Help Removing Lloyds TSB Default

A question about : Help Removing Lloyds TSB Default

Hi,

Back in 2010 I had a student overdraft with Lloyds TSB and got it extended to Ј1500 from Ј1000 thinking it would be extended til the end of September. Basically I got a letter from Lloyds TSB in June/July stating that my overdraft with be expiring in 28 days without a date of the actual expiring date. I rang Lloyds TSB and the person on the phone informed me that the overdraft expires in September.

Anyways, in July I get a letter saying that my overdraft has expired and my account is in arrears and I need to pay the full amount. I rang Lloyds Debt Collection many times but kept getting put on hold and they are only open til 6pm so I would call on my lunch break and when I finally got through to someone they said I could be put on a monthly plan to pay the arrears without any interest but towards the end of the call he said that I would have to pay x amount on top of monthly payment due to interest. This obviously got me annoyed so I asked for them to send me something in writing before I confirm that I will sign up to the monthly repayment plan. The problem is that they could not provide me anything in writing regarding charges and interest which I found stupid. I spoke to a lady in the debt collection department and stated that I was misinformed about my overdraft expiry date so she said she would investigate it.

Once they investigated it, she agreeed that I was misinformed but cannot do anything for me and I would still have to pay the arrears and full overdraft which I was ok as I did borrow the money but still she could not provide me anything in writing about my charges and interest on the overdraft. During all these calls back and forth, I hadnt realised that my account was still pending default so I thought forget it, I will get the money off a family member and just pay it before it defaults. I called on the last day to pay my account in full and when I spoke to the woman on the phone, she said my account had already been transferred to a debt collection agency! She said that she couldnt do anything and I should send a letter to the complaints department. I ended up paying the debt and it is now a satisfied default on my credit report.

I am now saving to get onto the property ladder which hopefully will be in a couple years but I know this default will affect me getting approved for a mortgage so I was wondering what people could advise me?

Sorry for the long winded post but I hope someone could help me getting this removed as I have read different approaches.

Thanks
Nix

Best answers:

• From what you have written it is unlikely you will be able to get it removed.
  But what date was the default applied according to your credit file?
  What date did you actually pay the account in full?
• The default date on my credit report was 27/10/2010 and the satisfied date is 02/04/2011. As the account had already defaulted, I ended up paying it over 6 months instead of borrowing the full amount of money off my family member.
  The reason why this issue occured was because I was misinformed of when my overdraft was expiring and then when I spoke to anyone regarding the repayment plan and how it would work, not one person at Lloyds TSB could provide anything in writing, but they wanted me to sign up to the repayment plan on the phone, it felt like they were all salespeople selling these repayment plans but no-one wanted to offer me any help. Also when I had the issue with my overdraft expiring, I went into a local branch to change my account over to a graduate account so it would cover the Ј1500 but no-one in the branch could do anything because the account was with collections. Also I dont remember getting many letters? I had one letter about my overdraft expiring and then my complaints letters but nothing else.
• You could try to get them to remove the default, I'd write a letter and explain what happened and ask them if they will consider removing it.
  However if they won't agree to them you may struggle to make them. Banks do not have to send out a formal default notice before filing a default on an overdraft. The fact that they sent a letter to say it would expire in 28days would probably be considered sufficient.
• Do you know where I could get a template of some sort to use?
  They provided me with 28 days notice but when I rang, thats when I was misinformed and I ended up going into arrears. Basically my point to Lloyds TSB was that if that agent on the phone said, yes it will expire on this date then I could have got Ј500 together and cleared it. The issue was that once it had gone into arrears they wanted me to pay it in full which wasnt feasible for me at the time. This was my argument and also that they admitted that I was misinformed but then they still wont do anything about it was abit ridiculous. Also to have an arrears department who cannot specify what charges and interest will be applied to your repayment plan is ridiculous aswell. I will see if I can write to Lloyds TSB Complains Department and see what they say.
  Do I also provide a Ј1 postal order with it?