Lost FOS appeal and now received solicitors letter

FTW

AdviceSought wrote: »

The FOS believe it is.

My experience with the FOS is that they're not bothered about anything. May be worth uploading the document (but with any personal details/ref numbers/barcodes blocked out!), and then you'd be able to get a more cohesive opinion.

Does the document give a clear 14 days to redeem the default? It MUST specify an actual date and NOT '14 days from receipt'. Have you received anything prior to the default notice asking for the full amount and not just the arrears?

It's well known about Carter that if you start fighting back, he backs off. If he does and states in writing that he wishes to drop the matter, check with the court (probably Northampton bulk centre) to see if he has.

Have you got another bank account unaffiliated with Natwest? If so, use that one and keep away from Nastywest.

AdviceSought

FTW wrote: »

My experience with the FOS is that they're not bothered about anything. May be worth uploading the document (but with any personal details/ref numbers/barcodes blocked out!), and then you'd be able to get a more cohesive opinion.

Does the document give a clear 14 days to redeem the default? It MUST specify an actual date and NOT '14 days from receipt'. Have you received anything prior to the default notice asking for the full amount and not just the arrears?

It's well known about Carter that if you start fighting back, he backs off. If he does and states in writing that he wishes to drop the matter, check with the court (probably Northampton bulk centre) to see if he has.

Have you got another bank account unaffiliated with Natwest? If so, use that one and keep away from Nastywest.

Basically, due to a lot of charges etc on top of my overdraft during a period of unemployment I made NatWest aware of they demanded repayment of my overdraft on the graduate account I had with them.

They then sent me, in February 2009 a notice of default which was going to be applied if I didn't sort something out with them. I then arranged a loan over the phone with them and started making the repayments (they said it had to go into my account which they had closed so I couldn't even see the balance on the internet either).

A few months later, this was showing as being in arrears on my credit file so I contacted them to find out what was going on and was ingored.

I then tried to reclaim the charges and was ignored, even the requests for the info on my account until I went to Stephen Hester's office.

After this, I found out that they had infact cancelled the loan and decided to accept one of my previous repayment proposals without informing (despite me sending back a signed copy of the loan agreement).

I wrote to them repeatedly and was eventually promised a full response as to what had gone on by a certain date.

When that was ignored I wrote to them again saying that if I didn't receive the promised response by a certain date I would stop making repayments until such time as the matter was resolved.

They ignored me again so I wrote to them informing them that the account was now in dispute and I would make no further payments until they responded to me and if they did not respond within 7 working days I would go to the FOS. They didn't reply.

After 2 months of not paying, they then hit my credit file with the default (apparently that was fine due to the notice they had sent me in February despite default not being applied until August).

The FOS changed adjudicators a few times and it took from November until now to get a final response from the FOS and around the same time I lost my FOS appeal, I received this letter from Carter.

FTW

AdviceSought wrote: »

Basically, due to a lot of charges etc on top of my overdraft during a period of unemployment I made NatWest aware of they demanded repayment of my overdraft on the graduate account I had with them.

They then sent me, in February 2009 a notice of default which was going to be applied if I didn't sort something out with them. I then arranged a loan over the phone with them and started making the repayments (they said it had to go into my account which they had closed so I couldn't even see the balance on the internet either).

A few months later, this was showing as being in arrears on my credit file so I contacted them to find out what was going on and was ingored.

I then tried to reclaim the charges and was ignored, even the requests for the info on my account until I went to Stephen Hester's office.

After this, I found out that they had infact cancelled the loan and decided to accept one of my previous repayment proposals without informing (despite me sending back a signed copy of the loan agreement).

I wrote to them repeatedly and was eventually promised a full response as to what had gone on by a certain date.

When that was ignored I wrote to them again saying that if I didn't receive the promised response by a certain date I would stop making repayments until such time as the matter was resolved.

They ignored me again so I wrote to them informing them that the account was now in dispute and I would make no further payments until they responded to me and if they did not respond within 7 working days I would go to the FOS. They didn't reply.

After 2 months of not paying, they then hit my credit file with the default (apparently that was fine due to the notice they had sent me in February despite default not being applied until August).

The FOS changed adjudicators a few times and it took from November until now to get a final response from the FOS and around the same time I lost my FOS appeal, I received this letter from Carter.

Sending back a signed copy of the loan agreement? Natwest asked you to send a copy back?

Also, going through the default notice may be a good idea - if there are any imperfections, then it'll go in your favour.

AdviceSought

FTW wrote: »

Sending back a signed copy of the loan agreement? Natwest asked you to send a copy back?

Also, going through the default notice may be a good idea - if there are any imperfections, then it'll go in your favour.

They arranged the loan over the phone with me in Feb 2009 and sent the loan agreement to me to sign and return which I did.

I'm not 100% sure I still have a copy of the default notice.

Do they need to send me a copy of it if I request it?

FTW

You need to send a Subject Access Request (SAR) - this'll cost you £10 for the privilege, but with that, they're to send you everything they hold on you, including copies of all past letters, the agreement (even if it's a telephone agreement, this may have flaws in itself). It's been a while since I used MSE, but there should be a cohesive letter on the site somewhere (does the site have a 'letters library') that'll cover the points you need to cover.

Besides which, I seem to recall that when the charges issue first started, with most of the banks it was a case of 'we're not sure if they're unlawful or not'. But wasn't Natwest the only bank where the charges were deemed unfair, because of the wording used in their terms?

AdviceSought

FTW wrote: »

You need to send a Subject Access Request (SAR) - this'll cost you £10 for the privilege, but with that, they're to send you everything they hold on you, including copies of all past letters, the agreement (even if it's a telephone agreement, this may have flaws in itself). It's been a while since I used MSE, but there should be a cohesive letter on the site somewhere (does the site have a 'letters library') that'll cover the points you need to cover.

Besides which, I seem to recall that when the charges issue first started, with most of the banks it was a case of 'we're not sure if they're unlawful or not'. But wasn't Natwest the only bank where the charges were deemed unfair, because of the wording used in their terms?

I went through all the SAR stuff when I started this process and was ignored constantly until I contacted Stephen Hester's office.

Anyway, I asked Carter/Fredriksson for a reply within seven days of their signed receipt of my letter making a repayment proposal.

It's now eight days since they signed for my letter and guess what, I've heard nothing.

Should I give them until the end of this week before writing to them again?

What kind of thing should I be saying in any follow up letter regarding their lack of response?

AdviceSought

Still no response received from either NatWest, Carter or Fredriksson.

What should I be doing now?

Pushing them? Waiting for them to reply?