Have I made a huge BOO BOO??!

festivalgirl73

Hi all, first post so be gentle with me!
I contacted Payplan about 6 weeks go and after going through my income and expenditure they decided they were unable to help me with a DMP or IVA because I had no surplus income, I infact had a deficit, I could have told them that! Thats why I'm in debt :rolleyes:

Anyway the guy I spoke to was very helpful and said that before heading down the bankruptcy route I should try an informal agreement first, my own DMP if you like, and he sent me through a pack with all the letters and copies of income and expenditures and list of creditors etc to send off with a token payment of £1.

I did all this and at this time I also changed my bank account to Natwest as I thought I had no debt with them, I thought I'd been oh so clever and organised.

I've had a mixed response and its early days but the reason I'm posting is that I have just found out yesterday that my Tesco credit card which has one of the highest debts on it is run by RBS (this I knew) but that RBS is grouped with Natwest :eek: this I did not know, so I have moved my bank account thinking my wages were going into a safe place and now I'm really really panicking that they may have the right to offset any money from my Natwest account to pay toward the Tesco card, can anyone tell me if this is definately the case or not before I go completely doodleally! I can't believe I was so stupid, it was such a nightmare changing my wages into this new bank account and changing over all the direct debits for all our utilities and standing orders for rent and setting up online banking etc etc, the thought of doing it again literally a few weeks later fills me with utter dread :embarasse

Thanks for any advice in advance.

fermi

Info here regarding what they can and can't do:

Setting Off Rules - DON'T bank where you’ve got debts

festivalgirl73

Oh dear that doesn't sound good then, thanks for that, I need to look for another account then, unfortunately with 9 diffrerent creditors finding one thats not linked to any of them night be more difficult than I thought!

festivalgirl73

Anyone know if Nationwide buliding society has any links to Lloyds TSB, MBNA, Capital One, Citi, Tesco, RBS, Natwest or Barclaycard?
I've looked at Wilkepedia and can't see anything but I'm scared now to make the same mistake again!

fermi

IvaDebt wrote: »

Anyone know if Nationwide buliding society has any links to ......................

Nope. They are actually still a mutual, so no links to anyone.

kiwikaz

I've just started on the DMP route with my OH and we moved our bank account to the Nationwide from RBS.
We've debt with Bank of Scotland, RBS, Natwest Cap One etc and when I spoke with CCCS the Counsellor I'm sure said that the Nationwide was a stand alone bank. Check it out with PayPlan or CCCS to be sure tho.

Good luck.

Karen.

festivalgirl73

Right I've just done an online application for Nationwide and they can only offer me a basic account with no debit card which I'm not sure whether to go for it, what do people think, should I hold fire for a little while and try to come sort of repayment arrangement with Tesco first before I leap into the basic bank account or am I taking a huge risk by sticking with the Natwest account? So far Tesco have sent me letters saying they have issued the default but will contact me after to arrange repayments, so I'm wondering whether I should wait and see what happens, or are they likely to sneakily try to take any money in the account in the meantime? I do not have enough money in the Natwest current account to pay off the credit card but are they likely to take whatever is in there?
Sorry if I'm waffling!

fermi

How about the Co-op?

Their basic account comes with a Visa debit card and online banking.

http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite/1193206368743,CFSweb/Page/Bank-CurrentAccounts

Apart from no cheque book or OD, is not really lacking anything?

festivalgirl73

Thanks for all your help fermi,
Thats sounds good, I see you can only apply by phone, should I be honest and tell them my situation, I assume this account is meant for people that struggle to get accounts elsewhere, are they likely to agree to have me if they know that I am arranging a DMP myself? I'm just thinking when they ask about my current account that I currently hold when I say I only opened it last month that is going to ring alarm bells for them so should I be completely honest and basically say what I said at the beginning of the post??
Any advice from current CO-OP customers would be relly appreciated.

fermi

Co-op will give that account to people who have just declared themselves bankrupt, so I can't imagine a DMP would make them bat an eyelid.

One thing to watch is that they do operate a "3 strikes" policy. Should a direct debit etc fail to be honoured due to lack of funds, that is one strike. Two more times and they will shut the account. So you have to be very careful. Otherwise, people tend to have a high regard for it.

yellowduck_2

i went for a co op cashminder account, I have a debit card, direct debits and on line banking so I can keep on top of things. No cheque book and no od but that suits me fine. Recommend them.