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

AboutPaula

Hi there,
In 2007 Barclays did this to me. I was working part time and was saving for my food and my rent. As I was living in student housing, my rent was quite cheap but it took a large amount out of my wages. Knowing I was in difficulty, I opened an account with the Woolwich only for them to be bought out by Barclays!
This wasn't that bad until they decided to take out the money I had got from my wages to pay off some of my debt from my other account. When I went into Barclays, all they could say was that they could do it if they wanted to. I was not happy about that at all.
I had an ISA in there too but the lady told me that they could'nt take it so I set that up to be sent in cheque to me as soon as it was up.
I did have trouble getting an account at the Halifax even though I had savings with them but luckily Lloyds opened one up for me.
Anyway, because of this, I had to move back home to live with my Dad, which isn't a bad thing but it meant moving 200 miles away from where I was. My landlord was really understanding and let me pay off what I owed bit by bit and let me break my contract. It was a really frightning experience though as I had no way of paying for food or travel home. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even the bankers!

thursday

Just a couple of days ago, Barclays/Barclaycard helped themselves from my accounts for £180.00 missed payment that was just a mere ONE day overdue, and in the following way:
there were £600.00 in my current account, but they chose to transfer £180.00 from my e-savers Reward account (therefore disqualifying me from the interest rate for this monts) into my current account with more then enough in it, before paying themselves!
Lovely, isn't it!

I have logged the compkaint, of course , and will do my best to shame and blame them, especially since I never ever missed payment with them before for more than 10 years, and having been to the hell of cancelling fraudulantly issued cheques in which process I saved them £550.00 just a week before this happened....

ontheway_2

I've also been concerned about the LTSB/HBOS merger. Running a current account well with Halifax and my salary goes in monthly, but have DMP with some debts to LTSB (credit card, current account overdraft, personal unsecure loan). I have opened a cashminder (basic - no fuss) account with the Co-op as a parachute would rather stay with HBOS unless the right to off set will endanger this. A colleague tells me that his brother is one of those working on merging the databases of both banks. Does anyone know the situation, or will they remain with separate licences?

sdooley

Halifax deposits appear to have been moved across to Bank of Scotland plc. So all deposits into or loans from the old HBOS group would be covered by the right of set-off. The Halifax current account terms don't appear to let them transfer balances to cover Lloyds debt yet. They could arrange for this either by changing the t&cs to allow intra-group set-off or by simply merging the business of Bank of Scotland with Lloyds (currently they are seperate legal entities.

bryonyhines

I changed the payment date of my loan, they thought I wasn't paying and took the amount from my current account, in error! Of course they refunded it, but after realising they could just take it, (without a previous DD or anything) I decided to move my account from Barclays to Co-op, who seem a bit more ethical generally. Any experience with Co-operative Bank anyone?

Sillychuckie

AboutPaula wrote: »

I had an ISA in there too but the lady told me that they could'nt take it.

Can anyone else confirm this or add similar experience?
I'm trying to work out whether they can take from an ISA, because I have 2 accounts with one bank - one an ISA (positive balance), and one a currenct account (0% overdraft, so therefore overdrawn fairly heavily).
Would be good to know if there was a hard set rule regarding ISAs.

SC.

stephenjwz

Sillychuckie wrote: »

Can they take money out of ISA savings to balance an overdraft of a current account, thereby causing you to lose that element from your ISA and never be able to replace it (fixed allowance of £3,600)???

Pretty worrying.
Thanks. SC

I'd like to second this question in case anyone knows - couldnt see an answer in the thread & am concerned about moving my isa to my natwest account where I have my student overdraft

sdooley

You could imply that ISAs could be set-off against overdue debts from http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/40/40_setoff.htm which mentions them in the first line. I'm not sure how this ties in with ISA regulations which generally prohibit customers from granting a charge or assignment over an ISA (so as to stop people using other people's allowances).

Sasquach

Happened to me last year, Halifax took money from a joint current account and paid a debt on a credit card in my name that was under an agreement and was in the process of having the charges claimed back on!

Meant I couldnt make the mortgage payment on my mortgage with 'yep' you guessed it the Halifax.

Really destroyed 'what little' faith in banks I had, now have a prepay credit card which I pay my wages into and pay all bills from.

It really is theft in my eyes anyone else took money out of your account without permission and it would be viewed as theft.

MOD_2

Yep this happened to me as well. I bank with Natwest who were contacted by CCCS and informed that I had an arrangement with them to pay off my debts. I cancelled the debit order for a loan I have with them, and Natwest decided to ignore that and take the money anyway, meaning I couldn't even get off the ground with paying CCCS. Idiots! Anyway, I've opened up a basic bank account with another bank, and am now more gung ho than ever to get this horrid organisation off my back and out of my life. Wish I'd been sensible enough not to put my eggs in one basket.