Overdraft reduction agreement help

neilied

Hi all. My wife has had a £2k overdraft for over 10 years, since we had our lovely little ones my wife hasn’t earned her old wage. She has just been living in the overdraft. After Lloyd’s made changes to the charges last year it fast become unaffordable. She approached the bank and they offered a short term agreement. They suspended the charges and downgraded her account. She had to make 3 monthly payments of £60 then she negotiated another 3 months at £70. More recently she spoke with another Lloyd’s person as she had been sent through to arrears/debt team. They said that she didn’t need to be dealt with by them but again set agreement to pay another 3 months of £70 which they mentioned that next maybe a 6 month or 12 month one.

Sorry for the big back story. So yesterday was the first £70 of the new agreement and she ensured it was available. Today was pay day and when she checked the balance showed her pay but available was zero. She panicked and contacted the bank but the department she needed hadn’t opened. The CS told her that they couldn’t see any agreement in place and that her OD was suspended and any payments into the account would go towards it. This has left us really short for the week and more so caused so much distress to my wife she has gone to work today in tears and so stressed. Poor show from Lloyd’s but not sure how we can fix this. I know we need to talk to the dept in question but it has stressed us and the kids out this morning so annoyed by this error.

Thanks

eskbanker

If she says that she was assured that another arrangement was agreed by Lloyds and they dispute that, then (assuming there's nothing in writing?) the key will be the phone call during which this was discussed, so she should ensure that she can identify exactly when that was and get them to listen to the recording, via a formal complaint if necessary.

She can ultimately demand a copy of the recording via a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act but that all takes time so doesn't really help in the short term.

It may not be necessary to point it out but just in case, overdrafts are only intended to be used as a short term measure, so living in one for ten years is best avoided, not least because a bank can demand repayment like this. Obviously it's better not to have the debt at all, but if debt is unavoidable then it's best to have it in more secure form, such as credit cards or loans, where the borrower at least has some sort of protection, assuming they can maintain scheduled repayments, so once the dust has settled on this crisis, it'll be best to look at the bigger picture in terms of how best to handle her debt in such a way as to prevent this happening again in future.

neilied

Yep agreed. Funny thing is, it was us who instigated this. We asked for a way to pay it off rather than tread water and paying the fees that the bank were happy to take. I honestly think that this is a paperwork issue and that the agreement didn’t get set up correctly but it has caused a lot of upset this morning and stress. I hope this can be resolved this afternoon but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

neilied

So after a lengthy chat with Lloyd’s the other day it has been declared that it was an internal error. The back room team never set it up. They were able to resolve within 24 hours and offer a credit for the troubles.....albeit to close the complaint we made.