Loan with Natwest leaves 72 year old dad struggling

Angela_D_3

At that age with no assets I would just stop paying them and make them take him to court. Offer them a fiver a month.

kittyQC

Thanks to everyone who's offered me some help on this. I did end up giving him another donation this month... He doesn't live close Savvy_sue I'm up north and he's in London but I'm going to make a trip down there in the next couple of weeks...
Some of the questions you're asking me I don't know the answer to so gravitytolls I don't think he does have a social worker but I will ask. And sleepless saver I don't know why he got the loan. Because of the nature of our relationship I never thought it was any of my business.
After reading your responses I think I will contact the Pension Service and his local authority to find out help what help is available, it's difficult because I don't have that much information myself but it's a start. I also thought about looking into the cost of sheltered housing, because at least then he'll not be totally on his own and the rent he'll be paying will be legit... And then I'll go and see him and see if he will be open with me about his financial situation, or maybe just make an appointment at his local CAB and go with him.
Thanks again for taking the time to help...

margaretclare

kittyQC, just so you realise, your Dad is NOT paying off his loan. You are.

In answer to the question 'do banks give loans to pensioners' you could argue that once you're on pensions income you know what your income is going to be and it is not going to be taken away from you by e.g. redundancy, which may happen to a younger person. From the point of view of a lender, a pensioner could therefore be very credit-worthy, depending on whether the pensions income is adequate for the person's needs.

One thing that must be pointed out, what DH and I have been discovering over recent weeks. Every darned thing is now costing more than it did, say, a year ago. Everything, and we haven't even had our council tax demand yet. Everyone assumes that, being pensioners, we're on all the means-tested benefits - pension credit, council tax benefit, the rest. Not necessarily.

I don't know what your Dad's financial situation is in total, but he shouldn't be asking you to pay his loan for him every month on a regular basis. He took out the loan for whatever reason, he's responsible. Not you.

You asked about getting a cheaper loan. This is only an option IF you are credit-worthy to start with, rather than an age limit. If you're a person who has a history of late payment/non-payment of an existing loan then obviously any bank is going to look differently at your rating than if you're a person with a long history of always paying back on or before the due date.

HTH

kittyQC

Hello again, I went to see my Dad and I just thought I'd post a quick update. Basically it seems with all his pensions and things his income is around £1000 and actually he's coping fine on this and paying off his loan etc... However he seems to be in the charges spiral. For example last month he went £2 ish overdrawn and got charged £20 for it. And this has been going on for months. So he thinks he's got a certain amount to spend, but because of the charges he doesn't. So he takes what he expects to be in there and then goes overdrawn again. He showed me a letter from Nat West saying he's being charged £50 this month... They've not given him and interest free overdraft and so because his income is fixed he will be charged from now until he wins the lottery and can pay off the extra bit! Which now stands at about £400. I told him to change banks as thisnwas ridiculous but he thinks it's too hard. I called the bank while he was with me but they wouldn't talk to me and weren't any help to him. I left feeling so angry and helpless. It's not like it's thousands of pounds but it could be as the spiral continues and I can't seem to do anything about it.

margaretclare

kittyQC wrote: »

Hello again, I went to see my Dad and I just thought I'd post a quick update. Basically it seems with all his pensions and things his income is around £1000 and actually he's coping fine on this and paying off his loan etc... However he seems to be in the charges spiral. For example last month he went £2 ish overdrawn and got charged £20 for it. And this has been going on for months. So he thinks he's got a certain amount to spend, but because of the charges he doesn't. So he takes what he expects to be in there and then goes overdrawn again. He showed me a letter from Nat West saying he's being charged £50 this month... They've not given him and interest free overdraft and so because his income is fixed he will be charged from now until he wins the lottery and can pay off the extra bit! Which now stands at about £400. I told him to change banks as this was ridiculous but he thinks it's too hard. I called the bank while he was with me but they wouldn't talk to me and weren't any help to him. I left feeling so angry and helpless. It's not like it's thousands of pounds but it could be as the spiral continues and I can't seem to do anything about it.

Thanks for the update. I learned about this a few years ago when I got together with my now DH. One year I paid a total of £700 in bank charges of this sort! I've been on to the problem since then, you can be very sure. Going overdrawn on a regular basis, paying charges for bounced cheques, bounced direct debits, can add up to a frightening amount over time and that money could be put to much better use! The only answer is for your Dad to do some serious budgeting and live within his income.

chesky369

It's very important that your father goes as soon as possible to his local citizens advice bureau. More and more older people are getting into financial trouble in this way and it seems to take them a long time to realise what's happening vis-a-vis bank interest and overdraft charges. It IS very complicated. CAB will help get the sitiuation stabilised and get him to manage his affairs once this is done.

anmarj

try and get him to open up a basic bank account with another bank, this does not give an option of an overdraft and then make arrangements to pay back the overdraft, but he would have to watch his budget as if you do go over the charges could be horrendus, but it might give him a chance to clear the other one and not continue racking it ip

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts

Invalidation

What you do is. (or what he does is). Immediately move the bank account to another bank, very easy job nowadays but watch out for the DD's and SO's.
Write a letter to the bank stating his inability to pay the requested amount and ask that they freeze the interest on the Loan. Suggest a lower monthly payment (say £50) that is a manageable amount. mention that the existing amount is unsupportable.

If they say no, stop paying and let them take him to court. In court he or his representative explains the situation and shows the letter to the Mags, suggest he can afford X Pounds per month. The magistrate will almost certainly agree.

Or simply ask the bank to enter into an IVA.