Do you have money worries and a loan or credit card with your bank?

moo_cow

fruitjuice01 wrote: »

guys i have read this post and, working for a bank, in general i hear loads of these stories. i can understand that life isnt perfect and inconvient things can happen, perhaps your wages go into your acc late which means the direct debit for credit card is returned and you pay the fees in this sort of instance you can always enquire into a refund from the company to 'blame' in this example the company you work for (always look into any paperwork you have or any t&cs to see what exactly it says. also terrible things can happen, i.e a loved one dying perhaps, which then is obviously no ones fault and is then quite understandable that you forget a payment on your credit card, in this sort of instance if you call your bank they should be understanding and put a credit to your acc, however this is a gift and is not what a bank is obligated to. any standard set of t&cs for a credit card will state that you are responcible for making your payments, if you default on these or are late there are charges and they can take it from any acc on which you are named! lets face it you must be an adult to have a credit card and as such you should be able to stay in conrol of your finances---take responcibility

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ALSO TO ANY ONE WITH A CREDIT CARD PLEASE SET UP A DIRECT DEBIT FOR THE MIN PAYMENT, it means you wont be late or ever get charges a late payment fee (as long as u have the money in ur acc) this can help your credit score and you can always pay additional amounts when you are in a position to do so. also to avoid interest you can get a credit card with an interest free period every month and set up a dd for the ful balance.

Yes and most people ARE adult enough but I think you are missing the point. The point is that we have all paid our credit back on time and when due. but when things have gone wrong (which you would do well to remember it can happen to ANYONE) people like myself and many others haven't even waited for payments to bounce. we've informed the relevant creditors immediately and they have still just taken monies from our accounts. As I said to a person at LTSB when listing all outgoings 'oh and don't forget I do like to eat every now and again'. But that didn't stop them taking. They weren't concerned with whether we were able to eat that month. I'm one of the lucky ones I don't have young children to feed but what if I had ?
And this is the point. we have a responsibility to repay our borrowings. we all know this. But at the expense of our familys? After all if we're going down the old T&C's route, shame they didn't read them out at the time of opening an account. Shame they didn't tell people the truth when charging people vast sums on useless loan insurance and shame they see fit to take ridiculous sums of money in bank charges leaving people in hardship.
The banks are reaping what they have sown.

hefelump

This hasn't happened to me, but I'm starting to hear horror stories, and something else has made me wary.

I have a whole bunch of accounts with Natwest -
- current account, generally in credit by a couple of thousand, not been overdrawn in years.
- savings account for paypal (which only ever has fifty quid in it when I want to buy something, and can't go overdrawn, so paypal can't take too much by accident)
- ISA with £2k in it
- Personal loan taken out a couple of years ago which I'm slowly paying off - still owe way more than the total credit in the other accounts. I've never missed a payment on this.
- I also have a credit card with them which has been left virtually empty after I had did some swaps between cards to get a good balance transfer rate, reading all this I think I might leave it empty, or just use it to get monthly purchases where I pay off the balance anyway - I'll be shopping elsewhere for a new CC anyway.

I know in theory that I should probably use the savings to reduce the personal loan, but my income is a bit variable month to month, and like everyone else, I like to have a cushion. You pays for comfort. My mortgage is elsewhere, and the get out clause means its not worth moving anyway.

BUT - 'my' business also banks with Natwest. Its a registered, limited company, and I'm one of four shareholders, although I have the majority of shares. The business banks under its own name. The business is also in credit, and has never been overdrawn, or applied for a loan/overdraft. It doesn't have a credit card (natwest offered one, but wanted a personal garrantee on it, so I refused it.).

1) Can the bank close my personal loan account (without my defaulting in any way) and demand repayment early or simply drop my credit card limit and repay itself by emptying and overdrawing my other personal accounts?
2) Even worse, could they dip into the the limited company's funds as well because they've decided to claw my debt back early?

I think the answers are
(1) possibly yes, depends on the detail of the T&C's on all the different accounts, and
(2) No, this clearly isn't my money.

The thing that leaves me worried is that my cash card recently wore out, so I asked for a new one. When it arrived it was the lowest limit one, despite me paying for an 'advantage gold' account. So I complained, and while they fixed it with a second replacement card, I had to go through the business manager, because he considers all 'my' accounts, including the business ones (limited company remember) together. It worried me then, but it scares me now - if the bank set off between my accounts it'd be incredibly painful, but if they took from the business, it could go under overnight - and then the taxman would be wanting to know why it paid my debts!

Help please, from someone in the know - I think I'll move my credit card away from natwest, though this probably isn't practical with the personal loan, but I actually don't want to move the company bank accounts - they work fine as they are. But no way do I want them raided to pay off a personal debt early.

J

Hyro

Hi hefelump,

I'd say the important thing is to make sure you never miss a payment on your personal loan and to cross your fingers!

They SHOULDN'T confuse your personal accounts with the business - that is the whole point of a limited company.

