Please help - Natwest Current and Student Account

SLane24

myHello all, please please can someone help? I'm sat at home in tears and I have no idea if anyone can advise me...
So in 2005 I opened a current account with Natwest and when I started uni in 2007 I was told I had to open a Student Account, which I did.

I went overdrawn and during the times I was in work, I was getting paid into my regular current account and putting in money (whatever I could afford) into my Student one.

I was beginning to make a really difference with it when I was made redundant in April of this year and I was about £100 over my overdraft limit in the student one
So I had to move back to the West Midlands and I have been on JSA since and haven't been able to pay off what I owe - my JSA has been paid again into my current account and I was trying to pay mere pennies into my account.

All the time I have been on JSA I was being charged fees (which I have read more than once is illegal...is that right??) and interest charges and the bank could see from my income that I am on JSA.

The reason I am now so angry and in tear is because they closed my current account which had JSA money in it and they have transfered it into this account which is overdrawn and I have no money whatsoever.

If anyone can advise me - I was thinking of going to CAB tomorrow and the bank. Am I able to open another account with another bank? This is driving me to despair :'(
I have a partner living in Wiltshire and I am in the Midlands and I have no money to see him. It's bad enough being on JSA without banks taking it away.

Many thanks in advance x

grumbler

SLane24 wrote: »

myHello all, please please can someone help? I'm sat at home in tears and I have no idea if anyone can advise me...
So in 2005 I opened a current account with Natwest and when I started uni in 2007 I was told I had to open a Student Account, which I did.

I went overdrawn

This sounds like you blame Natwest for getting overdrawn.

and during the times I was in work, I was getting paid into my regular current account and putting in money (whatever I could afford) into my Student one.

I was beginning to make a really difference with it when I was made redundant in April of this year and I was about £100 over my overdraft limit in the student one

Does this mean that even when you were working after finishing the Uni you remained overdrawn over the agreed limit?!

So I had to move back to the West Midlands and I have been on JSA since and haven't been able to pay off what I owe - my JSA has been paid again into my current account and I was trying to pay mere pennies into my account.

All the time I have been on JSA I was being charged fees (which I have read more than once is illegal...is that right??) and interest charges and the bank could see from my income that I am on JSA.

>> Is bank charges reclaiming back?

The reason I am now so angry and in tear is because they closed my current account which had JSA money in it and they have transfered it into this account which is overdrawn and I have no money whatsoever.

If anyone can advise me - I was thinking of going to CAB tomorrow and the bank.

>> Dont Bank With Debts
Do read the article as most likely you can claim some money back.

Am I able to open another account with another bank?

This depends on many factors, mainly on your credit history. Generally, I don't see why you could be not able to get a basic account without an overdraft: Basic Bank Accounts

Dobbibill

Sounds like Natwest are closing your account due to being over your overdraft and should have given you 60 days notice of this. Did you speak to them and explain your situation? You should be able to get a basic account elsewhere which has all the functions of a debit card to use for chip & pin transactions and ATM withdrawals, just no cheque book or overdraft feature. Do this ASAP so that you can access your JSA via this new account. Explain to Natwest your current situations so that they know that you are unable to pay off the outstanding overdraft at this time. The debt on the closed account is not going to just disappear, it will just be sent to recoveries or a DCA so make sure you address it, even though it cannot be paid yet.

Unfortunately travelling to your partner is not practical just at the moment. Can they travel to see you instead? Do they have the funds to do it instead?

Hope this helps.

DB

bengal-stripe

SLane24 wrote: »

........and when I started uni in 2007 I was told I had to open a Student Account, which I did.

Surely, you can't be still a student, some seven years later?

knack92

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Surely, you can't be still a student, some seven years later?

Presumably the student account changed back to a regular current account with the existing arranged overdraft but not at 0%.

SLane24

Hi all, thank you so much for your responses, they've made me feel so much better

Bengal-stripe, I am not, no - I left my uni in Bristol in 2011 and had worked in a Medical Records department in the Midlands, then gained work for a press agency back in Bristol then worked for the Co-Op before I was made redundant this year.

DB, thank you I will open a new account. Will do so in the morning. My partner is great, he's able to head up to see me some weekends but not all. But I do feel guilty when I don't go to his when he can't always come here.

Grumbler - I most definitely wasn't blaming the bank, I was just telling you all how it happened.
Thank you for posting the links to me, I shall read all of them with a clear head

Thank you all so much, you have all been really helpful x

knack92

SLane24 wrote: »

Hi all, thank you so much for your responses, they've made me feel so much better

Bengal-stripe, I am not, no - I left my uni in Bristol in 2011 and had worked in a Medical Records department in the Midlands, then gained work for a press agency back in Bristol then worked for the Co-Op before I was made redundant this year.

DB, thank you I will open a new account. Will do so in the morning. My partner is great, he's able to head up to see me some weekends but not all. But I do feel guilty when I don't go to his when he can't always come here.

Grumbler - I most definitely wasn't blaming the bank, I was just telling you all how it happened.
Thank you for posting the links to me, I shall read all of them with a clear head

Thank you all so much, you have all been really helpful x

I really hope you can get this sorted quickly.

From your first post I get the impression what was your student account is still open. Is this correct and is it within within your arranged overdraft?

Once you get things sorted you should definitely avoid going into unarranged overdraft again as this is when the charges really stack up. Here's what NatWest say about them:

An Unarranged Overdraft is where you spend more money than you have in your current account and haven't agreed an Arranged Overdraft limit beforehand. You’ll also go into an Unarranged Overdraft if you go over the agreed limit of your Arranged Overdraft, if you have one.

Using an Unarranged Overdraft by more than £6 means you'd be charged charged an Unarranged Overdraft Usage Fee of £6 each day that you remain more than £6 in an Unarranged Overdraft, and it should always try to be avoided.

The fee is capped at 15 fees per charging period (£90). A charging period runs from month to month, usually from the date that the account was opened.

Armorica

Banks aren't very fond of someone having a student account alongside another account.

In theory, your student account could have been closed at the end of university, or converted into a graduate and then current account.