Do NatWest let you keep your Step account?

peachyprice

Rylynn wrote: »

Sorry Peachy, I thought I read on here in many posts that the OR freezes the accounts on day of BR, and you then speak to him about them. If he does not freeze them how the hell do the banks find out about everyone going BR on any given day? Confused now to say the least.

So maybe the OR lets all the banks know you have gone BR via phone on the day and then they freeze the accounts is that the case?

I only know what I have read here about people finding their new cash minder accounts frozen and having the OR let the bank know he has no interest in it. However this has not worked for many with other accounts, Nat West being one of them.

Hi Rylynn,
Bank accounts aren't frozen on the day of BR, it's usally a day or 2 later, if at all.

When the OR gets your form with all the bank account details they write to the Legal Notices dept. of all the banks you have accounts with saying either a) they have no interest in the account because it's your living expenses account or has a £0 balance, b) the outstanding O/D is going into your BR so the acccount should be closed or c) they want the balance (usuallly from a savings account) and the account should be closed.

Some banks will then take it upon themselves to freeze your everyday account so they do not give you money by mistake, this is when you need to get your OR to fax a letter to them.

Some banks won't bother to freeze account but will close them. This is what Barclays did to us, the OR wrote to them to say they had no interest in the account, it was never frozen and we used it for about a week as normal with DD's going out and we could use our cards as normal, then they closed it without notice and sent us a cheque for the balance. It took HSBC 2 months to close our O/D account.

If you go BR in the morning the court faxes the forms to the OR office, so the letters to the banks can, in theory arrive the next day.

I think it's only Merry Gentry who has had a problem wiht her Cashminder, but that was because of an over zealous OR telling Co-op to close them, which was unnecessary, and not the norm.

It's beleive it's Halifax who check the Gazette and close have been known to close associated accounts.

HTH

fiveyearplan

Its true Halifax do trawl through the Gazette everyday to see if any of their customers have gong BR. I got a letter from them immediately after BR. The account is a joint account with £1.26 left in it that I am going to write to my OR and ask if he'd like the 63 pence that is my share of it, if not can he release it.

On the day of bankruptcy all your accounts belong to the OR and you cannot use them unless he says he has no interest in them.

marshmallow13

Hiya - it still appears on my credit file as open - no overdraft or debt. I know some people have said you can ask OR to say they have no interest in it? No worries if I can't and it really was a genuine mistake it's a really old account.

peachyprice

I can't see why you can't Marshmallow. When we had our interview we told the OR that we'd forgot to put our ING savings account on the form, it had a £0 balance, the OR said she didn't want details as there was nothing in it, so it's sitting there open (empty cos we can't use it without an account with a cheque book:rolleyes: ).

marshmallow13

don't want to get done for fraud or anything do you think i should phone OR and check? Only reason it would be useful is it has debit card, no o/d though.

tigerfeet2006

There is no harm in asking If you don't ask you don't get

Cybachiq

I had a NatWest Current Plus account before going BR with just a Solo card and a chequebook. I had no overdraft and did not owe NatWest any money. When I went BR I asked the OR if I could keep my account and she said she had no problem with me keeping it as all my benefits go into it. A few days later I received a letter from the bank asking me to go in so it could be changed over to a Step Account, so, yes, they do allow undischarged bankrupts to keep a Step Account.
However, I believe that this could be up to your individual bank (but don't quote me, this is just my opinion) and how you have conducted yourself with it. I had been a very well-behaved account holder in recent times, never going overdrawn or bouncing a cheque or Direct Debit within the last 2 years, so I think this might have had something to do with it, that and the fact that I'd held the acccount since I was 15, so nearly 14 years.

Dorothy56

Thanks for all the info. I think the best bet is to go in and ask them - eeeek.

Dorothy:o