Student's suicide after overdraft

poorbutrich

Please don't blame the journalist! Whoever wrote the article was quoting the lad's parents at the inquest.

grade15

I think the government and the banks are to blame..and of course the silly student was...as well.. for killing himself over debt..life is too precious..practically everything in life can be resolved..
he could of thought about opening another student account with a different provider.??
i think a little too little too late now..
but my point is..the government and banks should treat students like they are our tomorrows..not screw them for every penny they got or haven't!!

nrsql

Agree (oops a few post got in before I hit send) - doesn't sound like money (at least not as stated) was much to do with it.

sammy_kaye18

Yeah this was just up the road from me. Such a sad story. The poor family were devastated. They asked everyone at the Uni to get as much help as possible if they were in Debt.

Bloody HSBC i hope they feel really f___king guilty - they've been hounding my bf too and he got majorly depressed by it - luckily after lots of swift kicks up the backside hes gettign ti sorted now but they hound us constantly even though we are making steps to repay it now.

skintchick

I don;t think this particular situation was the bank's fault. They simply took hi OD facility away, after discussion with him, which they are entitled to do.

I think his depression and self harming background has far more to do with it.

His parents want someone to blame, which is natural and understandable, but not very fair on the bank.

Of course it's very sad, but at the end of the day the only person responsible for the suicide is the young man himself.

Ames

He could have got another account but wouldn't have had any money to live off. The basic student loan isn't enough to cover rent, and so students have to use overdrafts to live. If they took away his overdraft he had no way to pay his rent or buy food, banks wont give a student overdraft until they've had one student loan payment into the account.

I'm not sure I understand where people are coming from with the comments about depression. Are you saying it's his fault that he had an illness which meant that he couldn't think straight or see a way through? Or that there should be more support for people with depression?

I've tried to kill myself several times, the most serious attempt was over money. Just saying 'its your own fault, pull yourself together and get over it' isn't a solution, it's easy to say but not easy to do.

ZTD

Pobby wrote:

Dreadful story.In my experience HSBC are a bunch of to--ers.Closed my {in credit} account some time ago with them.I hope someone feels guilty about this!

I didn't. I have an in credit account open with them. Too small for them to make a profit, but active enough to still get statements, and hence cost them.

lynzpower

i do agree that this lad did seem a bit fragile beforehand, but lets face it many many of us have emotional health problems at some point in our lives, nad thus it should always be the presumption to treat people openly, fairly in a way they understand and without bullying, partly to minimise distress as and when it arises, but partly out of basic common courtesy.

Also, is it legal that HSBC phoned his parents about his debt, surely that breaks the DPA?

tesuhoha

Ames wrote:

He could have got another account but wouldn't have had any money to live off. The basic student loan isn't enough to cover rent, and so students have to use overdrafts to live. If they took away his overdraft he had no way to pay his rent or buy food, banks wont give a student overdraft until they've had one student loan payment into the account.

I'm not sure I understand where people are coming from with the comments about depression. Are you saying it's his fault that he had an illness which meant that he couldn't think straight or see a way through? Or that there should be more support for people with depression?

I've tried to kill myself several times, the most serious attempt was over money. Just saying 'its your own fault, pull yourself together and get over it' isn't a solution, it's easy to say but not easy to do.

Ive been criticised for paying my daughters rent and fees but at least I know that she is not worrying herself to death over money and can manage to get food. I think this is an unbearable situation for the parents but if it had been me I would rather have got myself into debt to help my son than see him not know how he was going to live. Obviously i dont know the full story but its even more tragic if he killed himself because he did not know how he was going to manage to feed himself.

Hello

lynzpower wrote:

Also, is it legal that HSBC phoned his parents about his debt, surely that breaks the DPA?

Spot on about the DPA. The bank made a statement about not being allowed to go publicy into details but that didn't stop them hounding the poor boys parents did it?

The DPA covers from cradle to grave and any organisation that trys to speak to other people about your debt is breaking the law.