Bank or me Irresponsible?

My credit rating shot due to it. I have had it checked and I wouldnt be able to get a dress on littlewoods never mind borrow to build a house!
 
Why is that - was there a period of time where you didnt pay anything back at all?

Look - forget your credit rating, you cant fix that now, but you can move forward and continue to get rid of the debt itself.
 
my credit rating is shot due to it. I wouldnt get a dress on littlewoods never mind borrow to build a house!
 
truthseeker said:
Why is that - was there a period of time where you didnt pay anything back at all?

Look - forget your credit rating, you cant fix that now, but you can move forward and continue to get rid of the debt itself.
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No I was always paying back the money.. still am but its wasnt enough for them. They wanted the whole balance cleared in one lump sum and right away. I have loads of letters from 2006 up untill now asking for the entire balance to be paid. They said they would send people around to take stuff from my house, take me to court and put a judgement on anything of value that I own.

I have been terrified to buy anything of vaule in case they come and take it.

Interest has mounted up as they balance never really clears, I have paid back probably €6000 but due to interest and charges the balance is still over €3000.
 
problemchild said:
I used the laser for stupid things like clothes and luxury items so i always knew if it was declined it didnt really matter. I though Im hardly overdrawn that much I can pay it off quick enough with a part-time job.

I even have a transaction from the passport office.. when I was getting my passport to travel, this was 4months after I left my job.. so they allowed a transaction go through when no money went into the account for 4 months and it was over €6000 overdrawn???? Its completely crazy.
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and was the laser really never declined?
 
problemchild said:
I have loads of letters from 2006 up untill now asking for the entire balance to be paid. They said they would send people around to take stuff from my house, take me to court and put a judgement on anything of value that I own.
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Just goes to show the scare tactics are mostly empty threats eh?

They know full well that if they take you to court and you can show you kept paying any amount that a judge wont rule against you.

And Id say in these times they have much bigger fish to fry.

Youve gotten some good advice here, the only other thing to add is dont communicate with the bank by phone, do everything by letter so you have a record - write to them and ask them to demonstrate to you how the overdraft facility jumped from 500 to 8500 in one year with no notification to you.
 
Hi there as previous posters have said, forget about your Credit Rating, and just pay off what you can, you do have one thing on your side and that is "youth", your very young and a poor ICB report only last 5 years, so it’s not the end of the world..

It is my personal opinion the banks were irresponsible, in that they were offering loans of huge amounts,( we were offered 20K, turned it down as we felt we had enough debt with a mortgage!) but the reality is you too share part of that irresponsibility.. I know you’re being responsible now in that you are paying your loan off…
P..
 
ok thanks for the advice but just so u know, I didnt ever take out a loan!!! I never actually asked for any credit. I was offered an overdraft, I was told it wouldnt cost me anything extra and its handy to have in times like january or if im on a holiday, so I said ok.. no big deal. Ticked yes.. signed on the line and sent the letter back to the bank.

That was the final communication up until the overdraft balance was €8500...

If I took out a loan I wouldnt be annoyed! I asked for it.. I pay for it
 
Is it worth writing to the Financial Regulator and detail the facts. You spent the money - and you owe it back - however - they may be able to help you sort out an intrest free payment plan if you can show that youre account was mishandled by not communicating with you about your increased limit - or block transactions once you hit your agreed limit.
 
problemchild said:
ok thanks for the advice but just so u know, I didnt ever take out a loan!!! I never actually asked for any credit. I was offered an overdraft, I was told it wouldnt cost me anything extra and its handy to have in times like january or if im on a holiday, so I said ok.. no big deal. Ticked yes.. signed on the line and sent the letter back to the bank.

That was the final communication up until the overdraft balance was €8500...

If I took out a loan I wouldnt be annoyed! I asked for it.. I pay for it
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I think there may be a subtle difference here if all / most of the transactions were by Laser card. I think that the T&C's of a laser card may put responsibility for not exceeding your limit on you in the first case - in a similar way that you are not acting honourably if you use a cheque card to guarantee a cheque when you know you don't have the funds to back it up.
 
problemchild said:
If I met an 18 year old me right now I would slap me stupid.
I was a brat.. I had no clue of anything.. why in the world would a bank allow a clueless child spend so much money??

I can honeslty say I had no clue or concept of any responsability.
But seriously no financial institution should ever of allowed that to happen.

I work dam hard for my money now, 50 -60 hours a week. I put myself through college and Im a single parent receiving no help from social welfare.
I learned more than you would ever believe for my stupid carry on
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listen without giving you a lecture if you are over 18 you are not a clueless child. I can see the argument and stupidity ot the banks but ultimately you have to take responsibility for your actions. I don't think it was the fact that you were 18, when I was 18 I was the same as I am now with money only now I have more of it! I think you buried your head in the sand and spent money recklessly because you were having a good time. Sorry but you need to blame yourself on this one.
 
