Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

meows1 wrote: »

Hi All,

I first would like to thank you all for all the help and support you are offering each other. It's so nice to read such a supportive thread!

I wonder if someone could help with my (somewhat complicated) situation...

I had a student account with HSBC, which was constantly charged fees for missed payments and unauthorised overdraft. I was a student, considered under hardship by my university at the time. I informed HSBC about this, and they refused to stop these charges, despite the fact my student loan barely covered my rent fees, let alone putting my account in the black.

When the account became severly in the red, due to these charges, I met with HSBC and they said my only option was for them to close the account and transfer the owed amount to a MANAGED LOAN account. This happened in early 2001. I was only able to pay into the account, to reduce the balance. This was AFTER they declared me in hardship, due to being a full time student, and unable to work more than 16 hours per week.

Now, as the Managed loan account is made up of the TOTAL of the fees charged to me in the original student account, can I claim for the FULL amount of that account (around £1500) OR can I only charge for the fees accrued by the managed loan account itself, totalling nearly £200?

Is it worth just trying for the full amount of the account balance - as the account was active in July 2001, and only featuring the fees they were forcing me to pay off - and seeing what happens?

Also, can I retrospectively complain to the FSA/CCO about this treatment? The more I think about it, the more I'm shocked by the way I was treated. I have pretty much remained in hardship, and this has affected my financial life ever since. I feel pretty hopeless about ever digging my way out of this.

Any advice greatly received

I have no idea who or what the CCO is, so who are they?

You can as it stands today only claim back bank charges back to 27th July 2001 so any charges prior to that are not ones that can be looked at by the Ombudsman(FOS). Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)? Are you in financial hardship TODAY because past hardship does not necessarily mean current hardship.

natweststaffmember

myers1984 wrote: »

Hi Meows1
I'm not sure how far you can claim back to. I have also been offered a managed loan from HSBC, which I have declined as I have a Debt Management Plan in place - if I agree the Managed Loan, if my circumstances change in the future, then I will have to continue making the agreed payments with HSBC and making revised payments to my other creditors. I think you should pursue the charges that you had to pay by taking the loan. Make a complaint to the bank first of all and ask them for their final response letter - the FOS won't look at any complaints unless you have had a firm's final response which provides you with your referral rights to the FOS. Also, the FSA don't accept complaints from individuals - they are a regulatory body rather than an independent arbitor.

To clarify this further, if the bank say no on a final response, your complaint has got to be based on arguing against their viewpoint and covering everything within that response. Documentation will be required, for example on financial hardship, correspondence from the bank, income and expenditure, copies of arrears notices.

natweststaffmember

clinicalclass wrote: »

I've just moved house involuntarily to a different county so i had to leave my job, due to my living costs increasing any money i had put aside i've had to spend to get myself up and running, i'm currently looking for a job but i'm only starting. I have paid about £1000 in bank charges in the past 2 years but after the hold started i put it on the back burner as i wasn't in hardship. I have a £500 overdraft which i am £300 into and having no regular income will only delve deeper into. Am i in a position to claim for hardship? It certainly sounds like i am, but how can i prove it? I'm always wondering, if i claim today how will that affect my overdraft, will they cancel it outright? Also at the end of the month i'm assuming my interest on the amount i am in y overdraft will get slapped on further?

PS I bank with Natwest, sorry if it doesn't make too much sense!

from what you have posted, I cannot see that you are in financial hardship(think severe hardship for reference).

meows1

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I have no idea who or what the CCO is, so who are they?

You can as it stands today only claim back bank charges back to 27th July 2001 so any charges prior to that are not ones that can be looked at by the Ombudsman(FOS). Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)? Are you in financial hardship TODAY because past hardship does not necessarily mean current hardship.

Apologies, I meant the the FOS - ignore the CCO.

And yes, I am in financial hardship TODAY.
Thank you for your advice, atleast the charges incurred by the managed loan account are doable.

natweststaffmember

meows1 wrote: »

Apologies, I meant the the FOS - ignore the CCO.

