Thread: Over my overdraft limit due entirely to charges - Lloyds getting nasty

I’m getting really worried about this and I’m hoping someone can help me out.

At the moment I have 2 accounts with Lloyds, 1 joint account and my sole account. My sole account has no overdraft, and my joint account has an £800 OD. I wrote my Prelim letter to Lloyds which they received 10th August, and I’m claiming around £2000 in charges and the interest on those charges.

Since I started this claim, I decided to freeze my accounts, i.e. I opened a new one and have all of my wages paid into that, and all of my direct debits etc come out of it. The Lloyds accounts are not used for anything at all.

I then got a load of charges coming out of these accounts which put me over my OD limit on the joint account and overdrawn on my sole account. In otherwords their own charges made me over my agreed limits on both accounts.

This has been like this for a while, without them really doing anything about it. I then got a phonecall from their collections dept last weekend asking what I intend to do. I informed the woman that my accounts are in dispute, so for now I would be doing nothing. She said this was fine and would make a note for me to not be contacted for a further 10 days. Then on Tuesday (yesterday), I received a letter saying that as I had “refused their offers of help” (they hadn’t offered any help), I had 28 days to return the excess owed (plus some new charges for the priviledge) or they pass a default notice to the credit reference agencies.

I promptly wrote to them informing that under section 13.6 of the Banking Code, passing on details of debts that are in dispute to reference agencies if not allowed. The letter I send is below:

Customer Service Recovery Centre
Lloyds TSB
125 Colmore Row
Birmingham
B3 3SF.


21st August, 2006


RE: Letter Reference xxxxx/xxx

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBERS: xxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxx


As you will be aware, I have recently disputed my two current accounts on the grounds of unfair and unlawful penalty charges which have been levied against me.

As these accounts are in dispute, I have stopped all payments going in or out of them until the issue is resolved. Section 13.6 of the Banking Code clearly states that you may only pass details of my debts to the credit reference agencies if the debts are not in dispute. As previously stated, I have disputed these debts in writing, and the letters were received by you on 10th August 2006.

Due to the fact that you have chosen to contact me demanding payment seemingly upon receipt of my complaint, I can only conclude that this action is retaliatory. I have attached a copy of the FSA position regarding retaliatory actions due to customer complaints for your consideration. Furthermore, I spoke with a Lloyds representative in the collections department on 19th August who informed me that Lloyds would continue with legal proceedings after 10 days, despite the fact that I informed her of the disputes. As you are aware, this would constitute a further breach of section 13.6 of the Banking Code.

You also state that you have written to me a number of times to offer help, which I have declined. I have received no correspondence concerning the debts in question other than two letters for each account demanding that I bring the accounts back into balance. I did however contact your customer services department concerning the unlawful charges which caused me to exceed my agreed overdraft limit before the charges were debited from my accounts, and was offered no help whatsoever. After being passed between various departments, I was eventually advised to find a higher paid job and to cut back on my living expenses, and what’s more was offered this advice is an extremely rude and offensive manner.

I would also like to mention that I am both shocked and appalled by the fact that you have decided to impose more unlawful charges on my account when it is in dispute and without informing me prior to doing so. As mentioned previously I spoke to a Lloyds representative two days after the date of the letter you have sent, and she did not inform me of any charges. In fact, she told me she would note the dispute and ensure I was not contacted regarding the matter for a further 10 days.

I would be grateful if you would stop any charges on my accounts until my dispute is fully resolved, at which point I will pay off any outstanding balance. If you persist in imposing any further punitive charges on these accounts, including charges for legal letters, they will be included in the amount I am claiming from you, and I will be forced to seek a court injunction to prevent you from taking any further action. I would also like you to take note that I will only correspond with you on these matters in writing and do not wish to be telephoned again.


Yours faithfully,




Mindzai

Then, today, I received another letter saying that if I did not pay them the money within 48 hours they would pass on my details. I also got the same letter regarding my joint account. Now these letters were dated more than 48 hours ago (but dated after the first letter), so I don’t know if they have already passed my details on to the reference agencies. Obviously I’m very worried about this, they are getting nastier and it is clearly in retaliation to my claim letter.

So any help and advice you could offer would be hugely appreciated. I have a couple of specific questions about this as well.

Firstly, if they have indeed passed details of this debt on (I will be requesting my details from the agencies this evening to check), this is in contradiction of the banking code as I had written to them disputing the debt (and they had acknowledged receipt) well before these letters were sent, correct? What can I do about this breach?

