advice pleaese! co-op bank are ruining our lives.

[le_bonn]

Hi all. I hope one of you guys can give me a bit of advice on this one. The advice from received from members of this site have been a god send in the past.

 

I will give the whole story. It's a bit involved so plaese bare with me.

 

My girlfriend took out a CAREER development loan for £10k from coop, for an MA starting last September 2011.

The course turned out to be very poor and consequently her and six other people left, but still had to pay a portion of fees.

 

She found a more suitable MA to begin this September 2012.

The coop advised her that the best thing to do was to pay her CDL off in full, then reapply for a CDL for the new course.

They assured her that if her circumstances had not changed, she would definitely get the loan again.

 

So we did what we could to pay off the loan in full, used all our savings, took out 2 credit cards and maxed out our overdraughts.

 

My girlfiend started the new (much better quality course), we settled the children into their new childminders...

Then we found out that the coop had turned down the application.

 

Apparently due to a quarm with how the last account held with them was dealt with.

I'm not sure why.

Once we informed them that she had left the course and confirmed this by letter, interest began being charged on the account.

We made no payments for 2 months while we collected together enough funds, and then paid the loan back in full and closed the account.

 

Now the coop cannot help us on the phone as we do not hold a live account with them a.d the declines department do not speak directly to customers.

Our only choice is to appeal by post, but we want to write this properly.

 

We are financially crippled due to paying the loan back in full in 2 months rather than over 5 years.

Can they decline the new loan agreement on this basis, when the reason for their refusal is a direct consequence of the advice given.

I have made a formal complaint but am still waiting (been 48 hours now) for a call back.

 

Any help with this would be amazing. We are at a loss. Many thanks.

Edited October 4, 2012 by citizenB
formatting

[citizenB]

Welcome to CAG, I have moved your thread to the Co-operative Bank Forums.

 

I am sure someone will look in on you soon, meanwhile, it might be worth you having a read of the BCOBS articles that are highlighted in green in my signature below. They might help give you some ideas on how to put together a properly formatted complaint.

 

I will flag your thread for others on the site team to comment.

[caro]

Was the advice given in writing or over the phone?

 

I suspect that the lack of payment for 2 months will be the stumbling block.

 

In all honesty I think that your post above explains the situation and would form a good basis for a letter of complaint with a bit of tweaking. As CB says, take a look at the BCOBS and see if there is anything there that will help you.