Worried about review

DebJack_2

Dear All

I have plucked up the courage to post after lurking for ages but I really need help. I've been summoned to my bank for a "review" with "a personal account adviser". The meeting is the week after next. I am with Lloyds TSB and I feel that along with my own financial naievety, that they have been responsible for a lot of my debt problems. I am up to my eyes in credit card debt and am now at my wit's end. Every month I go over my overdraft and get charged ridiculous amounts thus increasing my problems.

Two years ago I went to the bank because I had debt problems. At that time I was suffering from stress, had been signed off from work and was awaiting counselling for my depression problems. I cried my eyes out throughout the whole meeting with the bank manager and I was obviously not in a good state of mind. Despite this, I was talked into remortgaging with C&G and given an £18000 unsecured loan on top. The mortgage adviser looked very uncomfortable throughout the whole process and when we were left alone he told me that he was leaving to go to a building society and gave me his telephone number at his new job. On reflection I think he was trying to tell me not to sign the papers but I was in such a state that I did. I am now even deeper in debt because the measures I felt coerced into taking didn't pay off the debts I had and, if anything, have made matters worse.

The bank manager also suggested to me that I should cash in an old endowment policy (which I haven't done). The endowment policy is another story as that was, I believe, missold to me 11 years ago. I've been paying £64 per month and have been advised by letter that it won't make what I was told it would - it is only worth about £3000. At the time it was sold to me I was told that it would pay off my mortgage and there would be some money left over too. The financial adviser that sold me it has since disappeared (local rumours say he was struck off) and despite asking the Financial Ombudsman for assistance, I have never heard back from them.

I am really worried and on the brink of (if not already in) negative equity. I am totally clueless when it comes to money matters and have had my head in the sand for a very long time now. I don't know what to do or what to say to the Bank when I meet with them. Please can you help me. I feel completely drained with all this worry and don't have the energy to deal with it anymore.

Thank you for any advice you can give in advance

Newgirl_2

Hi DebJack. Welcome to the forum and well done for posting. People here will be able to advise you.

Firstly, I would say while it is important to get your problems sorted, I wouldn't go to such a meeting until I knew all my facts and was prepared for it.

I would suggest you postpone the meeting for now and work through the advice on here and plan your course of action. Banks can be helfpul in some cases if you are looking to consolidate yout debts but, from just the little you have said, I sense you know that this isn't the right path this time?

If you look at the sticky threads at the top of the debt free wannabee board, there is a helpful set of guidelines from southernscouser, telling you how to put together your list of debts and living costs, your SOA. If you complile that, members can advise you where you can make savings to help short term.

Longer term, I would suggest you seek help from one of the free organisations such as CCCS (who we are using) and see what they suggest you should do. I strongly feel that there will be an alternative to a bank-based solution which will help you more in the long run.

Once you have done that, there is no harm in letting your bank know what you are doing, but you will be doing it with all your ammunition ready and you won't sign up for something just because they caught you on the hop.

Good luck. Shout if you need to talk to someone!

Newgirl

DebJack_2

Hi Newgirl

Thanks for the prompt response. It's good to know that there is help out there. I need to bite the bullet now and fill out the SOA (which will be very depressing). You're right though. I will postpone the meeting - first task for Monday morning!

Cheers!

Newgirl_2

No problem

I'm no expert but I think I've read this board from one end to the other since I discovered it, and I've seen a lot of the same questions asked over and over, so you do start to pick up the answers!

I wanted to stop you compounding the problem, so get your SOA done and then everyone can panic with you :eek: then come up with an answer


Newgirl

Kevicho

Hi there and welcome to the board, been a while since i imparted my wisdom but here goes.

As newgirl rightly said you should go into this interview armed to the teeth, so the best start would be to list out all your debts, then sort them into apr order.
That will give you your repayment plan, what we do is pay the minimum on all cards and then the max we can affford to this high APR card until it is paid off, then we pay whatever we were allocating to the first debt we allocate to the 2nd debt.

This is known as snowballing.

The next thing to do is find all your bank statements and work out where the money is going to on bills, essentials and non essentials, do this for say the last 3 months to get a good average.

From this you work out your SOA, post that here

We will then concentrate on finding ways to decrease your bills, and using sites such as quidco we may get some cashback, which you can use for debts.

Also inevitably there will be money going to places you are not sure of, so a good idea is to keep a spending diary, this will force you to keep an eye on your spending, and also youll start to think to yourself, do i need this? This is the sign of a MSE

Other we things we can do is to try to raise some initial cash by selling stuff, usually on ebay, or even car boots, freeads etc, if you have lots of stuff you never use, then this can help get you back into a positive monthly balance by paying off (or towards) one debt, again the savings can be snowballed.

The best advice i can give though is stay positive, at first this is hard, an can seem like a struggle, i paid off 8000 pounds last year, meaning this year i could set up my own business

The rewards are there, the support is here a happier life awaits

beanielou

Hi & welcome.
When you get a chance pop up a SOA as shown above & we will all try our best to help.

chardonnay_2

don't go to the meeting they are just trying to sell you their products. just phone or write and cancel, making an excuse such as you can't get time off work.

better to follow the advice on here to start sorting out your debts.

janiegs

You don't have to go for a "review" if you don't want to. There's nothing wrong with my bank account (I haven't used my overdraft for years), but every time I pay money in, the counter assistant tells me "oh it says here you're due for a review". I smile politely, ask how they propose to keep my 2 year old amused while they do the review, and they usually say "oh we'll leave it then".

A review to me means they are looking for more ways to make money out of me. They can get lost!

janiegs

Ahh, I see Chardonnay beat me to it.

Kevicho

She could always say she has had here finances "reviewed" by a much more objective team of financial advisors

PS WARNING HENCE THE CAPS - WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL ADVISORS ALL ADVICE SHOULD BE RESEARCHED BEFORE ACTING UPON, THE WARNING IS AT THE TOP OF THE SCREEN - THIS JUST SAID TO GET IDIOT BANK OFF HER BACK

angchris

lloyds only want you to go in so that they can flog you some other "fantastic" deal so they can line their pockets more!!! ring up and cancel the appointment asap... and then sort out your soa and get it posted on here and look forward to some of the best impartial financial advise you will ever have from the wonderful members of this site :j :j remember its not our business to make money out of you the banks on the other hand....:mad: