Help with credit card interest

ManyWays

If he is renting and now has little disposable income, I suggest he writes and says you are helping him as he finds finances confusing, that he is 77 and now has very little disposable income as he has stopped work, and asks them to write off the balance as he cant hope to repay it.
If he owns his house, I would help him set up an affordable payment arrangement eg of £5 a month and ask them to freeze interest. Then ask for a write off in a years time.
It may also be a good idea to look at the rest of his affairs, is he now getting pension credit, does he have multiple small insurances he doesnt need etc

Pollycat

Time for your dad to consider LPoA maybe...?

Usher38

Thank you everyone, Dad is confused and he really has no idea what has happened. 

I have asked him a number of questions and the answers certainly point towards an issue with his mental health. 

Thank you for directing me to some ways of managing this for him. 

Lloyds have frozen the card for 30 days to allow me time to talk things through with him. 

I have also raised a complaint as at no point have Lloyds contacted him about his card being at the maximum limit. He alerted me at the weekend because the cash machine declined his card. He couldn’t understand why and that why he came to me and said he had been scammed 😢
I spoke to Lloyds while he was with me and gained access to the account via Lloyds helpline. They talked me through it. 

I was on the phone for nearly 2 hours. 

EssexHebridean

hang o hang on. - back the truck up….the cash machine declined his card? Has he been making cash withdrawals on the card? That would account for the escalation in the balance for sure if he’s been being charged cash advance interest. 

Usher38

Yes, he thought it was his current account 😢

EssexHebridean

That is going to be a lot of your answer then - and an explanation of why the interest has mounted up as much as it has too, as IIRC cash advance interest is charged from the day of withdrawal?

I think this is your clear sign that sadly he now needs help managing his day to day finances. 

I would say that it is still very worth making a desperately worded appeal to the bank to see if they are prepared to do anything about the balance at all - with the circumstances explained they just may be willing to write some of the interest off.

Pollycat

EssexHebridean said:

hang o hang on. - back the truck up….the cash machine declined his card? Has he been making cash withdrawals on the card? That would account for the escalation in the balance for sure if he’s been being charged cash advance interest. 

Well spotted.

ManyWays

Is he buying or renting? Sorry if I have missed the reply to this.

Usher38

He owns a house, mortgage paid. No savings. 

His current account is overdrawn and they are also charging him 25% on his overdraft. 

EssexHebridean

That's actually a cheap rate for an overdraft, as crazy as that seems!

Things to check/work through
- Go through his bank statements - check for direct debits coming out you don't recognise
- go through a benefits checker and make sure he's getting pension credit if he is entitled to it.
- Talk to the bank about getting at least some of the overdraft on an agreed basis if possible - this may reduce costs, although ultimately it will need clearing
- Go through his budget to see how his income stacks up against outgoings
- Assess other aspects like his personal care, ability to feed himself well etc to see where else he might need support. 

If he is currently in an outgoings beyond income situation, is not entitled to any further income in the way of benefits, and there is little in his lifestyle that can be trimmed without impacting on his quality of life, then allowing he owns his home equity release may be a way forwards - however it's vital that you take proper advice from an accredited advisor on this as it's very easy to sign up to a deal which will leave him (and you) with problems in the future. Among other things check for any specific timeframes in which you would be expected to sell the property once he is no longer able to be there, who would undertake that marketing (ie - you want it to be you, not the Equity Release company) and also how the charge would affect things if for example the house needed selling and a different property purchased. There's a lot more than that though to think about so proper advice is a must. 

As said previously - an LPA is a pretty key thing to get in place at this stage.