Debt collection called about going beyond overdraft limit - what to do?

joshtbh

Hi all,

A friend has asked me paniced today about a call he had from an independant debt collector saying they're working on behalf of Natwest bank. My friend has recently gone over his £1k overdraft limit by mistake to the tune of £600, and this debt collection company said they had they had bought the debt of Natwest.

This debt collection company said to my friend that they need to personally collect the debit card and chequebook for the account as they've been cancelled (phonecall to Natwest late tonight confirmed the card has been cancelled) but the staff at Natwest don't know till tomorrow what is going on with this.

In addition to this before my friend knew about the card being cancelled, they rang Natwest yesterday and arranged a £2k overdraft, which was accepted over the phone, and was told it would take 48 hours to complete.

My friend is panicked right now and wondered if I could post on MSE to see what peoples thoughts on this were please? He doesn't like people calling him (called to a number he didn't think he'd given out to the bank in the first place) and told him about transactions he'd made. Any advice/thoughts please welcome!

dobbie82

a bank would not sell a debt until it had gone on for months and months of chasing by phone and letter, sounds very dodgy...

joshtbh

dobbie82 wrote: »

a bank would not sell a debt until it had gone on for months and months of chasing by phone and letter, sounds very dodgy...

Thanks for the reply. I must admit, I would have thought my friend would have at least been contacted regarding the fact they had gone over their overdraft before involving any third parties....I know its best to just wait till the bank open tomorrow at 9am, but my friend is very nervous as you can imagine.

blue_monkey_2

There is no way I would hand the cards over. In fact I would cut it into tiny pieces and THEN hand it to then. While they are there they should call the bank and confirm who these people are BEFORE letting them in. F they are in any doubt then call the police but do not give anything over to these people. They would have had letters asking them to repay the debt before sending someone in. Sounds to me like a letter has been intercepted in the mail and these people know the card has been cancelled - maybe a new one is being issued - and they have the card.

Very fishy. if in doubt, call the bank and then call the Police to let them know this has happened, around here they are always asking we inform them and they post letters locally to let other people know of scams and what not to do.

This time last year I had a call from 'my bank' asking me if my card was in my possession and I said yes and they asked me to confirm the last 4 digits, i said if they were from the bank they would know and I said I would not not. They got very aggressive with me and said people would call me every 5 minutes asking me as they were after my confirming the information. I said fine, I was calling the bank to check on them, bank had never heard of them and they never called again. It is coming up to Xmas - I am sure the scammers will be out in force as they think the transactions they put through will get lost amongst your Xmas shopping transactions.

rog2

Debt Collection Agencies are NOT generally the nicest people to deal with, in spite of what some posters from within that sub-culture may intimate.
Even if the debt collection Agency is working under the explicit instructions of NatWest, your friend still has rights, which these 'people' must respect.
They actually have Little or No Legal Powers and can only visit a 'debtor's' home by prior arrangement, unless it is to establish that the alleged 'debtor' actually lives at that address.
Even if they turn up for a pre-arranged meeting, they still have no legal power other than to ask the debtor for payment and they must leave immediately when requested to do so.
For more advice on how these 'people' should behave, have a look at:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

Your friend would be well advised to post a thread on the DFW Forum, where he will get sound and non-judgemental advice from many posters who have been in the same position.

dmg24

Debt Collection Agencies are NOT generally the nicest people to deal with, in spite of what some posters from within that sub-culture may intonate.

Who has said otherwise?!!

ampersand

'intimate' here....

rog2 wrote: »

'in spite of what some posters from within that sub-culture may intonate.'
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf
Your friend would be well advised to post a thread on the DFW Forum, where he will get sound and non-judgemental advice from many posters who have been in the same position.

Not being pedantic, just clarifying - you have given helpful, supportive info.

rog2

ampersand wrote: »

'intimate' here....

Not being pedantic, just clarifying - you have given helpful, supportive info.

You are quite correct, &. I will edit my post, in order to avoid any unintended misunderstanding.
Thank you. :T

System

Tootsie_Roll wrote: »

Change the record you sad boring man. Yawn !!

It's quite sad to see this bickering in what should be a friendly and supportive environment.

And you do seem to be involved in quite a lot of bickering matches!!

UNDERGROUND

Tootsie_Roll

UNDERGROUND wrote: »

It's quite sad to see this bickering in what should be a friendly and supportive environment.

And you do seem to be involved in quite a lot of bickering matches!!

UNDERGROUND

Why do you not single out Rog2 as well/instead of me. He gets more posts deleted than me due to his ranting.

System

Tootsie_Roll wrote: »

Why do you not single out Rog2 as well/instead of me. He gets more posts deleted than me due to his ranting.

Yeah, fair enough!!

UNDERGROUND