Claiming charges Natwest

bambi1980_2

Hi All,
My partner had a current account (unsure which one) with Natwest over 6 years ago. He got into financial difficulty in that he sold a guitar to someone on an auction site. This person paid with a cheque. My partner had put this cheque into his account and when he believed that it had cleared (and it showed as cleared) he withdrew some of the money.

This happened on a Friday and come Monday he was made aware that the cheque was stolen and Natwest demanded that he pay back the money that he had withdrawn.

He refused and this began a long winded dispute with them. They said that the money hadn't cleared but he argued that it had. This went on for some time and meanwhile frequent charges were added to his account. In a nutshell he ended up going to the Ombudsmen but unfortunately lost the case and was forced to repay all the charges he had accrued. Well to this day this still isn't fully repaid, charges likely to be in the 1000's.

There is more to the story but I don't want to bore anyone.

We have approached Natwest for a list of the charges he accrued but they are trying to make it as difficult as possible and are going to send statements which he will have to go through himself to work out the charges.

Is there any point in all of this? As all this went on over 6 years ago. At the time it did push my partner into financial hardship and he ended up having to set up a repayment plan, he also narrowly avoided bankruptcy.

Will he have a case with it being so long ago? Are Natwest usually so difficult with these sorts of cases?

Regards

[Deleted User]

I'd say you have no chance whatever with this..

antrobus

bambi1980 wrote: »

...Is there any point in all of this?

Not really.

The Ombudsman has already made their ruling. If your husband is currently in financial hardship, he can seek a goodwill gesture from Nat West.

P.S. My best guess would be that the original dispute arose over a misunderstanding over the cheque clearance process and the 2-4-6 rules. A cheque clears on day 2, you can withdraw the money on day 4, but you have to wait until day 6 before you can be sure that the cheque won't bounce.