I haven't been on here for about a year now as I have been very happy with Natwest until now. That was until this month...... They have taken 3 lots of £38 out of our bank account this week alone for returned D/Ds. i know that things have been really tight for us as my hubby has just changed from weekly paid to monthly and we have done our best to have the money in to cover bills but this is getting beyond a joke. I am sure that in the last couple of years we may have had 1 or 2 other charges brought against our account, which I have let slide but this is just ridiculous. So I am going to trawl through all my statements for the last 3 years... Bless they make them available on line.... and I am going to get these charges back. Wish me luck.

All very good points and information...... keep it coming guys

Any experience people might have with regards to claiming during an IVA, if anyone has managed to have refunds, if they have had any help from their IP, anything really. Just your own experiences. That was all I done and if this thread helps anyone in the future any information or discussion on the matter will be helpful.

Thanks for that information Ginger.... I would appreciate any more info people can give on this subject. Like i have said before ... I am not an expert on this subject and have only been speaking from my experience on the matter

I did manage to get some money back for one of my creditors but they automatically paid them selves.... so I didn't see a penny of it, and it was below my "windfall threshold" Consequently i had to get in touch with my IP and inform them so they could ensure the money was shared equally amongst all my creditors. Hence I stopped claiming. Problem is as well... IVA's... (I cant talk for bankruptcy) lasts for 5 years so you would only be able to claim back the last year previous to the IVA after it has expired.

If you can claim before entering in to an IVA then the money you claim is obviously yours. I started this thread for people that have already entered into an IVA. Whether or not the banks/ financial institutions believe their charges to be "fair " after you have entered into an IVA makes no point. They are entitled to keep any refunded monies. I do agree with you... if we hadn't had these charges then IVAs may not have been needed

This thread is based solely on my personal experiences and not to be taken as legal advice in any case. I am starting this thread as I hope it will give some general advice to anyone who are thinking about claiming any unlawful charges and where they stand. First and most importantly, ALWAYS contact your Insolvency practitioner / IVA supervisor before starting with any claim. When I started my claim, I was led to believe that so long each claim did not exceed my windfall limit I would be able to keep the money claimed. This was not the case. Any money claimed will be divided up between all creditors, so even if the amount claimed from one company exceeds the amount owed to them, it will not clear the total balance as the refund will be shared equally between all creditors. Claiming back unlawful charges will only reduce the period of IVA or reduce payments if the amount claimed reduces the amount of original debt (not the amount agreed to be re payed to creditors) to such an amount that your repayment will exceed the original amount if it continued unaltered.... eg..... Original debt £30,000.... amount agreed repayment £15,000, ie. 60 x £250 Amount claimed from all creditors £16,250 leaving £13,750. This will then mean that your creditors will have to accept a lower payment for the term of the IVA ie... in this case £229.16 x 60 (This is only an example and does not represent any cases.) However if the amount being claimed does not exceed the original debt or involve your creditors reducing your payments then all money claimed will go towards repaying your creditors. REMEMBER your creditors are entitled to 100% of your original debt to be re payed to them. You can reclaim any charges that have been applied however if the company involved is not part of your IVA. However, if you have a windfall clause in your IVA, any money claimed that exceeds your windfall limit will have to be declared to your IP and submitted to your creditors. I am sorry to be the barer of bad tidings on this matter, but hopefully this will help in pointing people in the right direction when it comes to claiming charges with an IVA. I was mislead when I started with my claims but I hope that others will read this and be able to understand the process a little better than I.

No worries.... sorry I couldn't be more encouraging. We were in the same position as you, our debt was way more than the amount we could reclaim. We actually got back £350 from MBNA but it just got swallowed up in the IVA and our IP had to ensure that it was spread over all of our creditors. Keep me posted on how you get on with your IP, would like to know the outcome of your claim.

Yeh they agree to a minimum % but they are entitled to 100% of the outstanding debt... the only time it would reduce time/amount is if you can clear so much of the outstanding total debt that you would end up repaying more than the original debt if you kept to the terms. I would speak to you IP and find out exactly where you stand but this is correct to the best of my knowledge.

Hey no worries Mate..... I think you will find however, well this is the case with our IVA, although your creditors have agreed to accept the reduced amount, they are still in fact, entitled to 100% of the debt, hence if you claim back for them they are entitled to have the entire amount split between all creditors and not just the 1 you are claiming back from. It is a pain, we have a clause in our IVA that any windfall over £500 has to be given to our creditors, even if that means they will be recieving a higher amount than they have agreed to accept. As long as it doesn't excede the original debt amount then they can keep it all..

Kirsty.... I thought John was going to sort it and do it online. Richard and I only sent ours off online on the 29th of Jan and we have heard nothing since, so I presume that it went through ok. Pain in the butt though babes on the charge. catch ya laters....xx

I left it as it was.... TBH, I didn't pursue it as I was told that any money claimed back from my creditors will automatically go straight back to them, so didn't see the point in continuing. I think other peoples situations may be different but that was the case for me.

Boo Hoo..... Just been in touch with my IVA supervisor and been advised to stop with the claims unless they are not part of my IVA eg... my current bank account. As our creditors have agreed to accept a minimun of 27p in the pound should I excede this amount the it just means that they will get a higher return and not save me any thing:x. So i feel its time to stop this one and wait till my hubby closes his business account then we can claim back the hundred or so £'s that they owe us and the small amount on our personal account. I am absolutely gutted....... Think I might start a new thread and make sure other people in my situation know the same before they get their hopes up as well. Any thoughts???????

Thanks Lad.... I presumed that would be the case. Only posted the same thing twice as some peeps only follow a certain bank threads. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks for that..... was hoping that they might do the cheque as it would be an over payment on my IVA if payed in directly to Eversheds but hey ho... can only ask and will bring the balance down in the long run.