Thinking about claiming against Natwest

[bryony84]

Hi everyone, found this site through a forum that I'm a regular on and although I'd heard about the unlawful charge repayments, I'd never really considered pursuing it until now.

 

I'm a student and I have just finished 4 years of study. I am in a similar situation to many students and have a student overdraft (interest free) and a couple of credit cards.

 

I've had a good few unfair charged levied on my account over those years as student income is incredibly unreliable and sporadic. I'm now in the process of setting up some kind of budget to sort my finances out and it would help me so much to be able to claim back these unfair charges.

 

I'm in the process of going through my statements to see how much I am owed! Let battle commence!

[katesage]

welcome briony

 

spend as much time as possible reading the FAQs and other threads particularly here on the NW forum. we all support and advise each other thru the various stages.

there are about ten moderators and administrators, un paid and overworked angels who will answer any unusual legal question or worry but basically 99% of the answers are here on the site already.

 

i really hope you get all your money back, i remember only too well how difficult student budgeting was (ie borderline starvation!). no one has lost yet and it wont cost you much to pursue so you have nothing to lose. good luck

 

kate

[bryony84]

Thanks kate - I'd just been looking at your thread actually! *spooky*

 

I've been browsing round this site for about 3 hours and had completely forgotten about having lunch until now!!

 

I've learnt some really useful things and will hopefully continue to find more useful info!

[katesage]

v spooky!!

 

I'm at an early stage too, so lets see how we get on.

 

3hrs!!! you just wait this place is dangerously addictive, like i said in my thread its abit like entering the matrix. banks etc will never seem the same!

loads of luck

kate

[rbrears]

Don't think about it - do it

 

They will pay you.

[bryony84]

Thanks for the encouragement! This money would really help me to start paying off my student debts!

 

I'm definitely going to go for it!

[bryony84]

I've had a look around the site and I've read a lot about DPA letters requesting information from the bank, but would I be able to just go into my bank/phone up and request statements back to the year 2000 or would they not do this for me? I have just relised I only have statements back to 2003.

[katesage]

you can ring up and request all your statements going back 6yrs, they will prob charge you a fiver. however this isn't necessarily a DPA request which costs £10. A DPA will(theoretically) release all data held about you such as letters, transcripts of calls etc.

to be honest the statements are the vital bit but if you dont request them in writing quoting DPA, then the bank is not restricted by the 40 day rule.

I've decided to just use the statements so i'm going down the phonecall route, my dpa's got 'lost' in the post anyway. but if those statements dont turn up then i'll kick myself for not doing it by written DPA cos i'll have lost another few weeks.

kate

[bryony84]

Well i sent off a letter recorded delivery yesterday to ask for a complete list of charges applied to my account since the year 2000 (I've had my account sine i was a baby so hopefully that will give me a good 'loyal customer' stand.

 

Having read most of the recent posts now, I am wondering if I should be sending a DPA as well to get evidence of manual intervention (or lack thereof). I have read that some people have not recieved this information even after they sent a DPA, any advice on this?

[lipscombe]

Hy Bryony, welcome!!

Don't for one minute think the long standing loyal customer bit will help. I have banked with the Abbey for over 20 years never had charges before last August!! 7 in one day, asked for refund then before I knew about this site. They told me to go away!!!!

 

Have now issued court proceedings on them for just £300 after sending all the sugestied letters, quoted the loyal customer bit to them but it did not make any difference.

 

Good luck, keep going it will be worth it honey x x

[bryony84]

Thanks everyone for all you words of support and advice. Has made me even more determined to get what i'm owed!

 

PS: pretty please could a mod change this thread name to Bryony84 vs Natwest!

 

Thanks!!

[bryony84]

Reply from Natwest, they are forwarding my request for a list of charges to the Data Protection department and have given themselves the 40 day deadline, so we'll wait and see!

[Plutos]

I've had a look around the site and I've read a lot about Data Protection Act letters requesting information from the bank, but would I be able to just go into my bank/phone up and request statements back to the year 2000 or would they not do this for me? I have just relised I only have statements back to 2003.

 

Hi,

 

I find myself in a similar situation to myself - as a student I got hit with charge after charge as the term ended and I had nothing coming in, despite the fact that a month later i'd be 'rolling in it' when the loan payments came in. Ridiculous!

 

I'm pretty new to this game, but I would definitly advise making a data protection request and NOT going down the route of asking nicely for the statements in the branch.

 

Natwest have managed to delay me by a month and a half because you don't really have any comeback unless you have made the official request using the act. They finally claimed that they wouldn't be able to supply old statements for ages because they were 'changing the system' and didn't know when it would be fixed, obviously a set response to put off claimants like ourselves.

 

Good luck with your claim. As i say, be prepared for them to put obstacles in the way if you give them the opportunity. As such start recording every letter, phone call and response in a diary from day 1, and send all correspondance by recorded delivery so they can't claim they never recieved it.

 

Plutos

[bryony84]

Got another reply from antwest today - they are stalling again. Letter states that to get a list of charges they have to send me a copy of my bank statements and I need to send them a £5 cheque for that. I'm not sure why they can't just debit it from my account - they have no problem removing £38 charges!!

 

Grr. Anyway, cheque in the post tomorrow. I'm still sticking to the 40day limit they gave themselves.