Business account help required.

khatima

I had a business account with Lloyds from late 2000 until they closed it in April 2007. Initially I had a brilliant business account manager who helped me and when I went overdrawn, arranged for me to pay back £50 every month off my overdraft to get the OD down. This worked fine until he moved to another branch and I was given another manager. I already had a loan out with Lloyds which I was repaying and the new manager insisted I moved the OD onto the loan. When I refused and said I wasn't happy increasing the size of the loan he got very abusive and 4 days before Christmas that year removed my OD without telling me leaving me completely skint (and I had animals to feed). I reported him to the Ombudsman but although I got a positve response I got wary of following it up as I still had to deal with this manager. Lloyds refused to let me change branches even though due to moving my business, his branch was by now over 150 miles away (so easy when they say - just pop in for a chat!)
Due to my huge bank charges (I have so far calculated over £4k) I started having serious problems with cash flow and in April 2007, my manager closed my account without telling me. He says he sent me 27 letters but I must have had a rogue postie as I never received one! My parents (my dad had a 1% stake in my business) went to visit him to try to sort things out as I was so stressed and he just sat and lied blatantly to them insisting I had defaulted so many times on the loan he had to tack all the missed payments onto my loan which was still on the original amount despite my paying it back for the last 7 years! Having moved several times, I cannot find the original paperwork for the loan but then neither can my Dad (he throws nothing away) and Lloyds say they do not keep originals (curious?). Lloyds then hounded my Dad to keep up the repayments as I was unable to do so. I thought the loan was originally for £5k but Lloyds say it was £7k and then they tacked on the OD - another £1k. I was repaying £129/month for 4 years then £91 for 2 years and my Dad has repayed the £91 since April '07. That makes it roughly £10k but last time I looked the loan was still at about £6k. as I say I don't have the orginal paperwork just the proposal when I was forced to add on the OD against my wishes.
I was forced to cease trading and am currently on JSA. What I really need to know is am I able to reclaim any of these charges due to financial hardship? Can I take any action over the loan? I had PPI but I was registered self-employed with no means of coping if things went wrong. I can't understand why the loan is still at such a high level after all these years!
I do have pretty much every bank statement since I started trading.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I have gone through the major depression stakes and need to fight back!

esmerellda

Were you a sole trader or a limited company ?

(makes a difference as to what to do first - as you went to the FOS in 07 I would assume sole trader?)

khatima

Sole trader.

khatima

Nobody else got any advice?

esmerellda

Can you open a business account elsewhere to keep you going while you sort out lloyds ?

Was your Dad a guarantor on the loan ?

As a sole trader you should be able to do a full Data Protection Act request on the bank - should get all the documents you need to take this back to the FOS and get it sorted.

Unfortunately the legal position with business account charges is very much up in the air so I wouldnt recommend the reclaiming route at the moment.

you could however reclaim the PPI on the loan - check your terms and conditions of the PPI - is it suitable for self employed ?

khatima

No - my account was closed in April 07 (unknown to me initially) and it effectively closed my business. I am now on JSA with only a basic account with Nationwide.
I would presume my dad would have been guarantor as he had the 1%.
I had heard about the PPI route so I shall certainly try it. Thanks.

esmerellda

You need to send a data protection act subject access request in to find out whats happened with that loan.