Pressure from bank - what can I do??

vicki98_2

Hi there,
i'm pretty new to this forum so please bear with me!!
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to deal with the constant pressure I am receiving from the bank to repay my overdraft.

Heres some background to what happenned:
1. opened student bank account when started uni (2000)
2. in final year I started to take advantage of the interest free overdraft facility (limit £1600)
3. stayed at uni to do post graduate course & informed bank i was doing so - they told me that o/d could be increased to £2000 so i took advantage of this too
4. some personal probs meant i did not complete post grad course in 1 year as planned (in fact i'm only just completing it now!)
5. bank started charging interest on o/d & added lots of charges for unpaid items - resulted in o/d of around £2600 (still being charged)
6. Nov 2005 - bank informed me i had defaulted on account by not crediting it for over 3 months. resulted in account being closed and passed to credit management within the bank

Having managed to pay off other debts from this time, or coming to reasonable agreements to pay them off, this overdraft is the main thing that is worrying me at the minute. I am over run with work for uni project and looking constantly for full time work to support myself. I did not take out a loan for the post grad course, only worked part time (which i have since had to give up to do an unpaid work placement with the uni).

The problem is, the bank is constantly ringing & sending letters demanding payment or threatening legal action to recover the money. I have told them my situation (that i am unemployed/still a student/looking for work/unable to claim any benefits etc etc) but they are still demanding i make a payment to this account, first they said £45 then they reduced this to £15. I told them that the best i could do was to try and pay it as i really don't have any money (luckily my partner pays the rent/bills at the mo, & my mum helps me out when need be) and they started to demand to know what i was living on and suggested i must have some money somewhere or i wouldn't be able to live.

they are still hassling me to make payments (this time they wanted £70 minimum) and threatening to take this further if i dont pay it. I've thought about reclaiming the charges they put onto the account to try and help myself out a bit but i'm too scared in case it goes to court because of all the probs i've had with the bank already i think i could lose the case.

Once i do have a job, i have every intention of paying them off (the sooner the better) but at the minute there is absolutely nothin i can do.
i think the next step they may take is to pass it to a DCA so i don't know what will happen then but i'd really appreciate some help on how to deal with the bank, who keep adding this pressure and demanding money because they think i have loads of it!!

Glitterari

HUGS.

I won't be much help, but I know that you can write to the bank (or call them) and demand they contact by writing to you only. That would stop the nasty phonecalls.



I really feel for you though...others with lots of advice will be along shortly!

C xxxx

linniestorm

I'm the same, other people will for sure have better ideas than me on this. But have you thought about making an appointment with your local Graduate Advisor? They seem to be a more 'human' face of banking (or mine was anyway)! And they are well used to skint students sitting in their offices! It just seems like you seem to are getting a lot of calls from a lot of different people and the bank have got their hassle hat on.

If you went in to have a chat with the Graduate Advisor they may be able to arrange a compromise or agreement on when to pay it back (beware the offer of loans obviously!) and you're going in and making the effort to sort it (not to say you haven't been trying up to know, I can see you have) which may stand you in good stead in future! And maybe make a token payment every month (i.e. £1) to show willing that you are trying to pay it back. Which makes the bank look unreasonable if they keep rejecting your offers to pay.

Anyway, I'm sure other people will have better advice, and they'll be along any minute, hugs though, I know what its like to be in that situation, it's a big load of cr*p!

Aidenr

Hi Vicky - BIG HUG

Well, im not that esperienced either but will try and give you my 2p worth if it counts.

best thing in my oppion to do is like Glitterari said is request that they write to you only.
I know its a scary situation to be in, at the momment im am beginning to get myself together to claim all my bank charges back from LLoyds around £1600 worth. complete nightmere. I can understand your worry about the court thing, it can be a scary prospect but i think if you have a read around https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk this may give you some confidence to go down that road and make a start on getting your overdraft down a bit.

have you tried making an appointment with a personal banker at your bank. I worked for Nationwide for 6 years. again in my oppinion, if you were to sit with someone and explain the situation and what you could pay (even if only £1) they maybe that person will be able to liase with the credit mangement department. I am sure that there are 1000's of students in the same boat as you. I'm 26 and didnt go to uni unforunatly, so not sure what resources are available to you there, but certainly find one main contact point to vent and come to a solution thatbn helps.

