Student account turned into a graduate account to soon. Claim?

DanielleR

Hiya,

I was wondering if this is something worth looking into.

When I was a student I opened up a Lloyds TSB student account. I had an overdraft of £1,000 (which soon became £1,500 and then became £2,000 and is now sitting at an agreed, slowly creepying down limit of £2,412!)

The thing is my account automatically became a graduate account after 3 years, however I ended up repeating a year at university due to ill health and actually didn't graduate for another year after it changed.

I only graduated just under 2 years ago but have been having the same terms as a graduate for nearly 3.

I did inform the bank at the time but it wasn't acknowledged it would seem and it should have been a bit obvious that I was still receiving my student loan in there to them.

I've incurred a lot of charges on this account (Around £2k in 18 months) and although I'm not in financial hardship anymore there were times where I didn't eat for days because of these stupid charges which I'm guessing were partially linked to the account reverting to a graduate account.

Have I got any grounds for a claim here? Where I had a larger overdraft only the first £1k was interest free when the terms switched although as a student it was higher (I think about... £1.5k?)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

natweststaffmember

DanielleR wrote: »

Hiya,

I was wondering if this is something worth looking into.

When I was a student I opened up a Lloyds TSB student account. I had an overdraft of £1,000 (which soon became £1,500 and then became £2,000 and is now sitting at an agreed, slowly creepying down limit of £2,412!)

The thing is my account automatically became a graduate account after 3 years, however I ended up repeating a year at university due to ill health and actually didn't graduate for another year after it changed.

I only graduated just under 2 years ago but have been having the same terms as a graduate for nearly 3.

I did inform the bank at the time but it wasn't acknowledged it would seem and it should have been a bit obvious that I was still receiving my student loan in there to them.
When did you query this with the bank?
How long did you wait before questioning them, was it when you first got charged or later or never?
Never assume the bank know everything because you could have opened a student account with another bank and sent the money to that account.
I've incurred a lot of charges on this account (Around £2k in 18 months) and although I'm not in financial hardship anymore there were times where I didn't eat for days because of these stupid charges which I'm guessing were partially linked to the account reverting to a graduate account.

Have I got any grounds for a claim here? Where I had a larger overdraft only the first £1k was interest free when the terms switched although as a student it was higher (I think about... £1.5k?)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I need to know when you queried the account change and what the bank did at the time and what you did.

DanielleR

I went into my local branch at the time so around...August 2007 and also sent a letter off, recorded delivery, to the branch my account was held at the same time.

I've also mentioned this to them pretty much every single time I've phoned them and they just ignore it.

natweststaffmember

DanielleR wrote: »

I went into my local branch at the time so around...August 2007 and also sent a letter off, recorded delivery, to the branch my account was held at the same time.

I've also mentioned this to them pretty much every single time I've phoned them and they just ignore it.

You need that proof of recorded delivery. You need to write a formal letter of complaint to them with regards to the administration of your account. What was the effect of them not extending your student status by 1 year?
have they ever responded to your complaint about the student account status?

DanielleR

I've moved about twice since then and there's no way I'll still have that recorded delivery receipt.

The consequence was I started to be charged interest on anything over £1,000 a year too earlier on my overdraft.

And they never acknowledged any of my letters, calls or anything!

natweststaffmember

DanielleR wrote: »

I've moved about twice since then and there's no way I'll still have that recorded delivery receipt.
Then you have a problem with regards to this issue because you cannot prove that you sent it recorded. Did you update the bank with your address details in that time?
Have you done a SAR for the account notes which might help with this if the letter was received?
The consequence was I started to be charged interest on anything over £1,000 a year too earlier on my overdraft.
How did the interest knock onto receiving charges? Did you continue to chase up why you were being charged?
And they never acknowledged any of my letters, calls or anything!

You may need to do a SAR(Subject Access Request) for the the account notes and you need to specify, account notes, complaint notes and any data on your account because only then will you have potentially a case based on either bank error or maladministration.