Millions of late payment notices could be wrong...

theblackbubble

I don't know how big this could be, but if I'm right millions could be caught in a late payment trap and not know anything about it until they try and apply for credit.

My wife has a loan with Lloyds and her payment date on the loan is 31st of the month. At the beginning of the year we were checking our credit file to find we had late payments on her loan - which as they were taken by Lloyds by direct debit was a mystery!

Why were we late? We'll because the 31st of a month may fall on a weekend or even not exist, Lloyds were taking the direct debit on the next working day or the 1st of the following month. So every time this happened, my wife got a late payment mark on her Experian report!

When we challenged Lloyds they said that we had a perfect repayment history and NO late payments.

We then showed them the credit report and the branch team were horrified to see the late payments! They assured us they would take care of it - well three months on and after a letter from Lloyds saying they had, Experian tell us not only have Lloyds not taken care of it, my wife has more late payment marks!!

Whilst we are personally sorting this, I just thought of all the other consumers potentially effected by this and thought you all should know what a shambles we have in the retail banking sector!

Remember late payments can show on your credit files for years - so check them now if you've a payment date at the end of a month

matttye

I had about two years worth of late payment notices on my Halifax account, but complained and got them removed.

I went into the branch and asked Halifax how much I owed them, and how much interest I was going to be charged. They told me and I paid in the exact amount I owed plus the interest, and I asked for assurance that no further interest would be added and that the account would now retain a zero balance. They assured me it would.

£1.xx of interest then got charged to my account the following month, and they reported late payments every month thereafter until I finally spotted it last March.

I told them I had clearly paid in the exact amount of money to cover what I owed + the interest due, as they could see from my bank statements.

They removed the markers and gave me a £50 cheque as an apology.

GingerBob_3

matttye wrote: »

They removed the markers and gave me a £50 cheque as an apology.

They got away lightly. This sort of reckless behaviour should be subject to punitive financial sanctions by the Prudential or whatever they call themselves. Only then will these freeloading companies buck up their ideas.

matttye

GingerBob wrote: »

They got away lightly. This sort of reckless behaviour should be subject to punitive financial sanctions by the Prudential or whatever they call themselves. Only then will these freeloading companies buck up their ideas.

I took it gladly considering I had been negligent in not checking my final statement. I hadn't felt the need to check it because of what the branch staff told me (i.e. that I'd have a zero balance), but apparently my final statement showed the £1.xx interest I was charged.

Luckily they agreed the staff had misinformed me and I don't think they could be bothered with the argument for the sake of £1.xx interest.

I didn't once receive any communication from them that I was missing payments or that I owed them any money though.

Lloyds_Bank

theblackbubble wrote: »

I don't know how big this could be, but if I'm right millions could be caught in a late payment trap and not know anything about it until they try and apply for credit.

My wife has a loan with Lloyds and her payment date on the loan is 31st of the month. At the beginning of the year we were checking our credit file to find we had late payments on her loan - which as they were taken by Lloyds by direct debit was a mystery!

Why were we late? We'll because the 31st of a month may fall on a weekend or even not exist, Lloyds were taking the direct debit on the next working day or the 1st of the following month. So every time this happened, my wife got a late payment mark on her Experian report!

When we challenged Lloyds they said that we had a perfect repayment history and NO late payments.

We then showed them the credit report and the branch team were horrified to see the late payments! They assured us they would take care of it - well three months on and after a letter from Lloyds saying they had, Experian tell us not only have Lloyds not taken care of it, my wife has more late payment marks!!

Whilst we are personally sorting this, I just thought of all the other consumers potentially effected by this and thought you all should know what a shambles we have in the retail banking sector!

Remember late payments can show on your credit files for years - so check them now if you've a payment date at the end of a month

Hi theblackbubble,

This sounds quite unusual as Direct Debits for loan repayments with us aren't normally set up for the 29th, 30th or 31st. Is the date your Direct Debit's set up for definitely the 31st? If you use Internet Banking, you can check the date it was last paid by clicking your account name and then the 'Direct Debits & standing orders' tab. Please feel free to send me an email with info on this. You can find our email address on our profile here.

If emailing, please include all relevant info on what's happened with your case along with your postcode and full name. Please also include your forum username in the subject field.

Thanks,

Craig

Data Privacy
Your information will be held by Lloyds Bank Plc, part of the Lloyds Banking Group. The Lloyds Banking Group includes us and a number of other companies using brands including Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, and their associated companies. More information on the Lloyds Banking Group can be found here. By providing your details by email, you agree to your personal information being used to deal with your enquiry. We will not retain your personal information for longer than is necessary for the purposes of your enquiry or for legal or regulatory requirements. We will always ensure your information remains safe and secure. If you want to know more about how we use our customers’ information you can read our Privacy Statement.