If DCA get involved. again tell them you are a student and can offer to pay whatever if anything. my suggestion though would be to try and keep the matter at the bank as DCA's can be rather ruthless when they want to!

well i hope i have helped.
take care

Aiden

grown_up_girlie

Hi Vicky,

I don't think I can offer any advice that will totally sort your problems but I too have had a similar situatuion. 1 thing that you mustn't do is not give them anything regardless of them issuing you with a default notice. If you can even only afford £2 a month then give that, this will be seen by the courts should it ever end up there.

You need to send them a SOA so they can see for themselves your incomings/outgoings etc. At this point you should contact CCCS or the CAB to establish your rights and then contact the creditor to stand your ground and offer them xxxx amount every month. It is not in the interest of the creditor to take you to court as this happened to me and they ended up only getting £1.70 a month.

Please dont fret too much about this, I know it is easier said than done but there is always a way to sort it out and they are seriously just tryinig their luck with you. They legally have to accept your offer should they take you to court so they should hopefully recognise this before it even goes that far.

As far as the phone calls are concerned, you need to write to them and explain that you will only communicate via letter. If they telephone you, there is no need to be rude but just explain that should they wish to contact you it is to be done in writing and that you would like for them to add a note to your account to state this. END OF! They have no legal right to harrass you and they can actually get into a lot of trouble for doing so. One thing you musn't do is avoid them though. Make sure you log all names of people, dates and keep copies of all written correspondence as you never know when you will need this information.

Hope that has helped a bit.

Have a nice weekend and please dont worry too much

Vicky

vicki98_2

thanks for the advice.

i'm gonna go into the branch on monday and make an appointment to speak to someone about it all. that gives me the weekend to sort out what i can offer to pay them, i think i'll make a token payment while i'm there just to show willing and then hopefully they'll get off my back till i get myself straight.

i've just had a look on the consumer action group too, so i think a good step would be to request all statements & details of charges - what i have at home doesn't tell me much as the bank stopped sending out statements when they closed the account!
After having a think about it this afternoon, I've worked out that i wouldn't be over the arranged overdraft limit if they hadn't charged me so much and so often, i reckon the charges must come to a total of at least £800 over the 6 years that the account had been open.

so i guess when i receive these details i'll know where i stand and it would help a great deal to paying back the bank and reducing the debt.

feel much better already!!
thanks again
vicki

vicki98_2

thought i'd post an update of whats happening now.

after all my plans to sort out this problem with the bank this morning, it seems they have beaten me to it!
received a call from a credit management agency earlier today who the bank have asked to take over my debt. after explaining to the lady on the phone about my situation and informing her that i had repeatedly told the bank the same thing, she suggested i go to CAB and get a letter drafted up which details my situation and get it posted back to them ASAP to try and avoid this being taken to court. surprisingly, she seemed quite understanding and seemed to suggest that by doing this letter (and making some form of token payment) that i could avoid the whole court process (they were intending to get an attachment of earnings order). Is this right??
I'll post a copy of my letter on here once its sorted and keep you informed of what happens

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

they i doubt will accept your token offer and pass it on to a dca to see if they can make you pay up any quicker refuse to deal with any dca especially by phone send the creditor what you can afford send the same ammount and only what you can afford until you can increase it i doubt they will take you to court .as for attachment of earnings this can only be done after they have taken you to court and you have failed to maintain your payment programme ie its a load of crap they will not do it threats,balliffs etc all threats none can be done without going through court procedures etc,debt collectors on your door again rare if they did just refuse to pay you dont have to pay them send money direct to creditor

Dr.Lou

Is the bank HSBC by any chance? I had a very similar sort of nasty phone calls/ letters etc issue with them recently on my Graduate Account. It really made me mad!

Broken_hearted

I wouldn't have told them I dropped out and left the account to run.

Snich

The other people to get in touch with are the finance officer (may be called something different at your Uni) at the Student Advice Centre. When my friend was in a similar situation, they wrote letters of support and were extremely helpful. They also helped with addressing budgeting issues of *why* the problems had occured etc.

Good luck with it all.
Snich x