Livid. The bank and the teenager's overdraft

boracic_2

Hi Everybody out there,

I am beside myself.

My 18 year old daughter has been given a £2K overdraft by a well known high street bank on the strength of her weekend job income of £200 - £300 per month.

She is now about £1600 overdrawn.

I cannot believe

(a) how stupid she has been - but that's a story for another day and
(b) how can the bank have given her such a massive overdraft facility and then not monitored her account activity? It feels as if she has been set up to fail and moreover, as if the bank's hidden agenda is that my accounts (with the same branch) will be expected to make good the damage.

I feel like marching her into the bank and giving them all a piece of my mind (what's left of it).

Has anyone any similar experiences or suggestions.

Thanks in avance for any help - I'm out of my mind with worry and rage.

Boracic.

iamana1ias

She's 18 - an adult. Let her sort it out for herself.

Do you still blow her nose for her?

jamespir

boracic wrote: »

Hi Everybody out there,

I am beside myself.

My 18 year old daughter has been given a £2K overdraft by a well known high street bank on the strength of her weekend job income of £200 - £300 per month.

She is now about £1600 overdrawn.

I cannot believe

(a) how stupid she has been - but that's a story for another day and
(b) how can the bank have given her such a massive overdraft facility and then not monitored her account activity? It feels as if she has been set up to fail and moreover, as if the bank's hidden agenda is that my accounts (with the same branch) will be expected to make good the damage.

I feel like marching her into the bank and giving them all a piece of my mind (what's left of it).

Has anyone any similar experiences or suggestions.

Thanks in avance for any help - I'm out of my mind with worry and rage.

Boracic.

before you go youd better get her dressed tie her shoes for her and make she she been to the loo


shes an adult its her faults shes got in this mess let her deal with it

Sceptic001

boracic wrote: »

It feels as if she has been set up to fail and moreover, as if the bank's hidden agenda is that my accounts (with the same branch) will be expected to make good the damage.

Change your bank. It won't help your daughter (who is learning a difficult lesson) but it will keep the bank's grubby hands off your money.

EDIT: On reflection, can a bank shift money from one adult's account to prop up another? I would have thought not, but don't know for sure (assuming there is no guarantee agreement)

Malory

I don't see how the bank can forcibly take money out of your bank account in order to pay off her debt.

If you want to give her the money, that's your choice. An alternative would be to find out a way to pay it back herself, which is what many people do when they find themselves with a large chunk of debt and don't have relatives or friends who can/will help them out.

Do you mean that she is withdrawn £1600 within her £2000 authorised overdraft, so that she hasn't exceeded her overdraft limit, or that she has £1600 unauthorised debt - in other words, that she's borrowed £3600.

If she hasn't gone above her authorised limit, I can't see why the bank would or should be monitoring her spending. That would be an invasion of her privacy.

Empty_pockets

I had 2.5K at 18 and that was 12 years ago.

Guess she better part putting some extra hours in.

rb10

Sceptic001 wrote: »

Change your bank. It won't help your daughter (who is learning a difficult lesson) but it will keep the bank's grubby hands off your money.

EDIT: On reflection, can a bank shift money from one adult's account to prop up another? I would have thought not, but don't know for sure (assuming there is no guarantee agreement)

No, they can't.

If, for example, I had an account that was over it's overdraft limit, and a savings account with the same bank, then the bank would be allowed to move money from the savings account to the current account. But the current account has to be held in my name - they certainly won't transfer any money from my account to anyone else's unless I specifically request it.

So to the OP: your account is completely safe; the bank will not be looking to get your daughter's money back from you.

boracic wrote: »

(b) how can the bank have given her such a massive overdraft facility and then not monitored her account activity? It feels as if she has been set up to fail and moreover, as if the bank's hidden agenda is that my accounts (with the same branch) will be expected to make good the damage.

