Irresponsible lending

E_Storey

I used webchat, which is great because I can prove that I did tell them that.

E_Storey

OK, got a payment plan that will cover most of the debt in 3 months. Does anyone know of a savings account that DOESNT have immediate pay outs?

I have a help to save account, and I don't dip into it because of the three day delay.

It works well for me, but it's due to expire soon, we all know what will happen when the cash hits my bank account.

[Deleted User]

Any number of fixed term savings accounts exist that don't allow money to be taken out short of closing the account

E_Storey

So Bos have effectively admitted their online overdraft facility is automated, and will not take into account any issues customers raise regarding problem borrowing.

I'm pretty shocked, to be honest.

breaking_free

So Bos have effectively admitted their online overdraft facility is automated, and will not take into account any issues customers raise regarding problem borrowing.

I'm pretty shocked, to be honest.

I do have sympathy for you because you recognise your problem. But the time and money involved in overseeing and administering a personal customer issue such as yours would also be pretty shocking if scaled up to a large segment of customers.- that's why so many processes are automated.

callum9999

E_Storey said:

So Bos have effectively admitted their online overdraft facility is automated, and will not take into account any issues customers raise regarding problem borrowing.

I'm pretty shocked, to be honest.

I wouldn't expect the computer to necessarily know your borrowing problems, but it is shocking that you informed them about it and they ignored you.

Is that what actually happened, or did they tell you to inform another department and you didn't? 

To answer your savings question, lots of places offer notice accounts. I use Zopa at the moment who have options starting from 7 days notice. Though you'll still need to make sure you don't just give notice and then access the money next time you have a "blip".

Ergates

breaking_free said:

So Bos have effectively admitted their online overdraft facility is automated, and will not take into account any issues customers raise regarding problem borrowing.

I'm pretty shocked, to be honest.

I do have sympathy for you because you recognise your problem. But the time and money involved in overseeing and administering a personal customer issue such as yours would also be pretty shocking if scaled up to a large segment of customers.- that's why so many processes are automated.

It should still be possible to manually flag an account/customer so that the automated system doesn't act.

Ergates

E_Storey said:

So Bos have effectively admitted their online overdraft facility is automated, and will not take into account any issues customers raise regarding problem borrowing.

I'm pretty shocked, to be honest.

This seems to be a gap in their system that is not leading to the best outcomes from their customers, so is something that needs to be addressed.  Whether this means they were guilty of irresponsible lending would depend on whether it could be reasonably expected for them to be aware that you had an problem and/or had requested they do not extend the overdraft facility.

As you can probably imagine - a customers request will usually override a previous request from the same customer.  So saying "Please don't extend my overdraft" then saying "please extend my overdraft" - is a somewhat tricky situation as knowing what is the "correct" response there will depend on knowing the full context of both requests.

Banks have a duty of care to support vulnerable customers.  Vulnerabilities can come in a wide variety of "flavours" but having an addiction would count.  I don't know about BoS, but it may be possible to discuss this with someone at the bank - if you're willing - they may have staff who are trained to support customers with additional needs who might be able to help.

If the savings account is also with them, then you could discuss your concerns about this too. 

VohnnyJegas

E_Storey said:

OK, got a payment plan that will cover most of the debt in 3 months. Does anyone know of a savings account that DOESNT have immediate pay outs?

I have a help to save account, and I don't dip into it because of the three day delay.

It works well for me, but it's due to expire soon, we all know what will happen when the cash hits my bank account.

Why are you saving when you owe the bank £1600?