Irresponsible lending? Mums credit cards

[Orangefantastic]

Hi,

Ive just discovered that mum is in a bit of a mess! She’s 75, widowed 2 years ago and for the first time is having to manage her finances. ( dad always did it)

in Sep 2023 she applied for a credit card with a well known high street bank. She says that when she applied there was an error message and she assumed that it hadn’t worked. She applied again immediately and was accepted for £4K limit with an introductory 0% period. A week later 2 cards arrived. Same product etc. it appears that both applications went through and she basically ended up with 2 identical cards, each except the same credit limit. There is a one digit difference between her customer numbers. I can only assume that this was a system error and that only one card should have been issued.

fast forward to now and mum has a balance on each card of almost 4K. She’s panicking. The interest free period is about to expire and her payments will rocket to over £200 per month.

now I’m all for personal responsibility, and I do wish that mum has spoken to me earlier, however she’s an elderly vulnerable woman and I think that issuing 2 cards was irresponsible, even if it was in error.

I think that we need to complain. I’m not expecting the debt to be written off- she’s spent the money after all, however I think it’s reasonable to ask them to reduce it remove the interest if the card was issued in error. Do you think this is an example of irresponsible lending?

Anyone in debt could say "if they hadn't offered me credit I wouldn't be in debt."

Was she not tracking her spending? That's a relatively basic task at any age.

Sorry but I'm just not seeing this as the lender's fault. Basic arithmetic is not altered by the presence or absence of credit cards.

Irresponsible lending includes giving someone unaffordable levels of available credit. This is what has happened here. The original 4k was probably proportionate. It’s the second card that’s the issue. We just want it to be interest free so that we can pay it off asap. There is no expectation of it being written off

I don't understand why you keep saying "two identical cards on the same day"
Is significant. Surely they each arrived with full documentation.

Money spent has to be repaid; whether or not it was charged to a single card, two cards or 10 cards.

If she somehow believed her limit was £4,000, why did she keep tendering either card past that limit? Credit cards aren't magic money.

I feel sympathy for her but blaming the lender is not on. It's up to each of us to manage our personal finances and cash flow.

The fact they issued two cards in error is relevant to the question of irresponsible lending- she was given more access to credit than she should have been.

OP, contact stepchange and take it from there. Lots of people on this thread not really grasping the question or understanding that banks have responsibilities towards their customers, including those customers who struggle to manage their spending.

Having looked into it, most banks would never approve two identical applications In such quick succession. It’s a massive flag for fraud or to indicate that someone is in financial stress. Why weren’t these checks in place?

some people are really piss poor at managing their finances and this is why these checks are essential!

What is the total owing OP?

You keep saying it the was the fault of receiving a 2nd card. You said she was paying them off and never missed a payment, so she has surely paid off the £4000 completely from card 1 and now only owes on card 2?

Is that the case?

Definitely call the bank with your mum and ask them. They are very likely to grant it. If she had asked for help , would you have helped financially?. You can help to pay it off now

she owes £7600 over both cards. She’s always made the payments but then she’s used the card again and increased the balance a bit. It’s been like a vicious cycle that we need to break, I’m taking over the payments for card 2 do we just want the Interest removed really

Yes, it's irresponsible lending if your mother did not have the income to support that level of debt. Many posters on here don't understand the regulations.

I've had a lot of debt written off for clients before the strengthening of the regulations, and if credit providers choose not to carry out basic affordability checks that's on them. They can't then complain when people can't pay it back.

@Orangefantastic your problem OP is that you are concentrating on the fact that she got two cards from the bank! where was her common sense when she realised this error and did she not even think to just cut up one of the cards??? she spent a heap of money, paid the minimum payment amount monthly and carried on spending frivolously!! surely even you can see how stupid she has been? you cannot blame the bank for her stupidity and head in the sand reaction to debt!!! she will have received a statement every month for each card. did she not open them or did she just throw them in the bin without looking????

