help! bank keep charging me and its getting out of control

tessibear

has anybody got any ideas or have solved a problem like mine before
when we were living in the south west i decided to open up a bank account the same as my husband and leave my nat west account dormant nothing going in or out of it. last year we then move to scotland and then six months later bought a house. just after christmas the bank out of nowhere phoned me, how they got my number i dont know as its ex dir, asked if i was aware that the account was £600+ in arrears and that i had made no attempt to contact the branch despite letters being sent to me, totally unknown to me and all properties had a redirection service in place. they are demanding i pay it all back which i simply cannot afford. even with a payment plan in place it was costly and because i broke that agreement because i couldnt afford it one month lumped more charges on me, now they want to refer this case on to collections and give me a default for the next six years.
now surely these charges are unlawful and given the fact that i was totally unaware of what was happening to my account, surely there is something i can do that would stop me having to pay these and prevent the default from happening. when spoken to the bank it was a cheque that had been issued along time ago that was presented causing this initial charge to happen, please if any body has some answers i would be very grateful. its all spiralling out of controll.:EasterBun

Valley's_girl

Hi Tess :hello:
Could you go the CAb and get some advice from them, I am sure they will be able to help you.
Somebody will be along shortly with some good advice for you, I know it is easy for me to say but try not to worry.
Good luck
Ally xx

mummyemma

You can claim back all the charges on your account, there is a forum all about doing it on this website and they will be able to help you. You should also be able to get your default notice removed if you can prove that the reason you got the default was because of these charges. I hope that helps

Emma

tessibear

thankyou for your help, the bank are calling back this arvo to try and persuade me a loan (high apr i dare say) but i dont want that cos that is more debt for something the bank has done or do i agree to a payment plan hoping i can afford it to prevent any action temporarilly and hope something can be resolved in the meantime, help i dont know what the best option would be.

tessibear

thanks emma, i have already got a claim going through for the charges and had a reply last week saying they hope to respond within 6-7 weeks but i need some help now to stop this default and collections happening. x

mummyemma

How much is your claim for?? Ie will the claim cover the costs of what they are saying you owe?? I could be wrong but if the account is in dispute I dont think they can do anything but I am really not sure. Def dont agree to any loans with them. When they phone this afternoon I would explain to them that the account is in dispute. Of course you dont have to answer to phone to them if you dont want to.

Sorry not much help hopefully someone who knows a little more will be along very soon

Emma

tessibear

ove £3000 thats inc. interest, which of course im not proud of. i said yesterday to the bank that i was taking legal action to claim it back but they just fobbed me off basically and still wanted what is outstanding paid back. i am sure itll work out soon enough. youve been a great help though x