Irresponsible lending

ChillyP

Evening,

just seen this post on a different forum. An interesting one that has caused some debate. The OP has been advised to post on here. Here is the post-

Hi,

Ive just discovered that mum is in a bit of a mess! She’s 75, widowed 2 years ago and for the first time is having to manage her finances. ( dad always did it)

in Sep 2023 she applied for a credit card with a well known high street bank. She says that when she applied there was an error message and she assumed that it hadn’t worked. She applied again immediately and was accepted for £4K limit with an introductory 0% period. A week later 2 cards arrived. Same product etc. it appears that both applications went through and she basically ended up with 2 identical cards, each except the same credit limit. There is a one digit difference between her customer numbers. I can only assume that this was a system error and that only one card should have been issued.

fast forward to now and mum has a balance on each card of almost 4K. She’s panicking. The interest free period is about to expire and her payments will rocket to over £200 per month.

now I’m all for personal responsibility, and I do wish that mum has spoken to me earlier, however she’s an elderly vulnerable woman and I think that issuing 2 cards was irresponsible, even if it was in error.

I think that we need to complain. I’m not expecting the debt to be written off- she’s spent the money after all, however I think it’s reasonable to ask them to reduce it remove the interest if the card was issued in error. Do you think this is an example of irresponsible lending?

This screams of irresponsible lending to me. Approving two identical applications for the same product on the same day?? Surely this isn’t right? 

fatbelly

Yes, you want

https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/

And

https://debtcamel.co.uk/affordability-complaints-2-cards-lender/

ChillyP

fatbelly said:

Yes, you want

https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/

And

https://debtcamel.co.uk/affordability-complaints-2-cards-lender/

A lot of people on the other for have been quite harsh in thd person involved and feel that she is responsible 

PixelPound

ChillyP said:

fatbelly said:

Yes, you want

https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/

And

https://debtcamel.co.uk/affordability-complaints-2-cards-lender/

A lot of people on the other for have been quite harsh in thd person involved and feel that she is responsible 

that's why its better in this section rather than a general one

ChillyP

It was on mumsnet

sourcrates

ChillyP said:

It was on mumsnet

We tend to take a more open minded approach to such things on this forum.

Blame can be attributed both ways, and its not easy to say no when you are short of cash, and maybe have other issues going on as well.

Not one of us is perfect, and its quite likely those who are criticising her on that forum have plenty of skeletons in their own cupboards, truth be told.

Rob5342

ChillyP said:

fatbelly said:

Yes, you want

https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/

And

https://debtcamel.co.uk/affordability-complaints-2-cards-lender/

A lot of people on the other for have been quite harsh in thd person involved and feel that she is responsible 

If you haven't been through it yourself it can be difficult to understand the factors involved. I remember thinking that my wifes friend was a complete idiot for running up £10k on credit cards, but 14 years later I'd run up £44k on mine. You can see the decisions that have been made on various cases on the financial Ombudsman website. They do hold the lender responsible a lot of the time, for example when someone had lied about their income when they applied for a loan the FOS they said the lender should hsve done more to check their income. Of course lenders aren't mind readers and can't be expected know everything about a customer, but they do expect them to take some responsibility and do reasonable checks. 

RAS

ChillyP, can I suggest you sit down with mum and either turn2us or entitled to and do a full benefit check?

And that a full SOA may be useful. Mum's household income is likely have reduced massively when your dad died, but the basic costs of living will not have reduced prorata, and prices have risen since then as well.

Look particularly at pension credit and unclaimed state pension credits? And do a sweep of her DDs and SO's plus best buy searches for insurance, phone etc. I cut mum's utility and insurance costs by 50%, when I checked them.

If you think she'll be reluctant to talk to you AgeUK offer support. They may have a local centre or offer a phone appointment.

ChillyP

RAS said:

ChillyP, can I suggest you sit down with mum and either turn2us or entitled to and do a full benefit check?

And that a full SOA may be useful. Mum's household income is likely have reduced massively when your dad died, but the basic costs of living will not have reduced prorata, and prices have risen since then as well.

Look particularly at pension credit and unclaimed state pension credits? And do a sweep of her DDs and SO's plus best buy searches for insurance, phone etc. I cut mum's utility and insurance costs by 50%, when I checked them.

If you think she'll be reluctant to talk to you AgeUK offer support. They may have a local centre or offer a phone appointment.

RAS said:

ChillyP, can I suggest you sit down with mum and either turn2us or entitled to and do a full benefit check?

And that a full SOA may be useful. Mum's household income is likely have reduced massively when your dad died, but the basic costs of living will not have reduced prorata, and prices have risen since then as well.

Look particularly at pension credit and unclaimed state pension credits? And do a sweep of her DDs and SO's plus best buy searches for insurance, phone etc. I cut mum's utility and insurance costs by 50%, when I checked them.

If you think she'll be reluctant to talk to you AgeUK offer support. They may have a local centre or offer a phone appointment.

Hi, It's not actually my mum - It was just a post that I saw on another forum and I thought it was an interesting case. I would love to know the outcomes. I think that the lady in question will have her complaint upheld - what bank would approve 2 of the same credit cards for the same person on the same day??