Natwest 'pestering' students to pay off overdraft druing course

GrammarGirl

paulryan99 wrote: »

i have just had one of those letters from natwest as well demanding i pay the overdraft in ful. i rang today to try and speak to an advisor about paying in monthly but was told this was not the case and they were going to close the overdraft facility and charge interest as of 9pm today!!! i am within my overdraft llimit allowed by the bank yet because my payments in were not regular they have decided to cancel it!!!!
is this right that they have not given me a warning or allowed me time to try and sort out some regular payments??
right now i feel this kind of haressment is unfair on students (particularly those in their final year) and does not make any sense!!
i really am not sure what to do now as my main concern is really to finish my final year so that i can earn enough to fully pay this overdraft off (and cancel any future dealings with natwest!!!!).
does anyone have any suggestions or had to deal with similar problems like this

Try to open another student account with a different bank, transfer your loan to them and use the OD to pay off Natwest.

If you are able to open another student account, that should work, I think? I recommend HSBC. Good luck!

Kavanne

GrammarGirl wrote: »

Try to open another student account with a different bank, transfer your loan to them and use the OD to pay off Natwest.

If you are able to open another student account, that should work, I think? I recommend HSBC. Good luck!

I don't recommend HSBC!! They would only give my bf a £750 OD... and declined him for a student credit card.

On the other hand, Halifax offered him £1000 but of course a condition of the OD is that he must use the account....

GrammarGirl

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Suggesting the OP reads the terms and conditions is constructive - either they have used the student account as their main account AND paid in their student grant/ loan and can appeal to the bank, or they have been given plenty of early warning to change their banking behaviour AND learned to read the small print.

Relatively few people get paid in cash in hand unless they or the employer are trying to avoid tax. If you are paid in cash (I was, legitimately, for the first two years of my course) you can pay some into your bank and then withdraw it again via DDs or card payments. It's a small price to pay for an interest and repayment free four year loan. :money:



A thorough read around this website will show you it is littered with examples of students and graduates who have rinsed their student overdraft and then left the account dormant, or left university heavily overdrawn and forgotten to inform the bank of their new address. :rolleyes: They then complain how 'unfair' the bank is being when the overdraft is withdrawn (this is NOT a dig at the OP).

Just so you know I didn't bother to read the terms and conditions when I opened my student account. As a result my overdraft was withdrawn with no notice; the first I heard was when I bounced three or four direct debits. I rang the Co-op who informed me that I should have contacted them on annual basis to declare I remained a student. I grovelled and was lucky enough to have the charges refunded and overdraft re-instated ... lesson learned.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to disregard your points or disagree with the importance of checking the T&Cs, I was just explaining that I had never heard of this 'deposits every 42 days' business, and as another poster pointed out, it doesn't actually stipulate this in the T&Cs anyway!

GrammarGirl

Kavanne wrote: »

I don't recommend HSBC!! They would only give my bf a £750 OD... and declined him for a student credit card.

On the other hand, Halifax offered him £1000 but of course a condition of the OD is that he must use the account....

Times have changed, I guess. I received the full £1,500 OD from HSBC, along with a £100 extension when I needed it and still have £1,000 interest free 18 months after graduating.

However, I did have huge problems with my credit card, which is also from HSBC. I got the CC last August so I presume their lending has been reined in completely.

Kavanne

GrammarGirl wrote: »

Times have changed, I guess. I received the full £1,500 OD from HSBC, along with a £100 extension when I needed it and still have £1,000 interest free 18 months after graduating.

However, I did have huge problems with my credit card, which is also from HSBC. I got the CC last August so I presume their lending has been reined in completely.

We tried for the CC in April ish time last year. Use HSBC if you don't need a big OD facility.

No_Future

paulryan99 wrote: »

i have just had one of those letters from natwest as well demanding i pay the overdraft in ful. i rang today to try and speak to an advisor about paying in monthly but was told this was not the case and they were going to close the overdraft facility and charge interest as of 9pm today!!! i am within my overdraft llimit allowed by the bank yet because my payments in were not regular they have decided to cancel it!!!!
is this right that they have not given me a warning or allowed me time to try and sort out some regular payments??
right now i feel this kind of haressment is unfair on students (particularly those in their final year) and does not make any sense!!
i really am not sure what to do now as my main concern is really to finish my final year so that i can earn enough to fully pay this overdraft off (and cancel any future dealings with natwest!!!!).
does anyone have any suggestions or had to deal with similar problems like this

go to another bank pronto and open a student account, use the new overfradt to pay old overdraft. sorted

Masomnia

My RBS overdraft was surprisingly easy to set up and I haven't heard from them since. Not surpirsed they're in so much trouble

foofi22

Why don't you just withdraw a tenner and pay it back in?

melancholly

i would try speaking the bank before changing accounts - if the loan payments are going in, then they shouldn't be threatening to close accounts down..... try and find out a bit more info from a branch in a university area (i.e. not whoever answers the phone at a call centre!) and see what they say. it's worth taking in the letter to see what they say first.

brettcta

i've had a similar letter off of barclays, i rang up and was advised that if i wasn't using the account, that drip feeding money into the account would keep them happy.

i now have £1 a month direct debit going into it.