I had a student bank account wIth natwest which has an over draft and a credit card. The overdraft is owing and the credit card is within its limit but natwest wanted to whole payment. A lot of the balance is charges! My graduate account was automatically changed into a graduate account even though I hadn't graduated (my studies took longer as I was ill) At the start of 2011 I went to natwest inquiring about a graduate loan. I wanted 10k to pay for rent, buy furniture and a car. I'd been living in Kent with my partner and we were relocating to my home town. The guy at the bank said this doesn't sound like enough and I should consider 15k. He also told me that paying back a larger amount looks better if apply for a mortgage. I stupidly was excited by this prospect and took the 15k loan. I had a conditional offer of employment that they took as evidence of income to pay it back. I eventually got this good job and was paying back the full amount every month. Until I fell really ill with a long term condition and heart condition etc. I entered into a payment plan which I was paying. Then for NO reason at all my account was mistakenly sent their collections department. Natwest admitted it was mistakenly sent there but while it was there I couldn't make a payment. It took them months to get it back from collections. During which they counted the late payments and my payment plan ticked away. They wouldn't let me enter another plan as I'd had one for 12 months. They harassed me, sent me 4 or 5 letters a day and called me all the time. I eventually had a seizure the day they sent me letters about lawyers etc. I have entered a debt management plan with step change and the most of my £150 payment goes to the loan They send me letters regarding my secured mortgage. Which is loan obviously isn't. I had nothing to secure it against! I have loads of defaults on my credit file because of this, which was immaculate before this loan. What can I do?! I really feel like they messed up but don't know where to start. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Hi members, I have recently received a final response from Lloyds about a huge number of charges applied to my graduate account which ultimately lead to it being defaulted and closed. Basically in 2012-13 after I graduated, I fell in to quite severe financial difficulty and became reliant on credit to get by. My graduate overdraft of £2000 was usually maxed and I started using payday loans even after I lost my job (I know, different story). I requested all my statements from Lloyds to see how much they had charged me in fees and interest etc before I was defaulted. The total came to over £700 in the 12-18 months of difficulty and this sum is mostly made up of unauthorised overdraft fees and interest on top of them. In Lloyds response they simply say the charges were 'applied correctly' and invite me to call their recoveries department to arrange repayment. Even though I'm still unemployed, I told them I'd be happy to begin a payment plan if they removed these charges, but they're having none of it. I want to take this to the FOS but I've had such mixed experiences with them in the past (loads of complaints re payday loans), and I don't know the best way to go about it. Is it possible to still reclaim charges such as these or will the FOS rubber stamp Lloyds response? It seems ridiculous that over 40% of my debt to them is made up of overdraft charges on what was supposed to be an interest free graduate account! If anyone has any suggestions of how to approach the FOS with this or any success stories, please let me know! Thanks

I have had a graduate account with Natwest for 2 years and the past year I have been paying interest on £800 on my my £1800 ARRANGED overdraft. It is soon to be converted to a 'Select' account and I will pay interest on the entire £1800 and £6 usage fee a month. I am going to teach abroad for 5 months and I have sufficient funds to pay the interest on this account and my phone bill that comes out of this account as a direct debit! My plan is to do this travelling then either get a job out there and repay my overdraft through that or come home and get a job. I am worrying about what will happen while I am away, I will try and put some money into the account but can the bank just take it off me? If they do and default me what can I do whilst away? I doubt my account will go over the arranged overdraft whilst away as I have some money in it (still overdrawn every month). Thank you for any replies.

My son finished his degree (Acting BA Hons) on 20th June. We didnt realise he could claim JSA but found out and claimed last weekend. He was called in for an interview today and said he was treated like trash, spoken down to and told he must take any job doing anything regardless. He is far from workshy but considering he has just accrued thousands of pounds student loan etc debts he thought they would give him a few weeks to try to find something in his field of training. I seem to remember years ago they did this. In addition, he has to sign on every week. Is this the norm now? He has come home feeling like something the woman stood in and says he is thinking of cancelling his claim at least for the next few weeks so he can try to find something in his field or something associated so they dont force just anything on him. He has no intention at all of sitting on jsa but wants to be honest and not say he is looking for anything when he isnt really. I said he could cancel his claim temporarily and see how he goes and that the fact he wants to be honest about his job search would stand in his favour. Didnt they used to allow them some 'grace' time to look for work within their training and then start insisting they widen their search or has that long gone. And since when did people have to sign on every week. Also what gives anyone the right to speak so badly to someone else. He has already shown a 3 year commitment to bettering himself, paid a fortune for the privilege and is being treated like a waster!

Hi everyone Wondering if anyone can help with this issue my son is currently faced with. He graduated in July this year with a first class degree and is now looking for work in his field. He was fortunate to get a month's unpaid work experience with one of the world leaders in his field. This is a massive opportunity for him and although it will probably not give a job with the company it will look fantastic on his cv. It's not a company that you apply to. They approach you so that's how big a deal it is. Sorry, forgot to mention the company is in another city over an hour away and about £55 a week in petrol. My son, prior to starting this placement, signed on at the job centre and was paid for the 2 week period up until the start of this placement. He was totally up front and honest with staff and told them about the month placement and asked if he could be paid job seekers while he was doing it. Long story short, but the dragon at JC said no way as it was not a placement organised by them. Now no disrespect, but this is such a specialised field that there are no placements in this field organised by the job centre. My son did say at the time that he would be applying for jobs and would attend interviews during this period but the guy was not interested. Yes, he could have lied and called up and made excuses on signing on days but he's more honest than that. So, he did his work placement and we paid his travel, accommodation, etc. Not that we could afford it really, but he couldn't not do it. At the beginning of this month when he signed on again he actually met with a very helpful lady who said that she totally understood his situation and that he should apply retrospectively for the benefits he had missed due to work experience (my son spoke to her about the recent Despatches programme regarding the Job Centre wrongly penalising people who got of their backsides and organised their own work experience). Anyway yesterday my son received a letter stating that they had "looked at your backdated claim and decided that you have not satisfied the labour market conditions for job seekers allowance from 29 July to 2 September 2012" and that "We have also decided that you have not shown good cause for the delay in making your claiim from 29 July to 2 September 2012. This means we cannot backdate your Jobseeker's allowance" What?? There was not delay .... he tried to claim and they said he couldn't! And, what does it mean he hasn't satisied the labour market conditions"? Then, today another letter arrives which states: "We have looked at your claim again following a recent change. We cannot pay you Jobseeker's allowance from 29 July. This is because we recently told you that a decision would be made about a doubt on your efforts to find work from 1 August to 2 Sepember 2012. We have now decided that this doubt no longer applies". I think that they need to go on a course to learn plain English but I think what it means is that: "You chose to try and get a job by taking unpaid work experience but because you got off your backside and did something we aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt and because you didn't lie or take a morning off your work experience to come in and sign on, we don't believe you were really looking for work". Actually, my son did apply for jobs during this period of work experience and can prove it, Sorry for the rant but I'm really angry about this and plan to speak to our MP about it but before I do this I wondered if anyone on here could give us any advice on action to take. Of course, he will appeal but it's like wading through treacle - they just don't get it!!! grrrr. Thank you muchly if you have managed to stay with me until now J x