Abbey offers baby £20,000 personal loan

Abbey has apologised to the mother of a one-year-old whose daughter had been told by the bank that she was eligible for a £20,000 personal loan.

Experts are claiming that the mistake illustrates the absurdity and potential dangers of the way finance providers' market credit.

Mum Donna Bartlett was astonished to discover that the letter addressed to her baby Daisy was offering such a large sum.

"Maybe the house could do with a lick of paint or perhaps you just want to splash out on something special like a holiday," read the letter.

"Which is why a personal loan of up to £20,000 would come in very handy. You could use the money to treat yourself right now. Or you could use it to transfer any debts and bills into one affordable loan."

Banks have come under heavy fire recently about the ways in which they offer unsecured debts to customers who may have a poor credit history.

"There's a lot of pressure on people to buy now and pay later and this kind of thing, although it's a mistake, isn't going to help matters," Ms Bartlett told This is Money.

"Perhaps things do need to be checked more carefully before they are sent out to children like Daisy."

The mistake arose after Abbey computers detected Daisy as a customer, after her mother opened up a £40 savings account in her name after she was born.

"There were a small number of children offered a personal loan rather than their parents," said an Abbey spokeswoman.

"It was a database error and we have apologised to parents and the problem has now been rectified.

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