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Afternoon all, forgive this being a long one for a maiden post, though it's probably better that I start at the beginning.
Over 6 years ago I opened up a current account with Natwest and all was well. I was in paid employment as well, and although they authorised a small overdraft this was being cleared on a regular basis.
Then things started to go slightly wrong. Within the space of 6 months, due to one or two unpaid direct debits, they started to apply charges. Unfortunately they snowballed and it was impossible to keep up with the charges applied.
Nevertheless, despite NW not really contacting me to see if they could help, I did speak to them in an attempt to get on top of things. Then in 2006 I found a house and decided to get out of the rental trap (it was cheap), so got a mortgage from another provider. Everything was ok until after a few months. NW still continued applying charges and contacting me all the time to arrange repayment. I set up an informal arrangement to repay but due to other issues including the mortgage I found it difficult to keep up with this.
Then NW passed the account to Apex Credit Management. By this time I had some experience of dealing with DCA's, so without thinking I dispatched a CCA letter to them. It was also during this period that many people were starting to claim charges back. I sent NW a DSAR which they would not comply with as I hadn't provided a signature on the letter.
I continued to argue that the DPA does not state that a signature is required - only that the Data Subject needs to provide enough information for the company to verify the request so they were duly provided more info including all known addresses to them, DOB, etc but no signature. Anyway, they issued a deadlock letter to my official complaint so I took it to the ICO and won. Natwest then complied and sent the data including notes and statements.
I also told Apex to go away as the account was clearly in dispute. This is where it gets more interesting. I submitted my claim which was way above the balance NW were attempting to collect, but it was put on hold due to the test case. Following the recent ruling NW restarted their efforts to collect and then passed it to Frederickson's (FIL) this year.
I received a few calls (not many) from FIL asking for payment, but told them to put it in writing. I responded stating that the account was clearly in dispute with NW. I wrote to NW to advise them that they should call of FIL as I still contest the charges and that the account is in dispute. FIL still kept up the threats and then mentioned Mr Carter.
Before going onto the final bit from NW and noticed two things. In the notes section, a loan is referred to and apparently agreed though I have not received any info to date. Also, the final statement in the bundle still shows the outstanding balance on the current account. Initially Natwest advised that the account had been closed. Back in 2006 they took my card and the salary paid into the account on that particular day, and it took a morning off work to negotiate them releasing funds. I then had to walk from the branch with over £1000 in cash in my pocket - not particularly pleasant. They also suggested that I opened another account with a different bank.
Anyway, I digress, I was under the impression that the account was closed, yet the data received and subsequent letters from NW indicate this to be incorrect - the account is still "active" in some way.
After reading the bit in the notes about the loan, I shot off a CCA request to FIL. I realise now that technically my previous CCA request from 2 years ago remains unanswered. Then on Saturday I received two letters from Bryan Carter, one stating the account is on hold pending the CCA request to FIL and the other stating that they will initiate court proceedings if payment is not received by 17/07/10.
i have prepared a letter to the FOS and to BC and can post these up (minus identifying data) should anyone want to check. I've spent a day reading through some of the other BC threads and they make definitely make good reading, so I'm just looking for further suggestions on how I should approach this.
Many thanks.
:-)
Over 6 years ago I opened up a current account with Natwest and all was well. I was in paid employment as well, and although they authorised a small overdraft this was being cleared on a regular basis.
Then things started to go slightly wrong. Within the space of 6 months, due to one or two unpaid direct debits, they started to apply charges. Unfortunately they snowballed and it was impossible to keep up with the charges applied.
Nevertheless, despite NW not really contacting me to see if they could help, I did speak to them in an attempt to get on top of things. Then in 2006 I found a house and decided to get out of the rental trap (it was cheap), so got a mortgage from another provider. Everything was ok until after a few months. NW still continued applying charges and contacting me all the time to arrange repayment. I set up an informal arrangement to repay but due to other issues including the mortgage I found it difficult to keep up with this.
Then NW passed the account to Apex Credit Management. By this time I had some experience of dealing with DCA's, so without thinking I dispatched a CCA letter to them. It was also during this period that many people were starting to claim charges back. I sent NW a DSAR which they would not comply with as I hadn't provided a signature on the letter.
I continued to argue that the DPA does not state that a signature is required - only that the Data Subject needs to provide enough information for the company to verify the request so they were duly provided more info including all known addresses to them, DOB, etc but no signature. Anyway, they issued a deadlock letter to my official complaint so I took it to the ICO and won. Natwest then complied and sent the data including notes and statements.
I also told Apex to go away as the account was clearly in dispute. This is where it gets more interesting. I submitted my claim which was way above the balance NW were attempting to collect, but it was put on hold due to the test case. Following the recent ruling NW restarted their efforts to collect and then passed it to Frederickson's (FIL) this year.
I received a few calls (not many) from FIL asking for payment, but told them to put it in writing. I responded stating that the account was clearly in dispute with NW. I wrote to NW to advise them that they should call of FIL as I still contest the charges and that the account is in dispute. FIL still kept up the threats and then mentioned Mr Carter.
Before going onto the final bit from NW and noticed two things. In the notes section, a loan is referred to and apparently agreed though I have not received any info to date. Also, the final statement in the bundle still shows the outstanding balance on the current account. Initially Natwest advised that the account had been closed. Back in 2006 they took my card and the salary paid into the account on that particular day, and it took a morning off work to negotiate them releasing funds. I then had to walk from the branch with over £1000 in cash in my pocket - not particularly pleasant. They also suggested that I opened another account with a different bank.
Anyway, I digress, I was under the impression that the account was closed, yet the data received and subsequent letters from NW indicate this to be incorrect - the account is still "active" in some way.
After reading the bit in the notes about the loan, I shot off a CCA request to FIL. I realise now that technically my previous CCA request from 2 years ago remains unanswered. Then on Saturday I received two letters from Bryan Carter, one stating the account is on hold pending the CCA request to FIL and the other stating that they will initiate court proceedings if payment is not received by 17/07/10.
i have prepared a letter to the FOS and to BC and can post these up (minus identifying data) should anyone want to check. I've spent a day reading through some of the other BC threads and they make definitely make good reading, so I'm just looking for further suggestions on how I should approach this.
Many thanks.
:-)
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