Nationwide help please, dont know where to go from here.

lababy

Hi,

We had charges taken out of benefits in 2007/2008. We tried to reclaim these but due to the FSO case our claim didnt get to court. 6 months age NW instructed bryan carter to reveover these charges to the sum of £300. We fought this and it was thrown out of court and we were awarded costs.

We then wrote to NW telling them that we wanted the charges paying back to us as we were in financial hardship, they agreed but told us that they will only pay them back by clearing the 'debt' the charges had made.

So far the FSO has send NW 2 letters telling them to pay the money direct to us by a cheque but they have refused to do so, as apparently we never suffered as a result of these charges being taken out!.

I'm not sure if we can go any further now so would be grateful of any advice that anyone has, or if anyone had the same thing and won.

Vee.

natweststaffmember

lababy wrote: »

Hi,

We had charges taken out of benefits in 2007/2008. We tried to reclaim these but due to the FSO case our claim didnt get to court. 6 months age NW instructed bryan carter to reveover these charges to the sum of £300. We fought this and it was thrown out of court and we were awarded costs.

We then wrote to NW telling them that we wanted the charges paying back to us as we were in financial hardship, they agreed but told us that they will only pay them back by clearing the 'debt' the charges had made.

So far the FSO has send NW 2 letters telling them to pay the money direct to us by a cheque but they have refused to do so, as apparently we never suffered as a result of these charges being taken out!.

I'm not sure if we can go any further now so would be grateful of any advice that anyone has, or if anyone had the same thing and won.

Vee.

Is there a debt with Nationwide?
Have you got priority debt arrears, ie mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities?
Is Nationwide the financial institution you use now?

lababy

The 'debt' that was with nationwide was the charges which had made our account -£300. That is the amount that they instructed BC to recover.

We no longer use them as a bank as we changed banks last year and since then this account has been overdrawn and unused.

We have council tax and rent arrears as well as other debts, nationwide agreed that it was a hardship case but would only agree to put the money into the old account and then close it down.

McKneff

surely, if the amount is put back into the old account and the debt cleared then you are no worse off. I can understand why they want to do this. you would have to clear it off sometime, why not just get it over with and you wouldnt have to think about it anymore. Thats just my own opinion for what its worth.

lababy

The fact that they caused us to loose our home and ignored letters that we sent them asking them not to take the charges out has caused us to be in the financial problems we are in now.

The CCJ that BC tried to get against us was thrown out of court because nationwide had failed to cancel D/D agreements when we had told them too and also the fact that they knew the money was being taken out of benefits.

Its not a case of clearing the debt now it is us trying to get something back from them and getting out of the situation we are in. If we cannot take this any further then fine but I wanted to check if we could.

natweststaffmember

lababy wrote: »

The fact that they caused us to loose our home and ignored letters that we sent them asking them not to take the charges out has caused us to be in the financial problems we are in now.

The CCJ that BC tried to get against us was thrown out of court because nationwide had failed to cancel D/D agreements when we had told them too and also the fact that they knew the money was being taken out of benefits.

Its not a case of clearing the debt now it is us trying to get something back from them and getting out of the situation we are in. If we cannot take this any further then fine but I wanted to check if we could.

Have you made arrangements to clear priority debt arrears ie making additional/higher payments?
Have you any charges with your new account provider?

lababy

Yes we are paying back the arrears at rates we can afford. No we dont have any charges or debts with the current bank as its just a basic one.

natweststaffmember

lababy wrote: »

Yes we are paying back the arrears at rates we can afford. No we dont have any charges or debts with the current bank as its just a basic one.

The fact you are making payments in addition to what you already pay is more than likely to go against you on a Financial Hardship claim plus the fact there are no charges on your current provider. The reason is that you are making higher payments on the priority debt arrears which would mean you have a surplus on the Income and Expenditure. By all means take this to the FOS but I suspect that
they will agree with Nationwide.
What you need to remind Nationwide is that they cannot pass on a disputed debt and that no arrangements will be made until such time as the OFT test case concludes. Furthermore, should they take you to court you will counterclaim on charges therefore meaning Nationwide will incur additional legal costs.