Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

scg wrote: »

Hi everyone I am new and looking for some advice.

I am considering applying for hardship as i "repeatedly exceed your credit card or overdraft limit without agreement". I have got my charges summary the sum comes to £3500 over the last few years.

I am concened that I don't meet the hardship criteria. I am still employed (touch wood) and cover all of outgoings, some items have reached debt collection letter stage but they have all been sorted. The problem is that about 6 months ago our boiler died and have have been without any kind of heating ever since. The whole thing needs replacing (£££K?). Since it died we have tried to save up but a combination of bills, living and the every charge monthly charges of about £100 have meant that little to nothing has been saved. I am in position to get a loan and my ccards are all maxed.

I would be grateful for any thoughts...thank you..

My gut feeling is that your may not be in financial hardship since your priority creditors ie house, utilities, council tax are being paid.
However, any credit card charges?

natweststaffmember

Woodyrocks wrote: »

Sent everything off to Nationwide requesting charge details for my active current account and closed current account. They have only sent me the charge details for my active current account. I thought you could claim for closed accounts

You can and write back to them and tell them that they have forgotten(let's try and assume it was an error) to send the details from the closed account.

ryan.29

Hiya Money saving fans!! I had been chasing Abbey for abt 2years now for an unfair bank charges refund, i 1st went down the normal claiming route b4 the hold and then it was hard to get through to them.After months and months of phone calls and letters to them i nearly gave up until the Hardship waiver came in,i went down that route and i managed to sucessfully claim £1900, my initial claim was for £3500. :mad: abbey just put the £1900 into my account. I then wrote to abbey telling them i wasnt happy with the amount they refunded me and they shut the doors in my face! I contacted the nice ppl at the ombudsman services and they said abbey have acted fairly on your behalf and are not obliged to pay you any amount back.Check mate!! I dont know what else to do now, i payed off some of my debts that were out of control but still feel that if i got the full refund i was asking for id be debt free and not back in financial hardship. I did write to Abbey, 1st class recorded delivery explaining i was continueing to persue my claim and was still in my overdraft and in Hardship still.Of course they ignored my letter. Any ideas would be a great help.

natweststaffmember

ryan.29 wrote: »

Hiya Money saving fans!! I had been chasing Abbey for abt 2years now for an unfair bank charges refund, i 1st went down the normal claiming route b4 the hold and then it was hard to get through to them.After months and months of phone calls and letters to them i nearly gave up until the Hardship waiver came in,i went down that route and i managed to sucessfully claim £1900, my initial claim was for £3500. :mad: abbey just put the £1900 into my account. I then wrote to abbey telling them i wasnt happy with the amount they refunded me and they shut the doors in my face! I contacted the nice ppl at the ombudsman services and they said abbey have acted fairly on your behalf and are not obliged to pay you any amount back.Check mate!! I dont know what else to do now, i payed off some of my debts that were out of control but still feel that if i got the full refund i was asking for id be debt free and not back in financial hardship. I did write to Abbey, 1st class recorded delivery explaining i was continueing to persue my claim and was still in my overdraft and in Hardship still.Of course they ignored my letter. Any ideas would be a great help.

You received 55%(ish) of the claim which is still on the table at the conclusion of the OFT test case. The FOS have said something which is correct.
Do you currently have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are the arrears being paid off?
Do you still use the account?

ryan.29

natweststaffmember wrote: »

You received 55%(ish) of the claim which is still on the table at the conclusion of the OFT test case. The FOS have said something which is correct.
Do you currently have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are the arrears being paid off?
Do you still use the account?

I have fallen behind today with the rent and my gas and electric bill has been waiting to be paid since may 2009. I am maxed out in the overdraft and dont wanna get myself into any more debt. So if the test case proves banks to be wrong will we get our full refund on all our bank charges?Only thing is the test case keeps getting put back. We cant go on like this forever.I am disgusted with how Abbey has teated me and many other customers.:mad:

lucy89

Hi, I've searched through the threads first to see if I can find an answer, it more than likely has been answered 100s of times but I can't find what i'm looking for in all these pages.

I sent my original reclaim letter to lloyds in 2007, at the time I was not in hardship, but I am now. I sent lloyds a letter requesting to look at my case now due to financial hardship, I explained in my letter that i have no monies for rent or living expenses and the wages i receive from my part time job wouldn't cover my next months rent. I asked that they get back to me with a full response within 14 days. Today i received a reply stating that they are now looking into my complaint and will get back to me within 8 weeks, by then i will be in arrears with rent, overdrawn with lloyds and my credit card which currently is my only means of funds. Is there a further letter that I can write advising that there is no possible way that i can wait that long and my current situation was the whole purpose of writing to them reagrding hardship. I hope this all makes sense.
Thank you

natweststaffmember

ryan.29 wrote: »

I have fallen behind today with the rent and my gas and electric bill has been waiting to be paid since may 2009. I am maxed out in the overdraft and dont wanna get myself into any more debt. So if the test case proves banks to be wrong will we get our full refund on all our bank charges?Only thing is the test case keeps getting put back. We cant go on like this forever.I am disgusted with how Abbey has teated me and many other customers.:mad:

The OFT test case is ongoing and has been since July 2007, well Jan 2008 is when the first part opened so we are getting there. Was the letter sent recorded delivery?

natweststaffmember

lucy89 wrote: »

Hi, I've searched through the threads first to see if I can find an answer, it more than likely has been answered 100s of times but I can't find what i'm looking for in all these pages.

I sent my original reclaim letter to lloyds in 2007, at the time I was not in hardship, but I am now. I sent lloyds a letter requesting to look at my case now due to financial hardship, I explained in my letter that i have no monies for rent or living expenses and the wages i receive from my part time job wouldn't cover my next months rent. I asked that they get back to me with a full response within 14 days. Today i received a reply stating that they are now looking into my complaint and will get back to me within 8 weeks, by then i will be in arrears with rent, overdrawn with lloyds and my credit card which currently is my only means of funds. Is there a further letter that I can write advising that there is no possible way that i can wait that long and my current situation was the whole purpose of writing to them reagrding hardship. I hope this all makes sense.
Thank you

You can write to them with an up to date income and expenditure form, plus arrears notices.

If you have credit card charges you might want to reclaim then since they are not on hold due to the OFT test case.

woodymeg

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Have you had any correspondence from them whatsoever and if you have a phone number for them, ring them ASAP.

i have only had one letter which was the one that they sent the expenditure form out, they put on letter that they acknowledge that i have indicated that im experiencing financial difficulties. but nothing after sending form back and two other letters reguarding priority dbts etc

natweststaffmember

woodymeg wrote: »

i have only had one letter which was the one that they sent the expenditure form out, they put on letter that they acknowledge that i have indicated that im experiencing financial difficulties. but nothing after sending form back and two other letters reguarding priority dbts etc

i would call them if I had a number to advise you on(which is annoying that I don't).