Lloyds rip-off overdraft fees - starting Nov 2nd 2017. How to stop it?

[mainwaring1]

(sorry for duplicate, posted in welcome forum in error)

Lloyds are changing the way they charge for overdrafts next month. Instead of the £6 monthly fee plus 19.85% interest they are changing to a 'payday loan' system with a 1p per £7 per day charge. They have not quoted any APR and the new charges are misleading. 1p per day sounds much more affordable does it not? In fact it equates to 68%APR!

Even professional journalists are mislead by and have quoted incorrectly 52%:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-overdraft-fee

It seems unfair that the new rules can be applied retrospectively. Is there anything that can be done to stop it and insist on keeping with the old terms?

I am sure the overdraft is discretionary and can be withdrawn without reason. There is probably some small print that allows them to change the contract but I have no copy of my original contract.

I can see this pushing people over the edge when their planned overdraft fees go from £30 per month to £100+

Surely, it is unfair to suddenly change to basis for charging a person who is already trapped / overdrawn and unable to pay it off?

I am worried about sticking my neck out with a complaint in case they end my overdraft or close my account.

But surely there must be some law that prevents this kind of extortion?

[MIKE770]

Re: Lloyds rip-off overdraft fees - starting Nov 2nd 2017. How to stop it?

was once 48% max for any loan/cowboy ones as well etc, but greed and stupid regulators (non) came into existence/

[overdraftslave]

Re: Lloyds rip-off overdraft fees - starting Nov 2nd 2017. How to stop it?

My fees have gone from £38 a month to £100+. I rang them and went through an long assessment process, they told me they would freeze my account and remove the overdraft and told me to contact the collection department but gave me no indication of how much I would need to pay back per month so I told them I couldn't do that. So basically, they have tripled my overdraft fees and offered no help. Really not sure what to do. It's against the law to treat your customers unfairly, this seems pretty unfair to me. I'm self employed and I rent, I have moved several times over the last couple of years so it's difficult for me to get a loan but Lloyds have always let me increase my overdraft. Now I know why. So they could wait, then fleece me on it! It's crazy, I'm in serious financial difficulty and have no idea what to do.

[Debt Camel]

Re: Lloyds rip-off overdraft fees - starting Nov 2nd 2017. How to stop it?

A bank has the right to withdraw your overdraft without giving notice. You would have been told about the changes to charges a couple of months ago but many people were taken by surprise when they saw what the effect would be.

I suggest you need to get a new basic bank account - this won't have an overdraft and you won't be refused because of a bad credit rating. Chhose a bank you don't owe any money to - Nationwide have a good one. Then move all your banking there and leave this old account as a debt to be repaid. Contact Lloyds collections and try to reach agreement on an affordable amount per month. If you have a lot of other debt, this may be a good time to set up a debt management plan (https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-options/dmp/) for it all as you say you are in serious financial difficulty.