Bank putting an unauthorised overdraft on account with no notice.

dunstonh

Just because they put a facility on that account, didnt mean your mum had to use it. Natwest are not required to keep evidence of overdraft requests so shouldnt be expected to provide evidence.

Bank statements are sent monthly and the cashpoints give balances. It is your mother's responsibility to run her own account. Not Natwests.

You dont just go to the cashpoint machine and keep withdrawing money until the machine says no.

meester

How old is she? I would complain using the 'abuse of senile old woman' line. I'm sure you could get somewhere with that.

Flowers

dunstonh wrote: »

Just because they put a facility on that account, didnt mean your mum had to use it. Natwest are not required to keep evidence of overdraft requests so shouldnt be expected to provide evidence.

Bank statements are sent monthly and the cashpoints give balances. It is your mother's responsibility to run her own account. Not Natwests.

You dont just go to the cashpoint machine and keep withdrawing money until the machine says no.

Dunstonh - which part of your reply do you think is actully helpful?

I welcome any Practical solutions. :-)

Mark7799

29.8% sounds like an unauthorised borrowing rate, not an authorised one.

For practical advice, I would ask your mother to give you a formal authority to discuss the account with NatWest and arrange to meet with them yourself to try and find out exactly what has happened.

Without wishing to sound unkind, I would also suggest try and spend time teaching your mother how a bank account works - it seems from what you have posted that she either doesn't understand or doesn't want to know. Maybe you need to take a control of the account as it seems like she hasn't.

dunstonh

Flowers wrote: »

Dunstonh - which part of your reply do you think is actully helpful?

I welcome any Practical solutions. :-)

No you dont. You appear to want people to agree with you and find a way to say that Natwest were wrong. Sorry, they are not.

Flowers

Anyway!

I guess I will look around for a good loan. I will try and go in to the branch myself, but I don't hold much luck of them being helpful!

Thanks for the helpful solutions and advice.

natweststaffmember

Flowers, all the points that others have made, I could not add to. It has taken a long time for your mother to speak to you it appears from your post.
The summary of what people have said is:
Your mother spent more money that she has coming in and it could be over a long period of time.
The overdraft of £1500 would appear to suggest that it has consistently or persistantly been over that amount.
Was any of her regular income not going in?
Does she budget each month?
Has any of her income dropped in the last 18 months?
How does your mother normally use her account? Does she stop spending when her card stops(some people do this)?
I think more information needs to had.
Have you viewed your mothers statements yet?
This is not necessarily about blame but £1500 overdraft used, and then probably at least £1000 in charges/interest.
Has there been any suspicious transaction on the account?

These are the sorts of questions that are not answered in your post. This may sound unkind, but you need to view the whole picture(it is very difficult with family, I know).

Dylanwing

Unfortunately, not everybody is as financially astute as some posters on here. What Nat West did used to be policy, to avoid hassle in reviewing the acount, and reduce charges. I would have thought that the tightening of credit regulations might have stopped this practice.
I find Nat Wests reaction to be very poor, clearly your Mother has not been totally innocent, but neither has the Bank acted particularly smartly. It clearly has to be repaid, but I'm sure they could accept some responsibility and do a loan at a lot better APR than that. If they won't negotiate, try the CAB - They might not look too kindly on the Bank treating an elderly lady in such a high-handed way.
Let's hope that common sense and compromise prevail.

BlondBoy

With Dylanwing here.

Ultimately, when you read a messageboard post like this, one tends to visualise things from one's own experience, and I can certainly see my dear old mum getting into trouble like this. She's what you'd call, I suppose, financially illiterate and if the money kept coming out of a cashpoint, she'd just presume it was hers to spend and everything was rosy in the garden. She'd never dream of making a balance enquiry. Thank goodness my old man looks after the money...

Assuming no letters have come saying 'you're £856 over your overdraft limit' that your mum's not telling you about for fear or embarrassment and the overdraft was never requested in the first place, I'd hope, just on a human level, that NatWest will work with you to take the overdraft down manageably.

The idea of getting you authorised to deal with it on your mum's behalf is a good one, I think, and would hopefully take some of the pressure off your mum who probably feels rotten. I'd be going to NatWest and say, look, let's be human about this, eh? There's (by the sounds) some wrong on both sides here so can't we work something mutually acceptable?

The money's got to be repaid, no doubt, but really hope you can reach amicable terms on how long that takes and how much per month for both sides and you can just call it a lesson learned. APRs in the 20%s are horrible in this case and I'd hope NatWest would agree. Like I say, could certainly see my mum doing this completely innocently in the circumstances outlined, and if the facility was not requested, NatWest have a moral responsibility, in my opinion, to reflect that when making a deal.

Best of luck with it. Certainly strikes a chord with me and there's a bit of 'there for the grace of God go I' about it.



Chris

meester

Is she very old/senile?

I have no doubt the bank will come to a much better arrangement if it is handled along these lines.

Banks are worried about reputational risk, and don't really like these things being publicised in the media.

I would look to get existing interest charges waived and a sensible repayment schedule at a sensible rate of say 7%.