Newbie Young stressed mum needs help!

[stressed mum!]

A big hello to everyone, I have been lurking on here for a while now and have been picking up bit's of info though I must say very confusing!!

A little bit about me, I married with 3 young children and between myself and my husband have ran up a bit of debt I have now had enough of the crying and living my life by this debt and have decided to fight back so this is where I'm going have sent a cca to co-operative bank they have failed to send me my agreement (have checked and it has been signed for).

Natwest Bank have put my account into default there is a £3500. overdraft on this and with charges is now about£4200. I am also going to try and print off my bank statements and claim charges can I do this if it is in default??? Also most of the money that went into that account before I moved banks was from tax credits, Childbenifit and also 6 months job seekers allowance as that's all I was allowed to claim for due to being off with children before before my maternity government maternity pay kicked in as I had always worked before having the kids. Sorry if this is a bit long winded first post

 

thanks in advance for any replies

[stressed mum!]

Would be grateful for any advice thanks

[womble72]

Welcome stressed Mum,

 

Dont worry too much and keep strong for the childrens sake.

 

I have two young children and that what keeps me strong.

 

Now lets concentrate on the Natwest overdraft.

 

What was the overdraft limit on the account and also you can fight the unfair charges against them as a hardship case.

 

What you need to do is send a sar request to them at it costs £10.00.

 

Subject Access Request (Data Protection Act 1999:cool:

 

 

 

Dear Sirs,

 

Account Number: (all account nos, or none if it is unknown)

 

As per the section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998, "Subject Access Request", I hereby request that you supply me with any and all historical data in your possession which, in any way appertains to me, including (but not exhaustively) a true copy of the original signed executed agreement; statements of account; duplicate statements and/or print outs of all account transactions; all internal and external correspondence sent or received by you including memo’s, logs, notes, screen prints and transcripts; notes of manual interventions such as telephone attendants' notes, internal and external emails; any other information held on any/all types of media in any relevant filing system (microfiche included). I should receive your full compliance within a maximum of 40 days of this letter being recorded as delivered by Royal Mail.

 

If you have disclosed any information to a third party (with or without my express permission), will you please include details of this in your reply, along with notes of any legal action passed or pending (to include a true copy of default notices, court orders and the like).

 

Where any information that you provide includes any charges, for example returned payments, unauthorised overdraft, items paid whilst overdrawn, late payments or being over limit and so forth, would you please advise your breakdown of actual costs (liquidated damages) incurred for each charge, and the Term or Condition which you rely upon to claim such a charge.

 

I also require that you forward, within the above mentioned time scale, a true copy of the Terms and Conditions that were in force at the time my account was opened, and any subsequent amendments to those Terms and Conditions. These are requested under CPR Pre-Action Protocol 4.3(e).

 

I enclose the maximum payable fee of £10 by way of a postal order (no*******)/cheque (no*****) and remind you that you have a total of 40 days in which to comply from the delivered date of this request.

 

May I confirm, as the ICO has already, that the 40 day time limit is not to be used as a guide for responding to the request but is the maximum period allowed in law and that whenever possible a data controller should proceed with all possible expediency in fulfilling such a Subject Access Request.

 

I await your timely responses

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Stessedmum (you will need to sign across the font name)

 

 

A subject access request will give you all the information they have on you.

 

All the bank statements should be sent to you.

 

Have they terminated your overdraft ?

[stressed mum!]

Thankyou Womble 72 for your reply, I have now gone past the stressed and upset and now am more p****d off and determined my husband has been great and is behind me. The overdraft limit was for £3400. and is now at approx £3900. The amount in benefits going into this account has been going on since june 2007 when I left work to look after my children then obviously not working ect started to go into overdraft then could'nt get out charges were approx £48.00 per month seperated from my husband for over a year so this is what I was living on ( he was paying the mortgage).

I am worried as they have put my account into default so did'nt know if I could try and get any charges back plus the word County Court scares me too!!I tried to speak to cccs and they said because we did'nt have enough funds to pay creditors to pay them a token payment but they keep adding on the interest!!!! CCa requests have gone out to them I will not be bullied and am ready to fight my corner

Thanks again from a very determined mum!!

[stressed mum!]

Sorry ment to ask what will the SAR do?? And what will it prove thanks, they have't informed me if they have terminated my overdraft, I have opened a new account before christmas and explained my situation to them in writing and over the phone. They sent me a letter asking for me to give the cccs a signed authority so they could disclose account info, but because of my situation the would'nt help me anyway!!! they said if I did'nt give them the information they would begin to pursue me me after 28 days I never said I had signed up with the cccs just that I would be phoning them for advise but to be honest have learnt morte from the very wise people on here!

