Natwest Collections Department

gordon_retundo

Hi,
Has anyone had experience with this department?
In my dealings with them, I have found them to be undertrained, rude, bumbling lying incompetents *rats

They have consistently broken the banking code in regards to my account, but their latest action has really taken the biscuit.

I made an initial complaint to the Ombudsman but due to slight progress I didn't pursue it. I have now discovered more and want to find out my legal rights so I can threaten them to fix my account once and for all!

Over the last year, they hit me with constant fines and fees, resulting in me exceeding my overdraft, and due to no income, this got worse every month. At no time did I spend any money/withdraw cash/attempt to put through a transaction. It was all due to fines. I have since appealed and won a complete refund.
However, Experian shows my overdraft not as an agreed overdraft but as an unauthorised debt for the value of my entire overdraft (even though that is not the current balance). This has a massive adverse effect on my credit rating. I called them up the bank and they said my account is being held with collections, even though it has been almost 6 months since I have been within my limit, and they have refunded me charges in the meantime.
The aim is to get my account 'returned to branch' which means that it will no longer be under the jurisdiction of central collections and hopefully my credit rating will be fixed.
They propose to reduce my overdraft limit as the only option to do this, but this is not acceptable for me as I need access to the money deposited in there. They know that I am broke, as I have filled out hardship forms detailing minimal income and net outgoings each month.

I argue that the account was only referred to central collections in the first place because of their illegal charges, and my account has been run satisfactorily since, despite their further illegal actions of defaulting my account without giving me the opportunity to rectify it.
The last operator I spoke to was a bit clueless and went in circles before ending the call. Every time I speak to them they refuse to let me speak to a manager. The same excuse is used every time (there's no manager here at the moment!). Is this allowed? I cannot believe such a sensitive department is run unsupervised for so long. Am I not entitled to speak to someone in authority when they cannot resolve my issue or answer my questions?


What would be the best option for getting the account returned to branch without reducing the overdraft limit?
I am really at the end of my tether, having fought a battle for so long and still getting screwed by RBS in so so so many ways

Thanks for any advice.
Gordon

piglet39

If the 'collections' dept is the same as the 'debt management team' then yes I have.

TBH - all dealings with them were good - I think the key to it for me was to absolutely brutally honest with them from the start - easier maybe for us because we still had 1 income coming in.

They offered us a reducing od facility over 6 months. Good but if you do go slightly over (as I did in the first month) then it took a lot of pleading to get it reinstated.

Once we had paid off the amount of the overdraft that we had to pay back (i.e back to the agreed facility of £1500) then our a/c remained with debt management for 6 months.

This was 18 months ago and all is well - full servicecard with cg facility.

Maybe it depends on who you speak to in the first place - I spoke to a lovely lady and she gave me her telephone number (?) so that I could speak to her if we had any further probs.

HTH

Piglet

piglet39

Sorry meant to add - I was told no chance of being referred back to branch until 6 months after you had paid off. Transition back to branch was automatic.