Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
Hi,
my head is in a spin with everything I've been reading and I need some advice before I send a letter off to Lloyds TSB.
I have a number of issues with Lloyds and I want to write a letter of complaint to my branch manager. I have a small shop and although it is ticking over we have definitely seen a decline in sales over recent months so have been overdrawn quite a few times. I take no wage from the shop as I have another job and pay staff to work in the shop. I opened my shop and my business account three years ago and in that time have had five different business managers none of whom have ever taken the time to contact me with advice or help. I have contacted them every time I have worried that I may go overdrawn for a bit but all they have done is charge me £15.00 every two days which obviously hasn't helped my situation. That it one gripe - the fact that they state that their business manager will be there for advice and help at any stage but has never done anything other than to tell me to put money in from my personal account to cover my overdraft.
They also made a cock up on my account at the beginning of Jan where I had paid a supplier over £800 over the phone by debit card but then although my account was in credit there were no funds available to me. I spent all day phoning various depts of the bank to find out why and at around 5.00pm was told that it was because the £800.00, which had clearded from my account days before, had been allocated twice and one of the payments was pending and would stay like that until someone noticed it. I spent a fortune trying to sort out their mess but unfortunately can't credit my bank account with their money in the way that they can do to me.
I contacted them last year for advice on how to cope with the recession and their response was to send me a leaflet showing that if I cannot afford to keep my account in credit they could enforce formal insolvency upon me. I **** myself and asked to see them and was told that the best thing was to turn my overdraft into a loan and restructure my current loan (balance was around £8000 with interest of around £90.00 a month). I agreed to this as I was petrified that they would force me to go bankrupt or something but I didn't realise that because I had gone on to a new loan now over two thirds of my monthly payment is for interest - just over £220 a month. Surely this must have been bad advice on the part of the bank - shouldn't they have just kept me on my old loan at the better interest rate and started a new one just to cover the overdraft?
I also want to ask them to refund my charges as a gesture of good will as I have kept my agreement with them to contact them regulary but they have neve done this with me. I've never had the same business manager long enough to build up a relationship with them.
I feel I've had no service from the bank and that their actions have cost me so much that my little shop won't be able to stay open much longer.
Also if I were to close my shop could I offer lower monthly repayments or would I have to keep making my loan payments at the current amount?
I've already done a letter of complaint. I've received an acknowledgement and been told that copies of my letter have been sent off to various depts (insurance, loans etc). They also told me a month ago that they would refund fees for a Euro account I had closed and the letter said I have today arranged for a refund. That didn't happen and was obviously forgotten about and I phoned them yesterday then got a message stating they would be refunded today?! Have also had standard letter stating they will not refund my charges and they hope I can see why.... Just waiting on the reply about my loan and PPI.
Thanks for the advice - I think I will send a copy off to the Chief Exec. x