Other peoples debt

Stewboy1978

Afternoon

Not sure why I am posting this - I need to tell somebody!

My mum racked up about 70k worth of debt - Banks just kept offering and due due to circumstances she kept taking it. Unfortuantly she isn't great financially and she just kept getting more and more into debt.

To help her out I sold a flat I was letting and paid £40 of it, I now have 2 loans - £15k and £10k and a CC of £5k which I am paying off.

Apart from paying it back is there anything I can do - Will the CAB be able to help or is it a case of me just getting on with it.

I suppose the moral of the story is go to the CAB 1st instead of trying to work it out yourself!

GeorgeUK

I don't think there is much you can do now but you should try to look for any information about irresponsible lending. Was your mother in a position to pay back all this money?

Could she claim back any PPI or charges?

I think as the debt is now in your name there may not be much you can do, but you are definately right to question why she was given so much credit. It may have been better for her to go bankrupt if there was no possibility of her repaying these debts.

biggaz26

Unfortunately this is an often found outcome of irresponsible lending by banks in the past decade combind with the must have now consumer culture that has developed at the same time.

You probably would have been better off contacting the CAB first but fair play to you for stepping into the breach and helping your mum out!!

G

Stewboy1978

Thanks for the replies.

My mum was earning approx £100 per week and my dad £250 per week. Based on that I cannot see where they could get such credit from - But they did and from leading high st banks!

GeorgeUK

I would still make an official complaint to the OFT about the banks' lending practices. With that wage, there is no way she would have been able to repay the debts and should never have been given that amount of credit. Not too sure what they can do now that you have the debt in your name but i would definately flag it up to them.

70k debt
say 2% monthly minimum payment (very generous)
That's about 1400 every month.

How was she expected to pay for this?

I don't believe there is any legislation that covers irresponsible lending and you would probably need to complain to the banks before the financial ombudsman would get involved. If the debt has been repaid i don't think the banks will give it much time.

This is an old story, but i'm sure there must be others.
http://money.guardian.co.uk/creditanddebt/debt/story/0,,1696494,00.html

Not sure if you could make an argument that it was negligence on their part.
Might be worth checking if they have breached the banking code.
http://www.bankingcode.org.uk/pdfdocs/PERSONAL_CODE_2008.PDF

Borrowing money
13.1 Before we lend you any money or increase your
overdraft, or other borrowing, we will assess whether
we feel you will be able to repay it.

I'm sure the newspapers would also be interested in a story like this.

misspoppy

Hi

Just a thought but is there any chance your Mum could have lied about their income on any of the forms, its worth checking before you complain you wouldn't want to cause more problems.

Now the debt is in your name there is nothing you can do but keep paying as for the rest of the debt that your Mum has you need to assist her in sorting it because bailing her out won't help her address the real problem. There is a lot of guidence on here but first things first look out for yourself then help your Mum to help herself.

LandyAndy

misspoppy wrote: »

Hi

Just a thought but is there any chance your Mum could have lied about their income on any of the forms, its worth checking before you complain you wouldn't want to cause more problems.

Now the debt is in your name there is nothing you can do but keep paying as for the rest of the debt that your Mum has you need to assist her in sorting it because bailing her out won't help her address the real problem. There is a lot of guidence on here but first things first look out for yourself then help your Mum to help herself.

That is the best advice you've had. Time and again on here you will find people who get into problems repeatedly because they don't address the underlying problem of spending more than you earn.