Lloyds overdraft

[Jayne777]

Hi

ive been trying to sort out my finances over the last couple of years. I’ve had a debt with Lowell that I went to court with and won, and now I have 2 debts left with Lowell which I’m ignoring u TIL they do something more (I hope that’s the right thing to do). I also had an npower issue which I’ve just got a tomlin order for with help from here (thank you!)

 

But, now I have a huge Lloyd’s overdraft. My situation is that I’ve not been working for about 8 years due to childcare costs meaning that It would literally have cost me to work. My husband works full time. I have been in receipt of child benefit, maintenance payments and tax credits which has just changed to universal credit. Our finances were tight but we’ve mainly got by.  About 18 months ago we were a bit short one month so I applied for an overdraft of £500, to my shock they accepted. I then applied to increase it and they just kept on increasing it until now it’s over £3000. My income that goes into my bank doesn’t come close to even clearing that at any point during the month, so I am charged daily fees every day, which obviously vary but amount to about £180 each month. These fees are making things incredibly difficult for us financially and I’ve realised I have to do something about it, but I’ve absolutely no idea what. I’ve googled and the main advice that seems to be given out is to get an interest free credit card and transfer it to pay it down, but I can’t get one of those so I’ve been stuck desperately trying to cover these fees each month which aren’t even chipping away at the balance. 

So I was asking for advice on two matters here, firstly what is the best way to get rid of this overdraft? I’ve already thought about setting up a new bank account and transfer all of my banking stuff to them, but  then Lloyd’s will just continue adding this interest and the debt will spiral . I have no idea what else to do as I can’t currently afford to pay down the balance at all while I’m paying these fees.

 

my other thought was that surely they should have never given me the overdraft in the first place, they knew I wasn’t working and obviously knew what my income was exactly as it all goes into this account, can I do anything regarding that? 

 

Sorry this is so long, but any advice at all would be massively appreciated 

[Andyorch]

They have you on their money go round  Jayne...and which is extremely difficult to stop and get off as you have found.

 

So...here we go...open fresh banking facilities unconnected to Lloyds ...just a basic with no OD ...transfer you DD/s SO/s etc and income arrangement.

 

Once your all set up and the Lloyds account is isolated you need to draft a little ditty to Lloyds asking them to freeze interest and stop the OD fees and if this is acceptable you look forward to setting up an affordable monthly payment arrangement.There is a template in the Library but you may need to adapt it re payment offer.

 

Now they may cooperate or they may decline...if the latter they will default you..eventually...and possibly assign the debt to some Debt buyer DCA...but by the that time the facility will have been terminated and no further charges being applied.

 

Once its been assigned come back here for further advice.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[Jayne777]

Thank you so much. I will get That all sorted tomorrow morning!