Help with credit card interest

Usher38

Need help please. 

My Dad transferred a balance to a credit card in 2022. It had a 6 month interest free period. He never received a single statement. He paid a manageable amount every month. He used it on the odd occasion for purchases. 

He is 77 years old and only stopped working last year. 

He came to me today, saying that he thought he had been scammed . He credit card bill is over £5k. 

I looked at the movements and they have been charging him £100 per month on a balance. This has obviously compounded over 2 years and he was oblivious to it until now. 

I have called Lloyds and told them the situation, they have frozen the card. But I have put in a complaint about the interest charges. He is being charged interest on top of the interest that they are charging him. I am devastated for him and angry that pensioners are being put in this position. 

Is there any way I can get this interest taken off, so we can deal with only what he has used ? I need help to help my Dad. He is not sleeping and I am worried . Any advise gratefully received. 

eskbanker

Usher38 said:

He never received a single statement. He paid a manageable amount every month.

How did he decide how much to repay every month?  Statements obviously should have been issued, and these would have indicated a minimum repayment figure every month, calibrated to ensure that the balance would decrease rather than increase, but if he'd transferred a balance from another credit card, he must surely have been familiar with the basics of how they work, i.e. that there are monthly statements and minimum monthly repayments needed?

Edit: persistent debt measures were introduced a few years ago in order to prevent balances getting out of control, so read up on how these should have been applied and challenge Lloyds on that if applicable:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/persistent-debt-help/

Aylesbury_Duck

Usher38 said:

Need help please. 

My Dad transferred a balance to a credit card in 2022. It had a 6 month interest free period. He never received a single statement. He paid a manageable amount every month. He used it on the odd occasion for purchases. 

He is 77 years old and only stopped working last year. 

He came to me today, saying that he thought he had been scammed . He credit card bill is over £5k. 

I looked at the movements and they have been charging him £100 per month on a balance. This has obviously compounded over 2 years and he was oblivious to it until now. 

I have called Lloyds and told them the situation, they have frozen the card. But I have put in a complaint about the interest charges. He is being charged interest on top of the interest that they are charging him. I am devastated for him and angry that pensioners are being put in this position. 

Is there any way I can get this interest taken off, so we can deal with only what he has used ? I need help to help my Dad. He is not sleeping and I am worried . Any advise gratefully received. 

Has Lloyd's been applying the interest in accordance with the agreement?  If they have, then I'm not sure what you expect them to do.  It sounds like a case of your father not checking the balance yet continuing to use the card.

Hopefully for his sake, Lloyds have done something in contravention to the agreement or have made mistakes in the interest calculations.

Usher38

The problem is that because he hasn’t received a statement, he was oblivious to the charges he has been incurring. 

He doesn’t use online as he keeps forgetting his details. 

I am so so cross and upset to see my Dad in this predicament. It could easily have been resolved if Lloyds had sent out statements. He would then have seen that his debt was accumulating from the interest. They charged him £780 interest in 8 months, and then now charging him interest on that . 

How are these pensioners supposed to survive ? 

eskbanker

Usher38 said:

The problem is that because he hasn’t received a statement, he was oblivious to the charges he has been incurring. 

He doesn’t use online as he keeps forgetting his details.

That suggests that he did use online facilities at some point, so it's presumably possible that he elected for paperless account servicing, therefore not receiving anything in the post after that?

Usher38 said:

He credit card bill is over £5k.

What alerted him to this?

Usher38 said:

I am devastated for him and angry that pensioners are being put in this position.

Usher38 said:

I am so so cross and upset to see my Dad in this predicament. It could easily have been resolved if Lloyds had sent out statements. He would then have seen that his debt was accumulating from the interest. They charged him £780 interest in 8 months, and then now charging him interest on that . 

How are these pensioners supposed to survive ? 

Not sure it's going to be valid to repeatedly play the pensioner card, especially if it's only up to three years ago that he started borrowing the money from Lloyds at 74, but IMHO best to focus on ascertaining what the relevant facts are and take it from there, rather than getting caught up in high emotion.

PHK

This isn't really a consumer rights issue and would be better moved to one of the Debt boards. 

visidigi

Surely the interest free period is only on the transferred and not on the 'occasional purchases' - it has been on every credit card I have ever had...

Aylesbury_Duck

Usher38 said:

The problem is that because he hasn’t received a statement, he was oblivious to the charges he has been incurring. 

He doesn’t use online as he keeps forgetting his details. 

I am so so cross and upset to see my Dad in this predicament. It could easily have been resolved if Lloyds had sent out statements. He would then have seen that his debt was accumulating from the interest. They charged him £780 interest in 8 months, and then now charging him interest on that . 

How are these pensioners supposed to survive ? 

Being a pensioner doesn't entitle him to money free of interest.

Who manages the account? Is it possible he elected for paperless at some point?

Usher38

Hi, how do I move to a more relevant board ? 

I guess I just need advise then on how I can help him manage this debt , and help to stop him worrying. 

Thank you for everyone’s reply 

MattMattMattUK

Usher38 said:

Hi, how do I move to a more relevant board ? 

Only the moderators can but they will not be around until Monday. Just stick with the thread and we can help. 

Usher38 said:

I guess I just need advise then on how I can help him manage this debt , and help to stop him worrying. 

Thank you for everyone’s reply 

Your first action needs to be to get access to the account, to find out how much he actually owes, if any of the debt is on a promotional rate and what the minimum payments are. I suspect the issue is that he has not met the minimum payments and interest is accruing. 

All of this is solvable, but will take a but of work. Try and get access to the online account then you can see what is actually going on, then you can help. This will not be immediate so you both have to accept this will take a while.

TELLIT01

I bank with Lloyds and got paper statements every month until I opted to have a paperless account.  If your father uses online banking he may have selected that option at some point.

I obviously don't know your father's state of health, but 77 isn't that old.  I'm 74 in about 8 weeks and still manage all my own finances.

It's possible your father misunderstood how interest free balance transfer generally works.  https://www.lloydsbank.com/credit-cards/help-and-guidance/0-percent-credit-cards-explained.html  may help.