Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

esmerellda

You are quite right they do have to deal with cases deemed in finanical hardship, and as the quote rightly says this does not have to involve a refund of charges. The waiver guidelines state they must help you with financial difficulty by doing things like moving you to a basic account, stopping future charges etc. Things that can't be done with a closed account.

Lloyds in particular are following these guidelines quite specifically - I think we have seen a couple of cases where future charges have been stopped, but not many refunds since the stay. Lloyds are pretty well known for the standard £750 refund. So i doubt that will have any bearing on your case at this time. I assume you have been speaking to the Andover recovery dept about your claim.

What may have a bearing is the extent of your hardship. From what you have said it doesn't sound as though you have a strong enough case - couple of DCA letters and missed standing orders probably won't consitute hardship - certainly not strong enough for one of the tougher banks to offer a full refund on a closed account.

The next step is the FOS as you have had final resolution from Lloyds.

If the FOS don't agree you are in hardship then there isnt much you can do but wait for the outcome of the test case. You COULD try again for a stay lift on grounds of hardship, but my experience is unless you have a pending repossession or serious council tax arrears, you won't get that far.

Sorry if it sounds defeatest and I don't know your full circumstances. I do know that Lloyds are pretty tough despite some early good signs it has been assistance with your current account management rather than refunds. Just think of the interest.

Rickee

Edinburghlass wrote: »

I think the reason Martin uses the word may is due to this wording...

This may involve – or not – the repayment of charges. See the Banking Code for how they can help.

They have to look at your case but bear in mind this doesn't necessarily mean your charges will be refunded.

However, the fact they refunded their basic £750 should indeed have some bearing on your case.

I meant, in the context of getting claims listened to. Martin says this in his help section;

Q. I am currently having financial difficulties, is there any way to reclaim?
A. There’s a ‘hardship case’ exemption to the hold on reclaiming. In other words those with financial difficulties may get cases heard. Banks have to conduct a filtering process to ensure that cases of genuine hardship are still dealt with during the waiver period.

The refund side of things is a different matter to getting the case dealt with in the first place...

Rickee

esmerellda wrote: »

You are quite right they do have to deal with cases deemed in finanical hardship, and as the quote rightly says this does not have to involve a refund of charges. The waiver guidelines state they must help you with financial difficulty by doing things like moving you to a basic account, stopping future charges etc. Things that can't be done with a closed account.

Lloyds in particular are following these guidelines quite specifically - I think we have seen a couple of cases where future charges have been stopped, but not many refunds since the stay. Lloyds are pretty well known for the standard £750 refund. So i doubt that will have any bearing on your case at this time. I assume you have been speaking to the Andover recovery dept about your claim.

What may have a bearing is the extent of your hardship. From what you have said it doesn't sound as though you have a strong enough case - couple of DCA letters and missed standing orders probably won't consitute hardship - certainly not strong enough for one of the tougher banks to offer a full refund on a closed account.

The next step is the FOS as you have had final resolution from Lloyds.

If the FOS don't agree you are in hardship then there isnt much you can do but wait for the outcome of the test case. You COULD try again for a stay lift on grounds of hardship, but my experience is unless you have a pending repossession or serious council tax arrears, you won't get that far.

Sorry if it sounds defeatest and I don't know your full circumstances. I do know that Lloyds are pretty tough despite some early good signs it has been assistance with your current account management rather than refunds. Just think of the interest.

I'm currently £550 over my overdraft limit and was charged £400 in bank charges from Lloyds this month, £280, last month. I am in Council Tax arrears, take cash off credit cards, miss loan and debt repayments, etc.

I'm very much a hardship case, even on just one point - being charged more than £500 in charges in the last year.

Although the banks have agreed to help those in financial hardship, they agreed to do this as part of the banking code, which has nothing to do with the bank charges complaint. To deal with my complaint, they would have to make a decision to refund the charges or keep them and be taken to court. Any help they provide is purely related to my hardship situation and their agreement to the Banking Code and would not constitute a resolve to my complaint that bank charges are unlawful.

The loophole for them is that they could provide aid to help me get sorted then state that I'm not in financial hardship anymore.

