New here - please help :-(

RAS

ACEY

How much legal advice have you had on this?

I can think of at least one case where a judge threw out the creditors entire claim (they were either after the house or putting a charge on it) because the value was several times the original loan. That covered both extortionate interest and charges.

Also please please check out the situation regarding charges on this board.

It is under "reclaim your bank charges", but as far as I know it covers your situation. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/

I would suggest that you consider the Financial Ombudsman route, as the banks do not like mucking around with the FO and you may not really have the time to deal with the legal stuff on short time scales.

Also i think the FO will love a bank who get a couple to turn an OD into a loan then increase the loan value by a factor of four, particularly since they know you are a single parent!

Note that banks are responsible for the charges made by any third party to whom they assign a debt.

I would suggest that as a starter you post up a very brief summary of your post above and ask if Ebinburgh lass or rex could advise you. o you couod ask a question on http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

MSE and CAg are workinh together on this one.

if they say go, request the last six year's statements, calculate the charges and add the interest and ask for it back. if they say no, go for the FO.

You do need a parachute account though as a lot of banks close accounts.

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

The fire?? Downstairs we have a Morso wood burning stove. (Could do with a bigger one, its the one thing Freecycle hasn't been able to provide!) - i was hoping you would say you have a wood burner. best option in your situation.

Upstairs, its another cast iron stove in the bigger bedroom but its so thin it only burns the tiniest logs and is such a fiddle that I don't light it very often. you mean the dimensions of the stove? Not the thickness of the metal?

So I burn 2-3 tonnes of logs per winter as its really our only source of heat, at £40 per tonne.

Where are you based (county?)

firesidemaid

one of the above posts re. unfair addition of charges is excellent.

i have heard this mentioned many times on here and in the press. do take the advice. you have paid the money back. i definitely think there should be little more to pay back now.

good luck x

Frith

I will try the other option you gave for this site.

Consumeractiongroup was the group I was talking about..... but now the "chips are down" and I have 12 days left to sort something out with MCS, they are not answering my threads.....

Liz

RAS

ACEY

The problem with most boards doing bank reclaim is that they are getting so many queries that they are barely managing to cope with them and some get lost down the system.

LOz has left you some useful info on your other thread.

The other big issue is that you have been asking questions re the CCA. Since that is in order, there is nothing that can be done re that. However they have not produced the letter of assignment. Will make some further suggestions later.

You have been asking "is the legal paperwork in place to force me to pay this"

The real question is "is it fair or reasonable to expect someone who took out a loan of £4K to pay £8k and still be in debt to the tune of £9.9K" the answer to that is NO, but we need more info to help you.

Found some useful info on your post in the reclaim forum. i need to get things correct.

So the loan was taken out in 2000? for £4K.

What was the APR at the time you took out the loan? BTW, looked up how much you would have to repay on a £4K loan at 13.9% APr and the answer is £6,340 over 210 months

Did you by any chance take out Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)?
You mention loads of charges being added at the front of the loan and never understanding them. Typically this would be added at the start of a loan, so you find that a £4K loan becomes £5.2K one day later.

Can you look at any documentation you have from 2000 and find out whether this was added?

The next q is "What sort of employment did OH ( and yourself if working at the time) have at the time the loan was taken out?" PPI generally only pays out if someone who was in permanent secure employment rather then temporary, or self employment. You may have a case for mis-selling.

Option 1

At some stage, with charges and fees the whole lot totalled £11K before HSBC transferred the account.

Next down the line is that you need to reclaim the charges that HSBC added to the account between July 2001 and when they handed it over to MCS. You are already doing this for you bank account, so you do not need my advice on how to, but you do need to get this moving very sharp as the older charges are becoming uncollectable by the week.

Do you have anything in your documentation that would enable you to put a quick winger together this weekend, demanding these charges back from say July 16 2001 to when the the account was transferred to MCS, "estimated at £xxx, based on my current documentation"? That would establish your right to reclaim the charges going back six years.

When did HSBC refer the account to MCS?

You can also reclaim the charges that were added by MCS after that date, to the current date, but this can wait until you have the HSBC job on the way.

Unfortunately you can not reclaim the interest paid, but with any luck that should bring debt down to something manageable.

