ok, I plan to send this letter to the bank, as a response to them contacting me: I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account, in response to calls to settle my apparent ‘debt’ from the debt-collection agency you asked to intervene. Having obtained my full account statement history in hand, after being contacted by your representatives with demands (and some of which constituted harassment) to pay for a debt without being able to inform me of what the cause of it was, I feel I have a number of points to make in response. 1) There have been several instances (noted in statements pXX, pXX) where my account was in the positive, but your ‘administrative charges’ are automatically still applied, in some instances pulling the account back into the negative; 2) I queried your staff to close my account in XXXX (around half a year after I moved out of my then address after graduating from my studies), along with the £50 payment to balance the account, with affirmations that it would be carried out. However, as in point 1, it seems from the statements that your charges were carried out with no regards to the account balance, and left it in the limbo it is today. 3) I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs. ... (the rest of the letter follows the prerequest library template to some extent)

Ok, I've finally managed to retrieve the past bank statements, I ended up going directly to my local branch and ordering the statements there, as otherwise, they were faffing about going around in circles on the phone. It's not too hard to see what has been happening, as I did not use this account much; there are several small instances where I go into the overdraft by several pounds, and I promptly get charged £10 'admin fee'; even if I did put money back into it within several days and leave with a positive balance, the account gets deducted around a week later, some of these bring it back below 0 again. The beginning of the end is around early 2005, when I move out of my then address; I am overdrawn by 2 pounds; money puts it back into the positive a week later; a new admin charge then brings it back down. This goes unnoticed for several months, when £10 is deducted from the account, up till mid 2005, when I go into the branch to cancel the account, find that I around -£45; I put £50 in to balance it, and ask the counter guy to close the account for me; he says ok. So obviously, this wouldn't be the end of the story; the account apparently didn't close; the statements show that, 1 month later, the admin charges continue, and pull the figure back into the negative again - and this continues on for the next year or two (when the charges are now over £30 per month). Since I have wasted time trying to understand why I have been getting calls in my work time about all this (DCAs with their intimidatory calls), as well as pleas to give money from the debt department of the bank itself to the DCA without being able to tell me how this debt happened, I am certain that the next move will be to write a letter describing the situation, and asking for the charges returned to me as compensation for the time wasted... Any particular pointers I should keep in mind?

Ok, they made another phone call, woman this time. Basically, she said that if I refuse to confirm my identity, they will send someone around. I said I don't live at the disputed address anymore, and she said that they can trace where I am anyway, and the phone call ended around this point. Bad or good?

I called up Intrum Justica (the DCA), and found out that they are acting as agents on behalf of the RBoS, which is to be expected. I informed them that the debt was under dispute with the RBoS, and that I had no intention of making any payment until I was clear on how the debt had been reached. The operator tried to press me for more information on other accounts, but I refused, saying that under the DPA, I am not permitting any personal information to be passed over. Anyway, from the original phonecall to my original branch of the RBS, the woman had said that my statements will be sent to me (and her) within 2 weeks. Just for foresight, what should I do if they do not appear? Write a letter? Also, from those initial calls, I find out that my account had been defaulted? 'placed onto a credit blacklists', from their words. Should I find out through an agency the current status of the default if I want it to be removed?

Hi, To start off with, I must say, brilliant site, spent quite a few hours reading up on the forum. I would like to ask however, how would I go about dealing with my case where RBoS has gotten a DBA to handle my account? The background on this: I had a RBoS account as a student several years ago, and afaik, I was not in credit, with a account balance of just under £1, when I moved out of the registered address. Originally, I had gone a few pence over the limit (I had no overdraft on this account), so I was automatically slapped on with a charge. I paid that off (or so I thought), and sent a request to close the account. This was several years ago. Now, I received a phone call from the DCA (Interim?) saying that I owe around £360 - this would be the first I have heard about this debt. I called my original branch of RBS up, and enquired about what caused my balance to be so much - they said that they only have 12months worth of details, but they will order the full statements for the past few years (free of charge); this will take 2 weeks. In the meantime, the woman says that I should deal with the DCA as I must pay off my debt. So, I am wondering how to pursue this; I am waiting for the statements to arrive (should I start making all my correspondance in writing from now on?), and as I feel that my debt is unjustified, how do I deal with the DCA? I do not know if they purchased the debt off RBS however.