Hi all, thanks for reading. Girlfriend is having trouble with Natwest. We would greatly appreciate some guidance on this, as it seems a pretty serious mickey take by the bank. Brief outline: Opened account as a child. Used as main account through to uni. Became student account, eventually entered student overdraft. Usual student account kept in good standing with working as well. When leaving uni had overdraft. Got a graduate job. New employer requires employees to bank with another firm. Girlfriend does this as a term of the work contract. She calls Natwest, outlines this and says the new account will be her main one as it is where the money goes. She checks the outstanding o/d balance of about £1400 and makes an agreement with the Customer Service Assistant on the call - to make a payment of £35 every month to pay off the overdraft. She made this payment every month for 3 years. It is her only account with Natwest. Other than the monthly payment – that has never been missed - there has been no activity on the account at all. The account has not been used in any way for the last three years. Yesterday we got a letter from Natwest saying things 'were now serious - but we can still help'... she called to ask what was going on. Turns out they 'changed the terms and conditions' a few months ago (4 or 5 I think), but they didn't send us a letter; she was told they emailed her (to an old email that is still checked occasionally) and we knew nothing about it. We cannot find this email. They also say she's had two other letters (all in the last 3 weeks) but we haven't received them. As I say, we’ve had this address for 5 years, and we got a letter yesterday, so this seems odd to say the least. Today we received a letter from a DCA regarding the same account. Seems they were trying to trace her... at her home address (to be fair that's a good place to start). The account has snowballed. They introduced daily charges, increased interest well beyond the regular payment amount and breezed past the overdraft limit last month. This then drew unarranged overdraft fees and charges for not paying enough in... you get the picture. She now owes nearly double what she owed 3 years ago despite making monthly payments for 3 years... During the call yesterday the she clearly voiced her outrage at the situation – but they offered no goodwill at all and she was told ‘the charges are fair’ and ‘all in line with the T&C’s’... They were told to expect a formal complaint. Surely they can’t do this???? Could really use a hand with this to make sure we get it right: From what I can see there are a few clear breaches of BCOBS. 1/ They have to notify changes by post – email isn’t enough. 2/ They can’t default an account unless there have been no payments for 3 months. 3/ A payment agreement (though informal) was made with them 3 years ago – and stuck to. 4/ It is a snowballed account. 5/ They have clearly acted against her interests. FCA investigation also seems interesting: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?422802-What-the-FCA’s-latest-investigation-means-for-free-banking(1-Viewing)-nbsp Now I’m sure there’s something else or something I’ve just missed, so any help or advice is gratefully received. There are some pro's on here who could definitely help out with the letter

Hi sorry if this is in the wrong area I am after a bit of aadvise regarding bank charges on a old Lloyds account I had In around may 2009 to Jan 2010 I had a mass of charges added to the account I had no overdraft ect on the account yet each month one was applied to take the charges and month on month it grew untill they defaulted the account At the time I had tried to explain I was struggling and went to cccs but this made no difference I know I should have managed things better in hindsight but now I am slowly getting things back on track but still have this debt with a mass of charges looming over me I have the statements showing the charges and have tried calling the recoveries team but they just say it's in the terms and conditions is there anything I can do