Hardship and Natwest

Hooty

Any advice on this would be really helpful.

In short, I recently received a hardship offer from Natwest in respect of charges applied to my account. The offer does not represent the full amount of charges applied but is reasonably close to that figure.

However in the interim whilst my claim has been ongoing they have closed my account and registered a CCJ in respect of the outstanding Overdraft (which was incurred as a direct result of spiralling charges in the first place), this despite my requests to freeze my account and suspend recovery action whilst this dispute was in place.

They have also stated that any refund received would be made on to the account in question, which of course I can't access. This would also mean that the refund was largely eaten up by the outstanding overdraft.

Unfortunately as the charges themselves led to use of unauthorized overdraft
which then incurred further charges, direct debits were not honoured and this inturn led to problems and penalties with other creditors. As a consequence the overdraft debt is not my biggest concern and the refund offer would far more beneficial to me if used to offset priority debts.

Have I any rights in disputing, firstly the account closure and subsequent CCJ, and also the account that the refund is paid into? Very sorry if this was a bit long winded, and any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thank you.

Orford

However in the interim whilst my claim has been ongoing they have closed my account and registered a CCJ in respect of the outstanding Overdraft

Do you mean a default? A CCJ cannot be registered unless there has been a court case.

Hooty

Hi Orford,

Thank you for reading my post.

I received a claim form from Birmingham County Court regarding the oustanding overdraft in Jan, I've been unable to make a settlement during their allowed period and have been awaiting response from Natwest so unfortunately I guess a judgement has been registered.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks again

Orford

I received a claim form from Birmingham County Court regarding the oustanding overdraft in Jan,

What date was it deemed served? Did you send an acknowledgement of the claim?

Hooty

It has an issue date of 7th Jan but gets confusing I'm afraid. I received a letter also dated 7th Jan from Natwest's lending operations acknowleging my claim for hardship, saying that recovery action had been suspended and interest frozen. However recently I have received a demand for interest payment so it seems I was wrongly informed and nothing was frozen whilst hardship was being considered. I haven't received confirmation that a judgement has been made yet but I'm guessing if Natwest didn't freeze the interest they also probably didn't action the court suspension. I'm going to write to them to get clarification of this but needed to know my rights before hand, I also want to challenge them on paying the refund into an account they have closed but again don't know my rights. Apologies for my ignorance and thanks again for any help you can give.

Orford

It has an issue date of 7th Jan

Deemed date of service would have been 12th Jan
Since you didn't acknowledge the claim by 26th Jan, they may have got Judgement by default. If you phone the court wityh the claim no. they will be able to tell you.

I received a letter also dated 7th Jan from Natwest's lending operations acknowleging my claim for hardship, saying that recovery action had been suspended and interest frozen.

Write,enclosing copies of letter and court claim and ask for confirmation that the claim has been withdrawn

Hooty

Thanks very much for the advice Orford, will do.

Hooty

Can anyone advise if it's possible to request the refund has a different method of payment?

Much appreciated

natweststaffmember

Hooty wrote: »

Can anyone advise if it's possible to request the refund has a different method of payment?

Much appreciated

It may be worth writing to the bank explaining in detail what the refund is needed for ie arrears. Remember, the bank have taken charges so they are still required to be paid back as well.

Hooty

I will, thank you.