Natwest charges - HELP!

Robbarrybrown

So a bit of a complicated one, but I'll try to distil the relevant facts, I do hope someone out there has some advice for us.

Last year my girlfriend went overdrawn (by 7pence) at Natwest. She was charged twice so went in to complain. They told her if she paid one of the charges they'd waiver the other and no other charges would be applied. Unfortunately when the interest went out (interest on the 7p + charge overdraft) it sent her another 15p overdrawn, so they charged her again. She went to the bank to sort it all out but they said there was nothing she could do. She explained that they had promised to waiver all other charges but they said she would have been informed of the interest charge by post. Anyhow after all this time I've found out and she now owes them over two hundred quid in charges! Basically she didn't have the money and had no concept of complaining officially (or to the ombudsman).



So after a couple of letters to complain officially, and no final offer letter as yet they have sent a demand for payment threatening to take it to court! This is really stressing us both out and we're really not sure what to do.



I could lend her the money (which is now over £400), and then try to claim it back under the unfair charges but if the charge had only been £10 in the first place then it would have been paid. Does anyone know situation for this?



Also I'm wondering if they take it to court then will it just go on hold until the house of lords et al have finally decided on the unfair charges debate?



Do we have any other options? It's scary to think the debt keeps going up (+£130 since we complained officially), and yet I don't believe she owes them the money. It's all grossly unfair...please help if you can!



Rob

natweststaffmember

I think you need to write to the bank with regards to this, I would put this down in a chronological order and email: customer.relations@natwest.com
Ask them for a final response and don't mention unfair charges just yet.

Robbarrybrown

Ah, sorry, my post wasn't that clear. When I found out about this she had already been to the bank three times to ask what she could do - they just sent her away. So, I wrote a letter for her, firstly to her bank manager, they said tough, you need to pay. So we wrote another to customer relations. Both these letters were complaining that all the charges were applied in error, not unfair. I stated in the second letter if they didn't settle then we would be applying for all the charges since the account opened under the unfair proposal.

They haven't responded yet - the collections department have. I'm worried that by the time this is resolved - if it doesn't go our way - she'll owe them even more money!

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I think you need to write to the bank with regards to this, I would put this down in a chronological order and email: [EMAIL="customer.relations@natwest.com"]customer.relations@natwest.com[/EMAIL]
Ask them for a final response and don't mention unfair charges just yet.

natweststaffmember

Robbarrybrown wrote: »

Ah, sorry, my post wasn't that clear. When I found out about this she had already been to the bank three times to ask what she could do - they just sent her away. So, I wrote a letter for her, firstly to her bank manager, they said tough, you need to pay. So we wrote another to customer relations. Both these letters were complaining that all the charges were applied in error, not unfair. I stated in the second letter if they didn't settle then we would be applying for all the charges since the account opened under the unfair proposal.

They haven't responded yet - the collections department have. I'm worried that by the time this is resolved - if it doesn't go our way - she'll owe them even more money!

I would have threatened the FOS on specifically the bank error in the first place.
Please update the thread when Customer Relations have responded.

Robbarrybrown

Ah ha! So customer relations, hmmmm. Rang them after a fortnight, they never recieved the letter. Meanwhile their other department is sending increasingly aggressive letters notifying of court action, we phone them and say 'go on then, get a move on, take it to court!'. Faxed another complaint to CR, they lost half the paperwork, but thankfully got the main letter.

Result!

Two weeks later CR appologise and wipe out the now £500 bill and the account is in credit. THE SAME DAY go to the bank to close the account, 'sorry but we can't do that as we've just charged it again for sixty quid or so to send you another aggressive letter', now you owe us again. Bloody system. Anyway thankfully CR sorted this straight away and cloased the aco!!!!! HOOORAAAYY!!!

So go 7p overdrawn and you resolve it by:

5 visits to your local Natwest.
5 calls to customer relations
3 letters to CR and branches

During this time you can expect:

Hundreds of pounds in charges
4 letters thretening court action and or debt collectors

DON'T be scared people, stick with it and they will back down. The ONLY person who didn't claim the bank was 100% in the right was the last out of 7 or so, so ignore them!

Thanks for the encouragement!
Rob

natweststaffmember

Rob, I spotted bank error all over this one as soon as you first posted(strange NatWest staff--6 out of 7 didn't see the same ). The reason I suggested email was because of snail mail issues .
Glad to see it was resolved.