Hi Guys Came on here last year to have a sniff around, but due to work commitments have only recently had time to dedicate to finally starting my claim. The story so far: I've been with NatWest for donkey's, and my banking record has had its ups and downs. I've been mostly self-employed, and for about 90 per cent of the last years I've been well within my credit limit, on several occasions I've been well into five figures in the black, I was even given a short-term overdraft of £10k at one point to buy a new car. If ever I was about to exceed my overdraft limit, I used to get a friendly call from my account manager, offering to extend the overdraft and checking if there was anything else they could do for me. Proper manual intervention, if you like, and all free of charge. My circumstances haven't really changed much since then, neither has the way in which I run my account, but the friendly phone calls have stopped, and they just wallop on the charges. One month a couple of years ago I got hit with over £1,000, which of course more than what actually paying out the DDs would have cost in the first place. As I said, been a bit busy with work taking me all over the place recently, but last month they really pushed me over the edge - bouncing the mortgage payment when there was actually plenty of money to meet the DD. That really peed me off, as the mortgage has always been sacrosanct - I'd sell bits of my body before I let the mortgage go unpaid. So, to cut what is turning into a long story short: I sent off for my statements about three weeks ago, and got them back in two batches, but missing the last couple of weeks - which are online so that's no big deal. Going through those was an eye opener - huge chunks where everything was fine and dandy, then a couple of pages where things had got a bit tight and they really lay into you. Reminded me of a few good times as well though, what with all those ATMs while on holiday or working abroad. Anyhow, thanks to the great advice on this site I've now completed my spreadsheet and am about to send it along with the prelim letter. God it feels good to be writing them a sh*tty letter rather than receiving one! I'll keep you posted on what's occurring, but don't generally keep normal hours as I work nights at the moment (for a High Street bank, would you believe!).

Hi Weebag - I'll keep an eye on your case as I have a personal loan with Natwest, too. It's an interesting situation, because a standard condition on their loans is that you maintain a current a/c with the bank until the loan has been repaid - which could be taken to mean that they can't close your a/c in a fit of pique.

I've been looking around the threads on here for the past day or two before beginning my claim. I believe the test case mentioned above was Elliott v Lloyds TSB, in which the bank settled in full out of court. I think your next step should be to ring your court and check what test case is being referred to, and if I'm correct point out that it no longer applies and ask for the stay to be removed. It looks like another delaying tactic - hoping you'll just give up. Try a search on Elliott or stay.

Checked account online today and found I'd been charged £76 for bouncing 2 x £10 DDs. I believe this is what they call the last straw. I'm self-employed, so should already have all six years' of statements. I shudder to think how much our joint account has been charged in that time.