Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

biggles26

I did a financial hardship claim earlier this year agianst my bank Abbey. They gave £2,025 on 1st June 2009 but did not tell me until late June/early July. Every time I treid to access my account through an ATM I was told that Abbey would not allow me to see my balance, etc. Eventually I found that there was an "abused account" block on my account. No-one in Abbey was prepared to admit that it was their department that put the block on the account. It took 3 weeks to get the block off and even now I still cannot use my card. This is despite my branch telling me that there is nothing wrong with my card! I have now been told that I have to apply for a new card (which will not be a multi-function card like what I have got now) but merely a cashcard! What should I do?

natweststaffmember

biggles26 wrote: »

I did a financial hardship claim earlier this year agianst my bank Abbey. They gave £2,025 on 1st June 2009 but did not tell me until late June/early July. Every time I treid to access my account through an ATM I was told that Abbey would not allow me to see my balance, etc. Eventually I found that there was an "abused account" block on my account. No-one in Abbey was prepared to admit that it was their department that put the block on the account. It took 3 weeks to get the block off and even now I still cannot use my card. This is despite my branch telling me that there is nothing wrong with my card! I have now been told that I have to apply for a new card (which will not be a multi-function card like what I have got now) but merely a cashcard! What should I do?

Tell them to order one for you since it is their error. Does that mean you have had no access to your account whatsoever? Have they not written to you to inform you of the refund?

duckysdebt

I have just submitted a hardship claim to rbs as im really struggling at the moment. Ive been reading a few posts on here and am now concerned that i wont be accepted for the hardship claim. Ive not lost my job, i just struggle every month to make ends meet. Im single, live alone with no dependents, i work full time, no benefits. My outgoings are on average £1400 a month and my income is around the same. Ive been summond to court for non payment of council tax this year as i havent got enough to go around. Every month i rob peter to pay paul and despair when things like a speeding fine or unexpected bill comes as mail. My mum says i need to tighten my belt but i dont go out/not in a gym/dont drink or smoke and dont holiday or have any hobbies. I cant even afford petrol to go see friends anymore so on top of all these money issues im now really low and on anti dep's.

I bought my house in 2007 (back then a caravan was out of my affordability!!) it was way overpriced and is now subsequently in negative equity. I was hoping the financial strain may ease by borrowing more on my mortgage but this is not possible in the current climate. My credit card is maxed and because ive missed the odd payment here and there and gone over my limit the card has since been blocked, now affecting my credit scoring and not enabling me to shift my debt to a 0% card to lighten the load

sorry to ramble on, i know everyone is struggling at the mo but im finding living with all this debt quite unbearable. Any nice rbs hardship claim success stories would be greatly appreciated

natweststaffmember

I would reclaim the credit card charges first to be honest. Have you spoken to your lender about the mortgage and explained you are starting to struggle and see if they can help?
Gut feeling here says that you are not in financial hardship as defined by the waiver(althought there is that council tax bill) albeit you are struggling without any advice. Have you sat down and gone through your budget and seen if there are any savings on Gas/electric(if you pay monthly you might be in credit) etc.etc.

duckysdebt

well i just wrote war and peace reply only to discover id been logged out, and my post lost in cyberspace...so will av to keep my posts shorter in future!!!

thanks for your reply

my utilities are all overdue, as it stands i currently have... no house insurance/no tv licence/no kitchen...long story about lack of money and renovation/no car m.o.t/ no credit on any of my 2 cards to which i pay minimum only payments as and when i can/ 2 loans with some years to go still/2 court summonds for the same day ironically one for non payment of a speeding fine and one for non payment of council tax...neither of which ill be attending as i have to work!! I use little gas or electricity as im working away a lot of the time, so cant reduce them. My food bill is around £50 a month...yes im slim!!! which isnt a bad thing!!! I dont use the phone and have a basic broadband and mobile package,

i went to my bank friday to explain my problems and to see if i could extend my overdraft so i can sort myself out, the application was declined as ive been having missed d/d payments/bounced cheques etc since january. This months ive incurred over £200 charges and in order to pay this back to rbs, it means something else will bounce next month...thus causing a vicious circle

i know an overdraft extension isnt the answer but surely them keep taking excessive amount out having a knock on effect for all my other outgoings isnt the answer....

what do you think is considered financial hardship and what sort of things do they consider when looking at your claim???

sorry its another long one!!!!

dibdob321

Hi all
Can't see the answer to this online.... I would be classed as in financial hardship so in theory could put a claim in.....

