Old Natwest Debt HELP

Sashakins

Hi nice people in my phone, looking for some advice please.
The problem is an old Natwest overdraft debt.
Back in 2013 we were really struggling due to my husband having a serious back problem which resulted in a major operation and a very long time not working.
Claiming incapacity benefit at the time approx £90 pw my earnings as werent the best either but we managed the best we could.
We wrote to all our creditors advising of the situation Inc statement of earnings to each.
At the time he also had a credit card and overdraft with Natwest.
Anyway we worked out a payment plan with Natwest £5 pm on cc, and £10 pm on overdraft and were told any interest would be frozen.
The payments continued on each but they sold the cc debt to a recovery all still fine payment plan arranged.
But the overdraft another story.
The acc not used at all since then as the payments were still being paid figured all ok.
Still paying £10 pm to this day and until recently no contact.
Then completely out of the blue my husband receives a text message saying the acc is about to go over the overdraft limit?
I said that as we'd been paying it for all this time it should have nearly finished the debt was about £1k and not to worry just contact them and explain.
The branch doesn't do face to face app anymore so all over phone.
Hubby not the best at calling people either but they wouldn't talk to me.
It turns out they have been charging £6 interest each month so oly £4 being pd off debt, and now its £50- £60 interest pm! Interest not frozen at all.
They say there is a letter saying they froze it for 3 months but that's all, of this we were not aware.
My question is surely when you ask for help and they agree they should have been in contact at some stage and maybe have some kind duty of care, not just let it continue to aqrue interest, 
Contact details still the same.
We just thought as the payments were being taken still no issue, apart from the odd time when we thought it should have been paid by now. 
Obviously ok to pay original debt but interest charges I think are unfair given the circumstances.
Believe it or not at the time they actually sold him a Gold Bank account, totally mis sold, which once I got wind of cancelled.
Bank say all has to be paid or they will continue adding charges.
Not sure what to do we can't afford to pay charges as well and to be honest even if could get my hands on that money would still question it as totally unreasonable.
Also they sold the cc debt why did they not do the same with the overdraft debt?
Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Aylesbury_Duck

I think you need proper help.  Your husband needs to speak to the bank.  What paperwork have you got from the point at which the payments were agreed?  Haven't you had annual statements, so you could have spotted the debt rising instead of falling?  Is it possible that your husband has received regular statements or letters and has ignored them, misunderstood them or just hoped they'd gone away?

It doesn't really matter what you think they should have done, it's what your husband agreed with them that they would do, and whether the bank is acting in accordance with that agreement.

The gold bank account is a separate matter you may wish to complain about, but I can't see the relevance of it to your current problem.

eskbanker

Sashakins said:

Anyway we worked out a payment plan with Natwest £5 pm on cc, and £10 pm on overdraft and were told any interest would be frozen.

[...]

They say there is a letter saying they froze it for 3 months but that's all, of this we were not aware.

Is there nothing in writing that backs up your version of events either?

Sashakins

Thankyou for your reply, much appreciated.
No, husband not ignored etc, we've been through his email acc including junk files, no contact.
It was so long ago guessing we must have had a letter at some point but if not what we'd agreed I'd have questioned it at the time.
He has called them but just a bank person who sounded like she was following a flow chart, not helpful at all.
Think I'll write to the bank see what happens,  there must be some banking code they have to follow for people in trouble.

born_again

If they had said that no more interest would be paid on the O/D & account frozen. Then you would have had to sign for that. As you would be defaulting on the debt. Anything else would be a short term offset to help in the short term.

Was the account not checked (Statements received, even annual ones) showing the balance of the account?

Sashakins

IThanks for your message.
I'm sure we would have signed something at some point but can't find anything related, they don't have anything either.
What I do know is if help was only for a limited time I would have followed it up along with all the others we had at the time.
No, no statements or letters received, all contact details the same.

molerat

You need to start with a formal complaint, the procedure will be on the website.

Your point would be that you were under the impression that the debt was frozen and no interest was being incurred and you have kept up with the agreed payment plan.

The ball is then in their court to provide an explanation and documentation.

Brie

Write to the bank and ask for a full record of the account and a complete subject access request (SAR).  

This should include any letter they have written to you regarding this account since at least 2013 but don't specify the start date so you can see how far back you can get any info.

There should be all bank statement plus annual statements that they should have been sending you by post, not email.  

They should also have been making it clear that you were in continuous serious debt and approached you a few years back about this.  

What I find particularly challenging is how they say you went from being charged £6 a month to £50+.  This would have to be a change in T&Cs of some sort and again this should have been sent to you by post.  

Once you have all the information about what they did (& possibly didn't) do then you will need to write them stating you are making a complaint due to the financial difficulties they have caused through their lack of communication and failure to take account of your vulnerable situation.

Brie

Hubby not the best at calling people either but they wouldn't talk to me.

Best thing to do in this situation is to ring the bank, have hubby tell them he gives permission to talk to you and then you take over the call.  (been there, done that so often!!)   Also when you get a chance write to them and get hubby to sign a letter stating that he gives permission for you to deal with all discussions in person, on the phone or in writing for the account.

fyi - assuming this is at least 8 years - that's at least £960 you have paid so yes one would think it was finished now.  If you had been charged £6 interest each month after the first 3 at no interest you'd still owe about £500.  But still - how does £6 become £50+ without communicating that to you??

born_again

I get how the interest rate changed from very low % to the 30 to 40% O/D have had since April 2020. But as @Brie You should have received something on this, at least around 3 months prior to this. 
Or did you & simply did not think that the change applied to you?

https://www.fca.org.uk/data/changes-overdraft-charges

Sashakins

Thankyou to all you lovely people for your comments and suggestions all of which have been well noted.
born-again thanks for the link, but no, no correspondence received from them at all.