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.
My account was in credit but not enought to cover a direct debit, funds to do this only became available on the day the DD was due. So I called at the bank and withdrew enough to cover the DD and placed it in the account. I then got a letter saying that there were insufficient funds to cover the DD so they had to return it and were going to charge me £35 (the date they were going to do this was shown on the letter). After this date (the account was in credit but not enough to cover the £35 "charge"), they kindly wrote and told me that they had "allowed" my account to go overdrawn to cover this charge (I do not and never have asked for an overdaft facility on this account). After a few of the usual letter I noticed another account I have with then had suddenly gone to a zero balance.
Below are details of the last letter I received from them....
As you know we have been trying to contact you for sometime. We wanted to help you get your account running smoothly and wrote to you a number of times about it, offering our help. We need to let you know that at the time of writing it is still overdrawn and also remind you that this is something you have not agreed with us.
If you have any other accounts with us, and they are in credit, we are generally allowed to use them to reduce or repay the amount you owe us. This means we can take money from most accounts you might have with us.
As a result, we have transferred the balance on the following account
xxxxxxx
After this transfer has been made, we would now like you to repay the remaining £134.68 you owe us.
We add charges and interest of £70.00 to this every month, based on your present outstanding balance and interest rate. This sum may change as your balance alters (e.g. by the charges we have added) or if interest rates are varied.
It is very important that you take this letter seriously.
We need you to pay back the money you owe us within 28 days. If you do not the next thing we will do is register the details of your debt with the credit reference agencies. Experian Ltd, Equifax PLC and Callcredit PLC. This information will stay on their records for six years.
This could mean you will have trouble getting credit elsewhere because most businesses such as banks and building societies use these records to judge how you manage your money and if you are a good risk. Sometimes your credit rating can even affect members of your family or any business associates.
This is why it is so important that you pay us what you owe us within 28 days. This will stop us from contacting the credit reference agencies about you.
Let us reassure you that our aim has always been for you to be happy with your account and to help you run it smoothly. So please do call us if you think there is anything you could do which will mean we will not have to take the steps we've just explained.
Yours sincerely
Once you have stopped laughing ..... I still am !, any advice would be most welcome as I don't know what to go for first - the removal from my other account, the credit rating blackmail bit or is there something else I can throw at them - would kind of be nice if I could get the manager arrested.
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Ooops ! just spotted the Lloyds TSB part of the forum - please move this post to the correct location - sorry first post.
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so how much did you go overdrawn by ? £35 ~ just the charge for bouncing the DD even though you had paid funds in the same day ?
I think a letter detailing all this is in order - unfortunately they are entitled (irratatingly) to take money from one account to cover deficit in another account....but it seems extreme for a £35 charge ?
Yes just went overdrawn by the amount they charged - in actual fact just a bit less as there was a small amount in the account anyway - I think it was less than £5.
It was just the DD charge that put the account into arrears.
The money was paid in over the counter at the same branch where the account with the DD on it was held.
They took all of £3 from the other account, the figure of £134.68 is currently what they say I now owe them and is just purely made up of charges they are claiming that have arisen since the account went overdrawn, including another returned DD that went through before I stopped it.
I think it is circa two returned DD's at £35 each plus the addition of £70.00 charges and interest as mentioned in the letter, minus the £3 from the other account less the amount the account was in credit before all this started.
Wrote a letter off to them and this is the reply which arrived this morning (the letter I sent was your standard reclaiming bank charges one, which I altered slightly asking them to work out how much they had charged my account. Did this as I didn't have any money to be able to do a DPA request for account details at the time, but I can do now).
"Thank you for getting in touch with us. I am sorry you are unhappy over your account charges.
Like any business we do make a charge for some of our extra services. When a customer doesn't have enough in their account to cover a payment, this always means additional work. We must either make the payment for you via an overdraft or send the payment request back. Either way, it has to happen speedily. We feel that it's only fair to charge for the extra work involved.
Of course it is only fair, too, that we're completely open about any charged for services before you take them up. That's why we take care to provide every new customer with the latest guide to our charges. You can also get up-to-date details about fees and borrowing rates at all our branches, via our helpline and on our website.
Just as importantly, we do everything to help our customers avoid charges altogether.
I'm sure you know how easy it is to keep a running check on how much is in your account. You're free to get an up-to-date balance at any of our cash machines, over the phone, online and nowadays even by text to your mobile.
If you know a payment is going to take you over the limit, your welcome to see if we can raise your limit and we can usually give you an answer straightaway. You might know, too, that we never charge an overdraft excess fee more than three times in any one month, however many times you go over your limit. Neither do we charge more than three returned item fees in any one day even if we are unable to meet more than this number of payment instructions.
You've mentioned the new guidelines from the Office of Fair Trading on credit card default charges. We don't agree with the OFT's thinking on this and we're still talking it through with them. But the important point is that the guidelines only concern default charges. The fees we charge for going over an overdraft limit and for returned payments are not any kind of default penalty. They are fixed standard prices for the service we provide in these situations.
I do hope you can see that we make our charging system as fair as possible and why I cannot agree to cancel your charges.
This letter is the bank's final response, which means if you remain dissatisfied you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If you decide to pursue your complaint through the Financial Ombudsman Service you must do so within 6 months from the date of this letter. I have enclosed their leaflet that outline how to contact them.
Thank you once again for taking the time to raise your concerns with us."
LLoyds TSB - I love this letter
, funds to do this only became available on the day the DD was due. So I called at the bank and withdrew enough to cover the DD and placed it in the account. I then got a letter saying that there were insufficient funds to cover the DD so they had to return it and were going to charge me £35 (the date they were going to do this was shown on the letter). After this date (the account was in credit but not enough to cover the £35 "charge"), they kindly wrote and told me that they had "allowed" my account to go overdrawn to cover this charge (I do not and never have asked for an overdaft facility on this account). After a few of the usual letter I noticed another account I have with then had suddenly gone to a zero balance.
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