Help needed RE Overdraft default

LindsW

Hi All

Looking for some advice and hoping one of you can help!

My situation is that I have a defaulted account with Barclays, registered as defaulted in July 2013.
I had an agreed interest free overdraft limit of £1200, as I was a student at the time & held a student account with them. I also held a student account with Natwest at the same time & was using the Natwest account as my main day to day account.
The problem started when my car broke and needed a shed loads of repairs done to it. At the time, I thought it was a good idea (but really wasn't) to use my overdraft on my Barclays Account to pay for it. This took me to the maximum allowed limit, and my Barclays account was then £1200 overdrawn.
Being a student I didn't have any money to start paying it off, and so after a few months went into the barclays branch to check I wasn't being charged for it. They mentioned there was very little activity on the account and I said I used a natwest student account as my main account. The Barclays branch employee then advised me that you were not allowed to have 2 student accounts at the same time, and said my account would have to be switched to their regular account.
Around the same time I moved house several times within a few months & did not update my address with anyone (stupid I know) because I knew I'd only be at 1 place for a month at a time or so then moving onto the next.
Of course during this time my account had been switched & barclays started charging me interest for using the overdraft. The interest being applied then pushed me over the agreed overdraft limit, the total interest charges over a period of time in the end took the balance to £1338 overdrawn, where they then froze the account and applied the default.
I was never told about the fact I would be charged by the lady in branch when she told me the above about the mandatory switching of accounts. Nor did I receive any notice (more my fault for not updating addresses maybe).
Do I have any grounds for having the default removed, as I only went over my agreed limit once they switched my account and started charging interest? I was told that defaults are not fairly applied if the default is made up of charges/interest only, is this correct if you are using part of your overdraft already? I may have all the wrong information, so just looking for guidance.
I am aware of the error I made RE the address changes & have also settled the default anyway. The rest of my credit file & other commitments have been perfectly maintained (past loans, HP agreements etc) and this one default is ruining my chances of getting a mortgage.

sourcrates

Hi,
With an overdraught, there are no set repayments, but, the bank can recall it, at any time, as it appears it did.
Unless you had repaid it in full, or come to an arrangement to repay it, then the bank has every right to issue you with a default notice, and place a default on your credit file.
Your constant change of address will not of helped your situation I suspect.

If you feel you have grounds to make a complaint, then do so, as its your only avenue to get this resolved.
I suspect the bank will say you should of had up to date contact information, then the whole issue could of been avoided.

Lemonsqueezer78

Unfortunately I really think you have little or no grounds for complaint in this case. Regardless of what the lady in the branch may or may not have told you about the new account, the bank would have been sending you regular statements for your account. Had you updated them with your change of address you would have received these statements and seen there was interest being applied which you could have queried. That is obviously also where any default notice would have been sent too.

It is hardly the banks fault that you essentially abandoned an account with them that had an amount owing on it... They could not have reasonably done more here in my view...