Advice needed for a friend's loan

Irfanalichaudhry

Dear friends, 

A friend of mine came to UK in 2011 as a student and he borrowed some money around 2000 GBP from his bank in 2013 for his marriage. He also used about 700 GBP of his credit card. He went back to his country and unfortunately never got a chance to come back due to some financial issues.

Now in 2024 he has come back on a work visa. He loved the lloyds bank and he always had in his mind that if he ever got a chance, he will return the debt. 

Now the question is, he wants to open a bank account with lloyds again but he is scared that the bank may sue him for the debt he owe them and may be he gets into a trouble because he does not have enough money to pay for it right now. He genuinely wants to return the money in a year time. 

Can anyone with good knowledge of finances suggest him in this difficult situation on how to deal with this.

Best regards,

RAS

This debt is statute barred as he has paid nothing towards it in over 6 years. There is a remote possibility a CCJ was granted but even that needed enforcing within 6 years of grant.

I would however suggest he initially opens a bank account other than with Lloyds or anyone bank in the same group. Just because banks can no longer take legal action to enforce a debt doesn't mean they necessarily want the customer back. And he'd then have to declare that he'd been declined a bank account if he needed to apply to a different group.

By the way, Lloyds probably sold this debt on, and that it has probably been sold on multiple times since. One or two companies buy up large portfolios of debt for tiny percentages of the original value and go hunting for anyone who doesn't understand the system. They then try to frighten the person who had the debt, or anyone else with a similar name into paying a higher percentage of the value to clear it. If your friend is approached by one of these, paying them will not benefit Lloyds.

Voyager2002

To summarise: nothing is going to happen to your friend now. However, Lloyds (and other banks with the same owner, including Halifax) would not accept him as a customer, so better not to apply to them.

Irfanalichaudhry

Thank you so very much appreciate it. Its a wise advice i must say.