Opening new bank account to avoid bank offset charges

Old_Grey_Mare

I posted back in January about my husband suddenly dying and leaving me without any income. I had £2,500 on my 2 credit cards that I just couldn’t pay. I took advice from here and wrote to Barclaycard and M&S informing them of my circumstances and asking for a few months break from payments while I tried to sort things out and hopefully get a job. Barclaycard were pretty good but M&S have never stopped phoning and sending letters. Both cards have now defaulted. I think for now I’ve just got to wait for the debt to get passed on to debt collectors or sold on elsewhere, is that correct?

I realise now that M&S is part of the HSBC group which is who I have my current account with. I have read it is advisable to open a new current account with another bank and manually switch direct debits. Is it not recommended to use their switching service? 

Thanks for any advice.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Have you managed to make any moves with a potential house sale yet? Did you further investigate any benefits you may be entitled too? How are you managing? Hope things are slowly improving for you.

Old_Grey_Mare

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

Have you managed to make any moves with a potential house sale yet? Did you further investigate any benefits you may be entitled too? How are you managing? Hope things are slowly improving for you.

I’ve had to work out how to clear my husbands workshop of all his heavy machinery. This wasnt as easy as just getting an auction company in as my husbands friends advised. It’s actually been a nightmare but I managed to find someone locally who has been a godsend. As well as sorting my husbands business out etc. I’m afraid the stress and grief has brought on heart failure and I’m due to have a cardiac procedure in a couple of weeks. 

The house will be going on the market early next spring.

no Benefits apart from £100 bereavement allowance as I have a small allotment which was inherited from my father in law so this counts as assets. I was pleased to get more of my husbands private pension than I thought. So my income is £600 per month and I barely scrape by having to dip into my savings if a machine hasn’t been sold that month.

RAS

Hi, sorry to hear that you've been facing continued and new problems.

A very quick response. You need to get a new basic bank account, as this doesn't require a credit check. Or try Monzo if you want to go on-line. 

The reason transferring DDs has to be done manually is that the switching process will transfer the DDs for your creditors as well.

An OP used switch recently, and then cancelled the creditor DDs. The creditors reinstated the DDs, leaving her finances in a mess. She managed to get the money back but I think one of the creditors did the same thing the following month. It was a lot of hassle.

Old_Grey_Mare

RAS said:

Hi, sorry to hear that you've been facing continued and new problems.

A very quick response. You need to get a new basic bank account, as this doesn't require a credit check. Or try Monzo if you want to go on-line. 

The reason transferring DDs has to be done manually is that the switching process will transfer the DDs for your creditors as well.

An OP used switch recently, and then cancelled the creditor DDs. The creditors reinstated the DDs, leaving her finances in a mess. She managed to get the money back but I think one of the creditors did the same thing the following month. It was a lot of hassle.

Thanks for your reply. I’ll do what you suggested.

sourcrates

That`s if you have active DD`s to creditors, if you don`t you can use the switching service, or if you do have active DD`s to them, cancel them first, allow some time to pass, then switch.

Debt write offs are not often achieved at the first ask, when your debts are sold or assigned, try again, and stick to that strategy, eventually they will see no other way to go and comply.

It can be a long game, but stick to your guns and you will succeed.

Old_Grey_Mare

sourcrates said:

That`s if you have active DD`s to creditors, if you don`t you can use the switching service, or if you do have active DD`s to them, cancel them first, allow some time to pass, then switch.

Debt write offs are not often achieved at the first ask, when your debts are sold or assigned, try again, and stick to that strategy, eventually they will see no other way to go and comply.

It can be a long game, but stick to your guns and you will succeed.

Thanks for your reply. I cancelled all direct debits to creditors in February so presume it’s safe to go ahead with the switching service.

RAS

Ah, yes, you should be OK. Best of luck with everything.