Thanks for the advice... that's fantastic. It is all charges... I have never had a statement and they never kept me up to date of what charges they were putting on there as it was an internet account. If they told me sooner I could have done more about it. I didn't even realise the balance until they passed it off to the debt team as I've never logged in to use the online service!!! So it was quite a shock. I'll carry on through with the claims and SAR tomorrow and see if I can get the rest written off. Thanks again for your help!!! And Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for the info... would they pass it off to someone else then or take it through to court proceedings themselves? They haven't been very helpful at all... in fact neither have the bank so hardly suprising they didn't want to hold the account due to me disupting the charges if they're the same people. Maybe it's with it being such a small debt - an external company might not want it? I've paid the overdraft off and over £100 off the charges but that hasn't even touched half of the balance they're wanting. It's a lot of money when you're not in employment.

I came across this post on Google as I was trying to find out who these people were. I have a similar case with them. However I didn't realise I had options - I had a £1000 balance of which only £200 was an interest free overdraft and the rest was bank charges. It was an online account that I had never accessed to view as I lost my job just after I opened it. I've copied part of the letter into one they've just sent me as I feel it is relevant as I told them I was disputing it from the start but did not realise any of the above. I'm not sure whether to carry on trying to pay the rest of the amount as they now say they won't accept instalments but I can't pay it in full as I'm disabled and sefl employed. Plus their letter was dated 21/12/2009 giving me 7 days to pay in full yet only arrived 31/12/2009??? Help...

I know you are getting this sorted but the banks do this regularly. I used to work for Abbey in the mortgage department. If there were any arrears on the mortgage account and a balance in the customers Abbey Bank account then they would just pull the funds out to cover the arrears. I think it is very common across all banks to be honest... it is very worrying as they shoudl not just be able to take money out of your account when they feel like it, even if you have a credit agreement with them. After knowing this could happen I always made sure my bank account was in a different place to and lending. Sorry this doesn't help much but at least you know it's common with all the banks.