The bank maintained it was acting in accordance with its terms and conditions, but acknowledged Neil did not have a typical loan structure, and offered to provide an undertaking that it would honour Neil’s interpretation of its terms for any future requests on his current lending, waiving early repayment fees. Neil rejected this offer and asked us to investigate. 

Our investigation

We considered whether the bank was obliged to honour Neil’s requests.

The terms and conditions of the loan clearly limited the total increase in payments to $1,000 per calendar month, not per payment. We therefore found the bank was not obliged to honour his interpretation. However, the bank gave Neil inconsistent information in August 2024, referring to an annual limit and later allowing an increase of $1,000 weekly, which in all likelihood confused Neil. We encouraged the bank to clarify its communications.

We considered the bank’s offer a fair and reasonable offer and recommended Neil accept it.

Outcome

We did not uphold Neil’s complaint, but we recommended he accept the bank’ offer, which he did.