What on earth do we do!?

[jayandfoo]

hello all,

 

Please bear with me, this could be a long one..!

 

My Nana has an account with lllyds that is very rarely used. No money goes in, was used a few years ago but payments stopped going in when my grandad died. Always been in credit, never gone overdrawn and didn't have an overdraft facility.

 

June 2008 we purchased some items for her off the internet - she gave us the money and we put it into this account (said transaction was for a company that would only post to the registered card address). One of the transactions took her account overdrawn by £40. We didn't find out until the beginning of August - Nana is 83 and although has all her faculties, she didn't understand her statement. She received a letter and a further phonecall to say that as a result of her account going overdrawn she had acrussed charges - £40 overdrawn turned into £204.66 due to charges. She was told she had to pay this within 2 days or they would take further action. She was understandably distressed and so I personally went to the bank myself and paid the money in. End of matter....or so we thought!

 

She then received a letter in September saying that she owed £160. I spoke to the Branch manager to query this and he said it was charges relating to the fact that she had gone overdrawn. I took issue with this has the money had been paid back in within the stated time even though it was Lloyds who allowed the account to go overdrawn on an account that had no overdraft facility. I told the manager that we were going to persue the matter as it was Lloyds actions that have resulted in the excessive charges. I asked for the account the be placed on hold to prevent any further charges. No need, he said - they don't charge on charges.....apparently!!! Sent various letters to the complaints dept, useless, standard replies received telling us basically to bog off.

 

Nana got another letter today telling her she now owes over £300 of charges and this HAS to be paid within 2 days.

 

I am absolutely furious. Lloyds allowed her account to go overdrawn, charged her for it and have contonued to charge again and again. I have been lied to by the Branch manager and received standard replies to my letters.

 

I am going to contact the Ombudsman but in the meantime each day the money is not paid back, more charges are added. It's a never ending circle and even when the charges are paid back in, they reappear as we have already found out.

 

What can we do?

 

many thanks in advance for any replies.

 

Hayley

[sea-sidelady]

Hiya Hayley.

 

The first thing is to tell your nana to stop worrying.

 

You can reclaim these charges, and this way it will clear the account.

 

You need to send a prelim letter which states you are starting the reclaiming process.

 

I have given you a step by step guide, this will also include the template letters you will need.

 

Once you send the letters the account will be in dispute, so they cant harass your nana, and if they do, we have letters to stop them!

 

Step By Step Guide - Consumer Wiki

 

If you need any help or have any questions, just ask.

[jayandfoo]

Thanks for your reply Sea-sidelady.

 

I have been through the process of reclaiming charges before so am pretty au fait with that - once they recieve the initial letter, does this mean that they essentially place that account 'on hold?'. The most concerning thing is that contrary to what the branch manager told me, they do charge on charges, if you know what I mean? The longer the account stays overdrawn, will they continue to add charges?

 

TIA

 

x

[jayandfoo]

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