Lloyds TSB Collections Department - HELP

Tinkerbellarox

This is my first thread on here so here goes:

For Personal reasons I went over my agreed overdraft and my account was sent to the collections department (I have an agreed ovedraft of £1000)

Yesterday - 10th Nov 2010 - @ approx 3pm I paid enough money into my account so that I was only £300 pounds overdrawn, but within my agreed limit.

I attempted to make a payment online yesterday evening - Card not accepted/ verified.

Call to LTSB - no blocks on my card. Explained Collections situation - they put me through to collections department.

CD informed me there were no blocks but that because my account was in the process of being transferred back to my branch I would have to wait 24hours - he repeated this several times! - to use my card.

Now - over 24 hours later -I will cannot use my card!

Call to LTSB this evening - collections department is closed.

Has anyone else had similar problems? How long did transfer actaully take?

I will call Collections again in the morning - just seems a bit of a faff.

Thanks In Advance

The_Last_Chance

Not to pry - just if it helps :beer:

If you were put through to collections with any bank and have anything set up what tends to happen is they put all charges or interest payments on hold whilst you work through "a repayment program" to get the account back into the agreed limits.

What the department which deal with this tend to do is - they will place one of their personal stops on the account stopping anything going out bar the few neccesities (which they have to authorise) and only allow payments in.

So, With you bring your account into £300.00 into the overdraft

-£300.00 Balance
£700.00 Available balance

Everything is in order. However, if there were any charges put on hold OR any stops present they would still be there. meaning although you have paid in, there is no way of paying out even though its supposedly available. So your all in order, but their stops are present. You can pay in update the account - But the collections department won't let you pay out. They most likely have to sign off on it to say everything is in order, any charges resolved and then remove the stop. OR they have to look at it from the banks perspective and if anythings owed they will say £700.00 available balance, pay whats owed first BEFORE any further spending?

(sorry if it sounds abit complicated, i've never done collections just a bit of bank work)

With Lloyds, I think their collections is either Scottish or Indian not quite sure with the call centres or it may be pick and mix. I know it will be an 0845 or 0877 number though. What I would advise is, that if you go into your local branch and explain whats happened they may have a spare phone available for you so you can sit and sort anything with collections - plus you can grab hold of someone if you need help trying to resolve the whole situation.

The problem tends to be the collections department themselves have to remove everything.

Don't know if thats any help though - just a perspective thing if anyone would like to expand.

Tinkerbellarox

Thanks

The Collections department told me that everything was in order and that my account would be active again within 24 hours...but it isnt

Hopefully it should be resolved soon

The_Last_Chance

I would keep chasing it up if i were you. These sort of promises of within 24 hours should have been upheld.

The call centre advisor may have.... erm how to say it.... not done everything they promised.

Having worked in a call centre, if you have to call again write down where you called from (telephone number) the name of the advisor you speak to AND their exact timescale for how long to resolve.

Usually, the stops would be removed when your on the phone (or sent off for) and would update within 24 hours of this. If you have called on the 10th and still not resolved tomorrow would definitely be worth chasing up.

By logic, Call on 10th passed on to remove stops - stops removed 11th by collections and would update within 24 hours. So the start of banking the 12th November the stops should be removed.

Good luck and hope all works out for you
:j

Tinkerbellarox

I shall check again at 9am tomorrow and give them a call if not

Thank you so much for your help

mick307

Their collections team are based in India and are totally inefficient, not my opinion but based on facts that have caused me massive problems due to them putting wrong information on my credit records.
They do have a small collections department based in Brighton but to get through to them is pot luck as your call goes to the first adviser available.
From experience, i now always ask for whatever has been discussed to be put in writing to me and this seems to work.
It may be worth calling again as the crowd in India dont always do what they agree to, as has already been said get a name, which will be a made up English name, get the time you called and the date plus how long you were on the phone, then ask for compensation for your time and call costs.

Mick

jonesMUFCforever

OP - how did you pay into your account ? was it a cheque by any chance? - if so you will have to wait for it to clear before the available balance can be used.