Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

Rocksteadycrew22 wrote: »

Hi I took some of the templates off this website and wrote claiming back in excess of £5k worth of bank charges claimed against us in the last 6 years, had the same series of letters then a letter offering me £21.00 and 3 months of no charges, I have challenged this with the finc ombudsman and today got a letter offering the same 3 months grace and a refund of £511.00. I have rejected this offer, ( hope this is the right thing to do ) but have written back confirming what I am prepared to accept, does anyone have a view on whether this is right or wrong, and if you accept are you forfitting your entire claim on full and final, the letter from the ombudsman suggests not?

Any help / advise welcomed.

Thanks

Ok, the claim you have is the financial hardship element of your claim. You are one of the few people that have had a offer lifted as a result of going to the ombudsman so I will kill two birds with one stone.
1) Anything you accept is not in full and final settlement of your claim, it is just the financial hardship part. However, if they have offered £511.00 then I think you need to work out how much is your priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities) and base your figure on that element and explain that you would like the arrears cleared. If they say £511.00 is as high as they can go then ask for 3 months of no charges and interest on top to adjust to a new scenario of having income without having charges taken from them.
2) Can you explain how you got the FOS to increase the amount and how did you argue the case? It will help others who may go to the FOS.

scarfacematt

:mad:PLEASE ADVISE!!:mad:
I have a claim in with Halifax for just under £1000 and have claimed financial difficulty as i am recently unemployed. I have hust received a letter saying they think the charges were fair but as they see i am in financial hardship, offer me £99 to help. On the acceptance form (for the £99) it states "I accept this £99 as settlement of my unrranged overdraft bank fee's complaint". On the letter that came with the form it states "To ensure you are not disadvantaged by accepting this offer prior to court proceedings, we have registered your complaint and will review t upon the resolution of the court case". Now to me it seems as though with the wording on the acceptance form, i would be accepting £99 and my claim is settled.
Basically...I'm stuck and would appreciate some advice!!

Thanks in advance (I hope!!)
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Orford

Re-write it as:

"I accept this £99 as partial settlement of my unrranged overdraft bank fee's complaint".

Under the FSAwaiver they cannot force you to accept a lower settlement as 'full and final'

scarfacematt

is that a tried and tested reply to the bank? or could i push for more than £99?


:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

RuthnJasper

Have just heard from NatWest that my claim (for £200) has been turned down because they do not deem me to be in genuine financial hardship. I cannot afford food and my electricity is perilously close to being cut off. I do not qualify for benefits. Just what ARE their criteria for judging people to be in hardship?! I was so hungry the other day that I ate one of the dog's treats. It wasn't pleasant.

I've been reading the success stories so that I don't feel too despondent; hopefully I can appeal and add my own success story one day.

I'm sorry that CassieCoo didn't apologise - I've always found NatWestStaffMember's generosity with his/her time and his/her posts very helpful.

natweststaffmember

RuthnJasper wrote: »

Have just heard from NatWest that my claim (for £200) has been turned down because they do not deem me to be in genuine financial hardship. I cannot afford food and my electricity is perilously close to being cut off. I do not qualify for benefits. Just what ARE their criteria for judging people to be in hardship?! I was so hungry the other day that I ate one of the dog's treats. It wasn't pleasant.

I've been reading the success stories so that I don't feel too despondent; hopefully I can appeal and add my own success story one day.

I'm sorry that CassieCoo didn't apologise - I've always found NatWestStaffMember's generosity with his/her time and his/her posts very helpful.

Have you got priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Can I ask if you have any income whatsoever going into the account?
Are there any credit cards that may have charges on them?

natweststaffmember

scarfacematt wrote: »

is that a tried and tested reply to the bank? or could i push for more than £99?


:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

If you can prove to the bank that since your redundancy that you situation worsened and the charges contributed to them you can ask them for more but as Orford has said the offer of £99.00 is not a full and final settlement of the claim but only the hardship element of the claim.

RuthnJasper

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Have you got priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Can I ask if you have any income whatsoever going into the account?
Are there any credit cards that may have charges on them?

Hello NWSM,

I don't have arrears as such; but I DO have an IVA, into which I pay £157 per month. My salary goes into the bank account (which is a basic STEP account). Any credit cards were wiped out in the IVA, so no extra charges there. I filled out a hardship form, which Natwest sent to me, and provided proof of every item listed there. Their response was that "I had enough left over at the end of my outgoings to not qualify for hardship." My monthly budget leaves @£22 after expenses.

My current situation of hardship came about purely and simply because I inadvertently missed one payment of £3.84 and was charged £38 by NatWest for doing so. This increased by one extra missed payment fee per month because of my lack of available 'contingency money'. By living exceptionally frugally for the past two months (candles for lighting, not going out except to work, cancelling all non-essential payments, eating very plain basic fare, etc.), I have managed to reduce this to one £38 fine this month, but I really cannot live like this much longer.

The annoying thing is that I know £200 is just peanuts to NatWest - it is the difference between food and no food to me and, apart from the lack of £3.84 (I had £2.50 in my account at the time, and thought that the £3.84 had already been paid. Silly me.), I am not a reckless spender, having learned my lesson good and proper with the IVA business.

Still trying to keep smiling though...
x

joeyjojo9658

Hi, I'm making a claim and would appreciate some advice.

I have a student account with Natwest, and have pretty much been in the overdraft for 2 years now. I broke my arm so couldn't work this summer, and am running out of overdraft, so I thought I would try and claim back (a fairly measly) £114.

They sent me a financial hardship assessment form, which I returned, and apparently makes me a financial hardship case (having 0 income I guess). I now have a letter requesting me to return my Servicecard and cheque book, and to discuss cancelling direct debits. I gave them a ring and was told that my Maestro is being replaced by a Solo (which I can swap back later).

I'm siding now with playing along with this and returning my card, as I was told I should get my charges refunded pretty soon after. If it turns out that Solo is rubbish I will close the account and go open a new student account somewhere else.

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated

natweststaffmember

joeyjojo9658 wrote: »

Hi, I'm making a claim and would appreciate some advice.

I have a student account with Natwest, and have pretty much been in the overdraft for 2 years now. I broke my arm so couldn't work this summer, and am running out of overdraft, so I thought I would try and claim back (a fairly measly) £114.

They sent me a financial hardship assessment form, which I returned, and apparently makes me a financial hardship case (having 0 income I guess). I now have a letter requesting me to return my Servicecard and cheque book, and to discuss cancelling direct debits. I gave them a ring and was told that my Maestro is being replaced by a Solo (which I can swap back later).

I'm siding now with playing along with this and returning my card, as I was told I should get my charges refunded pretty soon after. If it turns out that Solo is rubbish I will close the account and go open a new student account somewhere else.

Any thoughts on this greatly appreciated

You kinda gave yourself advice while writing so there is not much I can add to this.