2 loans with one company...read on

[rachyrach]

I have 2 loans with Halifax. I applied for one loan and the interest was 18%. Then having got into even deeper debt I decided to apply for another loan with the Halifax. They gave me the loan and that interest is 18% too. However, I've thought to myself recently about why didn't they top up my original loan instead of me having 2 separate loans and paying 2 lots of interest (the second loan was not to consolidate the first loan, it just consolidated my other debts)? Is there anything that I can claim back for this? What should I state as the reason being?

 

Would really appreciate any help. Thanks

[rachyrach]

Would I be able to claim interest on the second loan?

[powelll]

If you applied for another separate loan they are not under any obligation to instead offer to top up an existing loan. You would pay the same interest anyway as the interest is based as a % of how much you owe.

 

You could possibly argue that they shouldn't have given you the loan if they knew you were in financial difficulty but this will depend on whether you gave them the reason for the loan as being to pay other debts. Even if they saw you as a bad risk ( and an APR of 18% would certainly indicate this ) it may be a shaky argument.

 

You could try putting a complaint in writing to them but I honestly don't think it would achieve anything as I don't think they have done anything wrong. It could be argued that it's poor advice to consolidate existing debt into another loan so in theory if you did complain to them in writing and were not happy with the response you could complain via the FOS ( Financial Ombudsman Service ).

 

If you are struggling generally you may also want to speak to National Debtline on freephone 0808 808 4000 for confidential impartial free advice.

 

Best of luck