URGENT! Please Help! Natwest Demanding I Repay Whole Overdraft!

subinagui

Hi there,

I haven't visited for a while but I was contacted yesterday by Natwest and am in a pickle and don't know what to do about it! If anybody can offer suggestions or advice I would greatly appreciate it!

They called yesterday (22 / 05/ 08) asking that I repay around £1150 ish under their terms and conditions of a student bank account and 0% overdraft. I think they are right about this as it is a 2nd account and my Student Loan did not get paid into it for the past 3 years (I am weeks away from graduation).

I do not have money to pay for my Grad Ball ticket or graduation gown, let alone their whole overdraft and really don't know what I am going to say when this guy calls back at 4pm today (23 / 05/ 08).

When he called the first time he was telling me to ask family and friends for the money, and to put it on their credit cards, "...a good way of doing it...", and even asked if I had a credit card with another bank. He also advised me that If i could not pay the whole amount, and paid "...everything that could afford..." and they felt that it was everything I could afford then they could work out some sort of short timescale to repay the rest.

Pretty please can somebody advise me what I should tell him when he calls back? This was going to be the first thing I cleared this summer when I get a full time job!

thanks, Jason

nimbo

good luck sweetie Abbey did this to me in the second year of uni...

i offered them £100 a month, and they said no!!!! i called my mother frantically who beat them down to £30 a month!!!! took ages topay back and they threatened to take me to court for it, and she just pointed out that a judge would give them £10 (ish) a month as i was still at uni.

do your best ti give them something, as it is in the small print that you should pay your laon into the account, (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing??) i know you want to get tickets to graduation and ans the ball, but even if you could just bung them £100 then it may keep them sweet long enough to get some kind of job in thoses few weeks...

i know it's really hard, and good luck!!!!

nimbo

do they still do £500 emergency loans???

i got one of them in my third year, you have to fill certain criteria and ours were awarded by the student services people, and they only have a small budget, but even if they could just give you £150 to tide you over it might be a help... ours used to get tageed on to your student loan, but there were some grant type ones available sometimes...

Badger_Lady

^ Yep - a token amount should hold them off for long enough until you at least start your job and can continue to pay it back. They will try to get as much as possible out of you, but they can't ask you to take out additional borrowing in order to do so (and neither should you - take out a loan with interest to pay off a loan at 0%???).

When he calls back, just be polite and helpful, explain the situation in full and offer an amount to start with (however small), making it clear that's all you can afford at the moment but you will increase it when you start your job.

They'd be fools to ignore you!

Blacksheep1979

They'll threaten you with court, debt collectors, a default on your credit record etc etc etc but at the end of the day they'll be losing out financially if they do any of this as debt collectors will pay them a fraction of what you owe them and the courts will only make you pay what you can afford. Be polite and honest and you should be fine.

Voyager2002

If they refuse your offer, the process of taking you to court would take around two months. So you could ignore the situation until after your exams, and then contact them as soon as you had an income and come to some arrangement. So the most important thing is to ensure that you do not allow this to worry you and affect your exam performance.

BTW did the guy call back? And what did you tell him?

pinkshoes

If you already have another student account with another bank that your loan is paid into, then Natwest are 100% right, as you have broken their terms and conditions on having a student loan. I'm surprised they didn't ask for the money back earlier!

Could you not get a job for now?? Sell some stuff on ebay? One of my mates sold loads of her clothes on ebay to fund the final term at uni, then got herself a stunning ball dress from a charity shop for £10! Offer Natwest what you can... you want to try and avoid this going to court, as not only will you then have to pay all the court and admin fees, it'll also ruin your credit rating!

Blacksheep1979

going to court (and losing) only harms your credit rating if you don't pay within 1-2 weeks (can't remember off top of my head) of judgement.

subinagui

Thanks for all the advice folks! The guy called back, at 4pm yesterday, and accepted £90 for starters on the condition that regular money was going to be going in (and out) of the account again soon. It hasnt been active for like 3 years so i guess im quite lucky in that sense!

Valley's_girl

I am glad you have managed to sort it out.
Best wishes
Ally xx

Allan87

I don't pay my loan into my student account with Natwest, neither do the terms and conditions demand it. On their website they say you only have to deposit regular amounts, so I setup a standing order of £1 to be paid into the account monthly. I think as long as their computers see that your account is active its not flagged.