NatWest Advantage Gold/Current Plus Account (natwest failure to close)

timmyburns22

Hi everybody,

I would appreciate some much needed advice here as I am way in over my head with Natwest Bank.

When I first arrived here in the UK, I required a bank account and so decided to open one with Natwest as they were the closest bank to my then address.

During the process I apparently was eligible to open an Advantage Gold account to which I would be charged £12 monthly for certain "privilleges" such as insurance etc.

They hassled, and pushed, and prodded - until finally I agreed to open this account along with a standard no fees savings account under the stipulation that I could have a 14 day "cooling off" period whereby if I decided that I no longer wished to have this second Advantage Gold Account in the first 14 days then I could easily have it cancelled.

As expected, I did not want the account and no more than 24 hours after having opened the both accounts, I returned to the branch to have the Advantage Gold account removed.

The process was surprisingly easier than I had imagined. I walked out 10 minutes later in the belief that I had only one account with Natwest, the standard no fees savings account, as mentioned earlier.

Wrong! Without my knowledge, they did not close the Advantage Gold Account as i requested, they merely downgraded it to one of their less expensive accounts known only as the "Current Plus" account.

Months passed, many transactions went through my standard no fees account including my work payments, and nothing went through this second account which I had no knowledge of. More time passed, and as months went by, little did I know, this Current Plus account was accumulating fees. Lots and lots of fees!!

The account went into debt. Almost £300 into the minus. Still I had no idea I even still had this random account in my name. Then about 8 or so months later, Natwest decided to finally inform me I had a second account by sending me a letter in the post of this debt and my requirement to pay it!

A long winded argument has ensued to this day. Many phonecalls I have made to the Birmingham Natwest Debt Collection centre to inform them that I will not be paying. And many agreements have been made between myself and Natwest regarding payment of the debt. At one time, in an effort to just simply have the matter closed once and for all, I agreed to pay a percentage of the fees, if Natwest was willing to cover the rest, and have the matter settled completly.

Natwest has not paid one single penny into this debt and instead has continuly hounded me to pay it, though i protest over and over.

Until very recently, the Birmingham Natwest Collections centre froze by everyday living account (the no fees standard account), and removed all my money, reducing the account to £0.00, in order to pay off the debt, WITHOUT MY CONSENT!

Please, if somebody is out there and is in any way familiar with my situation or if anyone knows even slightly a way that I can tackle Natwest please i ask you to help me.

Many thanks,

- Timothy Burns

catflea

Question 1. What is the "no fees" standard account? (i.e first reserve, savings direct etc etc etc)

Question 2. What put the current account overdrawn in the first place?

vaporate

timmyburns22 wrote: »

Hi everybody,

I would appreciate some much needed advice here as I am way in over my head with Natwest Bank.

When I first arrived here in the UK, I required a bank account and so decided to open one with Natwest as they were the closest bank to my then address.

During the process I apparently was eligible to open an Advantage Gold account to which I would be charged £12 monthly for certain "privilleges" such as insurance etc.

They hassled, and pushed, and prodded - until finally I agreed to open this account along with a standard no fees savings account under the stipulation that I could have a 14 day "cooling off" period whereby if I decided that I no longer wished to have this second Advantage Gold Account in the first 14 days then I could easily have it cancelled.

As expected, I did not want the account and no more than 24 hours after having opened the both accounts, I returned to the branch to have the Advantage Gold account removed.

The process was surprisingly easier than I had imagined. I walked out 10 minutes later in the belief that I had only one account with Natwest, the standard no fees savings account, as mentioned earlier.

Wrong! Without my knowledge, they did not close the Advantage Gold Account as i requested, they merely downgraded it to one of their less expensive accounts known only as the "Current Plus" account.

Months passed, many transactions went through my standard no fees account including my work payments, and nothing went through this second account which I had no knowledge of. More time passed, and as months went by, little did I know, this Current Plus account was accumulating fees. Lots and lots of fees!!

The account went into debt. Almost £300 into the minus. Still I had no idea I even still had this random account in my name. Then about 8 or so months later, Natwest decided to finally inform me I had a second account by sending me a letter in the post of this debt and my requirement to pay it!

