RBS loan..help!

raachel29

I'm looking for some advice regarding an unsecured loan my partner took out 3/4 years ago.
There is £17,000 outstanding, all of the interest has been paid off already.
The payments are £435 pm and we really cannot afford them. My partner is self employed and is struggling at the moment, and I'm not currently working as I'm expecting twins in July.
We have called RBS to see about extending the loan over a longer period to reduce the payments, or offering reduced payments but they have refused.
To date 4 payments have been missed, and last week we received a letter saying they were shutting my partners bank accounts with effect from June.
We have sorted out the bank account side of things by him coming onto my account with a different bank, but I'm really concerned about the loan repayments.
We are not refusing to pay it back, but we literally cannot afford the repayments at all at the current rate.

SeduLOUs

What advice are you looking for?

You took out a loan and agreed to pay back £400+ a month which you now can't afford. The bank has no obligations to make your life easier unfortunately.

raachel29

I never said they were under any obligation to help us or make our lives easier.
I was asking for advice because we clearly cannot afford the repayments now.
If you have no sensible advice to give, step away from your laptop.
I'm pretty sure we are not the first, and won't be the last, to take a loan out and 3/4 years down the line find a change in circumstances makes the repayments difficult.

Loubell83

Hi there,

Sounds like difficult times, don't worry a lot of people have been through financial turmoil.

Now I used to work for RBS so can give you the lowdown on the rules from a couple of years back, but I do not know if things have changed since then.

Firstly, to take your loan out over a longer period of time involves a loan application and a credit score. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that is the way that it works. They have an internal system that would give them an indication of what they can do for you, and if that had adverse data (which it will have done, due to the 4 missed payments) then they wont have tried to take you through that application.

Now, back when I worked for them (2008-2009), if the debt was entirely RBS debt they could refer it to a different department to look at a payment plan. To do this would affect your credit score, and also would involve them replacing your debit cards with cashline cards so you could not use switch in shops, and other such measures.

Also, after a few missed payments you will become what is called a "Watch" customer. This means that the branch will no longer be able to deal with your enquiries, and then you will have to speak to the collections team who should organise a payment plan for you.

So in my opinion you two options are to wait until Watch status happens, or try to get them to refer you to that department by explaining that as it is all RBS debt and there is no external debt being consolidated can you agree a payment plan.

Now as I say procedures may have changed in the last 3 years, however at the end of the day if you go to the Watch status and your account is passed to collections (which at this stage looks likely as unfortunately your branch look unwilling to help) they would rather get some money then none.

Good luck, I hope some of this info helps. Its hard as many branch staff just see people in debt and think they is no benefit for there branch, therefore no incentive to help. Hopefully you will manage to get one of the more sympathetic ones (like I was!!).

I helped many people in situations like this, there is a way out - its just tough and a long process.

raachel29

Thanks for the help Loubell83.
I was slightly shocked by their decision to close his accounts with them. He has banked with them for almost 20 years and this is the first ever issue he has had!

antonia1

Raachel29 - it might be worth posting a statement of affairs so the people on here can help you see if there's anywhere you could cut back on current spending and see how much you can afford to pay back. Have you checked you are claiming all the benefits you are entitled to? Might be worth giving CCCS or Payplan a call to go through your options.

As for them closing accounts - banks don't really care how loyal you are, all they care about is that they get their money.

Loubell83

I have seen it happen unfortunately. I hope for your sake that you manage to get a payment plan sorted with them. Sometimes they can be overly harsh in my opinion, but the same goes for all banks.