Bank or me Irresponsible?

problemchild

Registered User
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19
Just looking for opinions,
Quite a number of years ago I banked with a well known institution. I had just turned 18, started a new job and my bank offered me quite alot of financial packages.

I was offered an overdraft facility of €500. Being 18 and very much stupid I began spending, and spending and spending!
Not untill my account reached €8500 overdrawn did my bank stop the over draft facility.

In my own teenage blinkered foolishness I believed that my wage was clearing my balance and I was still under my €500 overdraft limit.

I received a letter to stay I was required to pay the full €8500 or Id be taken to court. I was 19 then, completely shocked and hadnt a clue what to do. I came to an arrangement to make repayments.

I did question why I was allowed to over spend that much, branch manager response, " You spent, You pay".

I have been repaying ever since, that was 2004, Its now 2010, I still owe over €3000.

The interest keeps mounting up so I will be paying this for years to come.

Is this my own problem and I have no complaint with the bank or do you think they owed me a duty of care given my age and failure to restrict my overdraft facility?
 
A number of points above

1. Big difference from 500 to 8500 - No excuse to excuse a person not realising overdraft has gone to this level in one year

2. You don't say your wage at time which would be indicator of limit they would give you

3. They would have to have been some communication to increase limit- if not bank does have a weakness here (normal guidelines was double limit if you asked).

Just cant see a bank allowing overdraft to go from 500 to 8500 and keep honouring payments

4. No duty in regard age- you were over 18
 
I think its your own responsibility.

You should have been keeping an eye on what you earned Vs what you were spending.
 
'I believed that my wage was clearing my balance and I was still under my €500 overdraft limit.'

How did you think the above was happening? What led you to believe this?
 
Wage was about €500 - €600 a week. Paid on a monthy basis.
I had no contact with my bank in relation to my overdraft.
I had turned 18 about 5 months before and this was my first experience with lending, had no idea how the whole system worked.
My bank never really explained the system to me. I just presumed when It reached its limit I couldnt spend anymore.

I was completely shocked when I seen the balance.

I have being paying back ever since. I even put off going to college to try pay it off.

Its only recently I have been made aware that the bank were very irresponsable to allow that to happen.
 
Sounds a very strange situation to have found yourself in. Did you receive any bank statements during the year you were running up the debt?

Is the debt still an overdraft now or has it been converted to a loan?
 
'I believed that my wage was clearing my balance and I was still under my €500 overdraft limit.'

How did you think the above was happening? What led you to believe this?

The bank said once my overdraft was reached, I would not have any access to funds. But payments never declined, so I just presumed that I had funds available.

I understand now and am very careful with with money.
 
Wage was about €500 - €600 a week. Paid on a monthy basis.
I had no contact with my bank in relation to my overdraft.
I had turned 18 about 5 months before and this was my first experience with lending, had no idea how the whole system worked.
My bank never really explained the system to me. I just presumed when It reached its limit I couldnt spend anymore.

I was completely shocked when I seen the balance.

I have being paying back ever since. I even put off going to college to try pay it off.

Its only recently I have been made aware that the bank were very irresponsable to allow that to happen.

Might be worth getting bank statements for the year/year and half that the balance went up and do spreadsheet of spending to vouch it, they could be a lot of bank fees and interest

Also how do you know you spent that amount- What stopped a 4k cheque been taken from your account in error in regard to some one else

Their is as i said earlier to much of gap between 500 and 8500 not to notice

If everything is spent by you and is your spending- get a copy of orginal overdraft letter, get name of who was in charge of your account for that time period and copy of any letter/bank statement they issued to you during this time

If everything above board arrange meeting in bank for them to explain to you how your limit went up
 
sounds a very strange situation to have found yourself in. did you receive any bank statements during the year you were running up the debt?

Is the debt still an overdraft now or has it been converted to a loan?

Its still a current account balance, In spetember of 2004 they rejected 2 direct debit payments, I called and they said my account was over drawn by too much. They never said the amount so I let my wage go through to clear it a bit. It was actually €3002 overdrawn at the time!!!
They could of gave me some idea just how much!
The first real contact by the bank to me was march 2005 to say the balance was €8500!!!
 
