Natwest Overdraft hell - help please!!

cardiffian83

Hi all -

I am currently on an IVA and unfortunately my partner was sucked into my debt problems! We had a joint account which we owed about £3,600 on and when I took out the IVA I thought it would be dealt with. However, Natwest are chasing my partner for the full amount.

We have therefore set up a repayment plan with them due to the fact we have pretty much no surplus money each month but they are relentless. There is no giving with them and they are constantly changing the 'goal posts'.

We requested Natwest stop charging interest on the account, simply because we could hardly afford to repay anything back, let alone see it swallowed by their ridiculous/needless charges. They decided against this and instead insisted that we pay back £50 a month for 6 months and only then would they consider reducing the amount of interest being charged on our account. that was about a year ago and we have since somehow managed to up the payment to £75 after they agreed to drop the interest to 2.5% which is by no means perfect, buy better than what is was.

The problem we are now having is that they did not do this and instead only dropped it to 5% and keep fobbing us off when we ask for a balance. They keep saying that they cannot give us the amount owing due to them investigating the amount of interest we should be paying.

We have complained on numerous occasions but it’s a waste of time. It seems like we are going around in circles.

I appreciate that due to how bad we let the account get, it ended up being frozen and no statements sent out, but to not be able to tell us how much is owed is pathetic.

I just have a real bad feeling that they are going to say that the interest was never reduced and that for the past 1 year+ the payments we have made have been just covering the interest they are charging and not reducing the debt.

Can anyone give advice?

I have read on here that on many occasions Natwest and other banks have just frozen the amount owed and sometimes are just happy that the debtor is trying to pay back the money. Its just soul destroying that they will not do that in the instance. We probably would have cleared over £1,000 off the debt since we started making the payments, but it is likely that this is no where near what will have been taken off due to their interest charges.

THE WORST THING IS - SINCE WE TOOK OUT THE ACCOUNT, THE INTEREST WE PAID WHEN USING IT WOULD HAVE EASILY CLEARED THE BALANCE OWED!
:mad:

TCM_3

Hi Cardifffan

Am not best placed to give you advice on this but surely if you have an IVA can they still do that? I don't know enough about this - hopefully someone will be along shortly with more knowledge.

Why are you not getting statements for this account? Again is that not something you are entitled to?

Sorry I'm not of much use, it sounds like you're doing your best but getting nowhere

T

Twinkles08

Hiya,Is it possible to reclaim the bank charges using templates from this website?There is a whole section,with details etc.I would suggest going to citizens advice bureau as they have been fantastic with my creditors.All of my interest and charges are frozen,thanks to help from them,I pay each creditor a token payment as money is v tight at the mo,plus I believe they can advice you on the legal aspect of it all.Defo worth a go!Good luck

cardiffian83

The problem seems to be that my IVA has meant that only my partner is being chased by Natwest, hence why we have set up the payment to them.

In regards to the statements - I cannot explain it and this is the most frustrating thing. The only explanation they offer is that they cannot give a figure as they don't know what the agreed interest rate has been. They are a shambles.

They keep insisting they 'will request a true figure' and post it out to us; needless to say this has never happened.

soooooo frustrating!!!:mad:

cardiffian83

Twinkles08 wrote: »

Hiya,Is it possible to reclaim the bank charges using templates from this website?There is a whole section,with details etc.I would suggest going to citizens advice bureau as they have been fantastic with my creditors.All of my interest and charges are frozen,thanks to help from them,I pay each creditor a token payment as money is v tight at the mo,plus I believe they can advice you on the legal aspect of it all.Defo worth a go!Good luck

Thanks very much Twinkles08 - i will definately do this!!

Daffykjs

ooh, them and their charges wind me up! I have an overdraft with them and it's on my DMP but because they are still charging interest AND charges for going over limit (caused by their charges, how ironic) my DMP payment is not enough. so the od is just getting bigger and bigger!

If the account is frozen does this also mean you cannot take you partner's name off the account and have it solely in your name? I assume this is the case but might be worth looking into if you haven't already.

I would definitely go down the claiming back charges line if i was you! I am about to start into this process myself as it's truly ridiculous and not really helping me OR them!!

Hope you can get it sorted!! And sorry I don't have any decent suggestions!

cardiffian83

this is the frustrating thing - if we were making no effort to repay the money then i could understand them keeping the interest on, but to leave it on when we are skrimping and saving every spare penny to make repayments is so frustrating.

the worst thing is, if we stopped making payment and they followed the 'court' route, the court could see the dire situation we are in and would probably say they were being unreasonable. :mad:

cardiffian83

Still looking for some advice here people - any tips on how i can get Natwest to freeze the interest and to generally stop messing us around???

emma18181

My partner has the same problem with Lloyds TSB, he keeps going itno his branch, asking for the charges and interest frozen as he is getting nowhere, the say yes the next month, WHAM, more interest and charges. I think it's getting to the stage he needs to speak to CCCS or CAB, it's unreal what the banks will do to make money!

cardiffian83

I mean surely Natwest are capable of seeing that we are making every possible effort to pay back the debt in full - all we are asking is for them to stop trying to make EVEN MORE money from us.

they have a copy of our income/expenditure so they fully understand the issues we are having and literally are so unhelpful. their customer service is the worst i have every experienced.:mad::mad:

cardiffian83

bump - still hoping someone can advise?!