Financial Channel

Hi there, i am looking into retrieving my bank charges from the bank of scotland for the past 5 years (being a student for first few years...i have had many!) I am writing to ask for advice for a slightly different matter..I also opened an account with the royal bank of scotland and opted for the gold account as i was advised this would help me in applying for a loan, this account would cost me 12.00 a month to keep. As i opened the account no money was put into it and therefore i was charged when the fee of 12.00 came round. I was silly not to sort this matter out and close the account and the months ticked away, i moved back home to my mother as money was tight...then i recieved a letter from debt collecters informing me i was required to pay 416.00. I have never put money into this account and have not taken a penny out of this bank. So far i managed to settle with the creditors to pay 300.00 as i had no idea about reclaims at the time, which i paid 150.00 last month and am ment to pay another 150.00 to finish which is due 31/01/07. Is this also illegal for banks to do?...can anyone help? I am reluctant to pay the creditors this last payment as would this close my access to claim if the matter is closed? I tried to phone the debt collecters (cap-quest) and explain that i was now disbuting the debt but they told me i was to late and that i had agreed to pay 300.00 (although i havnt signed anything) they told me ive left this to long (be roughly a year?) to start questioning things. the due date for last payment is on thurs and i dont know if i should pay it or not?? SORRY IVE WRITTEN A BIT OF AN ESSAY HERE...
CAN ANYONE HELP? WOULD BE MUCH APPRIECIATED XXCapquest were on watchdog last night by the way.

I would do a CCA request for the original agreement and tell them the account is in dispute until you have recieved the information back. The fact you are too late etc is all rubbish. In fact after a certain amount of time with no acknowledgement from yourself they can't chase it anyway.I can help with this. Did you get the loan? If not it was misselling and first of all you need to state that the account is in dispute with the DCA and then write to customer relations telling them that you were told x y and z and wait for a response. It sounds like misselling and you have never used the account so if the bank are unwilling to move the Financial Ombudsman service would win this case on the basis that you never used the account and never had benefit from the account. Furthermore, you want the account closed. It should be easy to sort outthank you both so much for your advice! i ended up paying cap quest the last ?50 to get them off my back as my mum was worried the house was gettin black listed and i was worried as i didnt know where i stood and dead line came up. At least now i can take my time to get to know how to go about it, and go straight into retrieving the debt back from the bank as they had sold it to cap quest...so i suppose i chicken out. I am now going to retrieve all the bank statements and take it from there...is this the right way to start?? I didnt get the loan as and all of the debt is the ?2 for the privilage of having the account for the months that it was open and the rest is charges.

thank you