My wife had an account with lloydstsb which she closed several months ago with a £0 balance, she surrendered her bank cards and thought that was that. Today she's had a letter saying her account is overdrawn by £265.57!!!

It seems there is a £250 overdraft and they want £15.57 to get back within the overdraft limit.

The letter goes on to threaten all sorts so she called the number on the letter giving the reference number only to be told that there is no such account, they went on to say that someone would call back to discuss the contents of the letter, needless to say no one rang back.

Is it at all possible that they can claim this money from her?

NEVER EVER RING THESE PEOPLE!

Stay OFF the phone!

Who sent the letter? LTSB?

Forget the contents of their puerile missives, they dream up the contents in their little fantasy world they live in.

Keep everything in writing ONLY.

Start by entering the banks complaints procedure first, and check your wifes credit file and see if their is anything on there.

Hi

It is not unknown for an account to be closed and then a payment or a charge re-opens it but in my opinion, Lloyds should have written to her or carried on sending statements. How on earth is she supposed to know otherwise.

I would be complaining and getting the detail of how this account was re-opened.

Yes its TSB headed letter.

When she called she was told that the account number given on the letter does not exist so it hasn't been reopened according to that. This is the only letter or contact she has had from them since closing her account.

The letter says she will be unable to withdraw money until she pays the £15.57p directly to her branch.

If the account doesn't exist then how on earth can she pay anything into it to use??

Ignore them and lodge that complaint, clearly they have a gremlin in the system and she owes nothing!

Shes had another letter today threatening all sorts because she hasnt been in touch. Anyway she called up again to be told this time that her account wasnt closed properly and some payments went out and because of this, charges were added to her balance. They also said they intend to recover the amount outstanding. So it seems she surrendered her card, cheque book etc and closed the account with a £0 balance, someone didnt do their job properly so British Gas managed to debit some money and now theyre saying shes responsible and added charges for being overdrawn. They stated they will pass it to a debt collector before she put the phone down on them.

The letter says they will reduce the balance if she agrees a payment plan.

Any advise plz?

Yep, the advice is stay OFF the phone.

NEVER talk to them over the phone, whatever they want to say can be committed in writing, UNLESS of course you're recording the calls?

Pass it to a DCA all they like, they still won't get paid.

Get onto their complaints procedure and exhaust it, then escalate it to the FOS for investigation.

Keep everything in writing,

never discuss this over the phone,

log all calls and silly letters they might send,

and complain to the enth degree, this is their own making.

Also keep an eye on your credit file, if any adverse data is placed on their then you may be able ot sue them for defamation.

Thanks BB, as long as we are sure its their fault and we don't have to pay it then she will have the strength to fight it.

The only problem as I can see is she has no proof that she closed the account, just simply returned everything.

I will send in a complaint and see what happens.

Just having a think here.

I think BCOBS should come into play here.

The account was closed then a payment was made from the closed account re-opening it.

Banks have a duty under BCOBS to treat customers fairly so by re-opening tha account and the account incurring charges without notice instead of refusing the DD which would have been fairer, the bank may be in breach of BCOBS.

Yes good point SF, IMO it is definitely the bank at fault here, no grey area, they have messed up, they get to carry the can.

I sent a letter to their collections dept who are sending these letters, it was quite sarcastic but did say "complaint" at the top, I also sent in an online complaint because I couldn't find the address to write to. The online form said they will telephone but they haven't. I told her if they did to ask if it was to say this has all been cancelled and if not then to tell them she's not talking to them and put it in writing then hang up.

Today she's had another demand which is exactly the same letter but the amount has gone up, interest I assume.

Deal with this in writing ONLY, no phone calls nothing.

They say they will phone purely to fob you off and say things they would never say were it committed in writing.

Lloyds TSB, Customer Services, BX1 1LT. this is the address I found for LTSB, however I am not sure if this is correct regarding the recent breaking up of this bank?

I sent a letter to that address recorded delivery today, am also thinking of calling the FOS as their site says they will contact them on your behalf and make them aware. It seems to me theyre just ignoring us yet find it acceptable to keeps sending the threats and putting the amount owed up.

