Don't want to tempt fate but some progress has been made, still no refund as yet but 1 of Hester's Corporate lackeys has been dealing with this and has been reasonably helpful. Had a call from her today to say that disclaimer forms (all 24 of them - 2 per transaction) would be sent out to me in the post, so they are now willing to raise it as a retail dispute. Her initial stance was i would receive a refund when these were received back by them, i again higlighted FSA regulations that state they should refund immediately, no promises but did say she would look into that for me tomorrow. Stated that CFO may dispute and bank could take the funds back out if so, therefore i need to get a complaint in to FOS in regard to CFO as they have still not honoured my statement request. Hopefully more positive news soon.

Letter of Official Complaint went off to Natwest today, faxed over to their Complaints department and sent by post too. Also sent a copy to Stephen Hester CEO and emailed a copy. Rang to confirm receipt and was told they have 56 days to respond. Do i need to do anything in regards to CFO themselves? I have previously contacted to request a statement backing up their charges and balance they say is outstanding, this has still not been forthcoming.

Yes i get lots every day, i just delete them now but i think at 1 desperate point i did try a couple of them. This in itself seems a very sneaky fraudulent act and i am still not directly willingly providing my details to CFO.

Just to add i'm not certain how they got my details, possibly it was from a broker as i may have entered card details into an application, i have not been accepted for any payday loans recently. A bank official told me that they would have got them from Capital One when i made a payment to my credit card, i belive this is probably erroneous and just an example of a bank official with no knowledge whatsoever thinking the 2 companies are related. I'm fairly sure they are nothing to do with each other.

Brief background - Having got in a mess with some payday loans I opened a parachute account as I saw advised in these forums, a Basic Bank Account with Natwest in August 2012. On payday 28th September i paid £600 into this account to pay some bills/rent/living expenses for the month. Noticed on the 28th Sept through my internet banking that 12 transactions for varying amounts totalling £598.00 had been debited from my account. I immediately contacted Natwest and was told that they were made by Capital Finance One. I said that i had not made or authorised these transactions with CFO and that i had not provided my card details to them, nor had i had any relationship with them relating to my Natwest Account either payment into my account or prior debits. Natwest agreed to raise this as fraudulent transactions but they could not do that until they debited the account as opposed to pending, and that it may have to go for a 5 day assessment before they would decide whether to refund. A further telephone conversation on 2nd October when the transactions debited confirmed that they were going for a 5 working day investigation/assessment before refund. I contacted Fraud aftercare again on 8th October and was told that a letter was being sent to me (which i have still not received) and that extra investigation was being carried out with no timescale mentioned. On 8th October i also contacted CFO and asked for a statement of account as i was disputing amounts they had taken. They promised me a statement of account and charges by email, they have still failed to provide this. My original loan agreement was for £300. They state on the phone but have yet to prove that i still owe them £117 on top of the £598 they already took fraudulently. Also saying they would reloan me £560 if i repaid this now, talk about cynical! On 10th October i received a call from a Fraud investigator who informed me they contacted CFO and as i have an account with CFO they can't raise this as Fraud despite me not giving CFO my card details or authorising the transactions. The lady referred me on to Retail disputes and said i should be able to raise a Visa chargeback with them. After a long discussion with Retail disputes i was told that they had a new directive from Visa that no chargebacks could be carried out with Finance companies. I reiterated i had not provided my card details to CFO and had not authorised the transactions and i wished to speak to someone more senior. She went away and came back saying that all managers were in a meeting but i could have a call back within 24 hours. I came away and read these forums and saw the previous exact same cases, some that had been resolved positively and some not. I called back later that day and armed with further information i repeated the scenario to a 2nd individual at Retail Fraud quoting FSA guidelines on unauthorised transactions. The guy was very obnoxious even telling me he had worked for FSA and i didn't know what i was talking about and they had every right not to refund whilst they investigated the circumstances. He put me on hold whilst he contacted CFO. He came back to me and said that as i had an account with CFO and still owed them money there was no way that they would raise a Visa chargeback. I repeated that this account was not even open when my agreement with CFO was signed and there was no way that i had provided them with my card details and they had obtained and used them fraudulently. He became very arrogant which ended with me telling him Natwest were now complicit in this Fraud being carried out and i wished to raise a formal complaint. he told me the complaints department was now closed for the day and they would have to call me back tomorrow. Today 11th October i received a callback from a supervisor at Retail Disputes who went throught he same scenario telling me there was nothing they could do for me. They said it was part of CFO T+Cs that they can glean your card details from a 3rd party and use them if they feel you have an outstanding balance with them. Having just checked the Contract when i took out the loan this is not actually the case at all. *You authorise us to collect any monies owed under the Agreement from any debit card account of which you have supplied details to us. We may make these attempts as frequently and at any time we choose while there is an overdue balance on your loan account, up until the time where the total amount collected equals the total amount owed. Clearly there is no mention of 3rd parties and i have not supplied my Natwest debit card details to CFO. I asked to be forwarded to the Complaints handling team which eventually happened. Having gone through the scenario again i was still told nothing they could do. I advised that i wished to raise a formal complaint, that i would follow this up with a letter copying the CEO and if i did not receive a satisfactory conclusion i would raise a case with Financial Ombudsman Service. He made a note of my complaint and said this would be logged against my account but i would not receive a case number until i followed up with a formal letter. He was unable to inform me if there were any Continuous Debit Authority setup on my account. My questions are now what do i do next? What information do i need to put in the official complaint letter? Do i have any hope with FOS if i have to go down that line? I am aware that i should be able to have an account for my subsistence amounts, i have now been left with no money whatsoever to buy food or petrol for the rest of the month to even be able to get to work. I will of course open a new account for next months wages but i am now left in an impossible scenario to survive the rest of the month.