Bank Debt

spikeysoul

Please tell me if this should be on the bank charges forum

I have a debt problem I need to sort out, I'm on incapacity and income support claiming for my husband and trying to make ends meet. I found out last week two months into our tight budget that my husband had a debt of £500 on his current account :eek:. It wasn't until tonight when he let me take the phone call that I found out what had been going on. I am now to deal with them on the phone.

When he got the account he explained he was terrible with money and needed an account without an overdfraft as he would never be able to manage one and it would just get him into trouble. They allowed him to withdraw £50 out of a cash machine that he didn't have. He cleared that, then a DD took him over his limit but he didn't get charged and they said they had covered him for £50, which he stupidly said ok to :doh: but no more. Overtime this went up and up as they allowed him to withdraw more and more money and increased the overdraft without letting him know thereby not charging him and confuse him - he did not twig this was an overdraft.

They did this till it got to £350 :mad:, then they started adding charges - this was a shock to hubby and he went into pannic mode. He is currentlh under the Dr for depression and all this happened just as he was going onto anti-depressants which didn't help (the side effects that is).

He has tried to go into the bank before now and sort this out on his own, pay a bit and get them to stop adding charges - they would not do it (I don't think that it helped he didn't offer regular payments but they didn't suggest it either). They phoned last friday and he offered £15 per month and they ended the call, they phoned back today having added £22, spoken to me and agreed to £20 for the next two months. For this period they have again increased his overdraft to cover the debt so he doesn't get charged but they were talking about £30 per month after that and a lump sum when our circumstances improve my response =:rotfl:. This is highly unlikely and totally impossible to increase payments - I am on a student account currently at -£945 and have a mortgage to pay out of the income support. I also have a credit card at £250 (I have been fairly careful but he only lost his job 2 months ago so the debt was not totally a problem)

They are saying that because of a new clause giving you £150 extra that gets charged at a very high rate over the overdraft (that wasn't really agreed to) that they can basically charge what they like :eek: (seems like a license to print money to me). That I can't claim any of the charges back because of this and I am basically scre*ed. They wanted to link my account to my husbands - which I flat out refused to. I did ask for stuff in writing but by the time that had happened we would have had at least another £44 in charges. At present the debt is at the banks collections department, and they are saying it hasn't been in trouble for long.

Can I claim any charges back - is there anything we can do about them misleading and confusing him? What can we do to make sure he doen't do this again - is there anything we can do about the fact that his ostrich syndrome was down to depression? If I have to write any letters is there a template - we are both dyslexic and written stuff to and from the banks although probably nessessary is going to be a nightmare (wish there was someway to use the DDA for this).

All suggestions and advice welcome - I am at a loss and only just staving off my own depression and anxiety, which will lead to me suffering a form of ostrich syndrome too. (Mainly due to the fact that I will have pannic attacks when on the phone which makes communication impossible)

GeorgeUK

Claim charges back and don't deal with them on the phone - only in writing. It might be difficult, but they should at least stop lying to you about not being able to reclaim charges.

I don't know of any templates on this board for overdrafts so i suggest you post this thread on the bank charges board too. I am not sure if your husband will be treated as a special case because he is under medication and diagnosed with depression. I would also make a formal complain to the bank as he had specifically requested that an overdraft not be given on the account as he was bad with money but one was given anyway - and also about the highinterest rate and being informed that this could not be claimed back. As far as i am aware, the banks lost the test case and the appeal is currently being dealt with.

beanielou

Hi & welcome spikeysoul.
You will get lots of good advice here.
Can I also suggest you open a new bank account for your benefits to be paid into that you currently dont have any association with.
Keep posting!

spikeysoul

I am currently trying to get a joint basic bank account with Co-op (hoping with their ethical policies they may be better). I have agreed to the two months standing order £20 1) because I can afford it and 2) because it gives me two months of no charges to write my letters - What on earth do I write, who do I write to. Do I have to get them to write to me first. Honestly I have read all the stuff I can on this site and I understand in principle what I am supposed to do but I still don't actually know what to do - blame dyslexia for that. Written instruxtion to write something Guh!!! Duh!! brain melts . (Did I mention he is worse than me)

GeorgeUK

Are you on a debt management plan with CCCS or payplan? Or are you trying to set up your own repayments?

spikeysoul

Trying to set up my own repayments - unless this is the wrong way to go about things then I will change tack, I'm open to anything.

Gemmzie

I'm a little confused, can you just clarify that you are on Incapacity and your OH is on Income Support?

spikeysoul

I am on incapacity and I claim for him a top up because he is my spouse. In the same way that some one on JSA claims for their spouse. Most people get confused about this because usually husbands claim for wives but because I am already in the system it is much easier and quicker for me to claim for him. I hope that makes more sense.

GeorgeUK

CCCS or Payplan may be able to talk you through things on the phone easier. You can do it yourself if you want but having someone on the other end of the phone may help you. It might be worth contacting them to try to arrange a DMP. They will need to know your income, expenditure and debts - the soa calculator may be helpful with this.
https://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Gemmzie

Makes sense, I just wanted to clarify if that for both of you your only income was benefits? Should have explained better, sorry