No - the bank decided to give your daughter a large overdraft because they assessed her credit-worthiness, and believed that if she used it, she would be able to pay them back.

It is entirely down to your daughter to monitor her own spending, and ensure that she spends only when she can afford to.

opinions4u

boracic wrote: »

how can the bank have given her such a massive overdraft facility

She says "can I have an overdraft please" and they say "computer says you can have £2000".

and then not monitored her account activity?

They did monitor it. They didn't let her go outside the agreed limit. Were you monitoring what your daughter was spending and wondering where all those nights out / new clothes (or whatever) were coming from?

It feels as if she has been set up to fail and moreover, as if the bank's hidden agenda is that my accounts (with the same branch) will be expected to make good the damage.

Unless there is a joint account with your daughter there is no claim on your funds.

I feel like marching her into the bank and giving them all a piece of my mind (what's left of it).

And do you really think that the staff in the branch have any involvement in the decision to give the overdraft? Do you think they sit in the little room at the back checking your daughter's account each day for debit card transactions in Primark or Debenhams?

Has anyone any similar experiences or suggestions.

1) Forget the bank, it's your daughter's spending that's the problem.

2) Don't pay a penny towards the debt for her.

3) Don't reduce her rent or pay any additional bills for her that have always been considered her responsibility before.

4) Do provide sensible adult emotional support to help her get through this.

5) Encourage her to pay the debt back fast. Is an eBay sale of some of the things she no longer needs an option? While not killing off her social life, make sure it's minimised until the debt's repaid. Use Debt-Free Wannabe forum on this site to get some other ideas to up her income and reduce her spending.

Thanks in avance for any help - I'm out of my mind with worry and rage.

It's Government policy that students are expected to leave university with debts in excess of £30k. This small abhoration (in comparison) will hopefully be a life lesson for her that will help her avoid making the same mistake in future.

If you bail her out, she won't recognise the consequences of her stupidity. If she has to dig herself out of the mess, there's a reasonable chance that she won't repeat the error in future.

My 18 year old daughter has been given a £2K overdraft by a well known high street bank on the strength of her weekend job income of £200 - £300 per month.

This is a strangely large loan for the income declared. Is she a student? If not, I do wonder if the bank's automated underwriting systems may have inadvertently taken parental relationship with the bank in to account in some way. Do any other members of the family have a similar first name?

Inactive

I always disciplined my Daughter to never spend what she does not have.

ALIBOBSY

Have the bank done anything illegal? No. But whilst I agree you daughter is also responsible as she is 18 (I think the OP wasn't questioning the part her daughter played in this), I cannot believe that given the last couple of years and the total !!!! up the banks have made of the whole countrys finances (helped by Nu lab), that people can ignore the banks position.

To lend that sort of money to an 18 yr old on that income is not just irresponsible its immoral. It a cynical tactic to get her in debt to them early to keep her on the books and in debt for the rest of her life. This is the same reason so much debt is thrown at students, it is the cynical position that they want them to run up alot of debt to get them used to having debt and keeping them tied to a bank long term.

What a crazy world we live in.

ali x

Mk14:37

The only one who deserves a piece of your mind is your daughter - the bank merely provided her with a credit facility, SHE was the one who chose to go out and spend, spend, spend. Why on earth do you think it's the bank's responsibility to control an adult's spending?

"As if she's been set up to fail". She has. People seem to have lost touch with the fact that banks are a money making enterprises, and charging interest on a credit facility generates much more profit than paying interest (if only!) on savings.

At the height of my available credit I must have had around £15,000 available to me on credit cards and overdraft facilities, but aside from my mortgage and student loan (and my Student HSBC overdraft which was maxed out, due to it being 0% therefore I put the money in a savings account), I have seldom if ever been much over £1000 debt. This is because I read terms and conditions and know that (a) I should only use money that I own and (b) if I borrow through credit cards or overdraft, I have to repay it with interest. And yes, I've known this since before I was 18.