 

What is the best address to use is it the one for letters before action?? thankyou in advance

Edited February 11, 2009 by stressed mum!

[womble72]

The Sar request is information Natwest hold on you.

 

They should provide all your statements and if they have sent you default notices.

 

You then look and see how many unfair charges there is.

 

They wont stop with the charges.

 

Is the house in joint names ?

 

Are you paying them a token payment each month ?

[womble72]

A overdraft is hard to defend because it has no written agreement.

 

You could claim up to 6 years worth of unfair charges !

[stressed mum!]

Yes it is in joint names, it's the only thing that is all our debts 3 each are just in sole names. I have sent them a token payment and will continue to do so we are going to review our budget and at at the end of the month if we can afford more will send them more next month. These token payments are sent by postal order so they don't have our signature.

 

I am not saying we will not pay our debts as on 2 there is only a few thousand on them my husband would have paid one of them off in just over a year and never missed a payment before last month they have aready charged him £50 for 2 letters (cheek!!) the more they add on the longer it will take to pay we have told them we hope our situation will hopefully change (if I get a job in the evenings) but do not want to be bullied I cannot believethe way these banks behave as soon as you miss a payment!! Do you suggest carrying on with the token payments or a little more and I've heard they can put a charging order against your home how long does that take? thankyou for replying to me

[womble72]

If you do challenge the overdraft for unfair charges they will freeze the account and ask for the full amount.

 

Now if you are offering a token payment then thats fine.

 

If you did ask for a sar request they will give you all the bank statements.

 

Unless you have saved all your bank statements for 6 years.

 

The problem is that a overdraft is hard to defend in a court of law and the only way to fight them is with unfair charges.

 

The remainder of the debt of what you owe to the overdraft will be decided by the judge in the county court. i.e-you pay them £1.00 a month ! The judge would be on your side.

 

Now if you want to decide to fight the unfair charges then i will find the template for unfair bank charges and post it.

 

Beware they will freeze the account and demand the full amount but they are just carrying on throwing charges at you. I know you want to pay them back but at the end of the day the ratwest will throw so many charges you wont be able to pay back.

 

Its down to you !

[stressed mum!]

Now I am confused!!! So if I decide to fight them against unfair charges they will freeze the account and demand it all in one go. If I keep making token payments they will just keep adding charges but if they took me to court the judge would be in my favor if I keep making token payments or what I can afford. Hope you don't mind me picking your brains still got so much to learn.

[womble72]

Sorry to confuse you as i am still learning as well.

 

Ok to start a claim for unfair charges you need to work how much unfair charges there is in the first place.

 

Now you can go online and view 6 years worth of statements on the Natwest site !

 

It is live that you can go back to 2002.

(1) Log into NatWest online banking,

(2) Go to statements on the right hand side and click on that,

(3) then on the drop down menu it says "historic transactions" then you need to choose dates not more than 12 months, ie 5th October 2002 until 4th October 2003, etc,etc,.

Hope that helps, however that information ie past the last 12 months is not available in the branches as it stand at the moment.

 

Do you know what your looking for as unfair charges on the bank statements ?

[womble72]

look at this as well.

 

Step By Step Instructions

[stressed mum!]

Thanks womble72 have sent an SAR off to them will let you know when I recieve this thanks for the link will have a read of that aswell do you think it would be a good idea to send a non-formal letter asking for charges back first due to hardship or will I be wasting my time !!

[womble72]

Hi Stressed Mum,

 

See what you get back from the sar request first.(It takes 40 days for the Ratwest to reply)

 

They should send you 6 years of bank statements.

 

You will need to check how many unfair charges there is.

 

Have you got Microsoft excel on your pc.

 

You will need the following to put your unfair charges on.(if the advanced spreadsheet is too complicated just use the basic.

 

6. Interest calculation spreadsheets -j

 

The when you have calculated how much there is you would send them a letter from this link

 

2. Letter - Preliminary approach for repayment. - j

 

You wont be wasting your time when you see how much they have been unfairly charging you. So lets wait and see what you get back from the sar request.

 

Hope this all makes sense.

 

Kind Regards

 

Womble

[stressed mum!]

Thanks womble72 considering your still learning your doing pretty well!! My DH can't belive how much you can learn from this site we was getting really stressed out just before christmas but since being on here have learnt to take things in our stride if you know what I mean . Going to have a good read of what the unfair charges are when the kids are in bed tonight and wait for my SAR to land on the doorstep will let you know when it's here thanks again got a few letters to send to the banks regarding our loans this morning so better get that done,it amazes me how you tell them your situation and your struggling they then send you a letter back and charge you £25 for the service!!!!! Need to go and do some more research.

