Irresponsible lending

[enamae]

Has anyone tried or been successful in making a claim for irresponsible lending?. i.e. for a credit card where they automatically increase your limit every couple of months. I know they say you can decline the increase but how many people bother until it's too late.

[Goldlady]

I don't know of any enamae, but it is one thing I am particularly interested in as the same thing happened to me - the rises in credit limits on my cards were beyond belief when I look back.

[enamae]

MY Husband had a credit card (recently settled), which started off with a limit of £500.00. They kept adding an extra £200.00 on every couple of months and it ended up at £4900.00. Not once did he request an increase just didn't get round to saying he didn't want any additional credit. Anyway managed to get the charges back just wondered if it was worth looking into the irresponsible lending aspect because I doubt whether they checked his credit rating every time they increased the limit.

[Goldlady]

It is something that has been talked about a great deal but I don't know of anyone who has achieved anything in court over it. I was helping someone with a bankruptcy recently - she is 65 on a pension and had been given ridiculous amounts of credit - and she had a great time!!!! We had a meeting with the official receiver last week and I mentioned this more than once but it remains to be seen whether it will have any bearing on things.

 

In my own situation most of the card companies couldn't produce a valid agreement so I got rid of a lot of debt (which was mostly charges and interest). Because I was meeting the minimum payments by DD (which actually reduced the debts by approx £5 per month) they kept increasing my limit. One of the cards was through the same bank I had massive overdraft problems with - so as you say if they had bothered to check within their own bank they would have known that the last thing they should have done was give me more debt.

[cashins]

Apart from commonsense, are there any definitions as to what is responsible/irresponsible lending, or is that part of the problem?

 

David

[enamae]

Going by the Banking code (link below), I would have thought that they should be partially responsible if they don't take into account your ability to pay. We recently had a loan co write to us saying they had excess money that they were able to loan to existing customers. I sent off all the details and they came back with the relevant figures but they advised us(thankfully) that it was not advisable due to our income. That is what I call responsible lending.

 

BBA – British Bankers' Association - The Banking Code on responsible lending

[questioning]

Hi,

I too am very interested in this,

My very first credit card was given to me whilst I was in my early thirties, when I asked what the credit limit was they replied £5000. I said "OMG I don't even have a job" Bank assistant went very quiet and then piped up "well your husband does so thats what we are going by"

 

Also when these limits used to go up every couple of months we weren't written to, so sometimes you wouldn't realise happily thinking we must be in our credit limit & later find out its been increased! Later only to find a little bit printed on the bottom of your statement saying "call us if you don't want the increase"

The media keep mentioning irresponsible lending & high lighting cases.

[questioning]

One of the cards was through the same bank I had massive overdraft problems with - so as you say if they had bothered to check within their own bank they would have known that the last thing they should have done was give me more debt.

 

Same with me, I had cc so did my hubby plus a loan and huge overdraft, bank charges being a regular thing, and bank thinks :idea: Lets give em some more debt to top it off, What a fab idea, But do we think its responsible lending?

Well they must have done as they did it to me, you & most of us on cag members I would imagine.

[linz2011]

God GL which lowlife made a 65 year old bankrupt?

[Goldlady]

God GL which lowlife made a 65 year old bankrupt?

 

She did it herself:o