Kermit1986 - hardship case against NatWest

[kermit1986]

I'm personally in Hardship, and over the weekend 2 DD's tried to come out, failed and they've charged me £76 on Sat for the unpaid DD's.

 

Anyway, I can't have this right now, it's already guranteed to be a **** christmas for me and people I'd give presents too, but now with this they're going to make a lot of deductions for bank charges and mess up a lot of bills for me as I can't afford what they're doing.

 

Would I get anywhere if tomorrow I went into my branch to talk to someone face to face there (never done this sort of thing before) but I have quite a few D/D's spread all over the month and I'm barely managing to pay bills...I CAN'T afford the bank charges too.

 

I lost my job at the end of September, tried to get Jobseekers in October, but due to a lot of stringing me along and asking for more info, I've STILL not had a payment (I currently need to get proof of 2 of my partners wage slips and try and get some papers on her uni fee's). If they're fine with what I give them then I'll get back dated paid for the JSA claim from the start of Oct when I applied.

 

Thing is though, is that with all this money hassle, me and my partner have split up. Which sucks. (I'm 22 she's 20, been together 16 months and currently live together, but thats another story). After all is said and done with the messing around to get JSA to be happy with how much she gets and if that could support me, I'll then need to tell them I'm single, which I hope won't complicate things further with that.

 

Anyway, recently I've had to borrow about £400 off my dad and another £250 to make rent the other day. I have no income whatsoever at the moment (other than eBaying some stuff here and there).

 

I haven't told my parents the extent of how bad things are (or the fact that me and Laura (my gf) have split up), but things are REALLY tough, and I just can't take it anymore.

 

I need to go into Natwest tomorrow and have them sort things out tomorrow. I need at the minimum for them to take back those 2 charges they've hit me with at the weekend, but ideally I could do with them paying me back every charge they took off me this year. (They've probably taken something near £300.

 

Sorry for the wall of text above, but if i state my case in person tomorrow and tell them how bad things are...what is the likelihood they'll pay me back my charges and give good customer service for once?

 

If not I'm just going to have to tell them to close the account tomorrow as I can't afford them to just keep screwing me with charges...and have my bills get paid through other means.

[yourbank]

I will ask site team to move this thread to one on its own so that advice specific to you can be given. If DD's go out on the Saturday(they always will which works in your favour if money is due in on the Monday), you can pay in before 2:30pm(it has to be in the account and not you being in the banking queue to pay in) and then the bank can at your request manually pay the item.

If you close the account, any charges that may be pending would go out prior to it being closed. The branch cannot refund anything to you immediately and bank error would have to be found for them to do so.

[kermit1986]

Thanks for the info.

I went into the bank today. Not with anger in me, just worry.

 

Told him my story, he listened, sympathised, didn't make me feel bad or anything, and did what he could.

 

Spoke to a guy who was nice, couldnt refund me anything, but he's had all my D/D's cancelled (fair enough really as I'll be moving out soon and most will be final bills). He sorted out a thing for the time being where the bank have put an overdraft that covers the £75ish that I'm overdrawn on my account and given me 3 months to pay that back.

 

Obviously now with the D/D's cancelled I won't get any more charges, and with the overdraft in place Natwest can't charge for being overdrawn.

 

So I have no further worry about that really. It'll be annoying having to wait for letters (or alternately calling) all the people I have D/D's with to pay via whatever other means, but I'm ok with that till I'm back on my feet.

 

I suppose the next step now is to get all the charges together for what Natwest have taken since Jan 08 (thats when the first charge I've had that I've not had refunded happened), and try and get the financial hardship case in place.

 

My story in brief is. Lost my job, tried to get jobseekers, that didn't happen and is ongoing, not had any proper money in (just eBay, and money I've borrowed off parents etc), relationship fell apart, moving out (back in with parents). Charges are unfair and I could do with that money back.

The guy I spoke to at Natwest just said to call Customer relations about the charges to see if they could be refunded (as he couldnt do anything about them personally), he said he knew it wasnt guranteed to get them refunded, but he'd done his bit to stop further things happening so I had no reason to argue with him how useless calling would be.

A side story is that I have the same ongoing problem (but worse) with Halifax.

August - Got a charge (without realising), when I found out I had this charge I tried to get it back, they said no. In the time they were replying to me, I got another one. Sent another letter, these werent the standard "I'll take you to court if my demands arent meant" type thing that would normally be sent from here....but me knowing about the test case I decided I'd send sympathetic letters and see if they could respond to that rather than just the usual automated corporate bank reply stuff. They didn't get me anywhere though.

Anywho, they replied to the 2nd letter saying how they were investigating it, and that was the last I heard (I'd moved but not changed my address with the bank, and the letter got sent to my old home address [parents]), however I didn't receive the reply to that.

In the time of the investigation, more charges were added and it got to about £190 in charges, then they passed it over to there debt collections side.

They've hit me with a default notice, and said I owe £290 (although these debt collectors are adding an extra £30 a month I believe). It's £290 because it's £190 in charges and my £100 overdraft which I was using pretty much to capacity at the time this began.

 

So basically I need to try and see if I can get Halifax to refund the charges, a.s.a.p (whether via financial hardship, or after the test case), the thing is though. What do I do about the added charges each month from Albion (Halifax's collections agency?) Can I claim them back? I'm financially screwed for 6 years with the default notice too if I can't get all this mishap sorted.

 

I'm suprised I haven't killed myself with everything thats fell apart recently :/ Sorry for going on about the Halifax bit in this post (seeing as it's the Natwest board). Just a reply on what to do next in terms of "going down the financial hardship road" side of claiming back charges would be helpful.

[woodwa5]

Hello mate,

first off don't worry (easy to say). I'll deal with the Halifax issue as you seem to have pretty much resolved Natwest. Firstly you need to send a letter to the DCA and Halifax (address it to Halifax and cc the DCA) (never communicate with them other than in writing). Headline it ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE.

 

I am by no means an expert on this and you may wish to get a second opinion but I would send something like this:

 

I am writing to clarify that I am currently in the process of requesting a refund of bank charges unlawfully made to my account.

I note from your latest correspondence that you have issued me with a Default Notice on this account. I need to make you fully aware that I am disputing the sum owed and, as such, you must refrain from any further action until this dispute is fully resolved.

The current Banking Code (Section 13.6) states: We may give information to Credit Reference Agencies about the personal debts you owe us if:

• You have fallen behind with your payments,
  
• The amount owed is not in dispute; and
  
• You have not made proposals we are satisfied with for repaying your debt, following our formal demand.
  

I would also like to make you aware of The Office of Fair Trading Code of Guidance in which it states: putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive This includes ignoring disputes about whether money is owed and refusing to freeze action if the debt is in dispute.

 

If you do not reverse this default action and proceed by making any adverse comments on my credit reference files, I shall be forced to take legal action against you under the Data Protection Act 1998.

I therefore hope to receive your full co-operation in this matter and would like to request a written response to that effect.

If you need anything further please ask:p