I need urgent help fast: the bank are closing my account

superclio

Hiya,
I'm in the most enormous pickle, to put it mildly. I moved to the US having left behind some heinous credit card debts. I was able to keep my UK address and had my mail forwarded, for the first year I sent money back every month to my current account to keep my direct debits paid up. Some time in March one of my wire transfers went missing. I didn't know this at first, and it was until I received angry threatening letters that I found out the money had left the US but been lost en route to the UK. I was charged left right and centre for unreturned direct debits, late charges, you name it, it went up to hundreds of pounds. Eventually in August after months of harassing the bank in the US and my bank in the UK (Abbey National) they sheepishly admitted that it had 'been sitting on a ledger' all this time as they didn't know where to deposit it, I think the US bank had entered my account number incorrectly. Abbey refunded most of my charges (not all though), however as far as my creditors went it was too late, my credit was now shot and the charges were crippling me. After much advice and calling around I decided to go to Spectrum Financial who would arrange an IVA for me (I know I could do it for free myself, but I was so overwhelmed I just didn't see how I could handle it, especially not since I was coming and going between the UK and the US). I last made a deposit into my current account in October, and have been intending to do another ever since. I have a £500 overdraft facility and am £300 into that. Because I'm charged the same amount no matter how much I wire I try to wait and not send the money monthly, but every two months instead. Now I find Abbey National are closing my account immediately since I haven't been making monthly deposits. I emailed them and explained that I am still trying to recover from the enormous financial set back caused by THEM losing my money for five months. I told them I will be sending money in the next two weeks to pay off my overdraft and do not intend to use it again, in fact I'd prefer it if I couldn't go into the red. I explained that there should be some leeway here considering I was so patient with them (too patient. If I knew how to I would seriously like to sue them for the stress and money they caused me).
The bottom line is this: if they close my account down I am screwed. I cannot open another account without being in the UK, so I will be unable to pay my IVA (unless I did it with international cheques or something like that from the US which would be SO inefficient not to mention costing me a fortune too). Can Abbey National really behave like this? I know it is totally unfair, but are they allowed to do this?
Does anyone have ANY advice for me? I'm absolutely beside myself at the moment at that prospect that I won't even have a bank account, never mind the impact this will have on my IVA and my credit.

sparklymessygirl

Hi Superclio,

Been racking my brains but the only thing I can think of is contacting the Financial services ombudsman - but think that you are supposed to exhaust the bank's complaints service first....
Would it be slightly less awful if you agreed to a freeze on your account until you had deposited some money in it? You probably need to wire some money asap - maybe get someone in the UK to put cash in and then wire money to them to speed things up?
Sorry - cannot think of anything else - hope someone can help you

Sparkly

---lee---

Regarding opening another bank account, I recently opened one with LloydsTSB online. I don’t remember specifically what questions were asked about residency but all checks etc were made online and I never had send or present any documents.

Obviously I am also on the electoral roll and I would guess that this is no longer the case for you as you are abroad. Thought it may be helpful though. Indecently, the account I opened required a deposited of £1k per month minimum.

Also my brother has worked abroad for several years. At one point he was having some problems with his bank. He wrote to his bank and copied me in a letter asking that they give me authority to deal with his account and act on his behalf. I was then able to go to the branch and resolve the problems he was having (can’t even remember what they were now). It’s bad enough trying to talk to banks when you’re in the same country without the added disadvantage of being abroad. Do you have anyone here that you can trust to operate your account?

Another thing you may want to consider is opening an account in the US with a bank that also operates in the UK so that you can deal with accounts in the US and UK through the same bank.

EDIT:

PS. If you post details about what you owe, APR's, outgoings, income etc there will be many people on the boards who can probably advise on how to cut costs and maximise your repayments.

Xbigman

I've never been in this situation but it seems to me you really are doing this the hard way. I would give your address in the US to your creditors and simply ask them how they want you to pay. Between you, you should come up with something. If they are not helpfull tell them you have no way to pay.

As for Spectrum, ditch them now. They are charging you and making your situation worse. You also need to decide how you are going to deal with this, an 'I can't be bothered' IVA will never work.
Regards



X

Penny-Pincher!!

Could you pay the money monthly to a friends account in the UK

PP
xx

superclio

I suppose that's an option - paying a friend and it coming from their account, I might be able to do that but most of my mates are as skint as me and I hate to put them in that position, even though I'd be paying it every month. Thanks for the words of advice. I think my first step needs to be to talk to Citizen's Advice or the financial ombudsman - anyone know of the contact number for them? (the ombudsman that is).