NatWest (merged)

king84

Well i wish ya all the luck in the world decided to accept and go after my old account with HSBC which i cant even guess at the charges. Six hundred and odd will be a small help to the debt ive already got. How have you gone about your debt free date and stuff like that is there a guide on the site.
Cheers

tor_man

Hi,

Just wanted to let you know that I sent my letter to my NatWest branch requesting statements on the 1st Dec, received them on the 16th Dec, calculated charges amounting to just over £10k, which amounts to just under £13k with interest and sent the letter requesting full refund today (18th Dec).

I cannot believe that we racked up so many charges. The only thing that I can say in my defence is that we have been much more stable over the last year.

As my wife & I went through the statements last night, we experienced a whole mix of emotions, ranging from embarrasment at how shocking we were, fury at the bank for the fact that they charged us SO much when we patently couldn't afford it, excitement at being able to hit our debt situation hard with the potential payout and wonder at the fact that we are still standing and haven't either split up or killed ourselves because of the stress we were under.

I will keep you posted as to how things go.

Thanks for this site, I would not even known about this if it wasn't for Martin's Money Tips.

Cheers

Tor_man

Sexton_Blake

Hi Folks

Isn’t it amazing how empowering it feels to finally hit back against this lousy treatment? Last week I telephoned my NatWest branch (which is in Norwich, though I now live in London) and asked for 6 years’ worth of statements. The bloke on the phone sounded amazed – “Six years worth???” – which makes me wonder whether that particular branch knows what’s going on! Anyway, they charged me a fiver for the pleasure and this past Friday three thick envelopes thudded onto my doormat. I spent the weekend going through the statements and discovered that the excessive, unfair, illegal and frankly SHOCKING charges amounted to £2,960. Needless to say, I was fired up by this revelation and spent Sunday marking each one, photocopying the relevant pages, writing the demand for a refund, and packaging it all into a suitably threatening-looking A4 envelope.

This morning, I posted it (registered, of course). I’ve given them 14 days to respond but what with it being Xmas I’ll stretch that a little, so I'll give them a deadline of 12th January.

I’m fascinated to see what (if any) response I get. Judging from these forums it’ll be the usual arrogant ‘You are a Nobody and we’ll treat you however we damn well please’ type of letter. Well, NatWest, go ahead and see where that gets you. I’ll not be ignored, intimidated or cheated.

Actually, this whole process has made me realise to what extent I’ve simply rolled with the punches over the years. Take British Gas, for example. Their bills are absurdly huge and like a fool I’ve been handing over the money because I was too lazy to do anything about it. After reading these forums and starting the Me vs. NatWest process, I suddenly realised it’s time to stop being ripped off, so tonight I’ll be changing my gas supplier and good riddance to BG.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

Ken.W_2

Good on you, SB! I totally agree with how you feel. In my case, the bank have until Jan 6th to come up with a defence, that's not too far away

Indeedy, it's: POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!!

Sexton_Blake

Well, here's a coincidence. I posted off my demand for a refund of all illegal charges in the morning and when I got home there was a letter waiting for me from NatWest. Not a response, obviously (that would be miraculous!), but a warning that I'm behind with my loan repayments and unless I catch up the whole thing will be handed over to a debt management agency.

Two coincidences: my deadline is 12th Jan - which is the same deadline I've given them - and the amount they need from me is almost the same (slightly less) than the amount I'm demanding from them!

Well now, the reason I fell behind with payments - and the reason I got hit with loads of penalty charges - is that I started working as a freelancer a year ago and went through a long and financially tough period when I was building up a client base and chasing late payers. NatWest was remarkably unsupportive, which is why I'm delighted to have opened an account elsewhere.

Anyway, since my credit is already bad, I'm going to let them pass it all over to debt management and close down my account. I'd kind of resigned myself to spending the next 6 years repairing credit, anyway, and I just want shot of NatWest.

I wonder whether this will affect my claim, though?

durham_girl

Hi Guys,

I am in the process of trying to get my bank charges back from Natwest. I have sent off the letter with the list of charges and they have got back to me today with

'We believe our charges are reasonable and fair....blah, blah, blah....we will not be refunding any of the charges'

What should I say in the letter that I send back to them? Should I even send a letter? I heard the other day that the true cost of applying bank charges is 2.50, has anyone else heard this? If this is true should I quote this in the letter?

Sorry to ramble!!!

Louise

Rex_Mundi

Follow step four in Martins article. The template for the next letter you need to send is there. Don't mention the £2.50 cost (you don't need to).

The reply you've had is a standard response. Just keep to the process, and move onto the next stage.

Aztecsilver

A few of my friends have had major problems with is bank and charges, causing chrages.
The latest one made me really angry and I felt I needed to voice off.
My sister made an e cheque payment through paypay which was shown on her statement as having been taken from her account. 10 days later there was a £38 charge for returned payment to paypal. There was no activity on the statement at all to sugesst why this had been done. She phones up the bank and they tell her that when the payment eventually came out (not on the day it was shown on her statement originally) it took her £2.22 over drawn. Can you believe this! No where on her statement did it show this happening, so how can it be believed!

edithminnie

Hello There

I've done everything on the site regarding claiming back my bank charges. I took it to money claim on line the total being £2015 plus the 8% interest. NatWest got the 28 days time as they filed a defence. Yesterday was the last day and now When I go to the money claim they say its got to now go to a local court. What next - has anyone any idea?

Rex_Mundi

edithminnie wrote:

Hello There

I've done everything on the site regarding claiming back my bank charges. I took it to money claim on line the total being £2015 plus the 8% interest. NatWest got the 28 days time as they filed a defence. Yesterday was the last day and now When I go to the money claim they say its got to now go to a local court. What next - has anyone any idea?

You will be notified which court your case is going to (it will be your local county court). You will also receive an 'Allocation Questionnaire' to fill in. You just have to sit and wait for this now.