TSB Loans affected too?

RichardSEL

In late January I made a soft application for a £7,600 loan with TSB following recommendation from Money Saving Expert.
Accepted, a few days later I made formal application with TSB online with the help of their on-line telephone loans' help desk.
With TSB's loan agreed I then gave the go ahead for a classic car restoration I was having done with invoice due in a month.

The loan date arrived so I went to my local branch to change banks as I'd been with RBS since 1990 but which was only offering a rate of 15.7% APR :eek: With last three months' statements, proof of identity, and proof of address I went to TSB's local branch. By this time the spate of freezing bad weather had set in :cool: Branch contacted their loans desk, confirmed loan still available but couldn't do any more as by this time many loans' desks (in many other banks too) had been closed due to staff being unable to safely get in -- especially in the north.

Two visits later and still my already agreed loan refused to activate. So someone, somewhere thought it a good idea to make a fresh application. Not a good idea. That had the effect of (i) cancelling my already agreed loan by raising its APR from 10.7 to 30%, (ii) making the new application a 30% APR offer (that's the default figure used to signify "bad risk" by the bank's loan applications' program). But worse (iii) a bad credit risk marker had been put on my external credit score ratings profile (Experian, etc)

At that point, the branch raised a complaint on my behalf -- this has been duely considered by TSB's "customer relations" who've confirmed in writing my original loan's correct and agreed status. But still won't put me back into the position I was had not all this cack- handed calamity occured. Instead, TSB offered me £100 compensation. No good to me now that the classic car's restoration workshop is shortly to expect to be paid.

I have complained to the Financial Ombudsman who've told me TSB have two months to make a "final response" to my complaint before they'll adjudicate. Meanwhile, TSB's "customer relations" 'phoned me and in a very prissy condesending voice demanded to know what paperwork I'd got. Perhaps she had been an air stewardess in a previous life -- used to bossing passengers around in the 1950's era of BOAC prop jets -- however this person then had the temerity a few days ago to send me through a cheque for the £100 claiming that I'd "agreed" to it as "compensation".

:money:Do make sure that your readers know that acceptace of such an offer can have the effect of cancelling a claim (even a Financial Ombudsman one) as you've effectively "settled" it. I sent it back, Signed For postage, and copied in the FO.

Fortunately, because of my good financial record before TSB made a mess of it, I've been able to use my MasterCard clean internal credit history with them and whatever bits and pieces of savings I've got left to carry on the car's renovation. But the workshop will want final payment at the end of this month. I'm then going to be stuck...

Lioness_Twinkletoes

TSB haven't covered themselves in glory - buy you have to take some responsbility for authorising works that you don't actually have the funds to pay for. You should have waited until the money was in your account. All you can do now is wait for the final response from TSB before escalating.


I'd also be talking to the workshop about the fact that you can't pay them - I am sure they're not going to be interested in the reasons why...

flower77g

Is the RBS offfer at 15.7% still available if the original poster goes and talks to them? If so it leaves the option to go back to to RBS and pursue TSB via the Ombudsman to make good the difference in loan rate. That will take some time, though.

RichardSEL

When any financial institution makes a firm offer, especially one the size of TSB, it's a Contract offer in Law. Of course, with a "soft" confirmation, they make it clear that the firm application can still be rejected. But it wasn't.
Firm offers are valid for 30 days, after which they fall off the system
So, firm offers are bankable -- and indeed when I first met my new branch after over 25 years with RBS, it was shown as valid on their system. And at least "customer services" have had the good grace to admit it was -- before (Ms) Bossy Boots got involved. And earlier admit that someone had entered my firm application again. Hence their software throwing a wobbly.

All of which doesn't help. My Ombudsman application asks that I be put back into the position I would have been had not TSB made such a hash of delivering what they'd already agreed. Which is what TSB should do without prompting -- loans' help desk has already told me (informally) that further up the seniority tree (higher level permissions) its possible to over-ride what external credit checks and their software is default automatically telling them.

RBS's 15.7% soft offer has expired. And because of my now bad credit record due to TSB making two firm applications within days of each other, I can't get another credit line. Experian say that it can take two to three months for a credit record to update itself once a "bad risk" entry is removed.

I own my own freehold home, it is mortgage-less, with a clear Charges Register -- so I asked TSB to give me the facility secured (of course at a much less APR) while this clag-up was sorted. Reply there came none

I don't believe other financial institutions the size of TSB would operate in the way that lot does, they wouldn't last long. Back in the day when I did have a mortgage and other financial products I got good service. Course, things then were done on paper ;-))

So the purpose of my post was to make anyone interested aware, seek any constructive advice. And see whether anyone else around has had similar experiences and how they coped -- Community and all that...

Thanks for the helpful replies -- posts saying "its all my fault" are not. Classic car workshops do have a habit of sliding completion dates. They haven't pushed for their balance as yet, will be seeing them at the end of this month. ===> watch here for the next thrilling instalment of "Yes, I was a TSB Customer, Once"

Lioness_Twinkletoes

So you've got no money, a screwed credit rating, no loan, a ton of stress and works being carried out you can't pay for. All you needed to do to avoid at least some of the above was not authorise the work on the car until you actually had the money in your account. Yet I'm the nutter :rotfl:


You blather on about the loan being a contract in law....but you haven't got any money, have you? I am reasonably confident you'll not get the loan at all - it will be withdrawn and TSB will throw a few quid at you in compensation. Eventually. I do hope you've got a back up plan for paying for those works....

