No help from the bank...help!

calendar_girl

Hi there,

Due to unforseen circumstances, my other half is struggling to pay his credit card bill. Basically, as well as trying to pay off the balance he is being hit with a £250 interest charge every month. This means he is only able to pay that amount and not clear the card - essentially this could go on forever.

He made an appointment to see the bank manager and as well as being rude, she was very unhelpful and basically refused to help him at all. I'm not sure why banks say 'Yeah, come in and see us and we'll see how we can help' and then refuse to do so.

We are not really sure what to do now and we are finding it very difficult to keep our heads above water.

My main question - I think - is: should the bank be helping us? If not, what is the best thing to do?

I'd appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

Thanks all.

gonzo127

now if i am understanding you properly you tried to go to the bank to get a consolidation loan? as if so (and i know this will sound harsh but i will explain) i am glad they refused you, the reason for this is because most people who get a consolidation loan end up in a worse situation in the long term as it does not address the cause of why you have ended up in the situation that you need a loan, and therefore most people without even realising it end up getting in more debt as they get something else that they cant quite afford but think they will pay off next month...

the best thing to do is to sit down get a nice cup of tea and write out a detailed and accurate SOA (statement of affairs) this basically puts you finances down in black and white and allows you (and us to help if you post it up here) the ability to see any areas of waste and potentail savings you could make

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

theres the SOA calc, fill in everything you can as accuratly as you can and try and include APR's of yoru debt etc and then just click format for MSE at the bottom and copy and paste it into this thread

savingmummy

Tbh i think the bank did you a favour - reason i say this is my DH was having some trouble and his bank jumped at the chance and gave him a loan It has literally ruined everything!

Advise - try all you can to work out how to get extra income each month to help pay this, 2nd job weekend or evening, sell things on ebay, sell a car or bike if you have too!
You may be overspending each month and between you you may beable to save quite alot each month.
SOA is the way to go, ensure it is 100% accurate and see what you can reduce, stop or limit (for now!)

cavework

Hi,
Does he have PPI and if so would his circumstances be covered?
If not has he contacted the CC company? Try asking for a reduction in interest rates , (it worked for us) or even request they freeze the interest.
This will give you a bit of breathing space to work out your best options.

Tixy

What card does he have? what balance? what APR is it. What is the rest of his situation?

I'd agree that the first step is to complete a statement of affairs to see the true extent of the situation.

When you said the bank wouldn't help did he ask them to freeze/lower interest or for a loan or what? do you know if they actually performed a credit search as part of the discussion? if so was that why he was turned down?

El_Skinto

Hi

This is exactly the same situation that we were in. We had a failling business and after the bank giving us loads of money which to be quite honest we could not afford we ended up closing the business down and trying to pay things.

Over the next year things got worse with the amounting debt so we went to the bank for help, we also had the same experience as you cheeky b's. Anyway we just had a baby so my income was going to go down even more so we knew we had to get something sorted.

Eventually we contacted CCCS who arranged a DMP for us on the whole it has went well but unfortuately the bank in question RBS is still refusing to accept our payments.

My advise would be to do a SOA, contact CCCS for advice and take it from there.

Allthough we are still having some problems it was nothing to what we had been going through and for the first time ever we managed to pay for christmas ourselves!!! We can actually sleep at night now and its like a weight has been lifted off us. It is not plain sailing - i have also been freaking out a bit at the moment too our bank RBS have sent court papers. This is a very scary prospect for us but i can honestly say since starting the DMP we have actually been able to live again!!

On our DMP RBS are the only ones not to agree to the plan the rest went through with no problems.

Big hug. Don't forget you are not the only ones to be going through this.

yellowduck_2

would it be Nat West by any chance? I have had awful problems with them. (by the way are RBS and NW connected in any way, just curious) maybe in the long term it will be for the best. My current debt with NW is a result of consolidation loan which they were only too happy to give pre credit crunch. How I wish I'd foud this site and never taken it out as two years down the line I can't pay it back due to drastic change in circumstances. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I really wish I just tackled the debt, but always assumed i'd be in a well paid job. Take care and I do hope thngs work out for you.

El_Skinto

Hi Yellowduck

I think you might be right about Nat West and RBS being connected. It's a pure cheek the way the banks act after the trouble they have been in!! I

El_Skinto

Yeah i think you are right about them being connected. The cheek of them as well after all the trouble RBS got into!!

Keeping_Positive

RBS own NW so yes connected