Tags
dealing with debt, debt, debt collectors, Fredrickson International, harassment, life, Nat West, National Westminster Bank, poverty, Triton credit services
I am in a complete Catch 22 situation with Nat West Bank. I simply cannot win whatever I do. About 2 months ago Nat West bank decided they wanted to up a payment I have been making to an account every month for the last 5+ years. Instead of writing to me direct to discuss matters they referred the issue to a debt collecting company called Fredrickson International. (A quick Google Search will tell you a little about their Modus Operandi and reputation).This company was not keen to confirm either who they were, or to provide any information that they were in fact working for Nat West. After I refused to talk to them on the basis that they could be anyone who just upped and decided to ask me for money, they became abusive and threatened to take me to court for libel.
In the meantime I received a letter from Nat West thanking me for agreeing a revised payment up in the £100s a month. At this point I rang Nat West, in order to complain about Fredrickson International, tell them that the letter that I had agreed to any such payment was a lie (and possibly fraud), and to inform them that actually the standing order was still going out to them on the same date each month and I hadn’t “stopped paying them” as was being claimed. I obviously have evidence to this effect. I told them to write to me regarding the issue and I would take it from there. As it turned out I got a letter from another company called Triton Credit Services, which are actually the credit control department of Nat West Bank. A fact I only ascertained when I rang Nat West to complain that they had referred me to yet another debt collection company without first giving me the chance to sort this matter out direct with them. Meanwhile the standing order is being paid as usual.
I returned the income and expenditure form to Triton. Bear in mind that I am still paying the debt off. I got a reponse that they would not accept my offer because I had £1 left over at the end of the month, and wanted to know what I spent it on. Here is my response:
They wrote back again after this, again demanding information about my creditors, how much I owe and how much I pay them back. I sent them a screenshot of my credit report, only to receive a response a few days later saying they weren’t accepting the offer. Meanwhile, the good old standing order is still being paid.
I wrote back to the effect that my offer was more than generous especially since I have recently had over £100 loss in income per month. I enclosed a revised income and expenditure statement which indicated that, until this issue is resolved, I am currently actually operating on less money per week than JSA and I have a deficit of over £88 a month on average.
Their response this morning is as follows:
We confirm that normal recovery action will continue as a plan cannot be agreed on a deficit budget
So, the response of the in house debt management department of the National Westminster Bank, one of the major financial institutions of the UK when faced with someone trying to pay off money (And I AM STILL PAYING THEM EVERY MONTH!) is to refuse to collect money. Their responses are totally contradictory:
- You have money left over we cannot accept your payment. Followed by;
- You have no money left over so we cannot accept payment BUT we will send our hired thugs round to harass you for it.
Meanwhile I have responded to the letter, and the good old standing order is still being paid.