Do you have money worries and a loan or credit card with your bank?

I was just wondering, if you are making your minimum repayments on the cards can they still take money from your account? Or is it only when you miss a payment?

HBOS did this to me several years ago, as a result I defaulted on my mortgage which I had with them and a repayment plan I had setup for another account with them which was overdrawn. They took my wages within an hour or two of them being paid in and left me with nothing. Not only that but they also took my account into overdraft in doing so then started demanding that be repaid.

In the months leading up to this I was in tears on a regular basis worrying about money and what I was going to do. When it happened it was one of the most frightinening things I have every went through and will admit I had some scary thoughts, it would not surprise if this has been the cause of many suicides in this country!!
When I went to the bank I was basically told tough luck. My only saving grace was I had a weekend job in a club which paid cash, this allowed me to buy food and get me through that month.

I was also very fortunate that all the other companies who I had regular payments to were very understanding when I explained what had happened and accepted that months payment the following month or spread it over a few months.

One surprise/unexpected side affect about the situation was it got me out of my overdraft charges loop when I moved to another bank, within a few months I was budgeting better and generally felt a lot happier about my financial situatution.

The sooner the banking system is cleaned up and the heartless a******** that run them are held accountable the better!!!!!

My advice to anybody that experiences this is:

- Stay Calm(not easy in this situation)
- Workout what money you've got access to
- Prioritise/plan your spending
- Contact everyone you owe money to that you are not going to be able to pay and explain your situation
- Dont hide/bottle up your feelings, speak to close friends/family they will help you get through it

whittleone wrote: »

I recently entered into a Debt Management Plan with all my creditors - Lloyds TSB being one of them (credit card and personal loan) and although they already receive a regular monthly DMP-allocated payment from me, last month they used their right to offset by taking money from a joint account that I hold with my partner (no overdraft).

I am worried that Lloyds can just take out as much money from that account as they want and I cannot afford to pay extra fees if the account goes overdrawn.

Could someone provide me assistance with this query? Can Lloyds offset by debiting MORE than is actually held in our (non-overdraft) joint account and deliberately take us overdrawn?

Thanks.

When I talk to people on here I always recommend that they close any joint accounts if they are going on a DMP, or get their name taken off the joint account.

1. This protects their OH's credit record which might be useful in the future.
2. The bank cannot then off-set the individually arranged debts against the joint account.

The worst case we have seen was when an OP's Partner did not close the joint account before starting an IVA. The bank are now effectively taking the debt in his sole name outside the IVA by taking his debt from the joint account and pursuing her for the sum.

I had an Advantage Gold account in my sole name that had an OD amount (which was, and still is, being disputed). I received a letter advising that I should make alternative banking arrangements. I telephoned the collections centre number to find out what was happening. The person I spoke to was incredibly rude and aggressive. He said that all the money in our joint account had been frozen, when I questioned this, and pointed out that the amount in the joint account was several hundred pounds more than the amount owed on the other account, I was told that he could do what he wanted and that he could take as much as he wanted and freeze our account. I pointed out that this would mean that we would have no money for food or priority bills, he said that was tough and not his problem. I explained the whole situation and that I had sent a letter, I was told that I was lying. I also asked if it would be possible to make a partial payment towards the amount - I was informed that it was all or nothing and was told that if I didn’t agree to transfer the whole amount owed on the Advantage Gold Account the remainder of the money would remain frozen. I felt that I had no choice but to agree to the transfer.

When my husband arrived home he spoke to Collections again and made a payment of £50, he also arranged to have the transfer stopped and a note to this effect to be put on the account. Despite this, the person I had spoken to originally made the transfer the next day. The funds were eventually returned to the account. Although they managed to transfer out the money twice, once to our account and once to a random person's account.

Needless to say, we have since opened a different bank account.