Natwest have just pulled my offset credit line

thecardshark

Hi All

I am also a NatWest customer with a Foundations Mortgage but I have only just "Googled" and found this and other sites with comments from other customers.

So are Foundationers of the view that we should each go it alone with a complaint to the Bank and ultimately to the Ombudsman?

Or are there people that think we could get together and pool resources?

Would welcome thoughts/opinions on the thread but if you want to form a group then please PM me if this is possible for Newbies.

If not then I'll post an email addy and risk the spammers !!

Regards

cusally

I'm willing to come in on a joint complaint but I don't think the FOS accepts them from anyone other than groups like CAB.

I think strong points to complain on are:

1) that a universal £10k credit limit was offered - not tailored to anyone, that is about their convenience not our own track record. It penalises the good overpayers, and doesn't affect those who didnt "overpay" that is not in keeping with the FSA's 6th principle: Customers Interests, A firm must pay due regard to the interests of its customers and treat them fairly.

2) that the flexible credit is used by many of us as a cornerstone of our forward budgeting, its not our fault that the terms were incredibly favaourable to us

3) that compensation should be offered to us if we agree to switch to the tracker mortgage that is now on offer, to keep the original line of credit I now have to take it all out at once.

thecardshark

Hi

I am sure that you are right in saying that the FOS will treat every complaint individually. But I recall reading that the FOS will choose to administrate all complaints together in an instance such as this for consistency and good business practice if there is a high volume of referrals. I have emailed the FOS for clarification.

Has anyone received a Final Response Letter yet?

gpnicholls

I have exactly the same situation as many of the people posting on this thread.

I am wondering whether anyone would be interesting in attempting what you might call a "class action" against Nat West, or at least a co-ordinated campaign?

--Graham

thecardshark

Hi Graham

PM's are not working for me. Apart from one other member/customer who suggests that they might be interested that makes just three of us. How do we get the others aware? I contacted the press but they didn't bite.

Any ideas?

TCS

Thrugelmir

thecardshark wrote: »

I contacted the press but they didn't bite.

Any ideas?

TCS

Where's the news story?

thecardshark

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Where's the news story?

There was a news story that the BBC published both on line and on the radio in early December.

As I am unable to post links if you google the two references below you will find the news.

8409373.stm
8409506.stm

HTH

TCS

thecardshark

cusally wrote: »

I'm willing to come in on a joint complaint but I don't think the FOS accepts them from anyone other than groups like CAB.

Here is the reply from the FOS

"We do not accept complaints on "class action" basis.

However, if thousands of complaints are found to fall within an identifiable category (within an industry sector) you can anticipate that they be gathered together and dealt with by an identifiable department or group within our service (at the investigation stage). This will, however, be a internal decision.

Although, as you say, consistency of approach is important and although the nature of a class of complaints may be the same; the circumstances, including the particular circumstances of the customer, can vary so each case will still be judged on its merits."

TCS

JODEUK

Has anyone who has taken Natwest up on their offer of the new tracker mortgage received their offer letter yet ? We decided to re-mortgage with their new deal to get our "savings" back. They then said they needed a valuation done on the property (even though we were only borrowing the same amount as the original Foundations mortgage taken out nine years ago) LTV is approx 45% now and was 75% in 2000. My initial thoughts was that this was a delay tactic so that they did not have to give the mortgage offer until after their financial yearend.
The valuation was carried out a couple of weeks prior to Christmas and I have just called to chase the mortgage offer and they have not received the valuation report back. Not sure if this is just more delay tactics

Interested to hear if others are experiencing the same problem.

Thanks

TTTCOP in answer to your question we had a credit line of 1 x joint annual salary before the reduction reduced to 1 x my salary after. Not exactly high risk !

JODEUK

Also wanted to add we sent a letter of complaint to Natwest on the 12th December following their standard response to our telephone complaint and have not yet received a reply.
This is a quote from their letter responding to our initial telephone complaint.

"As part of our ongoing commitment to responsible lending we regularly review the credit limits on our Foundations accounts as set out in sections 12.8 and 12.9 of the Terms & Conditions. Each account is assessed individually with the new limit based on balances and transactions over the past 12 months.
After careful consideration and a review of your account usage, the credit limit was reduced to £10,000 above your maximum balance during the previous 12 months"

They have certainly not taken into account property price, income levels or individual circumstances etc. It is totally a blanket claw back leaving everyone with £10k above their maximum borrowing over the previous 12 months.