NatWest

annifranakapan

Hi,

I've just been on the phone to Natwest to order my statements for the past 6 years. I was asked (nicely) why I needed the full six years of statements eg. what was the purpose.

When I said it was because I wanted to see what bank charges I'd paid the NatWest lady said that she could arrange for me to be sent a statement of my charges for the past 6 years and that it would save me trawling through loads of statments for the info.

She did explain that it would come on A4 sheets printed on both sides, but that it would contain all the info I wanted.

I hope that this is what I want anyone else received the info in this format?

Orford

She did explain that it would come on A4 sheets printed on both sides, but that it would contain all the info I wanted.

These should be fine. As she said it will save you trawling through loads of statments for the info.. The real reason of course is that it's cheaper and less hassle for the bank than to comply with a full DPA request.

There is the suspicion that these will be 'doctored', but other people's experience is that that is not generally the case.

retrochick

Hi, I put a claim in with Natwest in May 2007, they naturally took their time in contacting me. It took me sending a letter a day for over a week for them to reply. Then they came back with the court case news and said that they will not contact me or reply to my letters until the case is settled. I don't know what's going to happen and if I still stand a chance to get my money back. Please help if anyone knows...
I wrote to them to tell them about my change of address and asking for an update, they ignored me.
Should I contact them again or is there really no point? Is anyone at the same stage?

natweststaffmember

The current OFT test case is currently awaiting the the initial judgement. On the Acknowledgement letter for the OFT test case on hold letter, so to speak, is there a reference number? If yes write to the address where the response came from quoting that and advising of the change of address(I assume you have already informed the bank anyway if your account is still with NatWest).

philx_2

Hi, i'm assuming this is the correct forum for this.

To cut a long story short I opened a account with Natwest years ago but never used the account (threw my card away a couple of weeks after this). Forward a few years til now and I recieve a letter from their Birmingham collections centre (yesterday) asking me to call a number about my my account.

I call up what turns out to be a automated service which tells me I owe them £270 and I have 7 days in which to do so (the letter I recieved was dated 28th Feb).

I have NO idea why they've decided I owe them any money. This morning I went down to my local branch who tell me they can only give me details on my account which go back to October 2007 and there's nothing there! The lady at the information desk gives me a number to ring. Get home, ring that number (which turns out to be a direct number to the collections office) but they tell me they can only give me details going back to June 2007, in which I had a charge of around £30 (sorry, can't remember exactly what she said) and if I want to find out more I need to go to my local branch! Arrghh.

Just got off the phone with the local branch who tell me to get old statements printed it will cost £5 a time, but I obviously have no idea which month this all started! I don't even know which month/year I opened the account.

Really not sure what to do now other than coughing up £££ for old statements, but even then I know it will only reveal a Natwest mistake as I never used the account. I'm also slightly concerned that as far back as June they've noticed a problem but failed to contact me!

There is no way i'm giving them £270 when they can't even tell me why I owe them! I'm at a loss as to what step to take next, surely if they're going to take your money they have to tell you why! Any advice?

angellotz

well this information is from which, and it is about claiming back bank charges (which is why a lot of people need to get past 6 years worth of statements...)

Unless you have kept all your bank statements for this time, you will need to write to your bank and ask them to provide this information.
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 the bank must provide this information within forty days and they cannot charge you more than £10.
The bank may try to charge you more for providing copy statements (this charge is usually explained on the back of statements), but if you request a computer printout of charges, which is acceptable evidence, they cannot charge more than £10

so they cannot charge you £5 per statement - if they still won't give you these then you will need to go to the information commissioner http://www.ico.gov.uk/

philx_2

Ah! Thanks, ill ring back now!

natweststaffmember

that is odd, as they can go back 1 year on the natwest systems. mmmmm, something is not right to me. £30 could be a default notice. I think something triggered it ie either a DD or a cheque being returned unpaid. There is one other thing that it could be but I think it would be inappropriate to post on open forum without proof. Please get them to order copy statements from the date the account was opened and it will answer the question.

Restless_2

Hi all - I hope you can help me with a problem I've been experiencing with NatWest.

Last September, I was contacted by my local branch who were concerned about my overdraft debt and invited me to pop in and speak with an advisor. At this point, I believe I had a Graduate Account (even though I graduated in 2001) with a £5,000 interest-free overdraft which I was regularly maxing-out (but never exceeding or incurring charges).

The advisor went through my monthly income and outgoings and recommended that I upgrade my account to Advantage Gold. I was initially dubious about paying a monthly fee for banking, but the advisor persuaded me that the associated benefits would easily outweigh the £12 monthly fee. I asked her if any of the existing credit facilities on my account would change, but she assured me that my overdraft limit and rates would not be affected.

A month later, I checked my statement and was shocked to find that, along with the £12 account fee, I had also been charged just over £60 in overdraft interest charges. I immediately contacted my branch to dispute this charge, only to be told that the Advantage Gold account has an interest-fee overdraft limit of £100 and any additional overdraft up to the agreed £5,000 was being provided at an annual interest rate of 19.4%.

I asked if I could cancel the Advantage Gold account and go back to my old account but was told that, as the 14-day cooling-off period had elapsed, this was not possible and that, due to the size of my overdraft, they would be unwilling to move me to a standard current account.

I've spent the past six months trying to clear the overdraft and have managed to reduce it to around £3,000. Should I continue trying clearing the overdraft whilst continuing to pay the monthly £12 fee? Would any other banks be willing to transfer my account (along with the outstanding overdraft) at a cheaper rate? Or would it be better to take out a low-rate loan to clear the remaining overdraft before looking around for other accounts? Despite (or perhaps because of) this overdraft problem, my credit rating is actually very good.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

natweststaffmember

Ok, the advantage gold 14 day cooling off period is total nonsense. If you had a £5000.00 overdraft, it was not a student/graduate account because the interest free bit is £2000 on year 1 of graduation. I would check your statements prior to the advantage gold conversion and see how much interest you were paying because there is no such thing as interest free overdraft at £5000. You would have had a current plus account. I do think you have a cause for asking for the £12 charges back due to misselling(the 14 day thingy is total rubbish). The overdraft interest rate was reduced as a result of it being converted. My gut feeling is that the branch were trying to avoid something called "clawback". THat means the branch loses points against its branch sales target if an Advantage gold account is converted back within the first 90 days of the account. THere is huge benefits to be made from the account but only if you use them. The likelyhood is that another bank will give you a cheaper overdraft if your credit rating is as good as it would appear to be.