Can Anyone Help? (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Member Name: leeanne

Product:	Royal Bank of Scotland
Date:	08/08/02 (563 review reads)
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I unfortunatly took out a loan from this bank in March 2001. I would love to say it was a good idea, but that's not true - one of the worst mistakes of my life is a phrase that springs to mind.

I was a student at the time and had a £500 credit card and £400 overdraft. As far as i'm aware this amount of debt is nothing unusual for a student.

However the bank would often send me letters asking when I could make payments to reduce my overdraft, and when I explained that they knew I was a student, student loans aren't exactly much and I wasn't in a position to really make any repayments this was always met with a sigh.

A few weeks later I was still plodding away paying bills and not having much spare cash when I thought of a good idea and one that wouldn't fail - or so I thought!

My fiance was a student at the time and he had been given a £1000 credit card. Even though the amount was twice as much as my card he only had to pay £5 more a month than me.

I approached the bank and asked if my card could have the limit raised and I would use the extra money to pay off my overdraft. Sounds stupid to take more money out to pay something and be left with a bigger bill, but the overdraft department were constantly phoning and writing and I was fed up of stressing about it.

Eventually the bank replied and said I had been turned down. This was because they thought I couldn't afford an extra £5 a month. Now I wasn't very well off I admit, but I could still afford £5.

Next the bank offered me a loan. The alarm bells rang a bit in my head. Why were they offering me a higher amount of money if they thought I couldn't pay £5. I applied amyway, but decided I wouldn't be suitable since I was a full time student with a part time weekend job.

Well what do you know? I was offered the loan! I applied for £1000 with extra insurance and to pay over 2 years.

The payments were jus
t under £60 a month and I was to end up paying nearly £1500 in the end because of interest, processing fee, other fees and insurance in case I couldn't pay it due to loss of work.

So I ended up paying off the overdraft and the payments ran smoothly until about 5 months ago.

I had applied to go back to collage and was awaiting my student loan. I was refused because of failing an exam last term and was considered a risk. Then what else happened? The place where I worked at the weekend shut down so I was left with no income at all.

First things first I was straight on to the bank asking for the number for whoever provided my insurance so I could get my claim in and this meant they would cover my payments for 12 months if necessary.

I was refused insurance even though I had been paying it for all this time. Why was I refused? Because I was a student and only working part time! I told the company that I was assured I would be covered and that is the only reason I took the loan in the first place, but they informed me I was never insured in the first place.

So where has that left me? Basically paying a few pounds a month just to keep the company off my back. Yes they phone me every day demanding more money, sometimes every 20 minutes from 08:30 until 19:00 but I have gave up trying to talk to them. I can't give what I don't have and even getting the Citizens Advice to contact them hasn't worked.

This is one sorry mess I wish I had never got involved in, and hopefully I never will again.

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