Do you think this would be dishonest?

Takingcontrol_2

I have an overdraft with Natwest for the sum of £750. 100% of this is made up of their charges!!! Its nothing of which I have actually spent.....I have not used the account for three years and have not heard from them in this time til recently. Now they are phoning and texting etc (nothing too often) My question is, I am so tempted to simply try to dodge this debt as I feel quite annoyed about having to pay it! I was initially charged for a bounced DD years ago to the sum of about £25 which sent me overdrawn....they've then continued to add charges!! They called me a week ago, and as I have moved house since and reverted back to my maiden name since divorce, I did not pass their security/data protection questions so they could not proceed...They told me to call in to my nearest branch and sort it out there...I informed them I have no account numbers etc for this account so can hardly walk up to a counter and say 'Hi! someone called me and told me to come in here to find out why they called!' (I'd get locked up in a nuthouse for starters lol!! So would it be wrong and dishonest to simply.....ignore this? I'm trying so hard to do the right thing and pay my debts as i did spend (most) the money to begin with, but this debt is really annoying me!

tony_ack

Don't think ignoring it will get you anywhere, you really need to engage with them on this. I would go into the branch and speak to them in the first instance, if this gets you nowhere (it probably won't), then try to claim back the charges, citing your current financial difficulty.

If you just ignore it, they will treat it like a normal debt, the way it was amassed will be irrelevant

Niv

To answer your question, yes I do believe this to be wrong and dishonest.

You are also incorrect in stating that the OD is entirely made up of bank charges. It is not, by your own admission you had a bounced DD which caused you to enter your OD. That is not the banks fault.

I do not think ignoring this is wise, there was a thread recently where an irresponsible 19 (I think) year old had decided to ignore all letters from her bank and ended up with over £1k in charges. If you ignore it, it will get worse.

To add, just to play devil’s advocate here, the bank may not have successfully contacted you sooner regarding this, but you do say you moved house and changed your name, do you not agree that this could make it quite hard to track you down and inform you?

sgtbush

in a nutshell yes

sugarcube84

We had a similar thing with Santander when they took over our alliance and leicester account. They charged us for not depositing an amount one month which then took us overdrawn, the same the next month and the next month until suddenly it was £200 overdrawn. This actually wasn't our fault as we had confirmation that we closed the account after we had the first charge, but it applies to you as well. We offered to pay for the first charge and nothing else and close the account, they agreed and refunded the charges. So you can get them refunded. I wouldn't just ignore it though!

R_P_W

So, you were aware that a DD had bounced which sent you overdrawn - did you just ignore it? What did you think the bank would do?

You might be able to negotiate with the bank on this but if I was the bank I don't see why I should entertain the idea.

You can't dodge it, you can ignore it if you want but it will only get bigger!

Takingcontrol_2

Thanks for your replies I will try to reclaim the charges and if successful, I will then be able to pay the debt off and it will all be sorted.
No further charges have been added to the account in the past three years, which again I do find slightly odd, as they could easily have done so.
I did inform them of my change of address at the time (two years ago) and still heard nothing from them. My name change is also recent, I did give them my married name too but as I answered the phone with my maiden name they said I couldn't discuss the matter...Shame they couldn't have put the phone down and called me back so I could give my married name lol

Will start the ball rolling on claiming charges thanks for all your advice :beer:

denmandaisy

Hi

If you dont want to deal with it by youself, can I suggest you join Which (there's a deal for £8 a month - cancell after a couple of months) and get them to deal with this - there's a section in there that deals with these kinds of things esp where the debt is not from you spending - it was last months edition or the one before.
They also do a £20 offer on their legal advice, but appear to have been v successful wtih intervening on your behalf. (they also give you a blank letter from their website)

Good luck

SinSTAR360

Good luck!

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

I think if you do it properly they might remove a lot of the charges.

If you've got online banking, print off the statements or send a Subject Access Request to get copies of your bank statements.

Go back as far as when your account was being used and see what the balance was.

Highlight all the charges and add them up and say you're in financial hardship (if you are) and that they are compounding your debt. Explain to them that you want to put the account in order but their charges upon charges has made this impossible for you.

Calm and organised really DOES work.

Say you're willing to clear the original £25 charge but also point out that their charges caused more charges. Sometimes offering to clear the remainder and close the account the same day is a good incentive for them.

Normally banks have a fair fees policy. Do some research and see if they have one, print out a copy and take it with you.

That worked for me with HSBC - they weren't even following their own policy. I got £400 of unfair fees removed.

If they say they can't remove charges, say if they are able to apply them they can remove them and you would like to speak with someone who can work with you on this. Sometimes a branch manager has to authorise it, so if they offer you an appointment with a manager. Take it.

DCFC79

denmandaisy wrote: »

Hi

If you dont want to deal with it by youself, can I suggest you join Which (there's a deal for £8 a month - cancell after a couple of months) and get them to deal with this - there's a section in there that deals with these kinds of things esp where the debt is not from you spending - it was last months edition or the one before.
They also do a £20 offer on their legal advice, but appear to have been v successful wtih intervening on your behalf. (they also give you a blank letter from their website)

Good luck

Why pay someone else to do it, surely its simple to sort out.