At the end of the day she is a grown-up. She knows what she spent and now she needs to find a way of paying it back.

I'd be VERY annoyed if my credit card providers wrote off debts like these...... because it would be responsible CC users (like me) who end up footing the bill.

You should be more annoyed if your cc providers don’t have sufficient checks in place!

If she is on a very low income and has little savings I'm surprised she got one card with a £4,000 limit. I would query it and explain that your mum had never dealt with finance before her DH died. But why did she need to run up such a huge debt she must have realised she would have to pay it back or does she have savings that would cover it and was just waiting for the interest free period to end and then intended to clear it? That would also explain why they would give her so much credit.

And the nonsense comments continue!! Google irresponsible lending and you will see thousands of cases such as this one where lenders have been found to have not carried out the appropriate checks.

the bank should not have issued two duplicate cards - this is almost certainly a system error. The bank are responsible for this. It doesn't matter what we think of the lady's spending - the money was made available to her and it should not have been. She has made payments and from what I have read, is not in any arrears. She COULD ask for it be written off, however it appears that they are simply looking or an interest reduction - totally reasonable in these circumstances.

It doesn't matter if she spent the money on a carribean cruise!! It should not have been available to her. All of you 'responsible borrowers' should be outraged that banks let this happen.

I dealt with a case of an 18 year old lad who was given 20k of available credit. He maxed it out within 18 months. Was this daft of him?? Yes!. Should he have exercised more restraint?? Yes!!, however the banks were also responsible for allowing this to happen. He was successful in his irresponsible lending claim and had the interest reduced along with some of the debt written off - this is how the system works.

Your CC provider will never have the full picture!!!

You, and anyone else, is/are responsible for managing your/their own finances.

Unless we are children or mentally impaired...

You are correct - CC companies will never have every detail of our lives. This is the OP is right in her annoyance - the CC company should have had the correct systems in place to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not "having the full picture" means that your systems need to be tight.

They were not identical! I’m a few years younger than DM. I would know I wanted ONE card! Just because another one arrived, you do not have to use it. Why on earth did she use it and not return it? As I said, she was savvy enough to apply for it. You just have to accept the debt. No one else spent the money and the age dynamic is a joke! If she was 95 I might have some sympathy but 75 is not too old to understand that spending money on a card you didn’t want is wrong. Why did she spend the money? On what?

I think you need to read the thread properly before posting a slightly aggressive response.

the CC company should have had the correct systems in place to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen

We are not children. We have awareness, agency, responsibility. There is absolutely no reason why anyone, other than OP's mother, should have to pay back this debt.

She bought 'stuff', and benefitted from said stuff. Now she has to pay for it.

It’s not aggressive and I have read everything. She’s spent money on her roof. She kept on spending. Why didn’t she hand the card back? You don’t seem to accept DM is wrong here at all. Plus your ageist comments are annoying. Your DM has been foolish. So work out how to repay the money.

Just a thought, but if this really causing your mother distress (and not just regret…) then I think what I’d do is clear the cards myself and then take it up with the bank. That would seem like the quickest way of eliminating the distress that she’s in.

I would contact Stepchange - a 75 year old, looking after your dad, then being widowed, is vulnerable.

I’m younger than your mum, but when my DH died, I got the most Godawful “widows brain fog” - the only way I kept on top of things was literally making endless lists and notes.

Get some advice, and condolences on your loss. 💐

I've been given some ridiculous credit limits in my time. It would NEVER have occurred to me that I would not need to pay back the money I BORROWED on the back of said credit.

If banks started to indulge irresponsible borrowers like this perfectly capable woman we'd all end up paying for it. As in interest rates on CCs would go up.

I have made any ageist comments. We do want to resist the money- just not the extortionate interest rates. If you knew she’d purchased the roof then why ask what she’d spent it on??

It’s never occurred to us that she shouldn’t pay it back either- as my thread outlines