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I have an account with one bank and another bank has taken over. I have debt to pay, which was agreed sometime ago that I pay what I could afford at the time, the situation is that the new owners have decided that the minimum I am paying is Insufficient and that they have decided to remove cash from my account every month.

Is this legal?

Hi there and welcome to the forum

It may well be legal for the bank to do this under the terms of your contract with them, but I suggest that you arrange to have a meeting with your local manager to explain the difficulties you are having. Banks keep telling us that they want to help their customers through financial difficulties, so I would see how helpful your particular bank can be in this regard.

Might it be sensible to open a new account with a bank to whom you do not owe any money?

I would definitely open a new bank account and get everything transferred across. I would also do as Melanie says and try to get an appointment.

I owed money to HSBC and every month they took money out of the account and then put it back again and charged me for it!

Definitely open a new account, but check the terms of your loan agreements that you have. The Bank has to comply with Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) policy - you can require of them to point out within your original terms where does it state that they can access your account and transfer money at their whim! Let us know how you get on.