Credit card companies and Bank account access??

jester1971

Hi all,
I made an agreement with my credit card provider (Lloyds TSB) in December 2008 to repay my balance at a reduced rate because i was not working.
The card was cancelled and i started to make the payments without any problems.
In March 2009 my wife went into hospital for a back operation and i missed a payment because of all the worrying etc.
The Lloyds TSB Card collection department took the payment straight from my account without asking me and still said i had missed a payment.
A couple of months later the same thing happened except this time i made a late payment AND they also took out 2 PAYMENTS without asking me.
So as not to keep paying 2 payments every month ( which i could not afford) i let the company take the single payment each month. This worked fine although they kept saying i had missed a payment and i was in arrears by X amount of pounds.
This morning i find out they have taken £306.00 out of my account.
On the last account statement they said i had missed a payment again and they could, if they needed, take any available funds from my bank account to correct this.
Looking back at the statements over the last 7 months there has always been at least 1 payment ( by fair means or fowl) made to the company. So i am up to date.
Can anyone throw any light on this? Surely this has to be illegal and i could really do with getting some of the last big repayment refunded.
Cheers
Colin

never-in-doubt

Right of Offset - perfectly legal and acceptable. Have a look at this info - it may help explain: http://www.abacusfinance.co.uk/basic-bank-accounts.htm

I am not supporting this link, just showing the info is useful.

LeeSouthEast

Do you bank with TSB as well? If so this is called setting off, and is permitted. Basically you allow them to take money from one account to balance another by having both products with the same institution. All (?) banks do it.

jester1971

Wow thanks for the quick reply.
Ok, but surely i cant be in arrears with the payments if they they are taking a single payment every month anyway?
PS, Yes i am a Lloyds TSB customer.

never-in-doubt

If you miss a payment they can revoke any agreement as default (i.e. renegade the agreement) and revert to full demand of original debt so yes they can.

Sorry but you'd be best going into branch and hopefully they will see the reasons which seem plausible and acceptable.

jester1971

Ok i'll see what they say in branch. Thanks for the advice.

LeeSouthEast

The alternative is move your current account to another bank (beware that many have merged, and this agreement will extend to the merged institutions as well!). There is a list of who is owned by who on this site somewhere...

jester1971

I think i will look into That!
Thanks again.

never-in-doubt

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

The alternative is move your current account to another bank (beware that many have merged, and this agreement will extend to the merged institutions as well!). There is a list of who is owned by who on this site somewhere...

Similar list is here - who searches who but also shows the links.... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1678785

jonesMUFCforever

Going to branch will not help - they will give you a phone to ring card services or collections whoever is dealing with your card. The branch cannot overide anything they say.

never-in-doubt

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Going to branch will not help - they will give you a phone to ring card services or collections whoever is dealing with your card. The branch cannot overide anything they say.

sorry wasn't paying attention I thought it was bank related not CC related. If CC then yes I agree but if bank a/c then in branch.