And yes, I am in financial hardship TODAY.
Thank you for your advice, atleast the charges incurred by the managed loan account are doable.

Didn't the managed loan in 2001 clear the charges?
Have you still got a current account with them and are you still incurring charges?

natweststaffmember

Just to add to this thread the OFT Test Case decision will not be heard before the summer so we are awaiting for October before any decision.

jonpnash

Dear Natwest guy,
My sincere apologies for getting frustrated and taking it out on you! I really do appreciate that people like you are giving your free time to this, and again sorry to get angry. The think is that I saw red when you said that "there are people in greater hardship to deal with", when I hadn't given you any details of my hardship or prioity debts (which I do). I didn't because my personal circumstances are extremely difficult and not something I wanted to talk about specifically on a public forum. It hurts because it is personal, when my kids go to school with holes in their shoes or can't participate in school activities, yet the bank charges I have incurred this month have yet again been higher than my food expenditure. Or that bank charges are taken from my account, in priority to payments for rent. So the decision (priority) to pay their charges against paying for our rent or for food is taken by the bank, using my money.
So yes, I am sensitive.
I DO have priority debts, and believe me, I did have all the information, to the best of my knowledge, before approaching the FSO. And would have appriciated further information, if I was not informed on anything, gladly. I just felt like you were saying I was not worthy of this.
Anyway, the point I tried to make is that the bank is not actually challenging the fact that I have financial hardship or that I have prioity debts. It is simply one of the banks that takes the hard line interpretation of the FSA waiver annex. i.e. it can do nothing, except offer financial advice.
The thing that I was frustrated about, which I now find out, you were also equally frustrated about (rather ironically) is that the gist of the MoneySavingExpert section, which says that the waiver does not apply to people in financial hardship. Which is not the cast, and is missleading.
The fact is, even in cases of financial hardship, with or without priority debts, they can simply be "sympathetic"... and don't have to deal with the claim by paying out the claim. The annex to the FSA waiver dealing with the financial hardship cases is a woolly statement, and banks can interpret it in this way.

This was meant to be my point.

So again, I am sorry to get frustrated with you.. and Sorry for being soo sensitive about it but I am at my wits end, especially after all the long drawn out application process to the FSO, which I felt was a complete waste of my energy.
So sorry again, and please keep up the good work!
Jon

natweststaffmember

John, don't worry but I can help. You need the bank(CO-OP) I think to close your hardship case or write to you telling that they have which they were reminded by the FSA to do with all claims on 19th March 2009. With that final response in mind we CAN work on it and make sure you get some form of interim payout.
"11. If an VE form is issued, the firm to provide a reasonable period of time before issuing
a closure letter to the customer, which should clearly explain the reason why the firm
has not accepted that the customer is in FD, and that the firm will reopen the case
should the customer subsequently return the VE form."(VE form is I&E form)



The FSA wrote to banks as well about what they can do once they have identified customer in financial difficulty(FD)
"These might include; help and guidance about
dealing with FD and avoiding charges; suspending collections and recoveries activity;
suspending the accrual of further interest and charges; and a consideration of a refund
of charges, in particular where the charges may have added to the FD during, or
immediately before, the period of FD. The rationale for why a particular level of
refund has been given should be documented and clearly explained to the
complainant."
I can understand your post and I think there are times where one reaction leads to another, etcv,etc,
Let's work towards getting you an interim payout rather than spending months with the FOS,
We need Income and expenditure form, copies of arrears(hopefully no arrears are being paid back otherwise that suggests that there is room in your budget since arrears are being cleared even if they are slowly). coresepondence from the bank incl. FD closure letter or something that they say means they do not class you as being in Financial hardship.
OK?

clinicalclass

natweststaffmember wrote: »

from what you have posted, I cannot see that you are in financial hardship(think severe hardship for reference).

What are the criteria for severe hardship?

natweststaffmember

clinicalclass wrote: »

What are the criteria for severe hardship?

Priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities) and no repaying of any of the arrears as the budget simply will not allow for it.