Just to add insult to injury, and I know this might not really be relevant but writing it down helps get it off my chest, Nationwide have now unfrozen my account having taken their pound of flesh - which is nice. So I asked very nicely in the branch to withdraw some money, seeing as though my card was retained yesterday, to be told not without a driving licence or passport as identification! They are surely having a laugh. Without identification yesterday, I was able to sit in the branch discussing my account for over 2 hours. Without identification I was also able to cancel all my direct debits and standing orders - something I had to do because they were all going to bounce today, and no doubt I would have been charged £30 a time for the pleasure! AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!

I had no choice but to let them, they absolutely refused to negotiate. They have my money and are refusing to part with it, even though I don't now owe them a single penny, they are denying me access to the funds in the account. I should probably be charging them, and adding interest!! I may have misled you over the summons, they didn't actually issue it, just threatened to, and I really believed it was going to be their next step - I was just trying to prepare myself.

Absolute b******s. I have spent all day trying to reason with them i.e I really do need to pay my mortgage, and it would be nice to eat occasionally between now and Christmas, but to no avail. They very kindly said either I agree to them taking £1900 today, or they would freeze the account for a further 14 days and then take it anyway! Thanks Nationwide.

Prelim was sent on the one they have just stopped. I haven't received the info from them on the one we owe the £2.5k.

No notice whatsoever, first I knew was when my card was retained this morning. I have been in correspondence with them, but they are now denying speaking to me or receiving letters - even though I have exact dates and times of conversations, plus I e-mail them copies of letters and I have the replies acknowledging receipt.

HELP! PLEASE! Im not one to believe in coincidence, 7 days after my prelim was sent, Nationwide have today frozen my account. Its payday for both me and my wife and they have completely shafted us. We owe them £2500 on a different account, and they say its because of this, and they wont allow access to our money unless we pay the £2.5k. Can they legally do this??

I need some advice - quick! Nationwide have issued a county court summons against me on a deliquent account that is overdrawn by £2.5k. I have started the process of recovering charges on other accounts with them but not this one. What should I do? At a rough estimate, about £1,000 of the above is charges, should I admit part of the debt and try to explain to the court why I only admit this? Can I ask for more time to defend so I can get exact figures? Or can I counterclaim all the charges I'm sure about on the other accounts? Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks, I know the whole issue of closing accounts is being looked at from what I've read through, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Will this also affect our son's child trust account, or as its in his name will it be left alone?

Just completed my SAR - turns out the internet banking which I have used since opening the account 4 years ago, will only let me go back 13 months? Anyway in that time there's over £2000 in charges, I nearly fell off my chair adding them up, and there was smoke coming from the calculator. I know this will slow the process down but I reckon there could be at least 3 times that amount going back, so hopefully it will be worth it. Anyway, off to the post office to send it recorded - let the games begin.

I'm just starting out making a claim against the Nationwide, and a thought has come into my head while reading through stuff on this site. A few years ago, I got into difficulty with my Nat West account. They ended up taking me to court and entering a CCJ against me, which I am still paying off. Does anyone know if there are any precedents for having judgments set a side on the basis that the debt was partly made up of unlawful charges??

After trawling the site yesterday and again this morning, I'm all set to start. Can anyone answer this question for me before I do: It would appear that at some point during the process, Nationwide will close my account(s), will this just affect the accounts I'm trying to claim on, or will they basically sever all links? The reason I ask is that I have a savings account with them, albeit empty, but which I've had for many years, meaning should they demutualise in the future I would be entitled to a "windfall". Will making a claim against them affect this account aswell? Also, I have all the statement details I need, but is it best to start the whole process from the beginning and request the information, or is that just a waste to time and money? Thanks - quite scary this, but it was nice to go to bed not worrying about money last night, and there seems to be a very dim light at the end of a very long tunnel for the first time in a long while.

Well here goes nothing I suppose. I won't bore you with my tale of Nationwide woe, from what I've read, I'm not the only one. I've just discovered the site, and will be starting out on trying to reclaim my charges in the next day or so. Before I do, can anybody answer a quick question - some time ago, possibly 18 - 24 months, I wrote to Nationwide concerning the charges on my account. From memory, I worked out that I had been charged around £900 in 3 months, and I asked them to consider refunding some of it. A few days later I received a reply stating they would refund £150, which they did. I dont have the correspondence they sent any longer, but I have a horrible feeling it may have stated that the amount refunded was in "full and final settlement" - if it did, would this mean I would have no hope of trying to recover charges prior to this? Wish me luck, even if I can't go for all the charges, there's been a good few thousand charged since that I will go for!