Secondly, can they really give me 28 days to repay this debt despite the dispute, then change it to 48 hours 1 day later? Is there anything I can do about this?

I could pay the excess by borrowing money, but as my entire overdraft, including this excess consists entirely of their charges, I am loathed to do so.

Thanks again for any help, and apologies for the long post.

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Your actions so far are impeccable - You are right they are wrong.

They can not give you any deadline to repay the debt at all if the debt is in dispute. Until the matter is resolved by a court or a satisfactory settlement is concluded.

You might want to telephone now as the deadlines are getting tight. If you have a direct line number use that. Reiterate your points if you still get no joy ask if this person could refer you to someone who is actually aware of the legalities involved as they clearly are giving you the wrong advice.

Stick to your guns. If they have defaulted you can challenge this but obviously prevention is better than cure.

All the best

Zoot

Also tell them that you will be passing a copy of their letter on to the FSA, OFT, the Banking Ombudsman, Trading Standards, and your MP to demonstrate what a blatant disregard to the law they have shown.

this is eaxctly what happened to my dad except he didnt do anything about it as he didnt know about this site - it was about 2 years ago when he was sick of the charges so moved to a different bank...he ignored all letters and now his £700 overdraft is showing as £5500 on his credit file!!!!

it also says gone away next to it lol....

i think once i have been throught the claim procedure for myself i'll get him onto it with Lloyds as hes been averaging £120 a week forever with Lloyds (13years!)

Originally Posted by jo5ephedward5

this is eaxctly what happened to my dad except he didnt do anything about it as he didnt know about this site - it was about 2 years ago when he was sick of the charges so moved to a different bank...he ignored all letters and now his £700 overdraft is showing as £5500 on his credit file!!!!

it also says gone away next to it lol....

i think once i have been throught the claim procedure for myself i'll get him onto it with Lloyds as hes been averaging £120 a week forever with Lloyds (13years!)

Well despite what Lloyds are threatening, under section 13.6 of the Banking Code they shouldnt be able to affect my credit file as the debt is in dispute.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do regarding their 48 hour limit which was expired before I even received the letters?

I dont think you shoudl worry about it as you've followed all the right channels

You`ve done nothing wrong, carry on regardless, then when you have got what you are claiming, close the accounts and claim again to get the new charges. Youwill win, it just takes time when they start silly games to put you off. Remember, you are right, they are wrong. Stick to your deadlines.

48 hrs to repay is plain unreasonable, as a court would no doubt see also.

& they OWE you money so if they are stupid enough to issue then you will simply counter claim. So on top of paying the issue fee up front the banks will then have to justify THEIR charges.

Issuing proceedings against claimants seem to be a new tactic being done by some banks in the hope it will frighten claimants into conceding.

To succeed they still have to prove their charges are not unlawful.

They must have really burned the midnight oil to come up with that stupid plan siily sods!

To the Money Lenders.................. ..............

If your reading this forum chaps which I have no doubt you do my advice is that you really need to obtain more learned legal advice

They must be getting really desperate watching the whole edifice come crashing down....................s lowly

Thanks guys.

Don't worry I'm not backing down over this, and I'm damn sure not paying them money they have no right to charge. That's the reason I've frozen this account - if they take anything else it's their own money, not my wages. When they return it to me by paying it into my account they will be paying themselves back.

letter before action has been drafted this evening and will be posted tommorrow, along with another letter of complaint about the way they are handling this. Having read the Banking Code in full now I also understand they are bound to be sypathetic and reasonable. No lawyer in the world could argue that giving me 28 days to pay this off, then the next day dropping it to 48 hours which expired before I even got the letter is sympathetic and reasonable.

I will be starting my own Mindzai vs Lloyds thread now things are properly underway where I will continue this saga. Rest assured they are not going to scare me off. Every little trick and scare tactic they pull makes me a little bit more determined to get my money and cause them as many problems as possible along the way. After all, I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. As a side not I will also be charging them their own APR on unauthorised borrowing of 29% rather than the 8%, not particularly for the money, although it will be nice, but because I wan't to p*ss them off as much as I can after all this. If they don't like it, I'll see them in court

Thanks again for the help.

Hi Mindzai,
I'm in a similar position to you. Currently, Lloyds are charging me interest and a £215.00 excess OD charge, so their charges are putting my account well over, I am currently being managed by ccs, but I don't feel i am getting anywhere with either ccs or lloyds - I seem to do a lot of work myself, which is very tiring and draining, but its up to me so i will fight on.
I think you have done remarkably well, and seem to have a good direction. If I find any other help, i will let you know.
God, I hate banks.