On 23rd August 2012, I and the Treasurer of our Residents Association attempted to open a bank account with the Nat West Bank in Twickenham, in order to deposit funding to the tune of £10,000 (with more pledged) for our community garden project. We have waited years and jumped over endless hurdles in order to get this far and thought that opening a bank account would be simple. How wrong we were. Since 23rd, August, every day has been a catalogue of disasters, the form sat on a desk for 2 weeks, then got lost, a copy was faxed, which then turned out to be the wrong form. The Branch Manager had no idea where the form had gone to (although she thought India) and kept telling me that the department in charge of such accounts would not speak to her. Edward Parks, the Area Manager won't reply to messages and every day I am given a different excuse. The correct application form was hand delivered to Twickenham Branch on Monday. It sat there until Thursday before being emailed to Customer Services. The only person in Customer Services who can open the account was on sick leave today. Meanwhile, we have cheques we can't deposit, we have contractors who want paying but no means of paying them and we cannot apply for further funding as we have no bank account to deposit any money into. I feel like it is Groundhog Day. I have never encountered such incompetence and ineptitude by a Bank that I have been a loyal customer of for over 30 years. Who is responsible for these new "systems"? Is it really so complicated now to open a bank account? It is truly pathetic. Can anyone give me the contact details for the Chairman of the Nat West as he really needs to know what is going on at Branch level all the way up. We would give up and go elsewhere but every day, we are led to believe the account will be opened... then some other excuse is given. I have given the Nat West notice that I am expecting £50 per day for every day this account isn't opened. They are racking up rather a lot of money.... All sensible suggestions of how we can get this account opened much appreciated.

I wonder if you could help with the following or pass it to someone that can? Thanks a lot. I have run my own IT business for nearly 8 years and unfortunately due to the financial shock of the last 2.5 years it has struggled to make ends meet for myself and the family. I have recently transferred the lease of the premises to a new person and will be free of all business commitments very soon. We have had all sorts of mortgage and personal unsecured debt problems in the past 2 years, but I managed to agree terms with all the unsecured creditors/DCAs. We have had family and friends help us with the mortgage payments until a few months ago when our monthly payments dropped by more than 50% (as we were on a really bad fixed rate until this February with a huge Redemption Penalty of nearly £25k), so we have managed to pay it ourselves again, since my poor wife is back in full time work and I'm going to be a house-husband for a while until I get myself a job in IT again. I have had a personal bank account with NatWest since 1981 in MY name, which unfortunately became a 'Joint' account in our married name in 1995 in order to deposit a few cheques as wedding presents made to us in our married name! The account then became Advantage Gold, then Advantage Premier and finally Private Banking. All along there has been a Gold MasterCard ChargeCard with me as the Primary Account holder and ALL statements sent to our home address in MY name only (where the balance HAS to be cleared on a monthly basis - just like an Amex chargecard) linked to this account (actually part of the Terms & Conditions of having the various account types mentioned, the latest being Private Banking). The other very important condition listed in the current T&Cs for this type of account is that the account holder(s) must have an annual salary of at least £100k which is paid into the account or £50k in savings with NatWest. I haven't had this sort of money since I left my IT contracting job in 2003 to start my business. My wife has NEVER used the bank account (no funds or salries deposited or withdrawn in her married or maiden name), as she has always had her own HSBC account in her maiden name since the age of 17. I used the MasterCard ChargeCard balance availability for cash flow reasons to juggle our monthly financial problems, but got unstuck in August 2010 after nearly 20 years of using the card without ANY problems. I wasn't able to clear the monthly balance (nearly £10k) on time. I tried to get the Private Banking team to ask MasterCard for more time to clear the balance, but neither party wanted to listen or help. What has amazed me is that they're behaving as if I'm a 'criminal' or effectively accusing me of never intending to re-pay my debt to them, even after nearly 30 years of having an account with them and all the interest and charges already paid to them! They then cleared the outstanding balance, which is really MY debt and in MY name as the Primary Card Holder on the MasterCard account, by adding it to the 'joint' bank account, thus increasing the Overdraft substantially overnight. NatWest then started complaining about the level of the Overdraft and passed my account internally to their Risk team who in turn passed it onto their Collections dept. All along I was 'jointly' offering to pay a monthly amount until my financial situation improved, but NONE of the NatWest brigade wanted to know. They then passed my file to Triton and my wife's to Evershed's. Both of us have tried every effort to agree some sort of payment arrangement with these outfits, like the ones I have in place with my other creditors/DCAs, but to no avail (considering that one of my big creditors that has agreed to a small monthly payment is actually NatWest's parent - RBS!!). Triton finally passed my file to Evershed's too, who have shown no mediation skills either! My wife and I have been issued separate Court Claims for the total Overdraft amount by Eversheds/NatWest Bank (more than £25K) for our 'joint' bank account. My wife has sent the Acknowledgment of Service back giving her case another 14 days from tomorrow and I'll be doing the same shortly. I have considerable personal unsecured debt that has been paid in monthly installments for nearly 2 years by agreeing with DCAs and original Creditors - various credit cards and loans totaling over £120k. All this debt is in my name, which I may put into an IVA. The only debt in 'joint' names is the Bank Overdraft, which consists of the original Overdraft (more than £12k) and the NatWest Private Banking MaterCard ChargeCard balance (more than £10k), which has been added to the Overdraft. Can anyone suggest if we have any legs to stand on regarding my wife using the T&C of the account to 'wriggle' out of having anything to do with this account, as she's never earned £100k or paid ANY salaries into this 'joint' account (two of the most important conditions of having this account)? Can we use the fact that the ChargeCard account is in my name and has nothing to do with my wife, so even if she has a 'joint' debt, it is only just over £12k of the Overdraft only? Do NatWest have to physically possess and be able to produce the original Joint Account Mandate (signed by us both) to prove my wife's liability? Thanks again for your time and any help you can provide. Please ask away if you need to know anymore than I've given above. Rgds. radmm0

Hi Folks I was wondering if anyone can help / give advice In 1996 I got myself into loads of debt problems with a business I was running with my late Father, end result was that NatWest got a County Court Judgement against me (but not may late Father) for approx. £65,000 and I agreed to pay £60 per month which I have done for the last 15 years or so, never missed a payment. I’ve not heard from them for about 4-5 years when I received a letter (forwarded from a previous address) from them asking for an increased payment, I spoke to them and we agreed to carry on with payments at the same level. I have notified them of changed addresses (1999/2000) and now spend most of my time out of the country they have never acknowledged my letters about the change of address. I have today received a letter (forwarded to me from a previous address) from a DCA saying I owe NatWest about twice the amount and that I should make contact immediately to pay it off or they will explore all further options etc; Any advice on how to proceed and what to say when I call them would be appreciated Thanks

About a year ago we were 'persuaded' by Nat West who we no longer bank with to take out a loan to repay charges which they had continually applied to a small unauthorised overdraft and which had then become unmanageable. Nat West made it very difficult for us to repay as they insisted on only accepting direct debits from their account which we no longer used which made it difficult for us. Nat West have since got Apex Credit Management involved who send letters in my wife's name only when it was a joint account. We have called and written to Apex to point out the discrepency and that we feel the loan was mis-sold as we were pressured into it by the bank. They never respond to this and keep threatening legal action. Can anyone advise on what the best way to deal with this would be.