Might be worth getting bank statements for the year/year and half that the balance went up and do spreadsheet of spending to vouch it, they could be a lot of bank fees and interest

Also how do you know you spent that amount- What stopped a 4k cheque been taken from your account in error in regard to some one else

Their is as i said earlier to much of gap between 500 and 8500 not to notice

If everything is spent by you and is your spending- get a copy of orginal overdraft letter, get name of who was in charge of your account for that time period and copy of any letter/bank statement they issued to you during this time

If everything above board arrange meeting in bank for them to explain to you how your limit went up

I requested bank statements from the bank last year. I can see all the transactions.

only 2 payments declined the entire time. I called the bank once I was aware this happended.
One was ESB, and the other was my phone insurance. Got letters from both companies, thats how I knew.
All over-the-counter transactions went through without being declined, so I really had no idea what so ever there was a problem.

When I tried to question the whole thing last year the branch manager said It had to be paid, which I was doing, but refused to meet with me or answer why I was allowed to over spend on the overdraft when I has set an overdraft limit of €500, I had never ever upped the amount.
 
I would push for a meeting with the Manager and get him to explain what happened. I would email/phone till I get a meeting as something does not add up.

Back at that time I was a very high spender as well but had to get permission to double my limit which was set at double by existing overdraft limit.

Did you purchase something large at time or what was money spent on?
 
"I requested bank statements from the bank last year. I can see all the transactions."

Were they all your transactions? How many are we talking about?

were the transaction on a laser card? I find it baffling that the bank honoured all these transactions - usually cash withdrawals would be stopped straightaway but laser transactions were not all checked back to the bank so some could go through. You must have slipped through the net somehow to be allowed run up such a huge overdraft. Was your account associated with someone of stronger credit history eg parents or work?

You should look to convert the balance from an overdraft to a loan to help manage the repayments and reduce surplus interest and fees
 
No the account was all my own, I had no guarantee, The bank approached me with the credit facility, I never requested it.
I am looking at the statement right now, I while the balance was overdrawn €6321.99 I did my food shopping in Dunnes Stores spending €56.23!

There are loads of over-the-counter transactions like this!

If they just declined the payment I would not of attempted to spend another penny!
 
I find it very difficult to believe that you never actually checked your bank account during the time the overdraft was running up.
What about bank statements - did you never look at them?

If you were earning 500-600 a month then you had 7200 at your disposal to spend for a year - but you ran up a debt that was actually more than you earned in a year - how did you not notice that you were spending more than twice your earnings? Did you never actually think 'well last month I bought x,y and z and I paid a bill for a and b, and I ate, went out etc... funny that cos I only earn 500-600 a month'.
 
"I requested bank statements from the bank last year. I can see all the transactions."

Were they all your transactions? How many are we talking about?

were the transaction on a laser card? I find it baffling that the bank honoured all these transactions - usually cash withdrawals would be stopped straightaway but laser transactions were not all checked back to the bank so some could go through. You must have slipped through the net somehow to be allowed run up such a huge overdraft. Was your account associated with someone of stronger credit history eg parents or work?

You should look to convert the balance from an overdraft to a loan to help manage the repayments and reduce surplus interest and fees

Some one in bank must have hit authorised button for increased overdraft limit for laser to be honured they must be money in account and approved overdraft amount

I wonder what happens if laser taken out of unapproved amount- can this be done and are bank liable for these amounts?
 
I would push for a meeting with the Manager and get him to explain what happened. I would email/phone till I get a meeting as something does not add up.


Back at that time I was a very high spender as well but had to get permission to double my limit which was set at double by existing overdaft limit.

Did you purchase something large at time or what was money spent on?


I never asked for the limit to be increased... think about it.. I had no idea what the balance was! Why would I look for an increase when I presumed I had plenty of money in my account?

I never used ATM machines, There are ZERO ATM transactions on my account.
(I had a part-time pub job that paid me cash, so I never needed to withdraw from the ATM)
All transactions are Over-the-counter payment Via Laser.
 
I find it very difficult to believe that you never actually checked your bank account during the time the overdraft was running up.
What about bank statements - did you never look at them?

If you were earning 500-600 a month then you had 7200 at your disposal to spend for a year - but you ran up a debt that was actually more than you earned in a year - how did you not notice that you were spending more than twice your earnings? Did you never actually think 'well last month I bought x,y and z and I paid a bill for a and b, and I ate, went out etc... funny that cos I only earn 500-600 a month'.

Sorry You must of read wrong. I earned €500-600 a week, I was paid monthy.
 
Sorry You must of read wrong. I earned €500-600 a week, I was paid monthy.

Sorry - I did misread that. Even so - the basic principle holds, did you never actually think 'oh I seem to be able to buy plenty of stuff - wonder how much is in my account?'. Or even just checking that your job were paying you properly.

Im not having a go btw - I just find it amazing that someone wouldnt keep even a very lazy eye on their bank account and check it from time to time - just out of curiosity!
 
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