A long winded argument has ensued to this day. Many phonecalls I have made to the Birmingham Natwest Debt Collection centre to inform them that I will not be paying. And many agreements have been made between myself and Natwest regarding payment of the debt. At one time, in an effort to just simply have the matter closed once and for all, I agreed to pay a percentage of the fees, if Natwest was willing to cover the rest, and have the matter settled completly.

Natwest has not paid one single penny into this debt and instead has continuly hounded me to pay it, though i protest over and over.

Until very recently, the Birmingham Natwest Collections centre froze by everyday living account (the no fees standard account), and removed all my money, reducing the account to £0.00, in order to pay off the debt, WITHOUT MY CONSENT!

Please, if somebody is out there and is in any way familiar with my situation or if anyone knows even slightly a way that I can tackle Natwest please i ask you to help me.

Many thanks,

- Timothy Burns

With reference to what I put in BOLD, I do not understand. There is no fee for the current plus account.

Was, or is, your account overdrawn?

willo65

You should have been receiving statements showing the balance of the current plus account.

worriedfirsttimebuyer

I have a Current Plus account - there are no fees? This is the part I am confused about.

.1xp

Did you not use online banking? All accounts would have been displayed there?

Current Plus? Do you mean Advantage Blue?

catflea

worriedfirsttimebuyer wrote: »

I have a Current Plus account - there are no fees? This is the part I am confused about.

Sounds like the OP had the account opened as an advantage gold (which does carry a fee) then went to the branch, to cancel the account. The branch then downgraded it to a current plus rather than cancelling.

.1xp wrote: »

Current Plus? Do you mean Advantage Blue?

Ad Blue is an add on to the current plus, not the name of an account - charge is £6.95 these days I believe, it was £6

timmyburns22

Thank you for your replies, everybody. Firstly, the account was likely overdrawn due to the fees encountered for the downgraded Advantage Gold account.

I must apologise for referring the downgraded account to a Current Plus account, as this is the name of my everyday living account. The downgraded account is a First Reserve Account.

I am not entirely certain what put the account into overdrawn status in the first place but it is 100% certain that it was not due to MY use of said account. So therefore I must assume it was a result of an original fee, probably small, that then "snowballed".

Willo65, you are correct, I did receive statements for my everyday living account, by no, i did not receive statements for the downgraded account - which is a very confusing issue indeed.

I did eventually begin to use online banking, and phone banking. This was after being informed of the downgraded advantage gold account debt status.

Please, any other questions, feel free.

And I appreciate your help, people.

- Timothy

mclaren32

You need to raise this as a formal complaint.

It sounds like what has happened is that they did downgrade the account from advantage gold but didnt wave any pending charges for the few days the account was an advantage gold, they should have done this under the 90 day money back guarantee (more recently reduced to 60 days). Due to this not taking place a small charge created an unauthorised overdraft and the charges have snowballed from there.

What you need to do is get statements on the account from the day it was opened and then demonstrate that you have never used the account and this all spurs from a charge which should have been refunded.

If your initial complaint isnt dealt with correctly then contact the customer relations unit as they will reopen it and look at it again. I have seen cases exactly the same as this and charges have been refunded in full.

Keep pushing, this shouldnt have happened - provided you havent used the account.

jonnyd281

I'm confused your current account is the Current Plus - this sould be your every day, the First Reserve is an Instant Access Savings account. I don't think the First Reserve can be an Advantage Gold because this is a current account (mine is one). OP I think you need to establish which account you have been paying your wages into. Is it possible you have been charged for underfunding your current account?

Regards
Jon

catflea

I thought i posted on this thread last night.

The First reserve is a savings account (instant access and came with a solo card - now visa) this account cannot be upgraded to or downgraded from advantage gold. If it is overdrawn YOU have screwed up somewehre along the line (but there are no charges for going overdrawn so no snowball effect)

The current plus can be upgraded to/downgraded from advantage gold. And charges can snowball.

I think Mclaren is correct, that when the ad gold was removed from the account pending charges weren't removed and have caused a snowball effect. I too have seen many cases like this from when I worked for natwest.

Please please please double check which account it which.