Anyone with experience of freezing interest with LLoyds?

Magi74

We've got a personal loan with them (on our DMP naturally) but they're refusing to budge when it comes to interest. I have no issues that they want SOME interest on the loan, but right now the interest is more than the payment they're getting. So it's a waste of time and it's only delaying the inevitable.

Has anyone had success in getting the interest reduced/frozen? Are there any tactics to try? A default would annoy, but the carnage that we've had to steer through means we picked up a few of those....so another one is hardly going to hurt in the short term! That would stop the interest, but there's a fair bit of interest that's already been charged - hence the question.

Bettingmad

Magi74 wrote: »

We've got a personal loan with them (on our DMP naturally) but they're refusing to budge when it comes to interest. I have no issues that they want SOME interest on the loan, but right now the interest is more than the payment they're getting. So it's a waste of time and it's only delaying the inevitable.

Has anyone had success in getting the interest reduced/frozen? Are there any tactics to try? A default would annoy, but the carnage that we've had to steer through means we picked up a few of those....so another one is hardly going to hurt in the short term! That would stop the interest, but there's a fair bit of interest that's already been charged - hence the question.

Quick question are you on a managed DMP i.e Payplan or CCCS or self managed?

Magi74

Bettingmad wrote: »

Quick question are you on a managed DMP i.e Payplan or CCCS or self managed?

It's managed via CCCS

Allypops

I am having a similar problem. My contractual loan payment to Lloyds is £360 per month but I am currently paying them £224 per month through a Payplan managed DMP. At the start of the loan I owed 15500 but after a year on the DMP I now owe £16800. The have accepted the offer of reduced payment so I phoned today to ask them to consider stopping or at least reducing the interest. The adviser said that they cannot reduce the interest because I am paying too much and that I should ask my Debt Management Company to pay them less! I argued that this would not then be a pro-rata payment. She said if I was paying less then they would stop the interest. So, I said, are you telling me that if I had only been paying you £5 a month, I would now owe you far less than I do now and that by paying as much as we can afford we are being penalised. She didn't think that owing £1200 more was being penalised. I give up. I phoned Payplan, who said that when you make a reasonable payment, although it might not cover the interest entirely, then Lloyds may not consider you to be in financial difficulty and therefore they don't reduce interest. HOwever, they have accepted a reduced payment, and they have reduced interest on my credit cards (down to 5.9%). Payplan advised that the position is likely to be the same, and therefore the balance on the loan will increase until Lloyds sell on the loan. But my point is why would they when they can get £224.00 a month out of me indefinitely until presumably they are my last creditor on the DMP when they can have the whole £1000 by which time god only knows what I'll owe them.

I am thinking that there is no point in continuing with the DMP now. I was made redundant last year and I've had no sniff new of a job probably due to long term anxiety and depression.

Hope you have better luck with Lloyds than I have.

Bettingmad

If I was in your position I would probably look at doing a self managed DMP, sending lloyds TSB only a token payment with a complaint letter citing the lending code and refer the matter to the OFT. I think it;s the only way to go when your have problem companies like Lloyds. There is far more power available in doing your own DMP if you are up to it.
Have you discussed it with Payplan and asked them to make only a token payment due to lloyds unreasonable behaviour. Remember it's your plan and Payplan should be working for you. You are throwing £2.5k down the drain otherwise.

Earthmother_2

Oh gawd, this fills me with dread, we are just starting off on our DMP and our preditors are Lloyds. We owe nearly £19,000 on a personal loan and £15,000 on a credit card. Our monthly payment will be £325 split between the two debts. How do you think this will affect us? Will we be classed as paying too much to lower or freeze interest?

Allypops

Betting Mad, thanks I've been thinking the same regarding self-managed. I'm just not sure I'm brave enough to go it alone!

Earthmother, you might get lucky. I'm probably paying a slightly higher proportion of the contractual payment and so if I'm just into what they referred to as a certain bracket, you might be lucky and fall under it. Lloyds are my biggest creditor and the only one still charging interest. My DMP is looking increasingly shaky.

Magi - have you made a complaint about the interest?

Pink-Angel

Hi all,

I'm having the same nightmare with Lloyds. I've been on a DMP with CCCS for just over a year. It's all going well apart from with Lloyds who have refused to freeze or reduce the interest on my loan or credit card. My DMP payments are barely touching the debt, which keeps increasing due to the interest. It's really starting to depress me. I'm paying them £140 a month and they take £131 as interest so I'm not getting anywhere!! My other creditors have been decent and frozen the interest but Lloyds have been awful.

Not sure I'm brave enough to go it alone with my DMP (will give it some thought) but may write to Lloyds again saying I will contact the OFT if they aren't willing to reduce/freeze the interest. Might not do any good, but worth a try perhaps.

Good luck everyone - I think we'll need it with Lloyds!

secretshopper75

I'm having the same issues with the Halifax, have written to them and received a response which basically says they aren't willing to help as they've reduced interest but because my DMP payment shows that I have x spare to them I'm not in a crisis...they don't take into account other creditors.....so annoying as my balance is going up not down within a reasonable time frame

Mort

Magi74 wrote: »

Has anyone had success in getting the interest reduced/frozen? Are there any tactics to try? A default would annoy, but the carnage that we've had to steer through means we picked up a few of those....so another one is hardly going to hurt in the short term! That would stop the interest, but there's a fair bit of interest that's already been charged - hence the question.

It is frustrating to see that LLoyds seem to have not changed at all over the years. Have a look at my two posts from 2007 and the threads they are in.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=5413439&postcount=15
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=5414103&postcount=9
It is possible to get them to agree to freeze interest but it may take some time. Good luck.

FabuLass

I havent had any replies from creditors yet as im just starting my dmp, but Lloyds are my biggest creditor too. I hadnt been worried abt them (til now) as when I defaulted on my cc payments they called and asked me if i'd like to reduce interest to 5% with no impact on my credit score or freeze interest, but that would impact for 6yrs. I didnt do anything there and then, I was still in denial, but because of this call I had imagined Lloyds would be no bother. I.ll let u know when I hear from them, and good luck yourself in challenging them, what a dreadful attitude theyve shown you!