The bank may have messed up the credit union repayments - advice?

ShelTomato

Just wanted to ask some advice as I know nothing about credit ratings and neither does my dad.

Recently my dad took out a credit union loan. He set up a weekly direct debit with his bank, but noticed today that the money was still in his account. He went down to the credit union this morning to see what was up, and it turned out that the bank had him down for 3-month repayments instead of weekly. It was 100% the banks fault, but the lady in the credit union said as he is now in arrears, it may affect him in the future if he were to apply for a loan, as the arrears will be recorded even though it wasn't his fault. He's worried sick as he was planning on taking an important large loan in the future.

Is there anything he can do to take the arrears off the record? Can we ask the bank to claim responsibility or does it even matter where the blame lies in cases like these?

chris85

ShelTomato wrote: »

Just wanted to ask some advice as I know nothing about credit ratings and neither does my dad.

Recently my dad took out a credit union loan. He set up a weekly direct debit with his bank, but noticed today that the money was still in his account. He went down to the credit union this morning to see what was up, and it turned out that the bank had him down for 3-month repayments instead of weekly. It was 100% the banks fault, but the lady in the credit union said as he is now in arrears, it may affect him in the future if he were to apply for a loan, as the arrears will be recorded even though it wasn't his fault. He's worried sick as he was planning on taking an important large loan in the future.

Is there anything he can do to take the arrears off the record? Can we ask the bank to claim responsibility or does it even matter where the blame lies in cases like these?

Has the bank admitted its their fault.

westies4ever

If the money is still in his account, tell him to lodge directly to the Credit union to bring his loan up-to-date.

If the bank admit their error, they could contact the ICB to ensure this doesnt show on his credit record - thats if the Credit Union in question are registered eith the ICB.

They could argue though that the blame is 50/50 and that he should have monitored his account himself.

Also, why didnt the Credit Union contact him to advise his loan was in arrears? If he shouldve been on weekly payments, surely they would have noticed something was up within 3-4 weeks?

If he has a previous good record, this really shouldnt affect him at all with the credit union.

ShelTomato

westies4ever wrote: »

If the money is still in his account, tell him to lodge directly to the Credit union to bring his loan up-to-date.

If the bank admit their error, they could contact the ICB to ensure this doesnt show on his credit record - thats if the Credit Union in question are registered eith the ICB.

They could argue though that the blame is 50/50 and that he should have monitored his account himself.

Also, why didnt the Credit Union contact him to advise his loan was in arrears? If he shouldve been on weekly payments, surely they would have noticed something was up within 3-4 weeks?

If he has a previous good record, this really shouldnt affect him at all with the credit union.

He got a letter a few weeks ago from the CU, I'm not sure of the details of what it said but I think they were asking if there was a problem linking his bank to his CU account. He gave the details again and they said there was already a debit set up with those details. Sorry for the vagueness, he lost the letter and has issues with his memory so doesn't recall himself what it said, only that it had been sorted eventually. But I think that's why he wasn't told he was in arrears.

He hasn't been on to the bank yet as he had to go back to work today, but I helped him fill out all the forms and he marked "weekly" direct debit on it. Hopefully more will be clear when we speak to them Monday, poor man is stressing over it.

westies4ever

ShelTomato wrote: »

He got a letter a few weeks ago from the CU, I'm not sure of the details of what it said but I think they were asking if there was a problem linking his bank to his CU account. He gave the details again and they said there was already a debit set up with those details. Sorry for the vagueness, he lost the letter and has issues with his memory so doesn't recall himself what it said, only that it had been sorted eventually. But I think that's why he wasn't told he was in arrears.

He hasn't been on to the bank yet as he had to go back to work today, but I helped him fill out all the forms and he marked "weekly" direct debit on it. Hopefully more will be clear when we speak to them Monday, poor man is stressing over it.

If he's upset, you could get his authority to talk to the credit union for him and find out exactly what the situation is. he may be getting worked up over nothing as this will be sorted out easily enough. do you know how long this has been going on for?

ShelTomato

westies4ever wrote: »

If he's upset, you could get his authority to talk to the credit union for him and find out exactly what the situation is. he may be getting worked up over nothing as this will be sorted out easily enough. do you know how long this has been going on for?

He got the loan about 2 months ago, I guess he only noticed now that the money wasn't being debited because the loan was in his account + his wages going in weekly. I think the arrears total about €300

westies4ever

ShelTomato wrote: »

He got the loan about 2 months ago, I guess he only noticed now that the money wasn't being debited because the loan was in his account + his wages going in weekly. I think the arrears total about €300

thats not too bad, it really shouldnt affect his rating with the credit union but may show up on his credit rating with the ICB (if the credit union are registeered with them) - this could cause an issue if he applies for credit elsewhere. if the bank admit fault, they can fix this.

if he stressing, and as you say he has memory issues, get his authority and talk to the bank and CU for him. this is easily sorted but it sounds like hes got himself in a state over it.

ShelTomato

westies4ever wrote: »

thats not too bad, it really shouldnt affect his rating with the credit union but may show up on his credit rating with the ICB (if the credit union are registeered with them) - this could cause an issue if he applies for credit elsewhere. if the bank admit fault, they can fix this.

if he stressing, and as you say he has memory issues, get his authority and talk to the bank and CU for him. this is easily sorted but it sounds like hes got himself in a state over it.

Yeah he has see he was already stressing cos we recently found out that he had been refused loans and mortgages with his bank for the last 15 years as they had him down as a student for some unknown reason! I will do that, thanks very much for your help

westies4ever

ShelTomato wrote: »

Yeah he has see he was already stressing cos we recently found out that he had been refused loans and mortgages with his bank for the last 15 years as they had him down as a student for some unknown reason! I will do that, thanks very much for your help

ah the poor man; tell him not to panic, this one can be sorted.

Cushie Butterfield

Are you sure that it was a direct debit from the CU that was set up? If so, it's the CU that specify the amounts & frequency of deductions. If it was a standing order to the CU then it would be your Dad who specifies the amounts & frequency of deductions.

Either way, it's probably best to speak to someone more senior in the CU - explain the situation & see if any blemishes on his record can be ironed out. This may require something in writing from his bank, but it's worthwhile following up with someone more senior now rather than further down the line.

bluescorpion

I recently got a copy of my credit report from the Irish Credit Bureau. I have had a number of Credit Union loans. None of them appeared on my credit report. It might just be my credit union (which isnt small), but your fathers credit union loan may not even show up on his ICB credit report. If the arrears are paid, that should be the end of the matter.

roro2

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

Are you sure that it was a direct debit from the CU that was set up? If so, it's the CU that specify the amounts & frequency of deductions. If it was a standing order to the CU then it would be your Dad who specifies the amounts & frequency of deductions.

As above, if it was a direct debit it is up to the credit union to take the repayments. If it was a standing order, the credit union shouldn't be able to see how the bank have set it up so they shouldn't be able to say "they've set it up as 3-monthly repayments".

amdublin

It was likely a standing order I.e. An instruction to the bank (from your dad) to say pay x amount on a weekly basis.

Get a copy of what your dad completed and get the bank to write letter confirming on what basis they set it up.
Give letter to credit union.

Transfer current lump (built up over few weeks) into cu to bring loan out of arrears.

BuffyBot

Thread title changed as there is way too much uncertainty at the moment as to who did what

nlgbbbblth

Has to be a standing order. When setting these up the frequency is set [daily / weekly / monthly / quarterly etc].

Either
1) The form was incorrectly completed by your father or
2) The bank made a mistake in when keying it