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Help, bank gave OAP a loan she can't afford without doing a credit check

Zabki
Zabki Posts: 29 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper
edited 18 September 2014 at 2:37PM in Loans
Hi,

I need to help an elderly friend who is in serious trouble now thanks to Barclay giving her loans she can't afford.

My friend has basic pension and benefits so she is having very limited funds. She doesn't have any financial sense and doesn't speak English well.

She had an overdraft with Barclays which she found a strain and wanted to get rid off, so she tought a loan would be better to get rid of it. A loan for a higher sum than she needed for the overdraft was given without a credit check done, she would have failed as she has very little credit history in this country and only basic state pension.

She then got in to a circle of debt and all of a sudden she was talked into extending the exsisting loan by the same person.

Then I found out and said to her that she should make a complaint to the bank as they should never have given her the loan in the first place.

So she did complain, that Barclay branch asked her; "Was it **?" which it was and they then said; "Yes that is what he does"

But instead of making a formal compliant the let her spread out the loan over 10 years instead to make the monthly outgoings smaller.

On Saturday I am going to travel over to her to try and sort some of this mess out. But this is not my area of expertise so my question to you guys is;

Is there anyway I can raise a complaint with Barclays to get them to cancel the loan as it was completely missold or at least some way I can get them to cancel some of the loan. Or can I raise the issue with the finacial ombudsman?

Thank you for your help in advance.
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Comments

  • d70cw6
    d70cw6 Posts: 784 Forumite
    who is AJ?
  • Zabki
    Zabki Posts: 29 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper
    edited 18 September 2014 at 2:38PM
    d70cw6 wrote: »
    who is **?

    ** is the person in the Barclay branch who arrange the loan without checking her credit score/history. And by the repsonse of the other staff in that say branch this is something that ** has done on more than one occassion.

    As ** is fairly anonymous and Barclays have many branches I thought it was alright to write out **, if it isn't then I am more than happy to edit it out to **
  • DaveTheMus
    DaveTheMus Posts: 2,669 Forumite
    Why don't you teach her how to live within her means.

    Also, it would be advisable that she got some English lessons or she might find her self in a situation like this again.

    Did she clear the overdraft?
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  • Tixy
    Tixy Posts: 31,455 Forumite
    If she cannot afford repayments on the loan then I would suggest she writes to them and offers an amount she can afford to repay and asks them to consider freezing interest and charges. If she can only afford a token payment of say £5 a month then that is what she should offer.

    As she has had and spent the money there is little chance of the loan being cancelled, but a written complaint may get a goodwill gesture or possibly a refund of some of the interest.
    She would first need to write to them with her complaint and give them time to respond. If they do not resolve it to her satisfaction then at that point she could consider taking the complaint to the FOS.

    If she does decide to default on the loan repayments and offer token payments then she would really need to set up a new bank account with a different bank first to use as a current account and have her benefits paid in to prevent barclays from offsetting funds.
    For the new bank account she just needs a basic account with no overdraft facility.
    A smile enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give
    or "It costs nowt to be nice"
  • antrobus
    antrobus Posts: 17,386 Forumite
    Zabki wrote: »
    ....Thank you for your help in advance.

    Get her to speak to Stepchange
    http://www.stepchange.org/
  • Zabki
    Zabki Posts: 29 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker PPI Party Pooper
    DaveTheMus wrote: »
    Why don't you teach her how to live within her means.

    Also, it would be advisable that she got some English lessons or she might find her self in a situation like this again.

    Did she clear the overdraft?

    There is no need to be rude.

    She does not live expensively her overdraft was minor but then to unforeseen circumstances she feel on bad times healthwise and to retire early due to work related injury and it took a while for early pension to be allowed and then to pay out.

    With little financial sense I mean she is absolutely !!!! with anything mathematically, she doesn't understand interest rates and percentages.

    As for English she does understand and speak it well enough for day to day use but not enough for banking issues which already confuses her even in her own language.

    This forum is used a lot by people who has fallen in debt some is there own fault some are not but neither of us deserves to be ridiculed and intimidated.
  • DaveTheMus
    DaveTheMus Posts: 2,669 Forumite
    Zabki wrote: »
    There is no need to be rude.

    She does not live expensively her overdraft was minor but then to unforeseen circumstances she feel on bad times healthwise and to retire early due to work related injury and it took a while for early pension to be allowed and then to pay out.

    With little financial sense I mean she is absolutely !!!! with anything mathematically, she doesn't understand interest rates and percentages.

    As for English she does understand and speak it well enough for day to day use but not enough for banking issues which already confuses her even in her own language.

    This forum is used a lot by people who has fallen in debt some is there own fault some are not but neither of us deserves to be ridiculed and intimidated.

    Stop being so self-pitying......

    I made two fair points, granted they are a more difficult than draughting a complaint to a bank but they will stand her in better sted.

    Did she clear the overdraft?
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  • d70cw6 wrote: »
    who is AJ?
    Zabki wrote: »
    ** is the person in the Barclay branch who arrange the loan without checking her credit score/history. And by the repsonse of the other staff in that say branch this is something that ** has done on more than one occassion.

    As ** is fairly anonymous and Barclays have many branches I thought it was alright to write out **, if it isn't then I am more than happy to edit it out to **
    That should do the trick :D
    Are you for real? - Glass Half Empty??
    :coffee:
  • Zabki wrote: »
    There is no need to be rude.

    .

    I don't think he was being rude.

    There can be no better advice than suggesting someone learns to live within their means.

    It is also very good advice to suggest that someone learns to speak the language of the country in which they live, rather than having to depend on others to translate for them, or be a drain on the country's resources by having to have a paid interpreter decipher what they need to hear.

    This is, after all, a money saving forum.
    "There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe a 'Princess Coronation' locomotive in full cry. We shall never see their like again". O S Nock
  • Bantex_2
    Bantex_2 Posts: 3,317 Forumite
    I would suspect that interest rate on the loan would have been lower than the overdraft.

    What did she spend the money on?
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