She had a letter from TSB today basically saying tough!

They also said it's not their intention to threaten customers, so they threatened solicitors, court, debt collectors etc but they want to "treat customers fairly".

The letter said their records don't show that they've made a mistake and that we didn't say which branch she closed the account so they cant check, they didn't ask either.

So she went into a branch, closed the account, was given 6 odd pound balance in cash but they have no record.

They also said she used her card in July to withdraw £15 at Tesco, even though it was a new card which she hadn't activated.

I told her to call FOS and let them deal with it, they said even if it goes in the banks favour, the very worst they will do is send it to a debt collector, but they think once the bank finds out we sent it to FOS at a cost of £4-500 they will drop it just to try and recover £265.

Well you have attempted to sort it out with the bank, they have refused/ignored any attempt to settle this amicably, therefore the only recourse open now is to pass it to the FOS.

BUT, I wouldn't hold out much hope as the FOS and the corrupt banking industry appear to be hand in glove, so don't be at all surprised when they find in the banks favour!

However, it will not mean all is lost, you can then complain to the FOS regarding their flawed/corrupt findings and if push comes to shove, set up a payment of £1 a month for the life of the debt.

It seems to me that they make no record of the closure because someone doesn't do their job properly, and because there's no record it tough on the customer.

If it was a DD or the like then you can bash the bank over the head for allowing a cancelled DD to go through. As for the charges, they should be cancelled as it was the bank's error that created them. You will need to get on to BG to sort out the miscreant DD and I would get the payment reversed by them whilst you are at it but clear what is owed to BG by another payment method

If this is an ongoing issue I may be able to help somewhat.

Request your bank files an indemnity claim with the retailer, British Gas?

You may wish to speak to British Gas first, if you have paid them too much you would be in credit so they should be able to refund the additional payment. Explain you changed your details and shut the account however the bank didn't act on your request so the payment was not meant to be taken. If they don't honour this your bank have an obligation to request an indemnity from the company which would refund the payment on the basis it was not your intention to make it and it was a bank error.

So once your bank have filed the indemnity, or British Gas have returned the money, explain to the bank you want the fee's removing as it is not your error, rather their's. Do this in a complaint filed in branch in person or in writing (In my experience the PhoneBank service is great however lot's of people recommend not using the phone for correspondence, in which case you could record the call) and make sure they take details on the computer and possibly even escalate the complaint to a different department (Not guaranteed). You should get a reference number or confirmation of the complaint being recorded, at which point you can ask for an update to confirm it's been loaded.

They should refund the full amount of charges and make it known to the advisor you want to shut it their and then as soon as the balance is back at £0.00, without you putting a penny in.

Thanks for the comments, I think this has now gone to the next stage.

My wife contacted FOS who said they will write to TSB and then contact her, in the meantime she gets a letter from Lloyds saying since she hasn't agreed to pay it back its going to a debt collector. She called FOS who said that was strange and they think that since TSB and Lloyds are now separate banks that they must be arguing who owns the account, so they are now going to write to TSB again and ask them what theyre playing at.

Anyway this morning Moorcroft have written to her asking for payment before 'further action'

I can't comment on anything further but hopefully fos will get it sorted. I doubt their "fighting" as such - Lloyds seem to have laid claim to everything profitable. I believe not acknowledging moorcroft is best for the time being?

Ignore Moorsoft, they like to talk the talk, nothing more, besides, they're unable to do a damn thing.

I'm prepared for moorcroft to start posturing and she said to hell with them, I'll have a ccj before I pay them anything, but why do you say that they can do nothing?

If they don't own the debt then they can take no legal action, only the original creditor is able to take legal action.

Whats the likelihood of them doing that?

The letters from TSB and Lloyds show different account numbers, yet she had one account with LloydsTSB.

This is exactly why you need to ignore Moorcr@p, they have very little knowledge of the accounts, I still fail to see why these creatures would ever be employed by anyone.

Deal direct with the bank, start their complaints process.