Option 2

I am in two minds re this, as I am not an expert but I do wonder if a formal complaint to HSBC about the handling of the account, requesting that they treat the account as fully settled would be worth trying.

Only have another half hour on here and other things to sort but will try and PM one or two more experienced bods on Monday for their views. In the mean time send that HSBC claim for charges off if possible.

Can I ask whether you have ever requested that HSBC or MCS freeze the interest on this account, as this is often granted in this sort of situation? They may sometie agree to reduce it consderably instead.

The other thing you need to do is edit up that CCA letter and send it back requesting the letter of asignment and a full list of charges and interested added since MCS took over the account.

Have a good weekend

Frith

Thanks very much for your help, RAS.

I will try and reply more fully later - have just got back from evening at my grandma's (she is 90 and right on the edge of needing to go into a home, sadly) and have 2 sons to get to bed!

I have asked HSBC for the statements for the "loan a/c" (to distinguish it from my long closed current a/c) but they would not supply them as they were more than 6 years old. So sadly it is impossibe for me to say exactly what charges went where.

Just to make matters extra complicated, I asked for statements from my HSBC current a/c late last year and these are NOW over 6 years old (werent' when I asked for them!) and I am taking HSBC to court as we speak just for the charges on the current a/c (£200 but lots of interest has built up since then).

I don't think I did ask MCS for the assignment letter and I also didn't ask for their breakdown of payments I have made (sorry, can't remember the proper term for that) - I think I need to ask for these....

Liz

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I have asked HSBC for the statements for the "loan a/c" (to distinguish it from my long closed current a/c) but they would not supply them as they were more than 6 years old. So sadly it is impossibe for me to say exactly what charges went where.

Just to make matters extra complicated, I asked for statements from my HSBC current a/c late last year and these are NOW over 6 years old (werent' when I asked for them!) and I am taking HSBC to court as we speak just for the charges on the current a/c (£200 but lots of interest has built up since then).

Liz

The six years is from the date that you first requested the information, rather than todays date.

RAS

ACEY wrote: »

I have asked HSBC for the statements for the "loan a/c" (to distinguish it from my long closed current a/c) but they would not supply them as they were more than 6 years old. So sadly it is impossibe for me to say exactly what charges went where.

Just to make matters extra complicated, I asked for statements from my HSBC current a/c late last year and these are NOW over 6 years old (werent' when I asked for them!) and I am taking HSBC to court as we speak just for the charges on the current a/c (£200 but lots of interest has built up since then).

Liz

The six years is from the date that you first requested the information, rather than todays date.

What was the date when HSBC transferred to account to MCS?

rog2

Hi Acey - I must admit that, when I first looked at your thread, I found it a little bit confusing, but RAS seems to have started to 'clear the wood from the trees'.
In my opinion we are dealing with many separate issues here, and, as I see it, they all stem from the fact that a £4k 'loan' that you were given, by HSBC, in 2000, has escalated beyond reasonable expectations, and that, whilst you have had problems, you have still been making payments, whether to HSBC or MCS (who, incidentally are HSBC's in-house debt collectors) yet after more than 6 years, the balance claimed by HSBC/MCS is still only just short of £10k.
Is this reasonable - in my opinion it most definitely is not.
For whatever reason that HSBC/MCS have been 'loading' on the charges, even they must see that there comes a point when these 'charges' or 'fees' (makes no difference what they call them) push the balance from 'affordable' to 'impossible to repay' for any borrower, even more so for one in your position.
Whilst the suggestions regarding the reclaiming of charges, and the 'paring' of your SOA are highly commendable, the results are not going to be immediate, nor, in the case of reclaiming your charges, can they be 100% guaranteed.
I think that you need someone to mediate between yourself and HSBC/MCS to see if there is a way to 're-negociate' your position and bring this amount, and your payments, down to a level that you can afford.
Otherwise, in your position, the only viable alternative may be bankruptcy, but this should only be considered once you have discussed your situation with a professional debt counsellor.
There are links, at the top of the page, to some of the main debt counselling charities, but we do have 2 debt counsellors from CCCS on this board - CCCS_Mathew and CCCS_Emily. I suggest that you pm one of them (I will pm them, as well, to bring their attention to your thread) and see what advice they can give you.
I wish you luck and will have a good think about your situation.
rog2

Frith

What would I gain by being bankrupted?