Was my overdraft irresponsible lending?
kainzow
Forumite 9 Posts
Hi. I recently had some success reclaiming my packaged bank charges.
i was given a refund after claiming it was miss-sold and that i felt pressured into taking the account.
I was only refunded the account package charges ( £15 a month) now i've continued looking into my financial past and have discovered something but i'm not sure if its worth approaching the bank about.
not only was i pressured into taking the account and overdraft in the first place, i was also unemployed and not on benefits at the time so did not have any income, but i was still given £500 overdraft.
now my thinking is here because the overdraft was given when i had NO income, it was probably irresponsible for the bank to have lent to me? even more so pressured into accepting ?
Can i claim under the same sort of principals you would approached payday loan companies when asking was the lending responsible?
i was given a refund after claiming it was miss-sold and that i felt pressured into taking the account.
I was only refunded the account package charges ( £15 a month) now i've continued looking into my financial past and have discovered something but i'm not sure if its worth approaching the bank about.
not only was i pressured into taking the account and overdraft in the first place, i was also unemployed and not on benefits at the time so did not have any income, but i was still given £500 overdraft.
now my thinking is here because the overdraft was given when i had NO income, it was probably irresponsible for the bank to have lent to me? even more so pressured into accepting ?
Can i claim under the same sort of principals you would approached payday loan companies when asking was the lending responsible?
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It wasn't forced upon you - it was just a facility available for your to use if you wanted to.
And you wanted to.
In fact, when I recently switched banks I specifically asked for no overdraft, so this would have been an option for you too.
Irresponsible lending complaints that succeed are not common. Mainly tends to work where the person has a mental illness which the bank should have been aware of or the amounts are significantly out of proportion with the circumstances.
A small £500 overdraft facility is peanuts on an account that is, by default a credit facility, is highly unlikely to be considered irresponsible lending.
Do you have a mental illness that the bank should have been aware of? The amount is not really in the ballpark otherwise.
edit added: Reading some FOS decisions (and its hard to find many on small overdraft facilities on personal accounts. its mostly loans, credit cards or mortgages with a few larger overdrafts - i.e. £5000 or so), it does appear that the status at point of credit is considered. Indeed, a common FOS wording is "At that time, H didn!!!8217;t appear to be in financial difficulty" or words similar. i.e. at the point the facility was offered, were you in financial hardship.
Just spending the money through lack of control is not grounds for complaint. It really needs to be irresponsible.
Com-pen-shay-shun
The only success stories reported where customers have alleged "irresponsible" lending are with PayDay loan companies or where lenders have loaned a large amount (much more than £500) to someone who clearly could not afford to pay it back.
The Bank gave you an overdraft facility. It was your own choice whether to use it. Your causation argument doesn't wash either, you should have informed the bank you were in current financial difficulty at the time if you were struggling.
In addition, the question has to be asked of why an unemployed person would deliberately run up a £500 overdraft in only the first month of getting the facility? As others have said, that would be irresponsible spending-not irresponsible lending.
Do you even have proof that you told the Bank you were unemployed prior to this overdraft being granted? If not, this "complaint" is even more of a dead duck I'm afraid.
Take solace in your other recent refunds: