Misinformed by lloyds bank

dru_11

Hi, any advice would be gratefully appreciated,
I knew that today there was a direct debit due out of my account for council tax at £88, just out of curiosity i checked my balance at the cashpoint at 7:30am this morning and noticed i had gone into an unplanned overdraft, after printing off a mini statement i realised another direct debit had gone out for £68, i was slightly baffled as to what this mite be for so decided to call up the phonebank and see what the DD was for, they informed me that it was for a finance agreemant i had set up for some tools (im a mechanic) which supposed to be set up for the 5th of every month not the 15th, i was informed by the person from the Bank that if i put £60 in my account before 3:30pm that both direct debits would clear even tho it is £8 short as they provide you with "£10 buffer", so i accepted what the advisor said and put £60 in my account at 1:30pm, i confirmed with the branch staff who i dealt with that the DD would clear due to this £10 buffer thing, so i accepted that and thought no more about it until i just went and checked my account again and realised that the £68 DD for the tool finance has been returned, i phoned phonebank again and the advisor informed me that on the 2 occasions that i was told this buffer would cover me was actually incorrect and this buffer doesnt apply to DD, my problem now is "i" have broken my credit agreement with the tool finance company and they are going to request i pay the outstanding balance of £500 because the bank misinformed me of the way their "buffer" works, the advisor offered to waive the £10 returned DD charge and also give me £10 into my account as a good will gesture so she could say this complaint was closed, i refused her perthetic good will gesture and explained that it still leaves me £490 short of what i now owe due to them misinforming me, i requested her to escelate my complaint, which she did only after me repeating it several times. so im waiting for someone to ring me back in 2-5 working days.
My question is if the finance company requests the £500 from me could the bank not be held responsible due to them misinforming me and is there anyway of making the bank sort out the fact i now have an unpaid payment mark on my credit file,
Thankyou in advamce, any response will be appreciated.
Dru

BoGoF

Well, regardless of what you were told your Direct Debit was going to bounce as you didn't have the money to cover it, no? Your vent should be with the tool company who took your direct debit early.

MoneySaverLog

Usually Lloyds allow you to "put things right" before 3.30pm to avoid charges.

I'm not sure if you used a machine but it would be advisable to pay in cash at the counter, as it hits the account straight away. If the agreement was for the DD to come out on the 5th and not the 15th then I would speak to the finance company and ask why it was taken early, and to take the money at the right time as agreed.

dru_11

Im going to contact the tool company tomorrow and see what they have to say for themselves, i paid the £60 into the bank via a cashier who also told me that both direct debits would go out ok because of this buffer that they have, i didnt pay the extra £8 in because i didnt have it and could only scrape together £60 in a short space of time, after bein advised that this would suffice by the bank i took it as gospel (stupid of me)

jalexa

dru_11 wrote: »

, they informed me that it was for a finance agreemant i had set up for some tools (im a mechanic) which supposed to be set up for the 5th of every month not the 15th,

The first step is obvious. You need to examine the paper (or email) copy of the Direct Debit mandate confirmation and the advance notification of the first collection (sometimes combined).

If no notice, either for the mandate or the first collection, or a collection of different amount or date than advised then implement the Direct Debit indemnity guarantee with your bank.

MoneySaverLog

I agree, it is down to the company to claim the money from the account and they can do this at anytime they want, though they should stick to what has been agreed.

The fault is not with Lloyds TSB, so if they are offering to waiver the charges and give you £10 compensation, I'd take it.

dru_11

My copy of the credit agreement has a box with the "due on - of every month" but the actual box which the date is supposed to be written in has been left bank (strange) so even though i requested the 5th of each months as my date it may well have been set up as the 15th with me not being informed, what is a "direct debit indemnity garuantee"?

dru_11

i understand your points but what im saying is if the advisors would of turned round and said "no there has to be £68 in there otherwise the DD will not clear" i would have found some way of getting that extra £8 in there, but i relied on the fact they said i would be ok because the "buffer" basically gives you an extra £10 in your account.

jalexa

dru_11 wrote: »

My copy of the credit agreement has a box with the "due on - of every month" but the actual box which the date is supposed to be written in has been left bank (strange) so even though i requested the 5th of each months as my date it may well have been set up as the 15th with me not being informed, what is a "direct debit indemnity garuantee"?

There are two seperate issues here, the finance agreement (others will hopefully comment on the significance of the blank box) and the payment mechanism (the Direct Debit).

Had you seen (or remembered) the DD Mandate you would have seen a copy of the "Guarantee". A search for "BACS Direct Debit" should turn up plenty of info.


Edit: OK ,did it for you...

http://www.thesmartwaytopay.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/DirectDebitGuarantee.aspx

dru_11

I think i know what your talking about now, you normally get them when setting up a direct debit with a company, its normally just abit of extra paper in the back of the letter with something like "protect by direct debit garuantee scheme", i didnt get one with my credit agreement though, i have the agreement in my hand and it says nothing anywhere of a date ot the direct debit garuantee scheme.
Thanks for all your help

dru_11

When i mean it says nothing about a date, it only has the blank box mentioned earlier.