Lloyds -Old Overdraft & Default

charles80_2

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone is able to offer some advice regarding a situation I have suddenly found myself in:

Back in 1999, I opened a student account with Lloyds and now, twelve years later, I'm receiving demands from a Debt Collection Agency for an amount they claim I owe to Lloyds relating to my old student account.

Now, the thing is - the last time I used this account either to withdraw money or to pay for goods was approximately 2001-2002. I stopped using the account because I had another account with Barclays. As far as I was aware, the Lloyds account was zero balance (which, as I recall, was another reason why I no longer used the account).

Anyway, I just forgot about the account and wasn't aware it still existed. That is until I received a letter from a DCA asking me for £1500+!!

I have moved house three times since 2002, but I'm sure I advised LLoyds of my first change of address (which is my parent's current address) as I have managed to locate statements addressed to that house from Lloyds TSB regarding my Lloyds Credit Card (another account I had with Lloyds at the time).

I also spoke to someone in branch who said she could see the fact that I had a credit card with them (so surely on their systems they could have found my parent's current address to correspond with me!?).

She also told me that the account was overdrawn, and furthermore - over the overdraft limit. I don't even know how it became overdrawn!

Now, I haven't received ANY correspondence from Lloyds regarding the student account and have only recently been sent a letter from a DCA who actually wrote to me at my parent's address. It seems as though Lloyds made no real attempt to contact me, but passed my details onto the DCA who then bothered to check my credit record and find a linked address.

What's annoying about this is Lloyds have registered a default on my credit report which has now ruined an otherwise very good record! What's ALSO annoying is they allowed the account to go unacknowledged for around ten years and only closed it in August of this year whilst also seemingly whacking on charges in the meantime!

This doesn't seem fair.

The big problem is - I don't have a clear picture to how this debt came about!! I've been given no evidence apart from a demand to pay.

I've written to ask for proof, but so far I've been given nothing, apart from the branches advice that it's built up charges (which I assume relates to the overdraft!).

I really don't want the default notice on my record as I'd like to buy my own property next year!

So the questions I have are this:

1) Would it be sensible for me to go down the staute barred route?

2) Should I just pay the debt, but offer them a full settlement which includes the removal of the default notice!? Would this work? (I'd almost be willing to pay it without any questions asked just for the removal of the default!!)

3) Is it fair that it's taken them so long to finally close the account and register a default!? The account was clearly inactive and seemingly over it's overdraft limit for quite some time. As the account became overdrawn and then went over the overdraft limit. Surely they should have closed the account a long time ago?

5) I'm thinking some fraudulent activity could have taken place on the account. If they were writing to an address I'd moved out of and sending statements/replacement cards there, who knows what could have happened. Should I ask them to investigate this?

6) Can you still get credit with a default against your name?

Any help/advice would be appreciated! Sorry for all the questions, but I need to get this clear in my mind. I haven't slept properly in a week due to the worry of this

Many Thanks.

charles80_2

Polite bump

McKneff

First I would get clarification as to how the debt came about.

no. 2 - defaults remain on your credit file for 6 years and they will not take it off whether you pay it or not. Not unless it is them who has made an error on your account, They remain there for 6 years and should drop off automatically.