Two single loans merged into one

darmelabi

My father passed away last January and my mum is finalising their money situation. All of the debt in Dad's name has been resolved, with the exception of an old loan with Lloyds Bank.

I'm trying to help to get the bottom of what has happened, but the short story is that some of the money they borrowed ended up on two credit cards, one in each of their names.

Mum and Dad unfortunately ended up on a debt management scheme with Payplan. No complaints with them, but what we've now discovered is that the two credit card debts got passed on from Lloyds to Marlin Financial, and from them to a company called Idem Servicing. And in doing so, the two single debts have now become one.

So what this means for Mum is that Dad's debt is now merged with hers and she is faced with an outstanding debt of £3,500 as opposed to £750.

My question is - are Idem Servicing allowed to take two debts belonging to two individuals and merge them into one joint debt?

jonesMUFCforever

Are you saying that Idem have only one file in joint names?


If yes that is wrong unless the original debt was in joint names - credit cards are never in joint names.


Can you clarify also that mum was not a secondary cardholder on dad's account?

darmelabi

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yes, Idem have created one account in joint names.

The original debt was never in joint names. Thankfully, Mum keeps all her old paperwork and we she has letters from Lloyds that clearly shows two separate accounts.

She is 100% confident that it was a credit card each, and that neither of them were named on the other (hope that makes sense!).

Mum spoke to Idem a few days ago and insisted that there are two separate debts but they said they would send a copy of the credit agreement to prove otherwise. All that has actually come through are two letters - one addressed to Mum and one addressed to Dad - that have the same Idem account number and show exactly the same outstanding balance. The first page has text that I would take to being the "credit agreement" and is titled Unsecured Personal Credit Agreement.

Just because two people share the same surname and address, surely it is wrong to take two separate debts from Lloyds and merge them into one joint debt? What can be said to Idem to point this out and make them remove Mum from Dad's debt?

jonesMUFCforever

You have to dispute the debt and ask them to send it back to Lloyds.