www.iva.co.uk

Hi
I am in the process of setting up a joint (linked) IVA with my wife. We are close to the final proposal (JonesGiles) and all seems good.
Last night had a call from NatWest who we have a loan with. Started out fine asking why I had stopped the DD on the loan. I explained that we had written to them explaining the IVA and also so had my IP.
He then said they had no letters from either, I then told him we had sent registered post so someone had it. 30 second pause and magically they did have the letters. I then asked if they did have the letters why were they calling me when we had asked for all correspondence in writing, another 30 second pause. Yes they had written to me a while ago hadn’t I got the letter? No I said but you just told me you knew nothing about my IVA!! Again a long pause, he then said that I needed to make a payment to the account (this said with a much harder voice) I pointed out that I had to treat all my creditors fairly so had to pay all or pay nothing, as I couldn’t afford to pay all my creditors that was why I was applying for an IVA.
The next part almost made me laugh out loud; he told me that if I didn’t pay the full amount NatWest would vote against any agreement at the “court” meeting. I told him that the creditor meeting was normally held over a fax machine and not a court! The next line was that 3 out of the 4 creditors have to agree and if I can’t prove to the NatWest that I can pay my IVA then they would vote against me.
My final words were to him that I was entering an IVA so I could responsibly repay my debt; If NatWest chooses to vote no then Bankruptcy would be my only option and NatWest would probably get a fraction of what they would get from an IVA.
He finished with I needed to think very hard about not paying into my loan.
I hung up.
Luckily for me I have been reading this forum for a while and JonesGiles has explained where I stand so I was not unduly bothered by the call. My wife though said afterwards that she would have been scared to death by the call.
At least they said I would not get any more calls for 28 days.
We shall see

Gary
Ps sorry for the long post!

Nice post Gary. The people in these call centres have jobs to do and you handled the call very well. Firm but not rude and also well versed in what you can and cannot do.

I think the pauses indicate the guy was speaking from a script and your answers didn't correspond to his script maybe?

Well handled Gazsun. Just goes to prove that the bullies in the call centres know nothing! They just want to bump their meagre salaries up!

I think really this was the first time a banks mask has slipped. Barclaycard is a classic got a letter from them acknowledging my letter telling them of my IVA. 3 days later they increased my limit by £3500 without asking. I wonder how I got into so much trouble in the first place [;)]

Upping peoples credit limits will work for many people,but for some it just pushes you over the edge.
Lloyds offered me a 2nd consolidation loan when I have plucked up the courage to speak to the manager about my debts and an increase in my credit card limit. To say I went ballistic would be an understatement!!!

Responsible lending,I know I borrowed but they didnt have to throw so much money my way!!

Paul

What a load of old tosh. Shame on NatWest for employing such ignorant people in their call centres.