Cheddar Vs Natwest (round 2 ding ding!) ***WON***

[cheddar]

LOL! Well after last years mammoth claim we're at it again. Unfortunate spiral of charges totalling £164, customer service refusing to budge at all ever these days.

Story so far:

Prelim and schedule sent 4th July 2007

as of today no reply, LBA printed and ready to send.

Will keep you all informed.

ched

[hedgey06]

Welcome (back) Cheddar!

Well............ if you've done it all once before with nasty west, you know the drill! And they've probably not changed much since you last stepped into the ring with them either!

Best of luck

[cheddar]

Lol thanks Hedgy yeah done it all before over a year ago! Nice to be back on the site after many ups and downs but maybe not so nice for it to be for this reason! LOL! Ah well i'll get there I know i will!

Cheers!

[phill123]

GOOD LUCK cheddar and have fun i am in the same situation as you but for only 230 pounds for a dormant account well .....

[cheddar]

It all counts phill this one is only for £164 but the last one was for £2.5k lol

[hedgey06]

Originally Posted by cheddar

this one is only for £164

.............. and far better off in your pocket than nat wests!!!

[cheddar]

Too righty matey! Even if it was for £28 I'd still be after em

[cheddar]

LBA sent recorded delivery on 24/07/07 14 days...tick, tick....

[hedgey06]

......... tock............ tock!!!!!

Best of luck cheddar............... hope pay-day's round the corner for you! x

[cheddar]

Payday is next week sadly lol!

Okay letter from the lovely Higley today and i've read round a few other cases but not seen this, I have been given a list of options:

1) Opting for change: accepting a goodwill gesture and agreeing to change my banking arrangements (proceed to section B)

or

2) Stay as i am and withdraw my complaint

Section B then states that if I want my money back I have to choose one of the three options:

1) Pay a £10 monthly management fee for an account with lower penatly charges
2) Change my account to a cash account
3) Close the account

Sadly I can't go for any of these options because

1) I refuse to PAY for a bank account
2) I have an o/d and loan I would have to repay
3) see option 2

What the heck do do now? LOL! These guys are such jokers, bet it took em months of meetings and bum scratching to come up with that one!

TIA

[Micky the Hippo]

saw this for the first time yesterday, sre they allowed to change your account terms and conditions as a result of yu reclaiming unlawful charges made by them?

surely you've done nothing wrong?

I'd be inclined to run my current account elsewhere and setup a standing order to supply enough money to service the loan and overdraft, thus incurring no charges, that suits you and stiffs them

I've got two NW accounts that have been dormant for years, one has 1p in and one gets enough money every month to cover the interest on the overdraft and pay a little off

[cheddar]

Tbh i don't really want have to start using another account as i've had this one for 19 years and don't want the hassle although if i have to then i will, however they do state that if i wish to close the account that the overdraft and loan become instantly repayable at that point.

...we can arrange for the closure of your account upon the repayment of any existing overdraft borrowing.

Please note however that if you hold a loan with NatWest your are required by its terms and conditions to maintain a funding current account with the bank.

I don't have the money to pay this (if i did i would pay them off anyway). Also that kind of makes option 2 impossible again as they say i need a current account.

So realisticly speaking I have 2 options

1) drop my claim
2) pay for a bank account

The other options are totally impossible for me and also (I presume) for a great number of people with £1000's owed to the bank that they cannot simply get their hands on to repay.

Anyone got any further ideas? I have a feeling I may just have to take them to court...again, but with OFT stepping in now whats the score?

[Micky the Hippo]

it's really really easy to open a new account. mine is with Smile at the moment and it was all done online barring signing and returning the odd thing

start hiding your money under your pillow is the only other option surely?

[cheddar]

lol oh I do have another account, my hubby and i both opened accounts with other banks in April 2006 as i started my first NatWest claim.

However we found it nothing short of a small nightmare. With the co-op and Nationwide both promising us that we could have basic accounts and that there would be no full credit score, both did so and rejected us (may i also add it took them over 2 months, numberous letters and phone calls at our expense to even get a decision). HSBC did the same, tried with Smile and got instantly rejected there also. Our credit files are by no means perfect but they are not horrific either.

Tbh we found it very difficult and all hubby managed to get was a separate NatWest Step account and myself an RBS Key (cash) account which won't facilitate DD, SO, chequebooks or Maestro cards sadly. Although hubby has a solo card with his Step account.

If only it was as simple as filling in a form online I wouldn't have had this account for 19 years (since the age of 9) lol! I do understand that using the accounts means they are likely to be upgraded but at the end of the day do not see why I should have to. All big banks are as bad as each other in my opinion and all have the same unlawful regime of penalty charges, i would only be jumping out the frying pan into the fire....

[Micky the Hippo]

ah, I see, sorry to hear that

pillow case it is then

[cheddar]

No need to be sorry, doesn't come as any suprise to me when dealing with such financial instiutions!

I wish it was that simple lol but as you know, if i close the account I instantly owe them my o/d and loan...

Hope someone can advise on this but I do have 60 days to reply to Nastywest (thats nice of them)....

[hedgey06]

Cheddar, try Nationwide again. I was turned down by them a couple of months ago when I applied online for a parachute (defaults against my name) but I went into the branch yesterday and opened a basic account (flex account with D/D facilities) no problem (3 forms of I.D. needed). Took just over five minutes - it might be worth a try.

As for the nutty west, I really don't know what to advise. Your the second one this week that they've done this to - it seems to be their new strategy for peeps who go back to them for a second claim. Hopefully, somebody can advise further on this - sorry hun, I'm really stumped on this new stance they're taking. xxx

[Micky the Hippo]

tell them the account is in dispute at least until the claim is settled and tell them you're going to complain to the ombudsman thingy to say that they're trying to penalise you in retaliation for claiming your charges back from them

point out that the charges are unlawful and as such they can't insist that you pay them in future, work the OFT case into it somehow

[cheddar]

Tbh its the third claim, i claimed again for about £80 or so a couple of months ago, just sent prelim and got a form back to sign and the money back afterwards.

I'll stick with the RBS account for now and am transferring my wages over into as of next month anyway so hopefully it won't take all that long for them to upgrade it. Another thing I always find tough is ID lol I don't drive, dont have a passport or any photo id of any kind and they always look at me as if i am mad when i say that LOL!

I'll bide my time and see what strategies if anything anyone can come up with.

I was possibly thinking of accepting the £10 a month account and seeing (i may have to read the mountain of paperwork with the letter) if i can then opt out...maybe after i get my money back??

NatWest just keep amazing me they really do, if this is now becoming standard for claims (even small ones) then I can see them losing plenty of customers!

[cheddar]

Upon reading the paperwork there doesn't appear to be any T&Cs re the Monthly Management Fee, the only info is that they will charge £17 for the Maintenance Charge (once known as Unarranged Borrowing Fee), Paid Referral, Guaranteed Card Payment Fee and Unpaid Items Fees.

If a mod/sh would like i will see if i can scan these docs and email to someone?