Natwest irresposible lending HELP ME PLEASE!

harrogategirl

Hi everyone!

Anyones help and advice on this very complicated matter would be really appreciated.

In September 1999 I was enrolling for my first year at University in Leeds.
At the Freshers Fair I was approached by a Natwest representative who offered me a £50 cash incentive to open a student account.
I explained to them, that I had already opened an account with HSBC and had received £50 incentive from them.

They said that it didn't matter, and that I could open the account, have the £50 and either not use the account or keep the credit card and overdraft facility for a rainy day!

Well, guess what? When you're a student, there are lots of rainy days!
Soon I had used all the credit and overdraft and even had them extended a few times even though my student loan never went to that account - in fact I don't think I ever really paid much in apart from the occassional transfer from my HSBC account!
( Just for those who are now tutting at my stupidity, I on the whole spent my money "wisely" I bought a house with my now husband and the money went on deposits, fees, furniture etc! I also learnt how to drive and got myself a little runanround banger and the insurance etc! - Still stupid but I wasn't weeing up a wall!)

Anyway, as my memory serves me, I started getting lots of charges for presenting cheques etc. And also for being over my overdraft facility. Unfortunately these charges are over 6 yrs ago and so I'm unable to prove them or claim them back! They then started cutting back my credit limit on my credit card and also my overdraft facility. I managed to start paying some of it off by working bloody hard and using student loan. However it got to the point where they forced me to put what was left into a loan. At a rate of 20.9%!
At that point I owed £1237 and the interest was going to be £693.80!
The loan agreement was signed on 08/04/02 and was with their Debt Management Unit. At the time, I genuinely had no option but to go with what they were telling me as I could not afford to pay it off in a lump sum.

Then in 2004 something went wrong with my direct debit and a payment was 2 days late. (A bank holiday I think).
They immediately transferred my loan to Credit Management Services. Where I was told I had to increase my payment (from £32.18 I managed to increase to £40PMTH)
I was so mortified and embarrassed, I never discussed it with anyone, not even my husband and as we had just had our first child and I was on Maternity Benefit I didn't feel I was in a position to argue with the bank!

Then we move onto 2006 and I was discussing with my Mum about how unfairly I felt I was treated by Natwest and that they took advantage of the fact that I was a student. I suddenly realised that I hadn't heard from Natwest since 2004 and I was sure that my loan must nearly be paid off!

I rang them and they said it was completey pais off and I was actually accruing money! They said all I had to do was cancel the standing order and then the money would automatically be sent out to me in the post by cheque the following month.
I did this straight away and waited patiently for my cheque to arrive. - It didn't.
I rang Natwest again, who said it had been sent out accoring to their records however, if I wanted the money immediately, I could go to my local branch and request it over the counter.
I did this, but they then said I had to speak to comeone at the customer service desk!!!!!! So I did so. I said that I would also like to close the account at the same time.
The guy said that would be fine but did I realise I had £800 approx in my account.
I queried it and he said it was defo mine and that I could withdraw it. Which of course I duly did!!! Excellent, that was my car repair taken care of!

About 2 months later, whilst on Maternity leave with my second child, I logged into my Experian report for the first time. I found to my pleasant surprise that my credit scoring is very good which is very pleasing after my bad student days.
However as I scrolled down the page, I discovered that by Natwest I have a RED 8. Which means I have defaulted with them!:mad: :mad: :mad:

I have since been in a battle to get a staight story out of them. They are saying that the money I withdrew was the money for the loan and they had been letting it accrue in there to pay off the loan instead of paying it straight off the loan!
But the default on the loan on my experian report was dated before I withdrew the money! So at that point, I was paying it as I should and had not defaulted!
I'm so confused!
So are Natwest. I get different answers from different people.
I sent them a letter on 12th December, asking them to consider writing off this "debt" as I am convinced that it is mainly made up of charges and interest rather thatn the money I originally borrowed. What with the fact that they also lent it "irresponsibly" in the first place AND their own staff don't seem to have a clue what is going on!

I haven't had any response.

What should I do? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.

Sorry it's such a long post, but as you can see, it's complicated!

xx:mad:

Edinburghlass_2

Sorry harrogategirl, can you break that down to what the actual problem is with Natwest and if you have started a charges reclaim.

EvilEdna_2

Could be worth contacting the banking ombudsman? Don't know if you could argue you were missold the loan, but as far as the keeping money in a current account and not paying it into the loan you could. If the default originated from the missed payment (although defaulting you for one missed payment is a bit much) then they might argue they're within their rights. If it originated because they were keeping the money in the current account instead of the loan, though, that's a different matter. Get in touch with the ombudsman!

princessfayebaley

harrogategirl- I has a similar problem with the Halifax, not to the extent that a loan wasn't paid off, but with my credit file. I had a personal loan with them that I paid in full in July 2005. On looking at my credit file last year I had a default registerd for that particaular loan. After much inverstigation it turned out that the Halifax didn't close the account once the loan had been paid off and automatically recorded on my credit file that I was missing payments every month! Plus incurring a missed payment charge every month!! (which I am going to claim back hehe!) I have made numerous calls and trips the to my local branch and still cant get it sorted.
If you find a way of resolving it can you please let me know and I will follow suit xx

harrogategirl

Problem is:

I believe natwest lent 'Irresponsibly'
They don't seem to have a staightforward answer, infact no-one I've spoken to knows what to do.
They haven't replied to my latest letter.
I haven't started a "claim" like I re-claimed my charges from HSBC as I'm not sure if it's the same sort of thing!

I'm really just desperate for some advice.
Hope that makes some kind of sense x

Edinburghlass_2

Okay, thanks for that, I'll have a think about the what board to put the thread for best exposure.

gizmo111

harrogategirl wrote:

Problem is:

I believe natwest lent 'Irresponsibly'
They don't seem to have a staightforward answer, infact no-one I've spoken to knows what to do.
They haven't replied to my latest letter.
I haven't started a "claim" like I re-claimed my charges from HSBC as I'm not sure if it's the same sort of thing!

I'm really just desperate for some advice.
Hope that makes some kind of sense x

I suggest you send Nat West £10 and ask for a full subject access request - when you ahve all your docs work out from Feb 2001 what you have paid in charges - what proprtion of loan interest relates to those charge - how much you have been refunded. Also let us know the amount you were defaulted for and the date - I am in court with nat west later this month over loan interest on charges - so my outcome will be very important to how you proceed.
When you have the info post it here and PM me with a link to the relevant thread and I will see how I can help on proceeding with this.
Proving Irresponsible lending is a long drawn out process and doesn't always work in your favour ie there is the element of irresponsible borrowing to be taken into account also.

Hope this helps

harrogategirl

Sorry just want to BUMP this thread as am going to phone them again today!
Thanks for your replies so far. xx