However can you put a claim in for accounts that are either closed ? ? or were once in your name but now are not....

Ie.. I have just got divorces and as a result all the accounts have either been closed or transfered into one or the other of our names....

I know over the last 6 years I have paid £1000's in charges on these accounts so can I claim?

Any views / thoughts / comments greatly received.

Cheers

natweststaffmember

dibdob321 wrote: »

Hi all
Can't see the answer to this online.... I would be classed as in financial hardship so in theory could put a claim in.....

However can you put a claim in for accounts that are either closed ? ? or were once in your name but now are not....

Ie.. I have just got divorces and as a result all the accounts have either been closed or transfered into one or the other of our names....
If its part of a divorce settlement then the account and any amount owed is in fact no due to you,
I know over the last 6 years I have paid £1000's in charges on these accounts so can I claim?

Any views / thoughts / comments greatly received.

Cheers

You can only claim charges back on accounts in your name. If, as part of the divorce settlement your former OH was given the accounts in question then it is no longer yours to claim from.

barloo69

I sortve knew I might get the following response from Abbey but thought I would try and argue my case regardless.

Since the beginning of the year I decided to face up to my debts and take my head out of the sand.

I therefore approached the CCCS who advised me that I was not able to go on a repayment plan as there wasnt enough money left at the end of the month to play with and to offer each of my creditors. They therefore offered me with 2 options, Bankruptcy or offer token payments to each of my creditors whilst I try and sort further funds from another source (ie addl income).

I chose the latter as the least painful solution and whilst I knew this was never going to be a permanent solution it might just buy me some time in retraining for an alternative career.

I therefore have kept regular contact with each of my 6 creditors who I owe a total of £25k and advised them I am unable to make my contractual payments at the moment due to financial difficulties and I am therefore making you a token payment instead.

Each of my creditors have appeared to be fine with this (apart from Barclaycard, but hey thats a different story) and have said they will review my financial situation again in 6 or so months.

In the meantime I have started the reclaiming charges process and because I now have many defaults and debt collection letters, solicitors letters demanding payment and final demands and the fact that I have very little nearly zero money, I believe I am in financial hardship.

It it wasnt for my girlfriend moving in and taking control of the household bills / utilities etc I wouldve been in arrears with all these bills also.

I therefore requested that Abbey look at my bank charges claim now as I believe I am in financial hardship. Today I received a response from Abbey today stating that they DO NOT believe that I am in financial hardship as my debts are NOT priority debts. I sortve guessed that this would be the standard response I would receive so I placed empathsis on the fact that I would have priorty debts arrears if it wernt for my girlffriend taking over the payments on these.

However this fact has obviously fallen on the Banks deaf ears.

It seems beyond comprehension to me that the only way a Bank will acknowledge someone is in financial hardship is when they are in arrears with their council tax, mortgage / rent or utilities ie when things have got really bad. Why cant the bank intervene before one gets to this stage and assist. Doesnt the fact then I am getting daily phonecalls and receive final demand letters constitute as being in financial hardship. Obviously not.

Roll on the end of the Test case.

conn75

I sent a letter with statements to Clydesdale Bank last week with a copy of my redundancy letter (I was made redundant in May) and informed them that I was now on Jobseeker's Allowance. I have around £1700 worth of charges that I want to claim back from them. They replied today stating that they would assess my claim for financial difficulty but my 'complaint would be stayed until the current legal proceedings between the Office of Fair Trading and the banks is resolved'.

I was led to believe, reading this site, that if I showed I was in financial difficulty that they had to process this immediately as part of some deal with the FSA. If so, what do I do now?

natweststaffmember

conn75 wrote: »

I sent a letter with statements to Clydesdale Bank last week with a copy of my redundancy letter (I was made redundant in May) and informed them that I was now on Jobseeker's Allowance. I have around £1700 worth of charges that I want to claim back from them. They replied today stating that they would assess my claim for financial difficulty but my 'complaint would be stayed until the current legal proceedings between the Office of Fair Trading and the banks is resolved'.

I was led to believe, reading this site, that if I showed I was in financial difficulty that they had to process this immediately as part of some deal with the FSA. If so, what do I do now?

Under the FSA Waiver they have the right to assess you for hardship using details they already have and if they determine you are not in financial hardship then they can close the financial hardship part of the claim.
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent council tax, utilities)?
Did you send an income and expenditure form to the bank?
Did you send copies of any arrears notices?
At the moment, just from what you have written it doesn't appear as yet to be a hardship case yet