Help with credit card interest

LightFlare

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 ? 

My mum is 83 and manages to understand credit,interest,borrowing and repayments

fatbelly

visidigi said:

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...

And only if you operate within the T&cs i.e. You make at least the minimum payment bdfore the date specified each month.

Otherwise, normal interest kicks in

Usher38

Hard to admit that you think you Father perhaps either buries his head or he has health issues that are not easy to accept. 

Thank you for your help. 

I have frozen the account with Lloyds. He has a meeting with his bank, who will hopefully help him manage his debt. 

photome

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 ? 

You said he used it on the odd occasions to purchase , were you aware he had a credit card and was spending on it ? 

Please don’t keep using the pensioner card, my mum is 86 and uses online banking to manage her finances , anything she doesn’t understand she does ask me

eskbanker

Usher38 said:

Hard to admit that you think you Father perhaps either buries his head or he has health issues that are not easy to accept. 

The thought did cross my mind earlier that you stated that he hadn't received any statements, but while this may be what he told you, he could have seen some and chose not to admit to this, but is embarrassed to fully fess up to having got into a hole with the debt.  Human nature, but as I said before, it's worth getting to the facts - it may indeed be that Lloyds have messed up here, for which they should obviously be held accountable, but prudent to recognise that there are other possibilities too.

You did mention earlier that you'd gone through the transactions after he came to you, so that clearly suggests that he has some information about the state of the account - was this a one-off letter with an unusual amount of detail, or a statement of some sort?

Usher38 said:

I have frozen the account with Lloyds. He has a meeting with his bank, who will hopefully help him manage his debt. 

Just to be clear, when you say that you've frozen it, was this a one-off conversation where he authorised Lloyds to speak to you on his behalf, or have you formally activated power of attorney and/or advised them that he's vulnerable?

Brie

Usher38 said:

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 

I have moved this to debt free which may generate some more replies.

sourcrates

I think you should take the complaints route, if not already done so.

See if a "gesture of goodwill" may be forthcoming from Lloyds, who knows.

Regardless, this is a non priority, non essential debt, which Dad can repay at whatever is affordable to him, if he can`t afford anything, write and tell Lloyds so, they may look to stop collection activity, or simply write the debt off as unrecoverable.

Whatever they may decide, try to get across to him that this is not worth getting upset or stressed over, affordability is key these days, if he can`t afford payments, he wont be expected to pay anything.

Brie

Ok so as I see the situation....

Dad did a balance transfer but perhaps/likely didn't clear that within the 6 months.  At this point the remaining balance would be charged at the same rate normally as a cash advance.  

Dad also used it for purchases.  Because the balance wasn't cleared in full from the previous statement these would have interest charged at the lower purchase rate from the day of the purchase - no interest free period.  

Dad was paying a set amount each month so was never clearing the balance.  Any payment he made would have gone to the interest charged first, then the cash advance (balance transfer) and then the purchases.  It's nearly impossible to clear a card under these circumstances whether one is a pensioner or a 30 something.  

Dad would have been sent statements possibly online which he couldn't access.  I believe that credit cards also have to send an annual statement by post.  So he should have received something unless the address was incorrect which is unlikely.  

So you could get Dad to sign a letter of authority to allow you to deal with things on his behalf going forward.  Then you could log a complaint to ask why the card company has taken so long to take action on his persistent debt with them.  This might include a subject access request so you can see exactly what has been sent to him in any form.  

It may be that you need to tell them that Dad is vulnerable, not able to use technology and that was overlooked by them.  Obviously from previous comments this is not a universal for OAPs but needs to be mentioned on the account so that they don't continue to depend on him responding to online communications of any sort.  Maybe as a safeguard you put your own email account on his profile so you'll know if they mess up again.

AND is there any issue with him defaulting on this account?  Is he likely to need to apply for credit anywhere else in the next few years??  Might be something to think about.

EssexHebridean

visidigi said:

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...

Correct, but then any payments being made are supposed to be applied against the most expensive debt first I believe, which in this case would be the purchases. 

EssexHebridean

I suspect the “no statements” argument isn’t going to go anywhere as undoubtedly he gave an email address and the statements have been sent - but sent by email and he hasn’t been accessing them. 

I would also agree that the pensioner card isn’t helpful - I too have an elderly parent older than your Dad and she does more online than I do, and understands it all perfectly. This isn’t an age thing, it’s an “individual” thing. As you say, it’s really tough to acknowledge that your parents are no longer the strong, capable people you always saw them as, and concerns about acuity are all the harder I think. However, once acknowledged the great thing is that there really are lots of things that can be done to tackle the situation.

Others have already advised specifically about the debt - I would add that now is a good time to talk to your Dad about lasting power of attorney if there isn’t already one in place. Having that done and ready to kick in when needed is incredibly useful - and you can assure him that it doesn’t in any way mean giving up control of his life while he is still able to manage things himself.  You can also be a bit more tuned in to the areas where he might have problems - for example does he have any bank accounts that he might also not be seeing statements for as they have gone to online only? If so, think about how that might be made easier for him - if he uses a smartphone for example you can set him up with biometric logins on banking apps which should work most of the time, and you can keep a note of his passphrase or word or his customer code for the occasions it demands those.