First Direct Gold Card/Current A/C

[vancouver]

Just had a really annoying development with First Direct. Due to a situation beyond my control I haven't paid my Gold card account for two months. I wrote to them explaining the situation but got no reply. We had managed to keep up to date on my wife's card and neither of the cards have been used for over a year.

 

Alongside this we had an O/D facility on the current account which was renewed for a year a few months back. Two months ago they suddenly reduced this by £500 which obviously compounded our financial difficulties and meant balancing things was even more difficult. My wife has spoken to them a number of times to let them know when monies are coming in etc but also to complain that they'd refused payment on things when funds were in the account. They admitted this and said fees would be returned but have supplied no documentary evidence that this has been carried out. The way they lay their statements out online it is impossible to garner this information.

 

Anyway last week I paid in a cheque, that we'd told them was coming in and I decided to check my balance on the machine. It duly kept my card and I had to ring them from the HSBC branch. They informed me that all my accounts were now closed as they'd sent me a default notice, (which I did not receive) and I needed to make other banking arrangements. At this time my wife's A/C was in order and the current A/C was within the revised facility. I did complain and enquired how they had sent out the default notice and they admitted it was not sent recorded or signed for etc. but I must have got it as they had the correct address!! They also agreed that the alleged 'default notice' related purely to my Gold card A/C.

 

I have now received a very officious letter demanding cards, cheque books etc. offer to repay all outstanding amounts etc.within seven days. Obviously as far as I'm concerned their response is totally over the top and unnecessary and they will have to join the back of the queue. I will be writing to their CEO, who seems to now be Matt Colebrook and also to Jason Sharpe their Customer Service & Sales Director but as much as anything else it's worth being aware of their tactics and how quickly and without any real warning(if you don't receive the letter)that they can completely ruin all your banking arrangements.

 

I did explain that they were just making it even more impossible to get on top of things by their actions and that they had made it far more difficult to open an account elsewhere. This in turn made it more unlikely that they would get their monies back, however this was just met with, your complaint has been noted and some very patronising waffle about how you open a bank account and various things!

 

I did by the way, get the credit I paid in, back to me in full by quoting the right of appropriation and a call to the Financial Ombudsman and placing it all in writing. More generally I guess there's nothing I can do about the situation but others should be aware that First Direct are no different to any of the others and will basically screw you at the first possible opportunity. I certainly wish I hadn't had credit cards issued by the same Bank as my current account as obviously one has seriously affected the other.

[vancouver]

Further to the above, they have sent through my c/c statement on the 'defaulted' account but there is interest added to it, are they allowed to do this as I was under the impression that once in default they couldn't add further interest?