Bank won't let me pay off overdraft!

eeejjaay84

I have an overdraft with RBS which got passed to Apex Credit Management to recover. I have been paying £30 a month for approx 3 years and am now in a position to pay off.
RBS say i owe the money but will not let me pay them direct as it is sitting with Apex but Apex have no record of me on their systems so cannot take payment either??
What am i meant to do? assume the debt no longer exists or continue spending time on the phone chasing until they take the money? I have already spent 5 hours on the phone between the 2 companies!

pudding06

I had this problem with our cable tv providers. I would pay a token £4 per month for the 4 main channels as our houses were built with cable tv in and we didnt have an option, however when it went wrong I would ring to have it fixed and they would be unable to find us even though we would quote all the reference numbers we had. In frustration I told them I would stop paying them and they would soon find my account then. I cancelled the DD and lo and behold got a phone call from them, saying I hadn't paid. I told them why and they then told me there was no way of cutting us off as they couldn't even find any record of the account apart from the direct debit. Needless to say - haven't paid for that service since, and really annoyed at the 13years I did pay it!!!!

You could try asking RBS to take back the debt so you can pay it. Failing that you should get a call the minute you don't pay on time and you should be able to get a balance of the account from them, and make full payment then. Keep a record of the names, time and date of those you speak to about it, and threaten them with ombudsman if all else fails.

Tixy

If RBS have sold the debt to Apex then they won't be able to take your payment. If Apex are just acting on their behalf then you should be able to. I wouldn't bother wasting money phoning though, I'd try to find out who owns it now in writing.

When did you last have a letter or statement from Apex?
Do you receive any statements from RBS still?

It might well be that cancelling the monthly payment will get Apex to get in touch and you can negotiate with them from there, ask them to write to you with the current balance etc. If you offer a reduced full & final settlement sum then get confirmation in writing of the agreement before you pay.

happy_bunny_2

As Tixy says, do it in writing and save time and effort. Harder to fob you off.

Send signed for, then if they don't respond say within 14 days, you can hit them with a formal complaint, again in writing, signed for.