Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

Scotty501_2

OK will do - I thought so too - will issue a reply to that affect.

Shirl63

I recently applied under the 'hardship' rule as we are constantly overdrawn, incur more charges and are behind with our mortgage. I filled in the detailed form within the 10 days and received a standard letter back to say that I don't qualify! However, they didn't say who does qualify and reading this forum it seems that no one does!
I have contacted the CCCS to see if they can help at all, but to be blunt I think the banks have us all held to ransom.
I am cutting a whole in my mattress as I speak to store my hard earned cash there!

Robbda

I won!!!! i got the lot back and interest!!

YEEHA!

I wrote back and said that i hadn't heard anything despite my letters, my highlighting of the banking code that states what financial hardship is, the fact they could see the gap in my salary credits where i lost my job and the irregular temping payments i've had since, proof that i am with CCCS

£1375.00 :-) i'm thrilled

A_fiend_for_life

Congratulations Robbda thats excellent news.

Rickee

Rickee wrote: »

Okay, I've made a couple of posts above if anybody wants to cacth up with my story so far.

Firstly, with HSBC, I have been waiting for a call back promised to me from a member of their complaints department in Leeds. At this stage I am just trying to get them to agree that I am in financial hardship which I'm hoping will lead onto them dealing with my complaint and refunding my charges...

It's worth noting that I no longer have my account with HSBC and received the final answer regarding my hours of phone calls to HSBC, they're not prepared to evaluate my hardship as I no longer have an account with HSBC. This was the final word from the Head Office Complaints department (0800 88 11 55), I requested that they put that in writing for me so I'm just waiting for that. After getting off the phone to them I called FOS who advised me that they could send a letter to HSBC for me to investigate it for me and get a final written response from them but I said no, I'll give them a week to come back to me and see what happens and what they say in their final response.

With Lloyds, I'm still yet to receive a reply relating to my complaint so decided to call them, just missed the 5pm deadline so spoke to a load of undertrained morons who have no interest in helping before eventually being told I should wait until 9-5 and speak to them tomorrow. I was also told that someone is due to give me a call and asked for that persons name and the time they would be calling me. I was then told that information was unavailable...

More waiting unfortunately...

Anyone who wants the complaints numbers for HSBC;

0800 88 11 55 - Head Office Complaints (They'll usually speak to someone else before giving you any answers)

08456 028 006 - Based in Leeds, they can be helpful but may refer you back to the Financial Guidance Team to see if there's anything they can do to help your hardship.

Finally went through income and expenditure with HSBC who decided on the back of that I'm not a financial hardship case. As they went through my girlfriends income and expenditure I was caught a bit off-guard and got a few things wrong and forgot a few things. I was told that I could call back and go through the details again if there was any amendments required.

When I did this I was told that as it was so soon after my originall declaration, I would need to wait until the original details were on their system so they could refer back to them. They organised someone to call me back last Wednesday which never happened. I'm going to send another letter instead.

With LloydsTSB, I've had a result. Despite receiving a letter on the 24th advising that I had to wait until the court case result, I have been speaking to LloydTSB collections department regarding being over my overdraft limit and all the bank charges that were outstanding. I must admit, that LloydsTSB have been very helpful during all of this. They waived all outstanding bank charges (about £450 worth), increased my overdraft by £620 to include the amount outstanding and moved an outstanding loan payment to the back of the queue so I pay it the month I was supposed to finished paying.

I spoke to them tonight to confirm all this and was told that a note was made on the 22nd to say that I would be receiving £999 in returned bank charges, about £60 shy of what I was asking for.

I will be following this up tomorrow to reconfirm but just so everyone is aware, this is my second claim from LloydsTSB, last one being in May 07 when I recieved £750 back after asking for about £680.

I'm very happy and will be using the money to pay off other debts and finally have less going out than is coming in.

lexa34

Wow. You are lucky!!

