Stopping Credit Card interest/Reducing Payments

OverTheRainbow_3

Hey guys,

I have a Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo Amex/Mastercard which is currently exceeding it's £1,000 limit.

I am a student, working 13 hours a week behind a checkout. Through this, I ear about £300 month, of which approx £200 is already going on household bills and other loans (laptop, mainly).

I am having real trouble getting Lloyds TSB to see this - Their call centres are plain rude and simply do not listen to their customers. Under the instruction of the CAB, I am now attempting to conduct all correspondance with them by letter (although they are still occasionally calling), but all letters I have sent them have been totally ignored.

I have offered to pay them between £25 and £30 a month, however to do this the interest needs freezing and charges need to stop, otherwise I'm just paying off only to be making a few pounds headway each month. This letter has been ignored.

They have now started to remove amounts from my bank account - £23 last month, but a whopping £120 this month. I can't afford to go on with them taking money like that because it's pulling me into more debt in other places!

Does anyone have any advice? Or a template letter (as the one I used was made up off my own back and may not have been brilliant) I can send them to try and freeze interest/charges?

cifpower

Firstly, I would open a second bank account and put your earnings in there so they can no longer dip in and take money out. As for the other bit, start a thread on the Debt Free Wannabe board - they will really help you out.

steveing64

get another job and work more hours and before anybody says something my daughter is a student and works over 20 hours a week

NickX

Good Advice to get a new Bank Account to stop Lloyds TSB dipping in to claim their payments.

Also CAB (Citizen's Advice Bureau) are very experienced with debt problems, and it is good advice to keep all communications in writing. They are obliged to comply with this provided you respond to their correspondence. Continued telephone calls can be deemed as harrasment.

Once they have understood your cashflow issues, they should negotiate. It could be that because they have been able to simply take funds out of your Bank Account, that they do not feel that they have to negotiate.

CAB should actually negotiate with creditors on your behalf and have access to professional legal advice if necessary.

Do post on the DFW (Debt Free Wanabee) board aswell.

OverTheRainbow_3

steveing64 wrote: »

get another job and work more hours and before anybody says something my daughter is a student and works over 20 hours a week

It's really not that easy.

I live in the middle of rural lincs, with one bus service a day (going in at 10:30 and out at 2:30) and no car. To get into the city requires the bus at 10:30, then a joining bus at 11:30 to get into the city for 12:30, only to have to get a bus out at 1 in order to catch the 2:30 bus home!

I'm getting by on this job through begging, borrowing and stealing lifts - The only way it's feasable is because it's an evening job, 6-10 or 11 and my father is home from work then in the only car to take me and pick me up!

Plus, it doesn't solve the problem for when I go to university in 6 weeks!

YorkshireBoy

If they're dipping into your other accounts this must have been going on for a while now (hence approx 4 months payments removed to the value of £120).

At 2%, your minimum payments are around £20 per month. Honestly, that's not a lot of money (3-4 hours more paid work per month...an hour a week!).

Why should LTSB freeze interest on such a small debt?

If you really are struggling, why not postpone your education for a year, get a full time job, and resume your education debt-free next year?

OverTheRainbow_3

NickX wrote: »

Good Advice to get a new Bank Account to stop Lloyds TSB dipping in to claim their payments.

Also CAB (Citizen's Advice Bureau) are very experienced with debt problems, and it is good advice to keep all communications in writing. They are obliged to comply with this provided you respond to their correspondence. Continued telephone calls can be deemed as harrasment.

Once they have understood your cashflow issues, they should negotiate. It could be that because they have been able to simply take funds out of your Bank Account, that they do not feel that they have to negotiate.

CAB should actually negotiate with creditors on your behalf and have access to professional legal advice if necessary.

Do post on the DFW (Debt Free Wanabee) board aswell.

I'm trying to do this (get a new bank account set up), although with a default notice being applied over this problem credit card, it's getting to be quite hard!! I have applied to Citibank today, and mum has suggested Co-operative (as they gave her an account despite her being undischarged bankrupct) so when I'm town tomorrow (eye test!) going to pop in and see what they say.

I have written to Lloyds several times, although the only address we have is a collections centre PO Box, so we're not sure whether the mail is getting there/to the right person, because we haven't had a single reply.

OverTheRainbow_3

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

If they're dipping into your other accounts this must have been going on for a while now (hence approx 4 months payments removed to the value of £120).

At 2%, your minimum payments are around £20 per month. Honestly, that's not a lot of money (3-4 hours more paid work per month...an hour a week!).

Why should LTSB freeze interest on such a small debt?

It has been going for a while - But all the while I have been trying to negiotiate and I just get very rude Indian call centres!!

A lot of it has been hidden in naivity and has only really come out in January time, by which time the credit card was already way overdue.

Recent letters all quote different minimum payments - The latest from three days ago has £103 on it (despite them taking £120 a week and a half ago)

If you really are struggling, why not postpone your education for a year, get a full time job, and resume your education debt-free next year?

As stubborn as it is, I REALLY don't want to do this. I've put off uni for 3 years now, muddling through other courses and making excuses, and I know if I don't do it now, I'll totally regret it.

NickX

OverTheRainbow wrote: »

I have written to Lloyds several times, although the only address we have is a collections centre PO Box, so we're not sure whether the mail is getting there/to the right person, because we haven't had a single reply.

Good Luck with getting the new Bank Account.

You really need to get the name of someone in Collections who is dealing with your account and address the correspondence to that person.

If they do call you, just politely request that they put whatever they want to say in writing and that you have already requested this.

OverTheRainbow_3

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Why should LTSB freeze interest on such a small debt?

Let's say that my minimum payment is £25 (or I've negotiated that, or whatever)

Taken from my current online statement, interest on the account is being charged at £17.67 a shot, as well as an "overlimit charge" of £12 every month. That's £29.67, so I'm still adding £4.67 onto my account every month - So even though I'm paying it off, the balance is still increasing.

Jesus, this is crippling me.

EDIT: Shoddy maths, sorry. Corrected now. XD

OverTheRainbow_3

NickX wrote: »

You really need to get the name of someone in Collections who is dealing with your account and address the correspondence to that person.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about this.

I tried getting a name/address over the phone but all I got was "You don't need that information" (or responces to that effect.) I got the same over-the-counter in branch. Going to go and harass them tomorrow.