Natwest "debt consolidation"

Lukej2701

Martin, I could really do with some advice on this one!!!

Natwest offered me a debt consolidation loan in 2006 of £1200 as I was in my overdraft by £1000.

The only reason I was £1000 overdrawn at the point of the debt consolidation offer was because I had had bank charges totalling that amount which snowballed over time. Some months I was getting charged over £120 for late payments on three direct debits plus the charge for the overdraft facility and also charge for going over the agreed limit.

I remember at the time, before the debt consolidation offer, calling them and telling them the excessive charges are the reason there are insufficient funds and it is crippling me, and they're response was " you should control your finances better" !!! I expressed this was impossible due to them constantly charging but got the same reply!

It is now six years on and I still owe £123 on the loan. I left Natwest for Santander a couple years ago, and upon leaving I set up a direct debit of £50 to Natwest ( £35 to cover the loan repayments and £15 to pay my way out of the over draft of £250.

I continued to do this and left the direct debit running for a year, perhaps rather foolishly ignoring the statements. Thinking that the loan was being paid, the over draft was being paid and in time it would just be a savings account.

Consequently I have checked my credit status and I have had a default put against my credit file for missing payments on this loan, even though I didn't cancel the payment originally set up for repayments on the loan for the Natwest account and I didn't cancel the direct debit from Santander to cover the money leaving that account.

I have recently received a letter saying I owe a debt recovery agency £123?

I feel I have been totally mistreated and used as a cash cow! Do you think this case could be taken up by someone and investigated in order to try and claim the money back as at 25 years old I now have a bad credit file for the most important stage of my life, all thanks to Natwest and they're excessive charges when I was in my teens on a low income?

Luke

Tixy

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately it is your responsiblity to check the statements that the bank sent to you. And they will also have sent letters to you such as a default notice prior to registering the default on your credit file and giving you at least 14 days to rectify the account before a defaul was entered.

What is the date of the default?
Have you chcked all your statements since you left natwest to understand at what point the loan stopped being paid. Whether they closed your bank account at any point. If you set up a payment from your santander account to your natwest bank account then it would be a standing order, not a direct debit. With a standing order this is controlled by you and would be cancelled by you not natwest. However if natwest closed your bank account then it is likely that the standing order would have stopped automatically (when santander found the money was being returned).

Bravehearted_2

I don't understand - how are you still owing if you say you setup a DD to repay the loan?