£700 in bank charges in a month - Help!

jessie15

Hi, Can someone please help as I am out of my depth and very stressed out! We are in a lot of debt which we are in the process of sorting out. Me and my husband have had a joint account which we have had for 21 yrs with Natwest which is £3000 overdrawn, we were advised to open another account with a different bank in case Natwest decided to take my husbands wages one month, so my husband opened an account with Barclays which his wages are now paid into. My husband spoke to Natwest advising them of the situation that we were in with debt and they suggested opening another account and transfering £1200 each month to pay direct debits, which he did (very stupidly). In January my husband received a call from Natwest advising him that they were taking our £1200 to pay towards our overdraft on the other account, they had 'words', hubby told them if they did this we would not be able to pay our direct debits and asked them to cancel them to which they agreed to do, although in the end Natwest did not take any money from this account but never informed us? Today we have had a statement from Natwest with nearly £700 of charges due to unpaid direct debits for one month!! My husband went into our local branch (spoke to Manager) who said tough basically, that it was up to him to cancel the direct debits not them, hubby pointed out to him his conversation with a Natwest employee and he said there was no record of this taking place! Hubby asked why we had not received any letters from Natwest letting us know of these charges mounting up and he said we must have had some and that someone must be intercepting our post! The only thing he could suggest is that we had an emergency loan to pay charges off at a cost of approx £250 per month, hubby pointed out that we am struggling to pay our essential bills how can we be expected to pay that - The manager could not offer any more help. Can they really get away with this? Please help as I can not sleep because of it.

ald65

Hi Jessie

I am afraid that I am not able to give any advice, however just wanted to say that you have definately come to the right place for help. Hang in there and someone with a lot more expertise will be on line shortly and be able to give you the advice that you need

all_hours

first dont get stressed.

is his income + direct debits all going through barclays now. if so breathe, relax + treat the overdraft as any other debt.

put up an soa including income, all expenses, outstanding debts with aprs + limits on credit cards. see the link to the budget planner at the top of this forum to remind you of all outgoings + use the first post in this thread as a guide - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

from now on put all communication with natwest in writing. write to them and say you dispute the charges as you had been told the direct debits were canceled.

i hope someone can offer you advice for the current situation regarding claiming bank charges.

jessie15

Many thanks for the replies so far - Please help as I feel desperate!!

WorkingHardDFW

Just wanted to say Hi

I think if your OH's salary and all your bills are now with Barclays you need to deal with Nat West as with any other debt.

I know how it feels. We've got a massive OD which each month goes to the limit and I dread the bank calling it in. Additionally we've got massive credit cards bills as well .

I think you need to post your SOA on here so all the experts can have a look through and advise on what can be cut, reduced etc.

Good luck

jessie15

Has anyone got any advise for me? Please Help!!

wyebird

I would write to nat west head office customer complaints and explain everything as you have done here and ask for the charges to be refunded.
Do you have any other charges that you could claim back from them? If so, I might be tempted to persue them later after sorting out the immediate problem.