Lloyds TSB Charges claim has been rebuffed. Next step?

meer53

A good idea would be to complete a SOA to see where you can make any cuts to help you get back in control of your finances. A restructured loan can sometimes be the answer if you have any disposable income, if not, then the SOA may help.

Atidi

The SoA (Statement of Affairs) template can be found in a sticky on the DFW (Debt-Free Wannabe) board, where you should then post the completed SoA for further assistance

MargateSteve

Honestly meer53, there are no more cuts to make. We have found the best deals possible on TV (cannot have freeview as, due to where we live, the quotes for a digital aerial are ridiculous), phone and internet.

We have both got the lowest possible mobile contracts that we can.

We are extremely frugal with electricity and gas although with a small child we have to make sure the house is comfortable.

We shop extremely responsibly and have no snacks or needless purchases. We only buy shopping essentials and even go as far as getting milk from the garage down the road as it is, bizarrely, currently 8p cheaper than Tesco.

We never go out to pubs or to eat out. I have stopped watching football as I could not justify the £10 a fortnight to do it.

Even when the car was on the road, both myself and my wife walked to work to save on petrol.

We are fully in control of our finances and live responsibly within our means in that respect. What we cannot control is the backlog of debt that this has caused. We are behind on Gas, Electric, Water, Rent and Council tax payments. Last month the Water and gas did not get paid because the of the bank charges. This month the rent has not been paid for the same reason.

If you put back the £700 in bank charges from 2011 alone, these would all be cleared and up to date. Take the charges away for the last two months alone and the hole would be smaller.

I understand that in most cases, people overlook savings that can be made and can reduce some of the problems themselves. I will hold my hands up and say that if I was single and did not have my wife to keep me in check, my finances would be a mess. However, my wife has always been meticulous with this and has statements, invoices, receipts and bills going back to 2004. Up to the point that the first charges were taken in 2010, the only blot was one missed loan payment in early 2009 (once again due to my wife's weird payday structure). This however was paid, in full, two days later.

There were never any missed rent payments, water bills being unpaid or any going overdrawn. This was despite her, up to 2006, being a single mum of two, on a relatively low wage. She also had to take her daughter to Great Ormond Street hospital 5-6 times a year and always managed to save the money for that, without sacrificing anything else.

So that is my frustration. We are careful with money. We do go without things that we should be able to have (a trip to the cinema once in a while would be nice). Our daughter gets the only new clothing that is bought and even then she has not got enough clothes that fit her - however, my work shoes have holes at the front and are so worn I am using black marker pen to hide the shabbiness!

This is not a sob story though. If it was I would also mention that our TV keeps going on the blink by refusing to turn on and has a thick white line down it but we cannot afford anyone to look at it, our bed collapses every few weeks despite my constant repair work, the door on our fridge-freezer will not stay shut so we have to wedge our bin against it and this computer is on it's last legs and keeps shutting itself down. The last is frustrating as I have a business (web site) idea that I am hoping to seek investment for but cannot get it to stay on while I put a mock up together before touting it! Obviously my idea is so great that it will sort all our problems out in one fell swoop, but if I cannot put something together to attract people the whole world could miss out!!!!

So simply, there are no cuts to make. If we were given a level playing field today we would not need to make cuts and would be living well within our means and maybe able to treat ourselves once in a while. Ditto if, at that very first charge, Lloyds took the same approach as Barclays did and gave the benefit of the doubt to a genuine small error in timing.

Wywth

MargateSteve wrote: »

Honestly meer53, there are no more cuts to make. We have found the best deals possible on TV (cannot have freeview as, due to where we live, the quotes for a digital aerial are ridiculous), phone and internet.

We have both got the lowest possible mobile contracts that we can.

We are extremely frugal with electricity and gas although with a small child we have to make sure the house is comfortable.

We shop extremely responsibly and have no snacks or needless purchases. We only buy shopping essentials and even go as far as getting milk from the garage down the road as it is, bizarrely, currently 8p cheaper than Tesco.

We never go out to pubs or to eat out. I have stopped watching football as I could not justify the £10 a fortnight to do it.

Even when the car was on the road, both myself and my wife walked to work to save on petrol.

We are fully in control of our finances and live responsibly within our means in that respect. What we cannot control is the backlog of debt that this has caused. We are behind on Gas, Electric, Water, Rent and Council tax payments. Last month the Water and gas did not get paid because the of the bank charges. This month the rent has not been paid for the same reason.

If you put back the £700 in bank charges from 2011 alone, these would all be cleared and up to date. Take the charges away for the last two months alone and the hole would be smaller.

I understand that in most cases, people overlook savings that can be made and can reduce some of the problems themselves. I will hold my hands up and say that if I was single and did not have my wife to keep me in check, my finances would be a mess. However, my wife has always been meticulous with this and has statements, invoices, receipts and bills going back to 2004. Up to the point that the first charges were taken in 2010, the only blot was one missed loan payment in early 2009 (once again due to my wife's weird payday structure). This however was paid, in full, two days later.

There were never any missed rent payments, water bills being unpaid or any going overdrawn. This was despite her, up to 2006, being a single mum of two, on a relatively low wage. She also had to take her daughter to Great Ormond Street hospital 5-6 times a year and always managed to save the money for that, without sacrificing anything else.

So that is my frustration. We are careful with money. We do go without things that we should be able to have (a trip to the cinema once in a while would be nice). Our daughter gets the only new clothing that is bought and even then she has not got enough clothes that fit her - however, my work shoes have holes at the front and are so worn I am using black marker pen to hide the shabbiness!

This is not a sob story though. If it was I would also mention that our TV keeps going on the blink by refusing to turn on and has a thick white line down it but we cannot afford anyone to look at it, our bed collapses every few weeks despite my constant repair work, the door on our fridge-freezer will not stay shut so we have to wedge our bin against it and this computer is on it's last legs and keeps shutting itself down. The last is frustrating as I have a business (web site) idea that I am hoping to seek investment for but cannot get it to stay on while I put a mock up together before touting it! Obviously my idea is so great that it will sort all our problems out in one fell swoop, but if I cannot put something together to attract people the whole world could miss out!!!!

So simply, there are no cuts to make. If we were given a level playing field today we would not need to make cuts and would be living well within our means and maybe able to treat ourselves once in a while. Ditto if, at that very first charge, Lloyds took the same approach as Barclays did and gave the benefit of the doubt to a genuine small error in timing.

Why don't you follow the advice already provided and just post your SOA on the DFW board. It's amazing the help and advice those over there can provide, even when someone (like you) thinks there is no savings to be achieved.