Claim against Natwest...

Geo123

Hi All,

just after some advice initally. I'm in the process of getting myself back on my feet again after an awful year financially. I run a company which struggled badly in the first 6 months of 2008 but i've turned the corner and am coming out the other side.

As a concequence of the troubles earlier in the year i've ended up with a bit of a car crash on my credit record and have racked up an nearly unbelievable sum of £2250 in fees on my current account in the last 12months.

The account is with natwest whom i've been with since i was 12 (a loooong time ago). I'm giving real consideration to putting in a claim to recover some if not most/all of the charges. They mostly stem from bounced direct debits at £38 a pop but there are some tripple whammys of a DD being taken from the account, the account becoming over drawn, the DD being returned and a charge applied for that too, which then takes the account overdrawn again and resulting in another charge (ie. £38 over drawn fee + £38 DD return fee = £76 which is then removed from the account making it overdrawn again resulting in an additional £38 over drawn fee = £114 in total)!

It all got a little silly and needless to say i'm not the least bit happy with how i've been treated, considering i'm a business customer too.

Now i could do with advice on what to do next. I should let you know that i've got a loan account with the natwest too along with the business account. The loan is circa £14k (which is being repaid and is up to date nd i'm now making overpayments towards it) and the business has a £5k overdraft which is currently at £2k (i have no intention of using the further £3k thats available and i should be back in the black properly on this front by march).

Is it worth a claim in light of the other borrowing i have or should i hold my horses until such a time as the borrowing is sorted or moved?

Do natwest have a track record of enforcing account closures on settlement?

And historically which has worked better if i was to proceed should i involve the ombusman or go for a small claims court?

Cheers in advance for any advice,

Geo.

Geo123

Anybody?

Geo123

okay i'll see what i can do myself and report back...

natweststaffmember

Geo123 wrote: »

okay i'll see what i can do myself and report back...

Geo, I missed your first post, apologies. Yes claim them back but also look for Maintenance charges of £28 a pop(unless you had/have an advantage gold account).
Hope that helps and apologies for missing your original post.

Geo123

thanks for the feedback. I'lll get cracking on a stage one letter later on today.

how long does it usually take for a reply? and am i right in thinking as i'm not experiencing "hardship" i'm just going to be joining a pretty long queue in the meantime and be waiting an indefinate timescale before anything happens?

cheers,

Geo.

natweststaffmember

Geo, you are right that you will be in the queue. I would still put a claim in through the bank as I suspect those who have done will be first in the queue for a payout should that outcome be arrived at via the OFT Test Case.

Geo123

okay thats good advice. i'll get the letter in the post.

thanks

Geo123

little update - i've put together the sums and the letter and shall be sending it off today. the total stands at a little over £3100! this is a huge amount and given that i have more than a fair bit of debt, circa £25k, should i try applying through the hardship route?

I have enough money to live on and for the last 30/40 days have met my commitments outgoings wise - would this negate my hardship status or does the amount to be claimed and the personal outstanding debt qualify me for the hardship route?

thanks in advance...

natweststaffmember

Geo123 wrote: »

little update - i've put together the sums and the letter and shall be sending it off today. the total stands at a little over £3100! this is a huge amount and given that i have more than a fair bit of debt, circa £25k, should i try applying through the hardship route?

I have enough money to live on and for the last 30/40 days have met my commitments outgoings wise - would this negate my hardship status or does the amount to be claimed and the personal outstanding debt qualify me for the hardship route?

thanks in advance...

They would be looking at arrears on essentials ie rent/mortgage, council tax, utilities arrears, etc,etc. However, you can go back to the bank at anytime with a view to hardship.

Paula4040

I wish you lots of luck with the Natwest.

They have done exactly the same to me - i.e. unpaid dd, re-requested so another charge. £266.00 in charges in the last two months.

Both their Manchester customer service and London customer relations were completely unhelpful and refused to refund anything at all.

Moving my account elsewhere.

Geo123

[ex]natweststaffmember: many thanks for all the advice - i'll just send in a standard first letter as i don't have arrears on the mortgage or utilities just a lot of collateral debt in a couple of loans and a couple of credit cards. i guess i'll eventually find out over the coming year if anythings going to happen with regards to a refund once the test case has been appealed etc.

paula4040: thanks for the support i wish you all the best of luck with any claim you make too. i'm going to be changing banks later this year for exactly the same reasons. the service just hasnt been good enough - as i say i'm a business and personal customer and in my time of being both i've had no fewer than 7 "relationship managers" which is pretty awful customer service - the less said about their customer relations centres the better too.