[womble72]

Hi Stressed Mum,

 

Here are some facts if you have a gold account with the ratwest.

 

You cant add this as a unfair charge !

 

Important dates for Advantage Gold

 

As of October 2002 The Advantage Gold fee was £6

From September 2003 The Advantage Gold fee was £9

From July 2005 The Advantage Gold Fee was £10

And finally From June 2006 The advantage Gold fee is £12.

 

Additional note added 14/11/2006 It has come to my attention that during 2002/4 I believe some people trialled new benefits on Advantage Gold for the cost of £7.50.

 

 

NatWest put together charges for Advantage Gold and Unarranged Borrowing together from 31/10/2002 so that the charge for Advantage Gold and Unarranged Borrowing was not two separate charges but one fee.

 

 

This guide should clarify and clearly help you to distinguish penalty fees for Unarranged Borrowing which you can claim and Advantage Gold service charges that you cannot claim

 

Hope this helps !

[stressed mum!]

Hello womble72 the ratwest have sent me a notice if default this morning which looks right ie enough notice for the 8th march and for cheque books to be returned (as if!!)

Have a good weekend

[womble72]

Hi Stressed Mum,

 

Have they sent you a default notice on the overdraft ?

 

Or a termination letter of the overdraft ?

 

You have got there back up.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Womble:-)

[stressed mum!]

A formal notice of intention to file a default and take action to recover the debt I will post it shortly as there's a few pages is this because I have done a SAR or is this just the normal process?

[womble72]

This is normal procedure from the ratwest.

 

They know you are going for unfair charges and the moment you get your statements back from them the sooner you can counter the unfair charges.

 

They might try for court procedings.(you are a homeowner and they will try a charging order against you)

 

Now the problem you and myself have is that the Ratwest will keep throwing charges until it will be impossible to pay them back.

 

The judge would be sympathetic because you are a young family and you are paying them what you can only afford. As i said before you would need to stop them getting a co against you.

 

Due to my court date in March i wont be able to do my unfair charges until after. I am owed nearly £4,000 inc 8% charge.

 

So my overdraft was £3,300 and the rest is charges! It is amazing how much it builds up and they keep hammering you for it.

[stressed mum!]

That sounds scary about the charging order I am going to send them another letter this week with my token payment for next month.

Are you going to court due to your overdraft and them wanting payment are you nervous?

[womble72]

The debt is for a loan and a overdraft.

 

The loan can be defended on the bases of no orginal agreement.

 

The overdraft is a little bit tricky but Paul from the cag site has put together a great piece of defence.

 

Now the question you ask me am i scared.

 

Yes i am.

 

Going in to a court and defending against a big company is a scary prospect.

If you own your home or not.

 

I have two young children i need to support and i also have two jobs.

The in/out goings are not getting easier and i use Payplan to manage my debts.

 

The Ratwest will have a shock when they try for a charging order. They still think i own my home.

 

Maybe thats why they are hell bent on taking me to court.

If the judge does side with them what can they take!

 

A token payment (more costs thrown at me) The Ratwest wont win at the end of the day.

 

Keep your chin up for the sake of your children.

[stressed mum!]

Good on you, I would be very scared but you never know what will happen on the day the charging order is the only thing that worries me but to be honest if we would have sold our house last year I would have paid it off but now I think b******s to them I have learn alot from this site and I will try and defend myself the chin is well and truly up!!

[womble72]

My thoughts exactly. These banks dont care about you or your family.

 

They are only want to screw your credit rating and take a slice of the equity of your house.

 

These banks have just thrown money at people who just happy to take it but have no thought of when the s*** hits the fan and then the bank makes it worse by either throw a loan at you to cover the overdraft or just increase the overdraft limit. And when you get in the s*** they throw unfair charges at you on top.

 

I think its called irresponsible

lending !

 

At the end of the day you need to fight the Ratwest on two fronts.

 

(1)unfair charges on the od.

 

(2)stop them getting a co.

 

I am learning a lot on here and so maybe the Ratwest are as well ?

[stressed mum!]

Hey womble72 hope you are good.

Have recieved a letter from the natwest asking for my signature as a signed authority to proceed with my request!!!!!!!

Now from what I have read on here I dont have to provide this as they have sent statements ect to my home in the past and I have seen a post on here about this with a letter I can send but can't find it if you come accross it will you let me know going to put a post for it in the general section

 

How are you? hope your keeping your chin up and getting ready for your day in court.