With HSBC, the fact that I have no account with them does not affect the rule that they have to deal with my complaint now. HSBC wouldn't even let me go through the details of my outgoings showing that I was in hardship...

esmerellda

Okay in that case we write a stronger letter and explaining in detail your circumstances, details the repercussions you are facing ref council tax etc. Have a look at this thread which is First Direct - part of HSBC....http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=10786

the £500 is a guideline and to be taken in conjunction with all your other circumstances. There is a figure somewhere how many people have had over £500 in charges in last 12 months - think it was 1.6 million - was in the PCA report.

If you are facing such a high level of charges from Lloyds each month also ask to switch to a basic account, or move banks yourself, leave the OD behind and set up a repayment plan. Are you claiming from Lloyds and have they considered you as hardship yet ? they may be able to put a stop on future charges.

I don't understand the loophole bit sorry.

Rickee

Lloyds have seemingly ignored my claim for hardship and sent me a generic letter which doesn't make much sense. I've sent a stronger reply and given them till Thursday to make a decision before I refer to the FSA.

I'll probably take your advice and write to them again though as using the phone and speak to a go between who keeps me on hold for 20 minutes is pointless. I asked whether I could speak to them directly but he fobbed me off with excuses.

The FSA guidelines do say that as a minimum they would expect banks to stop outstanding charges while they decide on hardship cases so should help.

The loophole is that they could help me out so much so as to get me sorted financially and then claim I'm no longer in hardship and make me wait for the test case. Although when I wrote to them (Lloyds this is, by the way) I did say they wouldn't need to help me out with further lending, etc if they simply refund my charges, hopefully, they'll take this into account.

esmerellda

FOS not FSA although you can send a note to FSA to say they are ignoring hardship cases as the guidelines arent quite there yet

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The loophole is that they could help me out so much so as to get me sorted financially and then claim I'm no longer in hardship and make me wait for the test case.
''''
The ''settlements'' we're seeing now are in a lot of cases specifically to deal with specific issues that are causing hardship as an interim payment and leave the rest for the test case decision - if other issues come up I would think you can go back if they still hold some of your money but havent seen anyone in that boat yet since the july 08 waiver.

kat81

Hi Everyone,

please can someone advise me what to do.

I called HSBC to claim hadship, they told me they wouldnt consider me, so i said i would be taking it further and that was that. Today, they have refunded me £75, baring in mind my charges came to £600 and they are also takin another £100 from my account on the 17th from going over my overdraft on the 4th august.

Can someone please tell me how to proceed as i would like the other charges refunded also.

millidog

Hi sorry cant help you but can you tell me how you got your bank to listen?
I went into my bank and they had no ida what i was talking about. Took a long queue and no joy. Had £458.00 charges last month and have no hope of gettin clear.
Really stuck now and gettin worried.
Help....







r

kat81 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

please can someone advise me what to do.

I called HSBC to claim hadship, they told me they wouldnt consider me, so i said i would be taking it further and that was that. Today, they have refunded me £75, baring in mind my charges came to £600 and they are also takin another £100 from my account on the 17th from going over my overdraft on the 4th august.

Can someone please tell me how to proceed as i would like the other charges refunded also.

kevsadie82

hi have been in an iva for 18 months now but because of it i am not really struggling with my day to day bills anymore so does this mean i can put thru my reclaim for bank charges and it will get looked at before test case is over?

tups27

alcrawford wrote: »

I made an initial claim (HSBC) in July 2007 dated before the original FSA ruling. It was still, however, put on hold quoting FSA as was not dealt with until after the ruling.

I have today sent a letter requesting that my case be looked at again both under 'hardship' guidelines and the fact the original letter/claim was submitted before the original suspension of normality.

Hi just to let you know that i had put a claim in before july 2007 and hsbc then put my claim on hold. Then i heard about financial hardship claims so i put one into HSBC for £6500 even though i have had another £1800 of charges on top since my original claim. I lost my job 3 months back i am now on job seekers allowance £120 a fortnight. I owe £500 to water £450 to electric i am 2 months behind on my car repayments £238 a month food bills petrol etc anyway. I filled out the form and a week later a lady called and asked me to go through what i had submitted and i did that last saturday (6th sept 08) then today 9/9/8 a man called back from hsbc and asked to go through it again so i did then he called back half hour later and said i was not in financial hardship because i had spent £70 in matalan for my daughters school uniform brought food in tesco coming to £56 anyway you get the idea he went through all my transactions and said because of all transactions on my card i had £200 a month spare and was not in financial hardship. I SAID WHAT IS THEN!!!!!. HSBC is a joke i dont have £200 a month spare i only just get that a month!!! What can i do?