A couple of years ago I got a loan from Lloyds TSB. It was a few grand to tide me over during some troublesome times and I had to pay it back in £160 monthly chunks. I was cool with it; it helped me through a financial rough patch and I whacked a bit into my high interest savings for the inevitable “rainy day”.
One of the best things about this loan is that it promised a “repayment holiday” at a requested point during the lifetime of the loan, which essentially means you can take a 1 month break from paying back the loan. I’ve never needed to call upon this until recently when I became a full-time freelancer and needed to cut back on as many expenses as I can. So I went into my local branch who told me they do not deal with this area of business. Fine, they gave me a number so I went off merrily to give them a call.
I spoke to a clueless individual who passed me to another clueless individual who passed me to another clueless individual who then said I need to visit my branch. Yes, this after being referred to these people BY my branch. So I went back into the branch, who threw their hands in the air and claimed they do not deal with loan repayments. They gave me the same number again, and I requested to call it from the phone in the bank as I wasn’t prepared to waste any more money. This time, I got through to somebody who actually had a clue. She told me I was “ineligible” for a repayment holiday, but could not give a reason why but Computer Says No. I challenged this but Computer Says No, and she eventually asked to speak to a member of staff at the branch. I passed her onto somebody who quite quickly got angry with her, the call was ended and I went back to the front desk. He pulled up information on my account, and could not see any reason why I may be ineligible, short of Computer Says No.
Despite my demands, it seems that of the 7 people in total I spoke to at Lloyds TSB, none of them had the ability to assess my situation. I didn’t get my repayment holiday and I didn’t even get a reason why. There is no reason why. The computer’s have got it wrong, and it’s pretty worrying that clearly, this area of business for Lloyds is controlled by their systems. Either that or the repayment holiday is just a con.
The reason I am so angry is that, short of the fact that the repayment holiday would have been a pretty big help this month, it was a main selling point for this loan agreement. And I still have not got a good reason why I am “not eligible”.
Peter butler
September 17, 2009
That sounds like a right nightmare! Banks are constantly failing us. I had trouble the other day trying to buy an iPhone in o2. They asked for my address and card details for their URU authentification. Long story short it didn’t work so I rang my bank they said it was registered to my old address. I thanked them and told the guy at o2 my old address. It still failed!! I had the money there, records ofvthe last 15 months I’ve paid on my previous contract but they wouldn’t let me buy it because the computer says no :[
I have been advised to change my address at my bank to my current one then try again. I can’t be bothered they should be making it easy for me to buy the useless gits! I’m going to just buy one over the phone from o2 where they won’t be morons and can tag it onto the end of my soon to be finished contract.
Good luck man I feel your pain lol
matt5409
September 17, 2009
it is ridiculous – especially in your case when you want to GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY. you would think that somebody at management level would be competent enough to be given override privileges for when the computer screws things up.
Peter Butler
September 18, 2009
Yeah I know it sucks man. I spoke to a guy at o2 on the phone and he said that they shouldn’t be doing that. If I already have an account then that should be more than enough proof that I’d pay etc… he said call back and try and get one from him when its in stock and it will be hassle free. lol