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Leftover Student debt getting me down!
kayryn
Posts: 2 Newbie
Hi all. I've been sticking my head in the sand and I'm hoping to come up for air again.
As a student I did the usual house share with supposed friends that many people do, and so I set up an account in my name for all our rent etc to go into and come out of to ensure that no one was using their actual bank account. I set this up with Natwest and everything went fine, until I decided to move out of the house due to a difference in interests (i.e I wasn't a fan of living in a drug den). My mistake came when I allowed the remaining housemates to continue to use my account, as I attempted several times to get the account moved to someone else's name but didn't have the right forms, couldn't do it without the other person present etc etc. Anyway, they eventually set up a new account and assured me they had left mine at zero balance, nothing outstanding to come out.
Now, nearly 4 years on, I received a new bank card and hastily hurried down to the bank, having forgotten to shut the account.
When I got there, I was told that my account was -£100-odd in debt and they couldn't tell me what had made the account overdrawn initially. I explained to the bank manager what had happened, as well as telling him very directly they didn't have any of my correct contact details any more. He scribbled my mobile number down on a bit of paper with the rest of my account details and told me he'd look into it for me. I had one voicemail telling me he hadn't received the statements yet, and would be in contact when he had, and never heard from him again. That was more than a year ago now.
I am ignoring it in the hope it might magically disappear, but I don't own that debt other than in name. I paid off my £3k of actual student overdraft through hard work more than two years ago and now I'm stuck having to pay someone else's overdraft off because I trusted them too much. Needless to say, I'm not in contact with my previous housemates. Do I have anything I can negotiate with the bank here? It almost seems like the bank manager didn't care about getting my debt repaid, but I really don't want to leave it until it becomes a huge problem and comes back to haunt me. Can I plead fraud at all? Or should I just lump it and pay off a tenner a month until it's done?
As a student I did the usual house share with supposed friends that many people do, and so I set up an account in my name for all our rent etc to go into and come out of to ensure that no one was using their actual bank account. I set this up with Natwest and everything went fine, until I decided to move out of the house due to a difference in interests (i.e I wasn't a fan of living in a drug den). My mistake came when I allowed the remaining housemates to continue to use my account, as I attempted several times to get the account moved to someone else's name but didn't have the right forms, couldn't do it without the other person present etc etc. Anyway, they eventually set up a new account and assured me they had left mine at zero balance, nothing outstanding to come out.
Now, nearly 4 years on, I received a new bank card and hastily hurried down to the bank, having forgotten to shut the account.
When I got there, I was told that my account was -£100-odd in debt and they couldn't tell me what had made the account overdrawn initially. I explained to the bank manager what had happened, as well as telling him very directly they didn't have any of my correct contact details any more. He scribbled my mobile number down on a bit of paper with the rest of my account details and told me he'd look into it for me. I had one voicemail telling me he hadn't received the statements yet, and would be in contact when he had, and never heard from him again. That was more than a year ago now.
I am ignoring it in the hope it might magically disappear, but I don't own that debt other than in name. I paid off my £3k of actual student overdraft through hard work more than two years ago and now I'm stuck having to pay someone else's overdraft off because I trusted them too much. Needless to say, I'm not in contact with my previous housemates. Do I have anything I can negotiate with the bank here? It almost seems like the bank manager didn't care about getting my debt repaid, but I really don't want to leave it until it becomes a huge problem and comes back to haunt me. Can I plead fraud at all? Or should I just lump it and pay off a tenner a month until it's done?
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Comments
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Ugh, I've seen this situations before and sadly there is absolutely nothing you can do about it really. You let other people use your account and the first rule of banking is "DO NOT LET OTHERS USE YOUR ACCOUNT" not least of all because things like this might happen, but also because for all you knew, these former roomies-!!!-druggies could well have used it to launder money through there in the event they upscaled their base of operations from "user" to "pusher/dealer" and you would have been seriously liable for that.
I think that if you can get a breakdown of how it got so overdrawn, you might be able to argue the removal of any fees that have applied based on the bank not having your right details to inform you of the account going overdrawn, but that's pushing it quite likely.
My gut tells me you'll end up having to take this one on the chin and chalk it up to experience. I can guarantee you won't let others use your accounts in future! Just be glad it isn't more than a hundred quid, otherwise it would be a serious headache!Original Total: £34200.78 / Current Total: £24017.00 (July 2017) -29.88%!
DMP started March 2014. DFD: November 20250 -
It's not fraud though as you allowed other people to use an account in your name. I don't know why you bothered faffing about trying to transfer the account to someone else. When you moved out you should just have closed the account down and returned any money in it to your former flat mates. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
As Meatloaf says, I think you're just going to have to take this one on the chin.
Were any of the utility bills for this property in your name when you moved out?0 -
SO I went to the bank yesterday to sort this out, only for them to tell me my account was closed and the overdraft written off with authorisation of the bank manager.
A good result for me, but I get the feeling this is why said bank had to be bailed out by the tax payers! I was begrudgingly willing to pay the debt off and they just made it disappear!0 -
Possibly worth checking your credit report anyway ...July 2015 - £7800 to pay off0
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