Final Balance query

Dagormatix

OK, first the facts concerning my current problem:

I had a Halifax branded loan with RBS for £1000.00 at some crap APR like 15.9% or something, due to be paid back over 2 years at £50.00 a calendar month.

Although it doesn't really concern my current issue with HBOS, I had difficulties paying at times. (I've been a student for the last two years...)

I phoned their accounts department on the 20th July this year and asked how much I would need to pay to finish the loan.

I was told:

£56.90 (give or take a couple of pence).

I commented very clearly and specifically that I thought this wasn't enough as I thought I had two more payments due, one for the usual £49.88 (give or take a couple of pence again) and according to the very person I was speaking to, a final payment of some £52.something. This added up to some pennies over £102. I went on to further clarify what I was saying by explaining that if I paid off my account "now" for only £56.90 I would be paying a lot less than if I let the two scheduled direct debits come out, meaning I would be paying less for the loan than originally I was told.

He confidently confirmed the final settlement figure of £56 odd again.

I asked him how this could be.

He told me that it was due to how the interest on the loan was worked out and that essentially it was because I was paying off the loan early. I think he used the a term that sounded similar to "compound interest" or something like that.

I asked him "Where's the catch?"

Again, I explained to him that I had already had many problems over the course of the loan, and had been misadvised on numerous occasions, and asked him if he was absolutely certain.

He replied that he was, and that all I had to do was go to my local Halifax branch and do a BACS payment to the account and sortcode numbers that he gave me.

He told me that the settlement figure he had given me was correct until the 28th of August, and that as long as I made the payment before then, I would be fine to cancel the Direct Debit which was setup.

A couple of days later I went to my local branch, cancelled the Direct Debit (unfortunately too late, it then went through, bounced and they charged me a ridiculous £39.00, but that's a different matter), and got the branch to do the BACS payment (into one of their own accounts).

A week and a half later I phoned up after having looked at my credit files and found the loan showing as "defaulted", although I thought it might take a short while to show up as "settled", with a couple of late payments admittedly, I phoned the loan department of HBOS, and discussed the matter at great length with an advisor (See note 1). During the conversation, she confirmed the settlement figure, and told me that it would probably take a month or so until the credit reference companies had the updated details. She also told me the loan definitely wouldn't show as being defaulted when the details were updated with E, E and MCC. I now think this was to get me off the phone, but that's another matter that I will attend to once this current one is resolved.

Some 3 weeks later, I get a phone call from HBOS debt collection department who tell me that while they have received the payment of £57.00 (I rounded it up as I couldn't remember how many pence it was), my direct debit had been cancelled by me and that they had been unable to collect the "outstanding" £48.something from me".

I explained at length about what I had been told and why as far as I was concerned I had finished paying off my loan. Eventually I spoke to a guy called "Mike Allison", a supervisor. Who was a typical debt collection type, and kept repeating that "You will pay, you will pay, you will pay." He eventually agreed to "look into it", but for some reason despite them being required by law to record every phone call and store it for 30 days, he said he wouldn't be able to find the recording unless I had the phone number I had called. As I was moving house the next day, I didn't have the bit of paper to hand that I had got the number off of. I agreed to call two days later and give him the phone number. I dutifully called two days later and gave the phone number to an advisor who promised that they had noted it down in the comments on my account and that they would pass a message onto M.Allison and ask him to track down the call, and call me back, as he was unavailable when I called.

I had not got a call off him a week later, but I had had several calls off of advisers trying to hassle me for an outstanding amount, each time I explained to them that I was expecting a call from an M.Allison, on each occasion I requested that they contact him and get him to call me himself. Every time I have been phoned by them he has been "in a meeting" or otherwise unavailable. It's now 3 weeks after the first call where I spoke to him.


What's my next step?

I've talked to trading standards and the FSA. They were able to tell me their rights, but unable to do much to actually help me.

I'll be damned if I'm going to pay HBOS a penny more. I'm going to try and open another bank account with someone else asap, but I'm worried that even applying for one will only damage my credit rating further as I've no doubt got a defaulted loan still showing on my credit rating at the moment.

Can anyone give me some advice?

Any help would be much appreciated. And even if you can't offer any advise, thank you for reading so far!



Note 1:

I was pretty angry about the fact it showed as "defaulted" when I clearly hadn't defaulted, and we went over my payment history, essentially my gripe is that on the three occasions that I paid late, I paid a lot later than I should have due to their incompetence. They refused to setup a direct debit to take the payment on each occasion. The Halifax branches won't take payment for my loan. I don't have a cheque book. They refused to take payment via my Visa card. Because they are not actually Halifax, they can't in any way get monies from either of my accounts except via Direct Debit, which on each occasion left me up a certain creek without a paddle. Bear in mind I was confidently told:

1. You can pay by going to your local Halifax branch (on 3 occasions), despite me promising that it had never been possible before, because I had wasted time trying to do it before.

2. A memorable one this: (said with complete conviction and total confidence) "Lloyds TSB are part of the same group as RBS, you can go into any of their branches and pay, but because our systems are not integrated you cannot pay in a Halifax branch." and despite me telling the person I thought this sounded more than a little unlikely, they repeatedly assured me. You can imagine how much of an idiot I appeared in my local Lloyds TSB shortly afterwards. (Whoever you are who told me that, I hope you have a painful accident.)

3. "You can pay via postal orders." I phoned up again the next day to make damn sure. "Absolutely not, we don't accept postal orders."

4. "I'm very sorry you were misadvised by the last person you spoke to, but you definitely can pay with your Visa card" (said in a sarcastic voice as if either me or the last person I spoke to was a complete moron). Followed shortly afterwards by "Ah.... (embarrassed pause), Um... on *your* account you can't pay by card, sorry."

5. There's probably a couple I've missed, I try to blot out the pain.

On each occasion I would eventually speak to someone with a brain who would simply setup the Direct Debit again, despite every other advisor promising me over and over again that they could not do it until I had paid the arrears off by a different method, despite me saying things like "BUT I'VE HEARD ALL THIS BEFORE! PLEASE JUST SETUP THE DIRECT DEBIT AGAIN! I PROMISE YOU IT WAS DONE BEFORE AND IT WAS FINE!!!" The advisors I spoke to would apologise for it being done before and say that "it had been a mistake, and shouldn't have been done". On one occasion this misadvising nonsense, went on for so long that my account was sent to a debt collection agency, who after I explained the situation to them, took £50 off the total amount as compensation, apologised on behalf on HBOS, and sent the account back. Frankly I wonder if I should have just left it with the debt collection company (an internal one to HBOS I believe, not the same as their "debt collection department"), they seemed far more capable of common sense.

rougetam

Have you had any luck on this?...I'm having similar problems