There is no point in giving out to the OP, the damage has been done and in fairness, they acknowledge that a lot of this issue is their own fault. Can I ask people as well who seem intent on jumping down the OPs throat to remember that she has made valid efforts to repay the debt over the last number of years and has not tried to shy away from it

However, a simple question has to be asked here, if the bank in question did not persistantly increase the OD limit, would the OP have got themselves into the same mess? No one can say with certainty, but the potential for doing so would have been far less.

We need to remember that this occurred in the middle part of the decade. I certainly recall my bank persistantly increasing my credit card limit without me requesting it during this time. It is only in the last couple of years that this practise of increasing limits on credit cards without the customer requesting it has ceased under (I think) revised guidelines from the Regulator.

I do not know if such practises were also adopted regarding ODs. Therefore, if I was the OP I would
-get a copy of the bank's formal customer complaints process.
-raise a complaint with the bank in question asking them why they persistantly allowed transactions to be processed which took her outside of the OD limit. In addition, ask why your OD was consistantly increased without you authorising such increases. There is no point in dealing with your local manager, he either doesn't know or doesn't want to tell you.

I honestly don't know of you have a case against the bank, that will depend on what answers you get back from them. You cannot take it up with the Regualtor until you have followed the bank's complaints process to the end.

However, it is a valid and interesting debate as to whether or not the action of lenders by extending loan facilities (which is what an OD is) to people who did not request them and who did not have much financial knowledge is in fact a breech of a bank's duty of care to their customers.
 
Is it possible to do a freedom of information on this account for the period once overdraft approved to present

Put all info you have in file and get some one who might do for free from board or mabs to take a look at all information to hand and to ascertain when overdraft was increased etc

Be mainly due dilgence of what happened, you be amazed what one person might miss and another person might see straight off

I personally never seem overdrafts be increased without some prior approval as they are watched more than credit card limits

The deal that should be done is - all charges/ interest above limit be
eliminated(if they cant prove she asked for increase) and all purchases be paid for.

The bank paperwork in regard to guarantees from experience is weak in some cases i have seem. If paperwork same on overdraft she can at least have a go at bank
 
Mpsox said:
However, a simple question has to be asked here, if the bank in question did not persistantly increase the OD limit, would the OP have got themselves into the same mess? No one can say with certainty, but the potential for doing so would have been far less. - Fair Point!

I honestly don't know of you have a case against the bank, that will depend on what answers you get back from them. You cannot take it up with the Regualtor until you have followed the bank's complaints process to the end.
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I wouldn't bother with a case against the bank, the OP will still have to repay the loan and after all it's a bit nuts to not check your bank account for a year when you are spending money like there's no tomorrow but no money is going into your account. If I was the OP I wouldn't bother myself with any more irritation. I would accept I f*$£ed up, I'd make sure Id learnt my lesson and I would move on getting the loan paid off as quickly as I could.
 
I don't think it is that unusual for 18 year olds to be clueless about money. Of course they are at the age of majority and are responsbile for their own actions, and it is also parent's responsibility to teach their children basic money management.

However it is a serious flaw that this basic life skill is not taught in schools. It is akin to SPHE not being taught in senior cycle. There is too much emphasis on academic achievement at the expense of life skills.
 
Although I totally agree that the OP was an adult and should of been more responsible for their own money, and should pay the money back, what is the point of having an overdraft limit if it is going to be ignored by the bank?

(Of course, this is assuming that the OP didnt somehow agree to the increase in overdraft limit without their knowledge.)

I currently have a client who has an agreed overdraft of €2,000, their accounts now stands at €4,500 OD. Nothing is bounced and there has been no correspondence from the bank. This is a grown woman running a business, she just never checked her account - assuming that everything was ok.

Now we all know that we should be keeping an eye on our own money but again, why does the bank put a limit on our overdrafts if they are (in some cases) just ignored???

And if the overdraft limit is breached to such an extent as in the case of the OP, would there not be a case for getting even an interest reduction or an interest freeze when making the repayments?
 
Depending on the institution, you might be able to negotiate a 'full and final settlement', this may however have implications for your credit rating and youre ability to borrow in the future. The settlement might consider this ie settle and do a deal on the basis that your credit rating is not changed, this is less likely but might be worth a try, call the personal collections and recoveries department as opposed to the local branch and you are more likely to deal with someone who can make a decision.
 
This is quite a typical case of how we mentally account for how much we have to spend on different categories of things we buy. There are some very interesting studies on how people use plastic cards, particularly credit cards. It seems that our mental accounting for money depends on the pain associated with the purchase we make. When we have to use cash or write a cheque we have a better idea of how much we have to spend. But when we use credit cards because of the time difference between carrying out the transaction and actually paying for it – realising the pain- we are less capable of tracking how much we have to spend. The same is probably true of laser cards linked to overdrafts. Internet purchases using cards are probably the most acute examples of mental accounting failings. Thing is banks know how this works and of course are keen to encourage widespread use of plastic cards. Is this reckless – probably not - but it does exploit human behaviour.
 
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