Nevertheless it would probably be sensible to try, gradually over time, to move your personal banking across to another bank.

Lloyds TSB stopped my card and referred me to a debt collection agency when I had no debt to them - only positive balances! You then encounter a stone wall - no way to reverse anything and they are unable to admit they made a mistake!

It's the fact that they feel they can do whatever they like, and you have no immediate recourse that gets me.

Do nothing to draw attention to yourself and keep your fingers crossed!

squidworth

When I separated a few years back before divorce the joint account was "frozen" (as much as they can these days anyway) and I opened an account in my own name. It was bad enough being left with all the bills, but one day without warning the bank took a whole wad out of my account to pay off an overdraft on the "frozen" joint account, effectively giving my ex half my money and leaving me with nowt, and refused to return MY money back to me.

Best bit of advice ever given to me by business link, "banks are b*****ds", tho i'd have to add "family" courts should be done under the trades descriptions act

edit: so if ever you separate etc, change banks!!!!

fabforty

Does anybody have experience of setting off banks within the HBOS group? I owe over £15000, including £4000 to Halifax. I was unable to work for two years, after being diagnosed with cancer and have been under a DMP with CCCS for three years. I inherited £3500 recently and put this into an ISA with Birmingham Midshires, - not realising that they were part of the HBOS group. I am worried that they will take it? I return to work in two months and with my increased income, plus my inheritance money, planned to make an offer to all of my creditors of approximately £10,000 in full and final settlement. I am now in the process of transferring the money out of the BM account, before they spot it. Just wondered if anybody knows if they are entitled to take it, and also, how closely do the banks work together? I'm hoping that being separate institutes they won't make the connection, but as BM and Halifax do not appear to have separate licences, can they just help themselves?

laurasbump

I have a joint mortgage account with my partner at Barclays (was a woolwich flexible mortgage). The mortgage is tied into the current account which provides a current account reserve which increases as you pay off the mortgage. This O/D has recently been increased by Barclays to a £5k limit but we're not using it.

My OH is in quite a bit of debt with Barclays - loan, card, o/ds among other debts totalling around £48k. I currently pay the bills and mortgage transferring money monthly into the joint account from my current account with A&L. We use OH's salary to pay off the debt. When I have the next baby (October) and we no longer have my wage coming in to the cover the bills the majority of OH's salary will need to go on bills and mortgage. At that point we have no choice but for him to go into a DMP as even when I do return to work I'll be paying 2 sets of childcare at about £1300 per month for full time care, which'll take up 2 thirds of my take home - leaving enough to cover the family food bill, baby stuff and my monthly outgoings i.e. transport, phone.

So to get to the point.... ;-)

Can Barclays use the reserve from our joint mortgage account to pay off his debts (i.e. take the capital from our house)?

I'd be grateful for any thoughts / experiences.

Laura

foxymd

I have a loan and current account with HSBC. I have an overdraft of £1700 (now £1800) and I am paying both loan and overdraft off monthly via CCCS DMP. On Friday, HSBC took money from the O/D to pay off some arrears on the loan. I note that 'firms can transfer money from an account that is in credit in order to make payments due on another account' but does that apply in this case as the account is not 'in credit'?

pecho

I have just been 'off set' by HSBC credit card to the tune of £3660, without notice completely wiping out my current account that was under a strict priority payments budget. I spent an hour and a half on the telephone being pasted around the world to four seperate people, some of whom i could barely hear or understand repeating the same mantra, sorry but tough!! The account had been a little difficulties over the last few years but and the card was frozen but the last statement was only asking for 283.20 by 1st may (3 days to go even though id paid £100 at begining of the month). I dont know where to turn to explain this to my creditors mortgage, bills other dedbts etc. Just when i thought i was getting back on track they have ruined me. please please any advice :-(

watch out for HSBC sounds like there grabbing everything back !

stevie1961

HSBC credit card just robbed my HSBC bank account for £430, I have spent over 2 hours on the phone to India, trying to get back £302 of it.

I missed 2 payments amounting to £128. I have defaulted on the agreement, but they have not yet asked for a full settlement.

I was told by their call centre staff, that if I had £2000 in my account, they would have been entitled to take it.

They have now left me with no money to live on untill I get paid at the end of next month, as well as direct debits going through next week.

They have emptied my bank account, and they dont care.

I can not express my feelings on this matter, without getting a ban off the moderators.

!!!!!! Terpin was hanged for robbing, I would'nt be tying the rope around their necks though!!

Cheers,

Most disgruntled HSBC customer ever.....

jules61_2

hi there
i have just been reading your messages on here and im new to the forum really all i wanted to know is me and my husband are looking into a dmp we have two seperate accounts at lloyds tsb his a current account mine just a basic account most of our debt is with lloyds but in my husbands name would the bank offset any money from my account to pay my husbands debts im really concerned as my wages go into this account and we were thinking now as to having his paid in to once the dmp is set up any advice greatly appreciated thanks