Unhelpful Banks!!

GroundhogBabe

I have closed a (bank) credit card account that has a balance of just over £10k and tried to convert it to a loan, with the same bank as the minimum payment which was all I can afford is making no difference to the balance whatsoever. I am paying £200 per month to maintain the same balance and the bank refused to convert to a loan. I am making great effort to solve my total debt situation but why wouldn't the bank help me?? Can anyone advise what I can do, seeing as I can't get new borrowing?

jonesMUFCforever

Card services and retail banking are 2 separate departments - each will have its own lending criteria.
Card services do not do loans (for most banks anyway) and branches do not do cards (in terms that they order them on behalf of card services if you see what I mean).

Ask the credit card people for the section that deal with people in financial hardship. Normally they only deal with people in default but they might be able to help.
If they do not then try CAB or National debt helpline - they will advise you on your next steps.

opinions4u

GroundhogBabe wrote: »

I have closed a (bank) credit card account that has a balance of just over £10k and tried to convert it to a loan, with the same bank as the minimum payment which was all I can afford is making no difference to the balance whatsoever. I am paying £200 per month to maintain the same balance and the bank refused to convert to a loan. I am making great effort to solve my total debt situation but why wouldn't the bank help me?? Can anyone advise what I can do, seeing as I can't get new borrowing?

If you can only afford the minimum payment on a credit card, how would you afford to pay the higher payments that would probably be required on a personal loan at the same rate of interest?

frieda1953

I have always found halifax to be the worst..

and barclays not far behind.

check some forums here on getting back your bank charges.

I got mine back by saying I was a special case and in HARDSHIP.

they wanted proof, I filled out the form and got back 90% of my charges.. (about 270 pounds) - this was with halifax.
then they refunded my money and closed my account at the same time so I couldnt access my money!!

typical halifax cheats!!

anyway, it took more letters and I finally got my money!

will NEVER deal with halifax again.

chattychappy

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Not being funny, but why should they help you unless there is a commercial justification for them to do so? What about family, friends, charities etc, aren't they in the "helping" business?

fermi

Even if you are not at the stage of missing minimum payments, you would probably benefit from reading the "problem debts" article.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan

Also maybe post on the Debt-Free Wannabe board.

There is probably a lot you can do that doesn't involve taking out new credit, and there are a lot of people there who are taking steps to reduce/manage their debts even though they may not be in what you might call "debt crisis".