RichardSEL

It's TSB's attitude that leaves a lot to be desired
In my day <Victor Meldrew mode ON> when a financial institution gave an undertaking it was confirmed in writing which I've got (and at least Bossy Boots agrees that) and was also issued as "my word is my bond".

Reading about all the LIBOR / PPI / and other scams around from the major financial institutions nowadays, I'm wondering what's become of UK banking in general. Perhaps that's a little unfair -- since my student days in the '60s I've never been treated like this from any of the majors I've been with. Which brings me back to this thread's subject question...
But thank you for your constructive reply.

(Ms) Bossy Boots is aka Ms BOAC Air Stewardess 1959 ;-) the TSB's so-called Customer "Services" agent that 'phoned me demanding to know what paperwork I had and then subsequenty lied on more than one occasion to cover for TSB's failings (validity time of offer and that I'd "accepted" their derisory offer of compensation)

For those here who have made constructive suggestions instead of just trolling around the forums looking for something to whinge at, here's the update @ 17th:

Financial Ombudsman has been in touch to say that they've called for papers from TSB
and wait for it <drum roll> "Once we receive this, one of our adjudicators can begin to investigate. They should be in touch within twelve weeks to introduce themselves and discuss the complaint in more detail."

Whew! That's alright then. That's only three months.

<Victor Meldrew has cardiac>

Red-Squirrel_2

I wonder if your sexist attitude towards the female customer services staff member was as obvious to her as it is to us.

RichardSEL

>>
I wonder if your sexist attitude towards the female customer services staff member was as obvious to her as it is to us.
>>

I doubt it. Having done all those miles in a Britannia prop jet, she's probably as thick skinned as she appears.
Sorry to those who's politically correct sensitivities have been roused -- I should've of course called her Ms BOAC Airstewarding-person 1959

Meanwhile, back at the funny farm (House of Commons)
MPs ask Financial Ombudsman Service to address reported failings

As a new user here (not with the thousands of posts others have) I'm not allowed to post the link
to Money Saving Expert dot com's item. That follows the Treasury Select Committee's questioning of FOS
following a Ch.4 Dispatches programme on them -- which I didn't see -- but presumably has something to do with the three month delay everyone that approaches them for assists is experiencing (?)



<sigh>

RichardSEL

Just an update -- I'm seeing the classic car workshop on Friday.
I expect them to start off the negotiations for settlement of their account, as yet not submitted
Although I've not yet been told that they've completed their work

Have had a clear letter from FOS telling me that I should get in touch to see whether I qualify
for faster consideration of my complaint -- two of their criteria could apply: that I've been offered
a settlement, and that I'm in [or expect to be] financial hardship.

The obviously knowledgeable help desk operator said that my file will be reviewed to see whether
I qualify for this speedier consideration

jonesMUFCforever

OP just my opinion - please flame me or accept what I have to say.

''Financial hardship'' and spending the dosh on a classic car don't go together - so IMO I would not go down that route if it was me.

''Cases are taking 3 months to be assessed'' - this is because any Tom !!!! and Harriet are taking cases to FOS for no reason other than they have been given a response they don't agree with - many of which are spurious.

Going forward if you have a credit card ask the garage to accept at least part payment on this (or even apply for one - should be with you in a few days) - this will give you a month before you have to pay it off - by then surely your loan will have come through?

RichardSEL

Thanks for bothering to key your constructive reply! (unlike the trolls earlier {:-(( )

I don't know what FOS classes as "financial hardship" either -- but it's up to them to decide whether, after consideration of the file, I qualify for any faster consideration. Ditto for the "offer" which was sent with a lie
from TSB hoping that I'd be so desperate that I'd cash their £100 cheque so they could say that I'd accepted it
"in full and final settlement". Such is the nature of Ms Bossy Boots BOAC 1959

I've got some credit card limit available but not £7,600-worth. New credit cards' limits are assessed according to credit risk so I'd be back to waiting for Experian and that lot updating their records that they
say can take up to three months too. TSB say that they removed their entries in the first week of this month (May)

Didn't realise there were spurious claims being made with FOS -- daft waste of time (and their resources) if you ask me. Mind you, some outfits ask for it. Have just come across one of my credit cards demanding payment before the last bank holiday claiming that my payment date fell on a non-bank working day so they were entitled. And because it wasn't paid then (three days before the bank holiday Monday just gone, but paid on the Friday from my bank at their midnight data transfer) saying that they were going to add charges and penalties.
Delightful few minutes with a "help" desk operator who'd obviously been coached with a script to trot out that trash and again otherwise lie to their own customers. Unlike the shift's supervisor who gushed that it'd been an "oversight" and any charges incurred would be cancelled "in this instance" <sigh> <I've wibbled off topic!>

>>What goes around - comes around -- give lots and you will always receive lots

True!