Bank putting pressure on me to pay in full!

sammy115

Can anyone help. I am quite desperate at the moment. I have been reclaiming my bank charges and it has got to the allocation questionaire stage. I will be filing that on Monday. However, following my redundancy in Feb the bank returned lots of dd's which really drove the charges up.

I contacted the bank and informed them in April that we had both got jobs and could now pay in our salary cheques. We were told that if we did this when the overdraft was reviewed it would not be removed. However, four days prior to us having the money paid in we received a letter stating that the overdraft would indeed be cancelled. I emailed them and said unfortunately as they were doing that I could not pay my money in as it would just get eaten up by the overdraft. I also offered a repayment programme. This letter was ignored and following another letter asking us to get in touch I wrote to them enclosing all our cards cut up repeating our proposal for repayment. This was sent by recorded delivery. At this point we couldn't phone as all our phones had been cut off.

I then received another letter saying that we had still not contacted them! I rang and was asked how my claim was progressing!! The girl said that as my claim was in progress no action would be taken on my account until it was sorted and they would put my account on hold for two weeks. This was three weeks ago.

On Friday last week I received a call asking me to ring them, which I did. I was informed at this point that unless I paid the balance my account would be defaulted and passed to debt collectors. I asked for a manager to call me and he did. He reiterated what had been said previously.

I am under the impression that any amount in dispute cannot be registered as a default under the data protection act. Am I wrong! I have emailed them and told them that I will pay the balance of the account less the amount in dispute by the 1st September to avoid a default. They have responded and asked me to pay the whole amount outstanding by the 1st September. This is £6,000! I have paid in over £1,000 since our problems started so its not as if I have not been trying.

Throughout all my problems over the last few months, I have managed to avoid a default being placed on my credit file. Should I just give up and let them do it. I am really begining to struggle with my fight against the world at the moment and I am feeling quite down about it all. If they are going to default my account there is no point in me trying to repay it in any rush whatsoever. To even pay the balance I am having to do two jobs and its starting to exhaust me now.

Dr.Shoe_2

Open a parachute account straight away and pay all your income into that. That way when your bank demands their money bank you are in a stronger position to negotiate a payment plan.

The last thing they want to do is to pass it to a debt collector because this costs them money. The next thing you can do is to reclaim the charges.

Fitzy29

It sounds as though they are going to default you out of spite, do real people actually work in banks or is it just computers? Anyways, I had a default issued a while back whilst I was arguing with the bank, however they never registered it with the credit agencies. I think they try to scare you into paying up...Complain to the office of FAIR trading to see if they can have a word.

sammy115

Thanks for your reply. I did think that they were doing this out of spite. I think I will tell them to take a hike. I would have paid the £2,000 I owed them on the 1st September no problem, but they are demanding I pay the whole amount. I have until then to sweat it out. Oh well. I have started my complaint through the banks procedure, but I am sure that will take weeks and weeks.

They are stating that they have no option to issue a default as I have broken the terms and conditions of my contract with them. That to me seems far to easy to do as they can just take your overdraft off you on a whim.....

I am thinking if I do get a default I will start a claim against them but of course thats another battle sigh!!!!!!!!

Without this site I may be in a very different position altogether. You lot have got me through a lot in the last six months, but I am having a down day I think.

sammy115

Dr.Shoe wrote:

Open a parachute account straight away and pay all your income into that. That way when your bank demands their money bank you are in a stronger position to negotiate a payment plan.

The last thing they want to do is to pass it to a debt collector because this costs them money. The next thing you can do is to reclaim the charges.

I have already done this. I had to when they said they were taking the overdraft off me otherwise my salary would have been swallowed up when I got paid.

I have offered a payment plan which they will not accept and are now demanding full payment.

Mike_St_Helens

I wouldnt worry too much about a default, if its got to this stage then they may have registerd factual info anyhow...

Make sure you have your parachute acc sorted !

sammy115

I think i am just getting my knickers in a twist!

Dr.Shoe_2

They can't take money you don't have...