Natwest threatening urgent letter!!!

ryuken21

I just recieved a letter from the bank demanding that I hand in my bank card and cheque book to them in the next 7 business days or legal action will be taken against me. This is due to, I believe my past gambling transactions that taken me over my overdraft. However, I have not done this for a while, but I had a recent direct debit which came out a few weeks earlier than I thought for my accomodation which left me close to 1k over my overdraft limit. I get my student loan on Monday (in another account) so I can replace the funds and pay off any interest if the require, but the letter said something like,

'We are concerned with your transaction history and have no choice but to redeem any cheque books and cards you have with us to be destroyed immediately, if you attempt to use your account whilst in this process it will be a criminal offense and legal action can be taken against you'

It was something along those lines. What I am concerned about is, in the letter they have not stated they demand any of the money back, they just want to destroy all cards and books. I understand that obviously the account will be closed and they will want repayment of the funds and the overdraft in full, however I won't be able to pay the overdraft off in full aswell, that just is NOT happening.

Should I ring collections and make a payment plan with them? I really do not want to go to court over this and i want to do things by the book with them to get me out of this but i've been in a similar situation when I was making wrong and stupid gambling transactions and they were so pushy wanting the money in full on the day they contacted me. I simply don't have that kind of money so they need to deal with that. I don't mind making a payment plan of £100 until it's cleared because that's affordable for me (just about) but if they take me to court I will just be awkward with them and offer them £20 a month because I know by law they have to accept that. Especially as I am jobless and my ownly source of income is my student loan.

What should I do next?

DVardysShadow

ryuken21 wrote: »

What should I do next?

Open a basic bank account with no overdraft and make sure all income goes there. Nat west will still accept deposits to your account, but won't let you withdraw. So any income you allow to go to that account will be unavailable to you.

wanttoseethelight

HI there, my hubby and I have been there, worn the T shirt, made the video etc with Nat West- they are dreadful and their letters frightening. First thing is to only use your other account from now on, go to CAB and get their advice ASAP- they can help you and take away some of the stress is who to write to and what to say. Take ALL of your expenditure written down for the CAB to see, remember, they are on your sie and won't judge you. I was almost hospitalised with stress due to debt and spent most of my days crying. It took us ages to sort our debt out and now we have an IVA in place. Not sying thats the right thing for you, but what Im trying to say is there is a way out. We now have no post from anyone threatening, no phonecalls and are managing our payments well. Go to the CAB and remeber, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck x

redpete

ryuken21 wrote: »

This is due to, I believe my past gambling transactions that taken me over my overdraft. However, I have not done this for a while, ... Especially as I am jobless and my ownly source of income is my student loan.

Just 3 weeks ago you were still gambling, so not exactly 'a while ago'. You also claimed that "whether I gamble or not I ALWAYS make sure with my wages from work I repay the amount lost." - so do you have a job or not?

But the advice is probably good, don't pay your student loan into NatWest.

ryuken21

Thanks for the replies.

So should I ring up collections and try to arrange a payment plan with them? I don't want to keep the account this much overdrawn, but it looks to me like they are wanting to close the account for good, so I am assuming they will want every penny back in full? am I wrong?

Redpete, It was only a temporary posistion for the summer, it ended last week. The direct debit came out earlier than I orginally expected and it's landed me in the brown stuff with natwest. I can afford to pay the excess (not the overdraft) on monday with the student loan, but it seems from the letter that they wish me not to bank with them any longer.

I was just wondering what their next move might be. Should I make the effort to ring collections and resolve the matter or just leave it and hand in the card and cheque book and risk possibly being forced to pay back the overdraft too? This is next to impossible with my income of 0.