Natwest/LINK??

Animagdon

Hi Guys,

Bit of advice needed: OH has been receiving letters from a company called Lowells and phone calls from a company called LINK that both claim to be the same company chasing an outstanding balance of over a thousand pounds on behalf of Natwest for an old account.

He finally got a statement from Lowells which shows a Natwest account from 2004 to 2008 and is bank charge after bank charge after bank charge. The last time there was an actual transaction on the account was January 2005. A few default notice fees have been debitted from the account since but every month almost £40-£50 bank charges have been applied to this account.

My partner has NEVER received anything from Natwest to say his account is overdrawn, notice has been served, etc. We have literally never received a thing from them. When we called Natwest about this Lowells/LINK chase they advised my partner that no account could be found for him on their systems.

We went into a Natwest branch today and the lady there confirmed that there were no account details for my partner but to call their lending department as they could clarify for certain if any correspondance had been sent to my partner since 2004 from Natwest themselves.

The lending dept says that they have sent text messages (to a defunct number) and letters (to an address they can't confirm) chasing my partner for the outstanding monies and that they sold the debt to a 3rd party (presumably Lowells as they cant confirm that either). Natwest lending dept advised my partner to reclaim his bank charges which will reduce the debt before setting up a payment plan with Lowells to clear the rest.

My questions are these: if Natwest couldn't find my partner on their systems then how can they now say he can reclaim bank charges? If no correspondance has ever been received by my partner since 2004 from Natwest then how can they legally sell a debt to a 3rd party, surely my partner would have to acknowledge this in order for it to be done? How does my partner stand for claiming statute barring on the account if there has been no action/correspondance from the account since his last transaction in 2005? If Lowells managed to send my partner a letter (or 10) about it in 2011 then surely Natwest could have in 2004, 2005, 2006........

It's all so messy! If default notices have been served then it will be on my OH's credit file so how do we stand getting those removed if it turns out he's not liable to pay anything due to lack of communication? He says if he owes it he will pay it back but how legal can it be for a bank to say he doesn't have an account with them one minute to "oh yes we've found you but we can't say what address we've tried reaching you at but you can reclaim your bank charges whilst a 3rd party we've never heard of bleeds you for the money to pay off the account we originally told you didn't exist"?!

p00hsticks

After all that, I'm still not sure if you are saying whether a) that your OH acknowledges that he did indeed have a genuine account with NatWest, or b) whether he is suggesting that he is a victim of identity fraud / mistaken identity and that he has never had an account with them

Animagdon

Sorry (told you it was messy!) - my OH did have a Natwest account but we thought he had closed it. We contacted Natwest around 2006 when we moved in together to clarify requesting 6yrs bank statements to see about claiming bank charges back and they wrote back advising no bank accounts were open with them so we binned the letter and thought nothing else about it. Then this Lowells/LINK company starts chasing, Natwest say they know nothing about any account but then find one that all my thread was about.

My OH said that if the debt is from his old account, if he was overdrawn etc and the account was not closed as we thought it was, then fair enough he'll pay what he owes but we had confirmation yrs ago no bank account was open with them and then hear nothing for 6yrs until this 3rd party gets involved.