How NatWest’s default position left its mark on your credit record
The Readers’ Champion Probes a world of scams and scandals
M.M. writes: My wife and I have a problem with our bank, NatWest, which has placed our account into default despite an agreed repayment plan for us to clear the balance due. I am a qualified accountant and I only discovered this problem when I visited a different bank with a friend to help open a business account for his new company. The bank did a credit check on me and refused to proceed because of the default recorded on my credit file. YOU have been completely open with me about the fact that you owe money to NatWest, which you are paying off by agreed instalments. You have not broken t hat agreement and you received no warning that the bank had placed a default notice on your credit agency file.
When you protested to NatWest, you say you were told that it had handed over the management of a number of similar accounts to a debt collection agency and that registering those accounts as defaulted was just part of that process. This was despite the fact that neither the bank nor the debt collectors claimed you had actually defaulted.
I asked NatWest to look into this and a spokesman assured me: ‘My colleagues in the complaints department have spoken to Mr M and explained that no default has been recorded by the bank on his credit file.’
According to NatWest, a member of the bank’s own staff had simply got it wrong and had mistakenly told you that a default had been registered against your name. There was no default and no such record and NatWest said it would offer you £50 by way of saying sorry for the unnecessary upset. So far, so good – except that the staff member turned out to be right and it was NatWest itself that was wrong.
I have seen your file with the Experian credit agency. As well as your name, address and date of birth there was an entry from NatWest showing a current account labelled ‘Status: Default’, with £2,425 owed by you. Your credit rating was shown as ‘very poor’.
Worse still, Experian asked NatWest to double check the entry and the bank confirmed it was accurate. Armed with all this, I went back to NatWest. This time I was told: ‘Putting customers first is our main priority. Unfortunately in this case we made a mistake. We have since done everything we can to put it right.’
Your credit record has been cleaned up and the bank has offered £ 150 compensation, which you have accepted. But given your profession and the damage that could be done to your reputation, I think NatWest has got off pretty lightly.