Hello all, I am claiming ~ £800 from Natwest for unjust charges. I have recieved the 'canned' letter telling me about the court case and that it will be on hold, or 'stayed' s I see you guys put it. And as such, I have subscribed to Martin Lewis' MSE newsletter to recieve updates on that case so that I can chase my claim up at the right time, etc. This is where is gets interesting - I lost my job a couple of weeks ago and I understand those without adequate income qualify as a 'hardship' case and as such, the court-ordered stay on claims now still requires these hardship cases to 'go through' as normal. What do I send Natwest now, though? A short letter stating my newly found hardship status, or do I just send the claims charge breakdown and the original letter with the extra 'hardship' bit on the end of it? I know the answer is quick and easy - somebody please clarify! However, because people can be wrong, I'd like as many people to chip in as possible. Many thanks in advance!!! - Davy.

Well longer but no charges until about 3 years ago. I have made a list of all the charges but am debating wetehr to ask for the extras as I am unsure if I can reclaim the interest successfully and without going to court? How to go about finding out my overdraft history? I am thinking about just claiming for the charges and forgetting the interest they have also charges me on the charges in OD as I can't work them out and I can just put them down to 'learning my lesson'. Thoughts?

I hear that they put all claims on hold because they're losing too much money?

Thanks for the welcome. Just sending off the letter today while following the guide on this site (forget who by and where) This post sort of acts like a datestamp for later Thanks again for every's time!

Nothing untoward so far. I have my statements for last 6 years. I will update as and when I have new info. Placeholder for now.

My last letter was not with a cheque and they sent me a summary. I want detailed info as is required and so sent another letter saying incomplete info etc but still didn't send any money as I was told on phone by cust serv that this would be taken out automatically, but has not. Therefore I'm going back to the first step and make everything official and by the book (or website ). Sending SAR 11/08/08 with £10 cheque

Hey guys, The more and more I look into doing this, the more people keep going on about filing in court. I am sh*t scared of not only court but also the charges that come with them should I fail.

Hey guys thank you lots for your contribution. I understand how many times you guys mist repeat yourself, but everybody is slightly confused about different parts so they keep on posting the same stuff regardless! Kudos. I love you all =) Anyway, I have the relevant non-compliance letter below: But number 2 and 3 confuse me somewhat. NUMBER 2 What are these 'legal notes' relative to? What would they include? Are these notes really needed at this point? NUMBER 3 Manual intervention...? Say what?? Other then that, I really want to get this letter sent off today so would appreciate clearing this up before I go home from work (free print + post ) One more thing to ask How many days should I give them 'to comply' ? Thanks again. edit: Letter sent 10/07. Given 14 days to comply

Lol thanks Kia! Lay off the wine! I'm just panicing because of the amount of links on this website and all over the internet, there's just so much fo it and it's all garishly formating in millions of combinations of colours, sizes, font styles and other stuff like blinks, underlines etc it's just too much to take in. Every recommended page links to another page or 2 or 3 and it just doesn't seem to end Need a single definitive central guide-to-end-all-guides (URLs would be banned!) BTW the Barclays topic is http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclays-bank/151115-standard-claim-takes-strange.html#post1601763

Well hello there boys and girls. I initially strated my fight back against the banks using thisismoney's website but come across a strange reply from one of the letters to Barclays. Now, allow me to detail what has happened so far... I sent a letter to Barclays, detailed below: I had got this letter template from Thisismoney.co.uk so I thought this was pretty well explained what I wanted exactly. Now, as you can see, I specifically said 'I enclose the maximum statory fee of £10' but I didn't actually enclose any money, I just assumed they would take this out of my bank account. I just assumed. They haven't asked me for the money but When I sent the exact replica to NatWest, they wrote back asking for £5 cheque, whcih I did. They may have done this because I believe the account is frozen because of inactivity and persistant unarranged overdraft, but that's besides the point here. I have just checked my bank statement this month online and they have not charged me that I can see, but I do have a debit of 'Account fee' £6.50 whatever that is. I haven't gone over any unarranged borrowings so God knows, maybe that's it? They replied 07/07/08 with a two paged letter. The first letter is shortened: I'm sorry, what?! I did not request a summary?! Anyway, this is the sheet they posted. There was a URL at the bottom as a footer, like you would get if you hit print whilst in a web-browser: 'edostar-b.intranet.barclays.co.uk/fee/FFController.........etc' which suggests to me they've done it via thier in-house software they use in the banks, not actually pulling my statements down. Who knows if this isn't just 1 year for example? The 2nd sheet: Now don't get me wrong, over £700 is a nice and juicy sum to claim back but I cannot be sure if this is accurate as I have not checked any statements myself as this is all they sent. My current question: Has anybody had this come back and what did they do? What came of thier next step?

getrichslowly.org (or somethign similar) is an EXCELLANT site to get frugal and save whilst getting back on track. I have dne the EXACT same thing as you've done, and would love to see how you get on, maybe be debt-busting-buddies? lol! First of all, try get your arranged borrowings within what I call the 'amber' zone. You're in the minus bit but it's ARRANGED so don't get ridiculous charges/interest rates compared to unarranged overdraft (red zone. DANGER! DANGER! First try to ask to have arranged overdrafts or limits on credit cards extended to help you get back on track. Now scrimp, save, borrow, beg, steal, do what you have to to get yourself within these guidlines with a little extra for interest rates and any emergency purchases (ie. train ticket to work if u forget cash and bank card. who knows! happened to me today, actually!...) Now there are two general ways to tackle multiple debt - organise the debts into lowest to highest according to balance. Now pay off the smallest one with everything you got, apraently it helps you psychologically and makes you feel liek your';e getting somewhere and are mroe likely to be more frugal, etc. Another way is to work out how much you're paying with charges each month and tackle to highest one first and get it below the 2nd highest, then tackle that, etc. Whatever happens, never forget there's ALWAYS another way out. Another option. A way of escaping debt, you just need to be preapared to do what you need to. I managed to save £500 for holiday whilst staving off nearly £3000 bad debt within 2 weeks! How? I got 3 jobs I'm still recovering now with just the one full time job but I'm glad I put myself through 20 hour work days. Good bye red debt, hellow amber but not for long! Sandy beaches next week will be soooo worth it...!!!! Best of luck (PM me ?)

I am in the same boat, hope you sort urself out, mate!

I think it's disgiusting! Write to local authority or even to number 10 itself!

Erm...how would they be misleading us exactly? At what point? This topic is misleading in itself...

Hello all! I have, like many of you, become sick of being shafted left and right by banks and credit card companies and whoever else feels like taking a big juicy bite out of my financial a**!! I have 4 claims, 2 I am currently persuing in the very early stages. I plan to have a topic detailing my ongoing struggle (struggle is what I've heard but not experienced. Yet) and hopefully a claim buddy to hold my hand Barclays and Natwest (links to them once started, detailing the process of each case) The reason why I have turned to this forum instead of just following the numerous 10-step-you-can-claim-if-you-follow-this-list guides is because everywhere I turn there seems to be different information and even these very forums are a complete information overload and my poor eyes just can't cope! Now it's not an IT problem. I'm an IT support specialist during the day and Website designer in my spare time so it's not the using of the internet that's a problem, it's a conflict of information and facts and the fact that practically every thread topic seems to scream 'READ ME FIRST!' and comes up in a plethora of sizes, colours and various other formating.... Help! :o