Mortgage Strategy has just announced:
"The new Banking Code, to be published this March, asks that customers with financial problems contact their bank as soon as possible.
But it also requires banks to contact customers they perceive to be heading for financial difficulty and recommend that both parties speak to each other. The bank will also offer contact details for free money advice providers.
Brian Capon, spokesman for the BBA, says: “These changes reflect what has been best practice among the industry anyway.
“Where the customer contacts the bank and is actively cooperating with it, the bank will be obliged under the code to consider granting concessions on interest, fees and charges.”
The BBA says this will always be decided upon a case by case basis, but one of the elements will be the extent to which the customer is working with the bank to resolve the problem.
The new code also requires banks to acknowledge that the customer's income should only be used to pay off non-priority debts when provision has been made for the priorities, such as household bills."
John Tegg
www.protectiva.co.uk
0845 673 9999
We will make all your IVA payments for you if Accident or Sickness stops you paying them yourself.
