Advice dealing with the devil's bank (Lloyds TSB)

MrTomTom

Hi, i'm after abit of advice with dealing with Lloyds TSB. I'm a self employed 20 year old who only uses my bank to pay my phone bill and any one off transactions such as buying tickets online ect, 99% of the time there is less than a pound in my account as the business i deal with is cash in hand based and there is no point putting it in my bank to then go and take it out again a few hours later.

Around October/November work was pretty tight and i missed a £35 direct debit for my phone and was charged £20, they then charged me £6 per day upto a maximum of 10 days for going into an unplanned overdraft, this way paid off after 4-5 days when i managed to get some money sorted which meant i was charged £50 for missing a direct debit. The next month i put some money in my account in anticipation for a direct debit to go out, it wasn't until i realised that i hadn't recieved the items i ordered two weeks later that i found out that the direct debit didn't go through because i didn't have enough money in my account, i was 90p short and now because of two weeks of unplanned overdraft fee's which i was never informed about, i was £80 overdrawn in charges for going 90p overdrawn!!

Now work for the past 6-7 months has been tough, getting to the point where i've been a self employed worker who is basically unemployed and where £80 in charges is the least of my worries when there is rent, food ect to pay.

Now because i was £80 overdrawn (which the bank had put me into) the unplanned overdraft fee's went up from £6 per day to £15 per day because i was more than £75 overdrawn. So when i had a chance to pay the £80 off weeks later, i was due to pay another £120 in unplanned overdraft fee's the next month, and when i couldn't pay those £120 in charges in the two week window, i was charged £120 for that unplanned overdraft and so on and so on which means for the last 4-5 months i have been paying Lloyds TSB £120 a month in charges because they put me overdrawn for the sake of 90p AND neglected to tell me i was overdrawn by that measely sum.

Money and Work at the minute is still hard and looks like i will have to leave the line of business i am in, close down my business and go on the dole looking for a new job.

I reckon i must of paid £700-£800 in ridiculous charges since October 2009 and for someone who has hardly worked that is ALOT of money.

So i'm just after a bit of advice really, see if i have a chance of getting any kind of money back or something.

Cheers!

p.s NEVER EVER bank with Lloyds TSB, they are a legal Loan shark.

the_insider

Have you spoken to them and explained the situation? In my experience Lloyds are one of the more sympathetic banks when it comes to good will refunds. If you explain that you are on a low income and that the charges are now far higher than the original breach they may be able to help you.

Alpine_Star

MrTomTom wrote: »

So i'm just after a bit of advice really, see if i have a chance of getting any kind of money back or something.

I would be tempted to contact Lloyds and refer them to the evidence given to the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Select Committee by their Group Chief Executive for Scotland, Archie Kane, in answer to question #370 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmscotaf/c319-ii/c31902.htm

Ask them why they have not tried to communicate with you and why they have not sought to come to an arrangement.

dunstonh

p.s NEVER EVER bank with Lloyds TSB, they are a legal Loan shark.

Lloyds are a good bank and I would recommend them. They are quite good with dealing with poorly run accounts when the contact is good but if you are taking the mickey by running up overdrafts and not keeping in contact with them they will become a bit harder on you.

However, like most of the others, the charges levied on unplanned overdrafts are heavy. The fact it was charged as an unplanned overdraft suggests your contact with the bank has been minimal or non existent.

Lloyds will typically refund charges if its your first error. They may refund some if the overall charges in a period are high. However, it does appear that your lack of communication with them is causing most of your problems as you are running your account badly.

Alpine_Star

dunstonh wrote: »

However, it does appear that your lack of communication with them is causing most of your problems as you are running your account badly.

This is back to front. Under the Lending Code the onus is on the subscriber to pro-actively contact the customer.

the_insider

Is the OP saying that they never got any statements? Letters get sent when charges are incurred and when the account is in arrears. That's contacting the customer, if the customer won't speak to them there's not much they can do!

cjttho

Did you complain to the banks about the Direct Debits? Under the rules of the Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme, any direct debit under dispute HAS to be refunded and the payee then is allowed to negotiate with the creditor on the repayment terms. Now if you called the bank and expalined the DD was incorrect, they would have had to refund you, and you'd never have lost not only the charges, but all of the cash flow on a month by month basis.

Look up the rules of the DDGS, and then you'll need to know if you contacted the bank regarding the direct debits or not.

Check out my post for an exact replica of your story.

Alpine_Star

the_insider wrote: »

Is the OP saying that they never got any statements? Letters get sent when charges are incurred and when the account is in arrears. That's contacting the customer, if the customer won't speak to them there's not much they can do!

Clearly you are unfamiliar with the lending code.

Proactive contact
141.
If, during the course of a customer’s account operation, a subscriber becomes aware via their existing systems that the customer may be heading towards financial difficulties, the subscriber should contact the customer to outline their approach to financial difficulties and to encourage the customer to contact the subscriber if the customer is worried about their position. Subscribers should also provide signposts to sources of free, independent money advice.

By any stretch, sending a statement does not fulfill the bank's obligations to the Lending Code.

the_insider

Alpine_Star wrote: »

Clearly you are unfamiliar with the lending code.

Proactive contact
141.
If, during the course of a customer’s account operation, a subscriber becomes aware via their existing systems that the customer may be heading towards financial difficulties, the subscriber should contact the customer to outline their approach to financial difficulties and to encourage the customer to contact the subscriber if the customer is worried about their position. Subscribers should also provide signposts to sources of free, independent money advice.

By any stretch, sending a statement does not fulfill the bank's obligations to the Lending Code.

I know for a fact that Lloyds' Collections Letters explain how they can help if you're in financial difficulties and also advise that they can only help if the customer contacts them.

Alpine_Star

the_insider wrote: »

I know for a fact that Lloyds' Collections Letters explain how they can help if you're in financial difficulties and also advise that they can only help if the customer contacts them.

A collections letter isn't a statement or a charge notification letter - both of which don't explain how they could help or encourage communication. I doubt that even a collections actually explains ''how they can help if you're in financial difficulties'' in addition to suggesting contact.

A collections letter is precisely what it is - a payment demand - and is not sent with the express purpose of pro-actively contacting the customer in order to seek to help them as defined by the Lending Code.

zppp

Alpine_Star wrote: »

A collections letter isn't a statement or a charge notification letter - both of which don't explain how they could help or encourage communication. I doubt that even a collections actually explains ''how they can help if you're in financial difficulties'' in addition to suggesting contact.

A collections letter is precisely what it is - a payment demand - and is not sent with the express purpose of pro-actively contacting the customer in order to seek to help them as defined by the Lending Code.

Actually, I think that is wrong. Working for a similar bank, we have a special division set up to deal with financial hardship problems, and the letters are sent out proactively. The letters are not payment demands - they often state something like 'we want to discuss your borrowing as trends are showing you are struggling with your finances'. It gives them a freephone number to call. I have known them to have large amounts of flexibility, ie. increasing overdrafts to stop charges, putting arrears onto interest free loans at the end of the borrowing etc.

All of this falls under the Lending Code and CSR.