Hi, can anyone please help. I had a further letter from Nwest today. They do not have the letter originally sent to me (due to the passage of time) which was sent when we converted our account to a different one offered by Nwest, detailing terms and conditions and interest rates etc, relating to the a/c and overdraft. The bank states that they have sent me print outs of my account statements dating back to this period and this basically is good enough. Is this correct and is this debt enforceable without the letter, which they obviously do not have. Also, I received a letter from the Recovery manager a while ago stating that interest now being charged is zero and the balance had not increased. However, according to the letter received today, while the debt is in the hands of their temporary debt collector (unidebt, part of Natwest bank) the interest is frozen, and the debt has reduced by over £600, but (to quote Natwest ) "if it is referred back to this office today, then the outstanding balance with rise accordingly" by almost £9000, as the backdated interest will then be applied. Surely it must either be one thing or the other and they either add interest or they don't. Would be very grateful for your comments. Many thanks Magda

Hi, thanks for your posts and sorry I haven't replied sooner. I have received a reply from Natwest (on behalf of Unidebt) as I complained about Unidebt's threatening and unpleasant behaviour etc... and it was passed to someone in the customer care team at Nwest to deal with (Unidebt are their inhouse recovery team). I also received a letter from their recovery manager, who confirmed that a CCA is not available for an overdraft and they are merely required by law to give a statement of account (which is all that is required under the CCA) They have therefore provided details of the o/s balance, interest currently being charged, which is apparently zero. Apparently that is all that's required of them. With regard to the charge card, although that is covered by a CCA, they state that as the debt for the card was transferred by the bank onto our overdraft, it is not covered either, as this left the card with a zero balance and the account was closed. The customer care team have informed us that they are still charging interest which has boosted the debt to £25000 plus. When I mentioned the letter stating zero interest was being applied, they were very surprised and said they would have to look into it! However, I have this in black and white. I am a bit confused now as to whether the overdraft should be covered by a CCA or not and would appreciate your comments. Thanks for your help so far. Magda

Hi, thanks for your posts and sorry I haven't replied sooner. I have received a reply from NatWest (on behalf of Unidebt) as I complained about Unidebt's threatening and unpleasant behaviour etc... and it was passed to someone in the customer care team at Nwest to deal with (Unidebt are their inhouse recovery team). I also received a letter from their recovery manager, who confirmed that a CCA is not available for an overdraft and they are merely required by law to give a statement of account (which is all that is required under the CCA) They have therefore provided details of the o/s balance, interest currently being charged, which is apparently zero. Apparently that is all that's required of them. With regard to the charge card, although that is covered by a CCA, they state that as the debt for the card was transferred by the bank onto our overdraft, it is not covered either, as this left the card with a zero balance and the account was closed. The customer care team have informed us that they are still charging interest which has boosted the debt to £25000 plus. When I mentioned the letter stating zero interest was being applied, they were very surprised and said they would have to look into it! However, I have this in black and white. The comment from Rory was really helpful, re: Letter of terms and conditions. Is the debt still enforceable if they can't provide this, as they have recently threatened legal action and obtaining a charge on our property, although they would have to get a forthwith judgement first. Thanks for your help so far, it's really appreciated. Magda

Thanks for that N.P. I thought the overdraft would be covered by a CCA as well, but according to Natwest it isn't. I have had some replies which have said I should probably ask for the Account opening application form, rather than the CCA, although the overdraft should still have been confirmed by the Bank in writing at the time, so I should be able to ask for a copy of that. I did ask Natwest for a copy of the letter (confirming the 0/D) recently, and they said they would have to look into it, which probably means they no longer have a copy. I wonder if the debt is still enforceable without this, or the Account opening application form, as they have threatened legal action recently and have said they will attempt to obtain a charge on our home. thanks again, Magda

Hi MrSnooty, Is your debt being handled by their inhouse team 'Unidebt'? I have found them to be really rude and unhelpful, trying to intimidate us into borrowing money against the equity in our home, etc, using the threat of court action and a charge on our propety. I am pretty sure we were informed that the interest had been frozen also, but like you, did not get this in writing! My complaint about the handling of the debt and the interest charges etc is now being handled by their customer care team, I have requested a breakdown of interest charges and an explanation of how the current balance was incurred. They have written and stated that there isn't any CCA for an overdraft, but have stated in the letter that the interest is now frozen and no further charges will be applied, so that is something. They are now also investigating my complaint and should hear back in ten days or so. These people are all oh so caring when taking your money, but not very nice if you hit problems. Good luck with your own situation - keep us informed of what happens.

Hi, thanks for your reply. No the charge card was a card a bit like a credit card, which could be used in the same way, but the balance had to be cleared on a certain date each month and couldn't be carried over. When we started to have difficulties with the account, they added the charge card debt onto our overdraft, which of course made it a lot larger. Magda

Hi, hello to everyone on the forum as I have just joined today. I hope you might be able to offer some info. We had a bank account with NatWest some years ago, and when my husband lost his job, fell into financial difficulties. We had an overdraft of around £7,000 and a charge card. When the account hit problems the debt on the charge card, around 4k, was added to the overdraft, with a total of around £11,000. Have been paying £25 per month to NatWest, and they have recently been asking for an increase (very aggressively) and have been generally threatening and unpleasant. The debt is managed by their inhouse team Unidebt. We were recently informed by Unidebt that the debt is now around 25k, as they have been applying interest, which we were not aware of. I wrote and asked for a copy of the consumer credit agreement and received a reply today stating that this is not relevant as the debt is an overdraft and there wouldn't have been one. Is this correct? Cheers for any help you are able to give. Posted this on the 'welcome forum' and they suggested I post here.

Hi, Many thanks for that, will give that a go.

Hi, hello to everyone on the forum as I have just joined today. I hope you might be able to offer some info. We had a bank account with Natwest some years ago, and when my husband lost his job, fell into financial difficulties. We had an overdraft of around £7,000 and a charge card. When the account hit problems the debt on the charge card, around 4k, was added to the overdraft, with a total of around £11,000. Have been paying £25 per month to Natwest, and they have recently been asking for an increase (very aggressively) and have been generally threatening and unpleasant. The debt is managed by their inhouse team Unidebt. We were recently informed by Unidebt that the debt is now around 25k, as they have been applying interest, which we were not aware of. I wrote and asked for a copy of the consumer credit agreement and received a reply today stating that this is not relevant as the debt is an overdraft and there wouldn't have been one. Is this correct? Cheers for any help you are able to give.