Default problem with scappage

crazyhaggid

My wife recently tried to buy a car under the scrappage scheme but was refused credit due to having a default. The reason she has a default is due to the complete incompetence of the Bank of Scotland.

Whilst she was a student she held a student account with them, when she finished her course they send her letter telling her they were going to start charging interest on her overdraft, as she wasn't working at that time we wrote back to them to agree a payment plan where they froze the interest and we paid a set amount each month to clear it.

Then randomly we started receiving letters stating "pay £0.00 immediately" we tried several times both by writing to them and calling their call centre to sort this out, but in the end we got a letter telling us we hadn't paid £0.00 by the specified date so they had registered a default.

On the advice of their own staff! We took the complaint to the ombudsman, but the problem is the ombudsman it still looking at it and the scappage scheme is supposed to end in October.

If she misses this opportunity can we take the the Bank of Scotland to court for the money as they have in theory deprived us of £2000?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hintza

Apparently there is still plenty in the scrappage pot according to the Telegraph on Saturday. Just keep pushing also keep on at the bank to sort it out.

AdrianHi

Don't you just love computer systems :rolleyes:
I wonder if they have calculated you owe £0.001 or something and it has to be a computer program that's created the default. Or simply the computer system doesn't have rules built in to allow for the deal you have negotiated so someone has tried to fudge it but the system is still expecting debt repayments and carried on accordingly.
You could play thier game and write a letter to the bank enclosing a cheque for £0.00 and demanding they remove the default from your credit history and also demand a letter of explanation that you can give to the new lender you are trying to get credit with.
Keep pushing the ombudsman at the same time.

Hintza

Interesting point Adrian. OP why not send them a cheque for say 10p and see if that sorts the problem out. They might be adding interest as well.

hewhoisnotintheknow

i had the exact same thing with a gas company, they sent me my statement saying i owed "blank space"

crazyhaggid

Thanks for all the replies, what we have done so far, is chase up our ombudsman complaint, where we were told there's nothing we can do they're just 'busy'. We also written a letter to the Bank of Scoltand asking for them to again remove the default.

"Interesting point Adrian. OP why not send them a cheque for say 10p and see if that sorts the problem out. They might be adding interest as well."

We tried that once when we phoned up we paid £5 in the hope it was something like this but again it made no difference.

Today she's been accepted on finance but its with another company not Hyundai, the only problem its 19% rather than 11%, do you think we could take them to the small claims for the difference over five years?

crazyhaggid

Mysolicitorisbetter, 'thanks' for the reply, not wanting to get into an argument:

" wont show as up to date on your credit files." - no it's shown on the credit file as a default, that's why there's a problem

"As for the rest of your argument. No you cant and its completely and utterly disgraceful that you are considering a new car when you cant repay your debts." - she is now working full time and would have paid the debt off if they had actually listened to our letters/phone calls.

crazyhaggid

I was really looking for advice not an argument with a troll but, I'll address the points you made:

"And exactly the point I am making. BOS might have agreed to take reduced payments but your account is still in default as you arent paying the payments that are required. Agreeing reduced payments still screws up your credit files." - yes Bank of Scotland did initially agree to take the reduced payements, then for no reason the pay £0.00 letters started to arrive. The account was not in default as we have not defaulted on the credit agreement for the overdraft we just asked them to freeze the interest to allow us to pay it off as we had a limited budget, at that time.

"So she hasnt paid the debt off.Heres a suggestion and I bet you wont listen. Pay off the full amount then it wont be on their system to cause problems." - at the time we couldn't afford to pay the debt off in full, they stop accepting our monthly payment as they transferred it to a debt collection agency, it doesn't matter if it's on their system or not now as we now have a default.

"Funny how you can get a new car but not pay your existing debts. no doubt "principles"" - it's nothing to do with principles it's common sense, we can only afford to pay the debt off NOW because my wife is working full time, we could not pay if off in full when she left college and was looking for work, she needs a new car as hers is costing MORE in repairs and fuel then a new car would cost in finance.

crazyhaggid

Mysolicitorisbetter, please don't post any more on this thread, I'm afraid you maybe misunderstood the concept of this forum, it is to HELP people not show how twisted you are, I looked at some of your other posts and its clear that you really aren't a people person. Every one of your posts seems to be trying to bring the OP down.

I started this thread to get help, all the other posters seem well balanced people willing to help, in what is simply a case of 'computer says no.'

oxster

Mysolicitorisbetter what is wrong with you?

crazyhaggid, good luck with your complaint, this is another example of banks continually ignoring correspondence and complaints from customers, just look at the story on the moneysavingexpert home page about insurance companies


They're all at it!!!

CFC

crazyhaggid wrote: »

Today she's been accepted on finance but its with another company not Hyundai, the only problem its 19% rather than 11%, do you think we could take them to the small claims for the difference over five years?

No, you cannot.

Also bear in mind that Hyundai's own finance is 11% PAF, if the other one is 19% APR the difference is not much.

Pay your debts instead of buying a new car.