TinChipMan

Hi Yeah, that story sounds familar at least with the Alliance & Leicester. I applied for them to consider my case as financial hardship. I received the form to note everything down; on Incapacity benefit,Unemployed,Private monthly medical bills etc... I received a response this AM saying that they've taken my request into account, but in thier eyes I don't qualify for the financial hardship exemption rules, but my case will be processed once this test case is finished. I would say one thing though that if you have incurred any account charges ie... missed direct debit payments/unauthorised overdraft charges since sending the letter back to them, then give them a ring saying that until they've processed/acknowledged your claim, you don't think it's fair to carry on paying charges until your case is disputed. I did this last week and they waived £50 in charges almost instantly, all at the click of a button? lol I don't know wether to try and pursue the financial hardship thing any further? Good luck with your battle.

chipbeck

Rickee wrote: »

Finally went through income and expenditure with HSBC who decided on the back of that I'm not a financial hardship case. As they went through my girlfriends income and expenditure I was caught a bit off-guard and got a few things wrong and forgot a few things. I was told that I could call back and go through the details again if there was any amendments required.

When I did this I was told that as it was so soon after my originall declaration, I would need to wait until the original details were on their system so they could refer back to them. They organised someone to call me back last Wednesday which never happened. I'm going to send another letter instead.

With LloydsTSB, I've had a result. Despite receiving a letter on the 24th advising that I had to wait until the court case result, I have been speaking to LloydTSB collections department regarding being over my overdraft limit and all the bank charges that were outstanding. I must admit, that LloydsTSB have been very helpful during all of this. They waived all outstanding bank charges (about £450 worth), increased my overdraft by £620 to include the amount outstanding and moved an outstanding loan payment to the back of the queue so I pay it the month I was supposed to finished paying.

I spoke to them tonight to confirm all this and was told that a note was made on the 22nd to say that I would be receiving £999 in returned bank charges, about £60 shy of what I was asking for.

I will be following this up tomorrow to reconfirm but just so everyone is aware, this is my second claim from LloydsTSB, last one being in May 07 when I recieved £750 back after asking for about £680.

I'm very happy and will be using the money to pay off other debts and finally have less going out than is coming in.

Rickee I'm with collections at Lloyds and in general I agree they do try and help. I've only had charges for three months in all the years I've banked with them. The unfortunate thing is these added up to over £1500 (one month was £1200 I think). Do you think it's worth me giving them a bell and seeing if they can do the same for me?

A_fiend_for_life

cowbopper wrote: »

Hey all

Have just recieved a letter from HBOS today saying i qualify under the financial hardship rules, and they are refunding me £1040 within 14 days. This is but £10 shy of what i asked for and includes interest!!

Hi Cowbopper,

Did you request all charges back or only those for the last 12 months.

I am going through FOS and have been told this could take between 2 and 6 months:eek: when it is already with debt collection.

Oh congratulations by the way that is really good news.:T

Rickee

chipbeck wrote: »

Rickee I'm with collections at Lloyds and in general I agree they do try and help. I've only had charges for three months in all the years I've banked with them. The unfortunate thing is these added up to over £1500 (one month was £1200 I think). Do you think it's worth me giving them a bell and seeing if they can do the same for me?

The collections department are the best people to speak to (0845 600 6283). The complaints department in Andover were the ones dealing with my written complaint but it's the Collections department who made the decision to refund the charges, but as part of my finiancial situation.

The puzzling thing is that the complaints department in Andover still have no idea that I'm getting this refund or that it's as a result of my charges. I contatced them again as I have a complaint with HSBC and wanted to see whether LloydsTSB have agreed I am in financial hardship and if they would send a letter confirming this which I can pass to HSBC but as they didn't have a clue what refund I was going on about I didn't wanna waste any more time with them.

According to Collections, they are the only ones who can refund the account for you, the complaints department can't give the okay on that sort of thing apparently, very weird and probably absoloute rubbish but there you go.