NatWest bank charges -

speters

Hi all,

Apologies in advance for the long post but I would appreciate some advice.

My father incurred circa £5,500 in bank charges from Natwest from 1991 to 2001.
He did not have huge debts, however the continuous £27.50 charges (for unauthorised overdraft use) were unmanageable and eventually he defaulted on his mortgage and the bank almost took his house before he was helped out by my uncle.
In addition, he was sold a "Mortgage Protector" by NatWest which seemed extortionately high at the time (circa £300 a month in addition to repayments on a 30k mortgage) and was under the impression he would be given some kind of final payout having not ever claimed on the insurance but didnt receive a penny back.

I have his statements from this period and am eager to know if it is possible for us to make a claim for the above despite the fact it goes back further than 6 years.
He's retired now and could do with the cash (who couldnt) and adding 8% interest to each transaction almost doubles the amount which makes it all the more interesting. I'm not so sure about the "Mortgage Protector" though.

It infuriates me that my father suffered so much during that period of his life and was almost kicked out of his home yet the "fat cat" bankers probably used his 5k to fund some unnecessary purchase. I very much hope there is something that can be done here.

I'm sure questions about charges going back further than 6 years have been asked before but there are many posts with different opinions and nothing seems to be confirmed - As before, advice in any form would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

esmerellda

Hey xx

Claiming back prior to the 6 years will be harder as things stand, but you can try. Getting the statements would be the difficult bit so if you still have these would be a major help. You will have to read up under the limitations act (have a look on opsi and google) and you will want to quote the parts regarding mistake. The FOS won't judge pre 6 year claims so you will be looking at court, however as you know, everythings on a stay, and these limitations issues, should hopefully be sorted out soon after the test case is concluded, as there are thousands of people wanting to claim older charges.

Regarding the mortgage protector - do you have the terms and conditions on the account, how did you father gain the impression he would receive cash back after it concluded and has he contacted the bank about this ?

Reading the statutes can be a bit draining but it is highly recommended to read a lot and understand what you are claiming before you embark. Pre-6 charges are not given up lightly.

speters

Thanks for your reply.

I have all the statements during this period and entered the charges into a spreadsheet. The "mortgage protector" also shows on the statements but he does not have the contracts. Its quite interesting as at the time, he was paying around £300 a month to cover a 30k mortgage!

Can you be more specific about which parts of the limitations act apply ?

I guess we need to read up on the relevant aspects of the law and wait for the conclusion of the test case, right ?

speters

Further to my original post, we actually have all the original statements from 1991 to 2001 and our claim totals over 12k including interest!

We will be sending the claim to Natwest tomorrow with all necessary documents..

Any advice before we bite the bullet?

esmerellda

Hi speters

You will get a big fob off first of all, and as you know you will have to wait for the outcome of the test case. Glad you are getting the claim sent in.

With regards the limitaton act, yes you will need to do some reading, and you have the mortgage protector to look at reclaiming to as I would think this was some kind of PPI type product.

Also the test case won;t be deciding on limitation issues, and we are looking at a group litigation in order to resolve issues for people without individual court action being necessary - although as things stand you may need to be prepared for that.

I would recommend coming over onto https://www.legalbeagles.info/forums and having a chat with some of the people over there, we have a few people working on pre limitations claims and theres some great help and support.

There will be lots of time to get sorted out, so send off the docs tomorrow and expect the fob off letter, then get reading

I'm Amethyst on the Beagles site, if you do come over drop me a pm and I will point you the right way to find the best help.

willo65

Just to point out if it was £27.50 per month then EVERY month he must have went over his limit, did he not try and sort it out sooner rather than let it go on and on and on???

natweststaffmember

willo65 wrote: »

Just to point out if it was £27.50 per month then EVERY month he must have went over his limit, did he not try and sort it out sooner rather than let it go on and on and on???

Who are we to judge the why?

willo65

maybe I shouldn't judge why. But I do think that if you go over time and time again then you should take some preventative measures so it doesn't happy for so long.