NATWEST-has anyone had success claiming??

law13_2

I've just put in a financial hardship claim with natwest asking for all my charges back which comes to just over £1500, but ive only heard bad things about trying to claim from natwest. So just wondered if anyone has had any success with them?

carlos1973

Sorry to say this, nothing but hassle. Letters ignored, phonecalls not returned, deadlines not met, witholding of information, rude staff, failure to accurately assess hardship case (IMO), the lot.:mad:
Needless to say new account opened, NW account unused - they can add whatever charges and interest they like, they said my loan and overdraft with them are non-priority debts!;)Fine my income has halved so I can't/won't pay them.
Beware if you phone them you will hear a 3 minute recording telling you about the test case and how all claims are on hold with no mention of financial hardship, just a way to keep you on hold and make some more money or scare people away:eek:
Case now forwarded to FOS as it has been 10 weeks with no final decision.

ccmug

I wrote to Natwest on 17th. April claiming on both a personal and business accounts and claiming financial hardship. Initial response was very quick. On the personal account I was sent an Income and Expenditure form to complete and on the business account just a letter informing me the case was being considered.

I claimed £2270 plus interest and today got an offer of a goodwill gesture of £1738.

i think that is a result

moneymonkey35

I started my hardship claim with Natwest in February and was turned down with the bog standard letter after four weeks (quite a quick response by all accounts).

I have sent all the info on to the Ombudsman and am waiting for a decision from them. Apparently, they cannot force the banks to return charges until the test case is resolved, but they can make recommendations to do so.

It does seem as though Natwest have been one of the more difficult ones to get any money from. However, I have been looking at the threads over the last few months, and am now seeing more Natwest success stories.

If you don't have success, I would recommend going to the Ombudsman. So far, they have been very helpful and communicative. It seems to be that if you have priority debts (ie rent, council tax) you are more likely to have a successful claim.

Good luck!

natweststaffmember

moneymonkey35 wrote: »

I started my hardship claim with Natwest in February and was turned down with the bog standard letter after four weeks (quite a quick response by all accounts).

I have sent all the info on to the Ombudsman and am waiting for a decision from them. Apparently, they cannot force the banks to return charges until the test case is resolved, but they can make recommendations to do so.

It does seem as though Natwest have been one of the more difficult ones to get any money from. However, I have been looking at the threads over the last few months, and am now seeing more Natwest success stories.

If you don't have success, I would recommend going to the Ombudsman. So far, they have been very helpful and communicative. It seems to be that if you have priority debts (ie rent, council tax) you are more likely to have a successful claim.

Good luck!

Gotta say I am surprised as NatWest is one of the better ones especially if you have priority debt arrears. Keep us updated on your progress.

ccmug

ccmug wrote: »

I wrote to Natwest on 17th. April claiming on both a personal and business accounts and claiming financial hardship. Initial response was very quick. On the personal account I was sent an Income and Expenditure form to complete and on the business account just a letter informing me the case was being considered.

I claimed £2270 plus interest and today got an offer of a goodwill gesture of £1738.

i think that is a result

Sorry I forgot to mention that this was on the Business account

moneymonkey35

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Gotta say I am surprised as NatWest is one of the better ones especially if you have priority debt arrears. Keep us updated on your progress.

To be fair, on first claiming I didn't have rent arrears, only council tax arrears (around £180) but I clearly (and correctly as it turned out) forecasted that I would be unable to pay the next months rent. They clearly chose not to believe me and also appeared not to pay much attention to the I and E form which clearly indicated that my expenditure
outweighed my income.

Once I went into rent arrears, I chose to go straight to the Ombudsman instead of back to the Bank as I didn't have much faith that I would get an adequate response. Perhaps I could have got a quicker response that way and perhaps they would have given me back my full claim, but I suspected they would have negociated for less. Of course, I may have no more success with the Ombudsman. I guess it just became a matter of principal that I wasn't prepared to go backwards and forwards until I got what I wanted. And to be honest, I was pretty disillusioned with my bank.

Whilst I am prepared to fight, I do resent that I (and thousands of others) have had to do so when a few years ago, people were getting back their money without having to fight the system so hard. It also seems essentially unfair that there is a disparity between Banks. Some give back and some dig their heels in, feeling free to interpret the terms of the waiver any way they please.

Anyway, rant over! Thank you for your good luck wishes and I will update when I hear anything (I am due to hear from the Ombudsman anytime now).

natweststaffmember

There wasn't an OFT test case until July 2007 so in all honesty everyone did get their charges back from NatWest. The FOS are taking time and the Bank do not have to refund even 1p of a claim. They can suspend the claim or make an interim payment(which is the most likely) however they cannot make it a full and final settlement though as this is against the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges.

The interpretation of the waiver, I totally agree with you on. Some banks are simply appearing to be obstructive.

Rosie2404

My husband claimed financial hardship for around £6000 (charges including interest) and we were sent back forms to fill in showing our debts and statements from credit cards etc. It only took a couple of weeks and we received back £4800. From now until the court case he will receive no more bank charges either. It was very quick and simple. Good luck