Unfair charges from lloyds

rufus277

Hi, I need some advice.

I begun studies at Uni again in September 2011 and went to lloyds to change me account from current to student. According to the advisor my account could not be found so she opened a new one. I later found out that as I already had a student account in 2005 which then upgraded to a graduate account I could not turn it into a student account again due to the overdraft on it (but noone told me on the day). If I had known this I would not have opened a student account..anyway to late for that now. Since October lloyds have been charging me £30 on my current account for fees and interest charges. I sent them a letter in December explaining the situation and how it was their fault Im in financial deficit now. I am only on a basic student loan which is £2000 a year..I can't afford these fees. It has taken me until March to get anywhere with them. Finally got a repayment plan set up which should have started in March. The letter they sent stated that I will be receiving a letter within 60 days which will inform me when my overdraft will be taken away from me. I was happy for this to happen as I was paying a set amount every month without having to pay interest fees. I rung the office 60 working days later as I was still being charged £30 a month and I could still use my overdraft. The lady over the phone told me it was all set up and that I just had to pay every month to make sure the interest would be stopped..now I have received the exact same letter stating I will be informed in 60 days when my overdraft will be taken away..but they are charging me 2 months for interest to get it all set up..which they should have done in march so I shouldn't have been paying charges from May (which they have charged me for!). Now I am wondering can I request for these charges to be refunded as they should have set this repayment plan up in March so charges should have stopped in May (lloyds say they take 2 months to set up the plan). This has left me £90 out of pocket as I thought they would have had this sorted by now. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

BobQ

Just ask them for a copy of their complaints procedure and follow it. Do not bother ringing the office. Send a letter stating clearly what you are complaining about and what you want done about it. Letters can be used in evidence and too many people resort to the phone when calls are so easily unprovable.

If necessary complain to the Banking Ombudsman if this does not work, but first exhaust their complaints process.

Wywth

Here is the LTSB complaints procedure

http://www.lloydstsb.com/contact_us/complaints_procedure.asp

Good luck!

ozziec

Good luck - the banks will do anything not to be helpful and supportive and twist it so it's all your fault. It's disgraceful the way they treat thier customers, they don't treat people as individuals and look at each case - its all about "procedures", keep on at them, don't give in