irresponsible lending

[Amy]

Re: irresponsible lending

So technically you lied. That is not quite the same as having a poor understanding of financial matters.

I really don't know how you hope to show that you were lent this money irresponsibly. What reasons have you come up with to use?

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

tha fact that i was never asked to show proof of income

[Mochamoo]

Re: irresponsible lending

I would suggest that you write to the banks and explain your situation and see if you can come to an arrangement about maybe making smaller repayments.

IMO You appear to ahve a reasonable financial knowledge or you wouldnt be here now asking these questions.

The best course of action would be to fill in an income and expenditure sheet and work out your debts and get a repayment scheme going Better to pay it off in smaller amounts than not at all.


BTW- Irresponsible lending is when they raise my credit limit form 7k to 15k when they know I am unemployed as my PPI is paying my monthly balance!:tinysmile_aha_t:

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

the problem is i am not working at the moment.

[Amy]

Re: irresponsible lending

tha fact that i was never asked to show proof of income

the banks asked for proof of income. i said i was self employed and filled in my own accounts.

Which is it?

What line of business are you in? Were these loans taken to pay off existing debts?

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

i think the point i am trying to make is that most of the debt problems that have arisen is as a result of the financial institutions lending money to people without making a great deal of effort to find out wether they can realistically pay them back. in my case it would appear all they did was check my credit report, which doesnt show in anyway what your current financial situation is.
i now find myself in a postion where i cant make the repayments which total about £2000 per month.
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when i said i didnt have any accounts to show them, they didnt push the matter. all they wanted to see was a letter from the inland revenue with a refernce numbe on it which indicated i was self employed
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the letter was in fact a £100 fine for filing my tax return late

[Mochamoo]

Re: irresponsible lending

I personally think you don't stand a chance of suing them. You lied to them and essentially commited fraud in the process.

The honest thing to do would be to stick you hand up and say look I took the loans out, now like many other people in the country (and half the people on this forum) your situation has changed and you can not afford to pay them back at the current rates. Come to an arrangement where you are paying back an amount you can afford.

Legal Beagles

[scoobydoo]

Re: irresponsible lending

Do you have a property that they may try to put a charge on in the future? I guess that you have.

The advice you have been given above is the best advice. Let them know you are having problems with repayments straight away. If you are self employed you will have to say what your income is now and be truthful on the I&E .


I think you will have to take this step by step and see what happens.

I have myself argued that I do feel that there has been irresponsible lending in some circumstances but I was thinking more of a person who the banks can see by credit checks are already in a large amount of debt - or lending 7 or 8 x income on a mortgage. Or cases where as above there are extenuating circumstances concerning the customers ability to understand exactly what they are committing themselves to.

Your circumstances are slightly different and I agree the bank should have carried out income checks especially if the loans are unsecured. But as I said above, if you are shown to be capable of understanding the loans and also misleading them about your income then the worst that could happen is the bank could possibly be fined and for that someone has to report them.

You will have to take this a step at a time and if you feel we can be of any help then by all means ask. But you will have to be prepared for staright answers:sad:

[Amy]

Re: irresponsible lending

I understand that, but it cuts both ways. You must have realised that you had no hope of repaying these loans when you falsified your income. You have to accept at least some responsibility for this.

Are you actually self employed?

If you can tell us what the loans were for it would help a lot and be much easier than playing verbal ping-pong.

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

the loans were taken out for home improvements, alas only a small portion was actually used for that.

[Amy]

Re: irresponsible lending

Go on!

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

as for my employment status, it is a tricky to explain. i am self employed but have not actually made any money for about 3/4 years that is taxable

[Amy]

Re: irresponsible lending

I think you're going to have to take the bull by the horns and explain the situation to them in writing.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: irresponsible lending

i stated i took the loans out for home improvements, but it was never used for this.

no i wasnt earning the money at the time which i realise puts me in a tricky position.

not really sure what my credit file said.

my point is more that there should surely be some onus on the banks to make checks about what people have said they are earning.

Whilst I do agree entirely with you on the above point, were you running accounts with the very providers you were borrowing from?
Were you "robbing peter to pay paul" so to speak and therefore switching funds across a number of accounts?(this could indicate an uplift in income being shown). I think negotiation is required.
Do you own your house, to which the home improvements were for?

[qwedr]

Re: irresponsible lending

ok fair enough. i gather from what you are saying that you dont think there is any onus on them to check what is actually written on the forms.