Lloyds TSB: letters to people in Debt Management Plans
The scare tactics Lloyds TSB use by sending letters to individuals who are in Debt Management Plans
Chris Brown, a member of the team who has worked as a Debt Management Plan Customer Service Officer and now works in the creditor liaison team, shares his views on Lloyds TSB.
Having worked in customer service for Abacus (part of ClearDebt Group plc), I have spoken with many of our clients on Debt Management Plans who have received correspondence from their creditors, which has caused them a great deal of concern. The letters in question are making demands for payment and threatening legal action.
Despite the fact that at some point or other, every lender is likely to send letters of this description, there has been and still is a repeat offender that is constantly filling up the letter boxes of their customers – Lloyds TSB.
Lloyds TSB Scare Tactics
As soon as an individual is no longer able to afford the contractual payments for a debt with Lloyds TSB, at least 500 square miles of rainforest is reserved and 50 lumberjacks employed to provide paper for the letters that will be sent daily until the debt is paid off. At least 5 species of rainforest creatures will become extinct and the debtor’s postman is 10 times more likely to suffer from arthritis in their post delivering arm during this period. This is not entirely true but it is in the Lloyds spirit of exaggeration and scare tactics.
The letter that causes the most concern, in my experience, is sent under the name SCM (Sechiairi, Clark & Mitchell) solicitors. They claim to be instructed by Lloyds to contact you because “despite several reminders your account remains out of order”. It goes on to say, if you do not pay them, legal proceedings may be issued at your expense. You are then “strongly urged to make immediate payment”.
The whole letter paints the image of ruthless legal professionals who take great pleasure in unleashing the full fury of the legal system against any individual unfortunate enough to cross their path. They are in fact a collections department of Lloyds.
Should you ignore the Lloyds TSB letters?
Having spoken to Lloyds about these letters they say the majority are sent during the process undertaken when an account is passed from their Financial Management Unit to their Central Debt Recovery department and apparently can be ignored.
So if they can be ignored, why send them?
I accept that letters should be sent to inform a debtor that their account is being handled by a new department within Lloyds (which they are), but to send a letter that gives the impression that court proceedings with be issued when they will not, is beyond unnecessary.
In addition to SCM solicitors they also have other collections departments that go under the names MHA collections and BLS collections (you can see some of the letters that they send here: MHA Collections letter, BLS Collections letter, SCM solicitors letter). It appears Lloyds want to give the impression that hundreds of mercenary debt collectors and legal teams are pursuing the debt on their behalf and are gathering on mass outside your front door.
Cutting unnecessary costs
After having to be bailed out by the tax payer, who now own over 40% of the company, I would have thought Lloyds would be looking for ways to cut unnecessary costs. A good way to start would be to stop sending out these letters to people who have found themselves in financial difficulty and have since taken responsibility to seek professional help.
In the time it has taken to read this, because of the intensive deforestation required to support Lloyds’ need for paper, the Borneo Jungle Ferret no longer has a habitat and is extinct. There is no Borneo Jungle Ferret, I made it up. The same way Lloyds made up MHA collections who may be taking legal action against you.
Thanks for putting this out Chris, Lloyds should know better, we see hundreds of these letters everyday from our clients and it certianly raises eyebrows of what how they conduct things.
This is so true i still recieve letters from Lloyds even thouh i have been with Abacus for almost 3 years now and never missed a payment. Have no problems with any other of the creditors. And having worked for Lloyds and treated in the same way as an employee as a customer i advise that nobody should bank with them.
They have looked at other ways of saving money, sacking staff, but they still pay their immoral bonuses.
They are also employing Wescote Financial Services! I have had several demanding phonecalls from this company about debt with Lloyds! Despite paying mo joy instalments through Abacus, and informing Wescote that Abacus are dealing with my repayments, they still insist on making calls and also sending SMS messages to my mobile. I now ignore these.
They are at it again,the letters landing on my doormat same old crap about debt,if you phone them they read of the pre written script no common sense its about time they started paying back the taxpayers money they borrowed , maybe a debt management plan……..
these are scare tactics, and often blanket letters to someone with the same name. How are they allowed to get away with it. I know someone who in the ned took his own life to get away from them. He only owed them £100 to start but after all the letters etc he was so frightened, he thought it was his only way out
even though we are paying monthly we still get letters demanding the full amount.Are they for real , or just stupid
Having been in a similar situation with this firm and interest piling on because payments weren’t being made on contractual dates and for a year I paid the contractual amount and was only paying interest off and not the debt which is why I decided to go with clear debt and it was by the same company I was paying
Isn’t this illegal?
If it’s not, it should be!
today i received a letter from apex saying my lloydst tsb visa debt is to be paid to them. they said they will honour the arrangement i have with tsb for 6 months. I received a letter from sms in october rang the lloydstsb collections account who told me just to continue paying the agrred amount. telephoned collections today and was told it was passed to apex and they could request it back at any time and i would deal with apex unless informed otherwise.
it took me 2 years to sort a debt out with lloyds and had to use the ombudsman to reslove it, i was directed to africa or india everytime i called they hadnt got a clue, lloyds bank are the sh*ttiest company on the planet stay well clear, they are rude arrogant and the managers are sh*te,
I have just received the exact MHA letter as linked to above. Good to know i dont need to panic, especially as I am paying through a debt management company already.
I get calls every day, but ignore them. I was going to answer the next time, but after reading this I shall continue to ignore.
Thanks for that
Barry H
Lloyds TSB are so unbelievably terrible it almost defies belief that they get away with what they do!!! Any one here got any advice about ombudsmen and what they an do??
Wonga were up to this trick as well, and were fined (by the FCA?). It is also a crime to pretend to be a law firm when you’re not (or is it pretend to be a solicitor?); Wonga may yet be prosecuted.