Natwest have just pulled my offset credit line

markww

I have also had my foundations account revised down. Just as I was about to use my full 380K balance to buy property at 1 percent above base rate! I rang to complain. The letter is from someone called Craig Calder who is an area manager. Write to him and complain. The letter was sent 'some time in December second class'. This is the second time they have done this and one year ago they rang to ask to revise it down and I said no and they reinstated my full limit. This time they are offering another product not that one because it is 'too good'. If there is anybody else out there who has had their facility reduced maybe we can get together and apply pressure. Many of us use this facility as a very cheap overdraft.

NevertrustNatwest

I've just read through this thread and it very cathartic. Like you folks I only discovered that I'd just been subject to a unilateral decision of NatWest and that I'd just lost a very convenient £75K line of credit at 1.5%. Interestingly I too was telephoned about fourteen months ago with an unincentivised request to forgo unused credit on my foundation account and obviously I refused. I also called earlier this year to confirm that there was no danger of me losing the credit facility and I was assured that all was well.

I am outraged at the low cunning and totally underhand behavior of a bank with whom I have maintained an impeccable record for all the 22 years of my adult life. Having called the NW mortgage line I was redirected to a dedicated call center and experienced all the bullsh*t described by other people posting on this thread. Part of me wants to set up an internet website to invite, and then count the number of people effected by the deceit. However, as life is short and pragmatism has served me well so far, I think perhaps it would be better to convert to the tracker and keep the cash liquid. If I can take the cash at 1.5% and invest in an instant access account at 3% I;m still a winner as long as interest rates don't suddenly shoot up. If everybody converts to the tracker, Natwest will be even more vulnerable than they were before, since at least they were only running the risk of a potential liability, whereas if every body converts to the tracker and takes out a mortgage for the full, previously available credit, Natwest will actually be then forced into finding the cash to meet the liability.

Just for interests sake. I only received a letter in the post today although the credit was removed last week. I wish all of you on this thread the best of luck, especially those of you for whom this action has the potential to make you insolvent due to lack of cash flow. I suspect that this claw back by RBS will remove about £7.5 billion of liquidity from general circulation (100,000 customers times £average75K) which is a little contrary to Mr Darling's express intentions upon taking over RBS.

Thrugelmir

NevertrustNatwest wrote: »

I suspect that this claw back by RBS will remove about £7.5 billion of liquidity from general circulation (100,000 customers times £average75K) which is a little contrary to Mr Darling's express intentions upon taking over RBS.

RBS need to contract by lending by a couple of hundred billion, to fill the gap left from a lack of available wholesale lending. So this hardly makes a dent. I wouldn't believe too much that comes from AD's lips. Electioneering is top of the pile currently, the truth is yet to follow.

NevertrustNatwest

Fair point but like another of this nations oligopolistic companies, "every little helps". God knows what is going on behind closed doors at RBS but its probably not that pretty so 7 to 10 billion will go some way towards helping and their PR department probably thought that the ordinary Jo public will not lament the loss of credit to NW Premium customers.

EdInvestor

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/mortgages-and-homes/mortgages-features/article.html?in_article_id=495766&in_page_id=58

RecoveringAlcoholic

And The Fat Cats just get Fatter.


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FatWest

Same here!......just read the thread and will def be continuing with my complaints, i had my facility reduced from 130K to 10.5K which is ridiculous as like many on here i had been putting all my savings into this account and now have no way of accessing them without opening a far less desirable mortgage.

i think its a panic measure for rbs, the shares have crashed and they are just clutching at straws to reduce their commitments.......wish i had a job earning six figures where if i screwed up the population foot the bill and i go home laughing to my surrey pile.

harveye

EdInvestor wrote: »

So pleased not on my own with the wholly un acceptable behavior of crap west.Have had my limit cut by 98%!! Im not an accountant but could this be possibly something to do with the fact crap wests end of year is 31 dec 2009 and an attempt to make their books look better than they actually are is whats behind it. They are clearly acting totally un reasonably and as such their must be something we dont know about? .Dont know whether ill be taking them up on their offers just for a minute we might all get our money back in the new year?............

biglugs

Let's not forget that NatWest is owned by the Labour government who are putting the screws on it to reduce their exposure to risk. Allowing customers to have access to borrowing at a really low interest rate, especially if they are using that to fund small businesses in a recession, represents a big risk. And even if you don't call on the funds the bank needs to hold capital in reserve in case you do call on it.
This is (from a business point of view) a very rational decision by NatWest. The T&Cs of this account allow them to do this, even if their recent practice has been to not do it.
I know it's tough on those affected but everyone else needs to now learn from this - READ your T&Cs carefully, and if your savings need to be liquid then put them in an account where someone can't take them away from you.
And I think it's unfair to blame the bankers for this decision - I bet this came straight from the civil servants who are overseeing the banks they own. After all Alastair Campbell needs to have something positive to say in a few months - or he might lose HIS job. Better for him if you and your employees suffer instead.

cusally

we too have a Foundation Mortgage with NatWest and have just had the same experience as you all.
We took it out in 2001 for £165,000 which we continually overpaid and got it down to £79k now, have had it as low as £35k, but did some home improvements. Our LTV is about 50% even with today's depressed housing market.
Like other people we have stuck with this product at times when it would have been better financially to switch, but we liked the access to credit that it gave.
So our credit limit has been cut to £10k above what we owe, sounds like a convenient rule of thumb was applied there to all of us.
I think that this is to do with the FSA latest capital requirements. Under the flexible foundation agreement, NatWest had an obligation to allow us all to take money at one phone call, which was fine when they had Billions at their disposal, but now it is tieing up their assets just in case we phone to withdraw some.

We werent planning to use any more credit from it, now in the payoff phase, but those of you who were planning to use it for an extension or anything else have my full support, should we have a class action or complaint together ? its shabby treatment, and I would have thoguht the FOS would respond well - but we all have to go throuhg the internal complaints system before the FOS will consider it