Advice needed please NW Changed mind over full and final

grey_lady · 7 June 2006 at 3:53PM

Hi,

I was offered a full and final settlement of 70% over the phone by the lovely people at Natwest credit management services when i phoned them in April for a balance. (This dept doesnt send out statements once your account is with them) anyway they offered me a full and final which at the time i was in no position to pay and i declined.

A fortnight ago i was made redundent and wrote straightaway to NW explaining the situation and (at the time i daftly thought cannily) offering them 50% full and final (i was prepared to go up to 70%) They wrote back and declined so i bit the bullet and got on the phone to them. (I'm really crap at talking to people, get very nervous)

First of all they said that the full and final had been offered in error (if it had been offered at all they said) and that my account wasnt eligable for any kind of reduced settlement. I asked to speak to a manager as i had the name and time / date of the conversation, he then told me that as the offer was more than 28 days old they werent going to honour it - it's less than 2 months!!!

I repeated what i said in my letter about being laid off and explained that due to ill health i expected to be only able to afford to make token payments for the forseeable future and he said that NW would rather accept £1 a month than honour the 70% full and final that they offered me!!!

The account was defaulted nearly 6 years ago when i ran into financial problems and stuck my hand in the sand for a couple of years, (used a fee charging DMC because NW bullied me quite nastily over the phone when i asked them to accept a reduced monthly payment) but since then i woke up to getting debt free and i have paid off 80% of it and i have never missed payments since the default.

Sorry im ranting now - but to be so close to finally being free of them and to have them change their minds just when i can no longer afford to pay! It's almost like they're being cruel on purpose.

So any suggestions or tips gratefully received.

wannabedebtfreebeth · 7 June 2006 at 4:49PM

Do they owe you any bank charges you can claim back? THat would at least make a dent in it.

grey_lady · 7 June 2006 at 11:30PM

Nope sadly there arent any charges to be claimed back.
Im going to write to the complaints dept and ask for it to be reviewed. Its so odd because the girl on the phone to me today said if i could prove it then her manager said he would honour it, when i said i could prove it and actually spoke to him he said that as it was over 28 days old he wouldnt honour it anyway, talk about mixed messages!!!

Broken_hearted · 8 June 2006 at 7:19AM

Go into a branch and get one of their staff to phone collections for you. 70% is a good offer my natwest account settled for 33% and wescot for just over half. I think if you keep trying you will get someone who knows what they are doing and can sort it out.