Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

RedRose1_2

You are a star!
He has downgraded his account now as he doesn't use this account anymore except to pay off the loan he has there.
I guess I'll try my luck! Cheers NWSM! xx

natweststaffmember

mikeq wrote: »

I have been trying to reclaim money against the Halifax under the hardship case ruling. They have subsequently refused my claim.

I asked the FOS to take the case on but they have agreed with the bank and rejected my claim, but invited me to appeal.

I appealed detailing my current debt and employment situation but they have today once again refused to deal with my claim agreeing with the bank.

Is there anyone else i can take my case to.

Thanks

Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?

natweststaffmember

RedRose1 wrote: »

You are a star!
He has downgraded his account now as he doesn't use this account anymore except to pay off the loan he has there.
I guess I'll try my luck! Cheers NWSM! xx

I have only ever seen 1 person succeed in this one which is why I have amended the way I advise. You need to do the account charges separately to the bank charges one. Furthermore, you will need to sit down and look at every single benefit and whether his circumstances meant he could or could not have benefitted from it. If your COULD have benefitted is higher than the yearly fee then it is a no but if it is a negative then that is what you have to write to the bank with and ask for the difference back.

THORNEY1_2

:money:The bank will ask as will everyone else if you can afford to save and travel to the USA then you can obviously live. Or was you given spending money aswell. which is more important. USA or paying of your debts ????

sarah73076 wrote: »

I have written to both Lloyds and Alliance & Leicester regarding my bank charges and requesting they deal with the case now because of financial difficulty. I was separated last year (divorce now final), and left my job due to my current partner's new job which required us to move up north. So basically I have no income and am in both of my overdrafts. I haven't had any bank charges for a while (getting rid of ex-husband helped), but money is very tight while I'm looking for a job.

Alliance & Leicester sent me a form and only gave me 10 days to return it. I had to list all my income and debts, and I did list my partner's income and debts on there as well. It looks fairly clear that even with our modest budget, we don't have enough to pay our bills and are going further into the red every month. I sent it a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Will be following up as soon as we are back from seeing family in the U.S. (which we really can't afford, but tickets were booked months ago!).

As for Lloyds, the account I was making the claim on was my now-closed joint account with my ex-husband. They sent two identical form letters, one addressed to both of us, one addressed just to me. The letter rambles on for a few pages, but does promise to contact me within a week about my financial difficulties. No one has contacted me, and it's been well over a month. I've written them again saying I will go to the ombudsman if I don't get a satisfactory response in two weeks.

Will try to keep this updated if anything happens. Hoping some others will join this discussion!

Namechanger

When would you estimate the test case to be finally resolved by? 2 years from now?

natweststaffmember

Namechanger wrote: »

When would you estimate the test case to be finally resolved by? 2 years from now?

Depends on the first decision really.

mrcaptain

Apologies if this has already been posted, but I don't really have the time to read through 88 pages worth.lol.

Basically I applied for financial hardship. I'm with The Bank Of Scotland.

They rejected me the firt time because I had a paypal payment of £100 from a phone I had sold on eBay. However, they classed this as an income??? Anyone with an ounce of sense would see it as it was, a one time payment.

I then disputed this claim, only to be sent the standard letter informing me that cases were on hold just now because of the court case. After phoning and telling them I was applying via the financial hardship clause, I was told my case would be looked at.

2 months later, I had still heard nothing, so gave them a phone. I was told that I had to speak to the "money management team" before they could look at the case.
I got transferred to this team and explained the situation, only to be told they had nothing to do with the claim.

I then phoned back, and was told someone would contact me within 2 days, which obviously they didn't.

After another phone call (0845 number) I was then told someone would call me back shortly. Around an hour or so later, I get a call from the money management team, and I told them that although I was in financial hardship, I didn't need help managing my money, as I hadn't had a bank charge for over a year.

The lady told me that she would just take my income/expenditure details (I had already filled out 2 income/expenditure forms) and pass them on.

After giving them to her, she agreed that I was in financial hardship. She said it would take no more than a week to reach a decision, but she said it would probably go in my favour.

About 5 days later, I received a letter from The Bank Of Scotland, agreeing I was indeed in financial hardship, so as a goodwill gesture, they would "cancel any bank charges incurred in the next three months".

This infuriated me, as anyone looking at my account would see that I didn't have any bank charges in over a year. Yet another phone call to the 0845 number, and I got through to some guy who had an attitude, and I was basically told "That's all we can do to help you". My reply obviously pointed out the fact that they weren't helping me, as I had no bank charges in the past year. Eventually I just gave up and contacted the FOS.


Now that my rant is over, does anyone think it is worth pursuing it with the FOS, or just waiting till the case is over?

natweststaffmember

Unless you have had bank charges in the last year then I think it is doubtful they will agree. Is your main account with BOS?
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are they your main account?

mrcaptain

The reason I haven't had bank charges is because I cancelled all my direct debits, because I couldn't afford to pay them on time.

Yeah it's my main account, £700 overdraft.

Got council tax debts which i've just incurred from this year. The addition of a baby has made things even tighter, and we just couldn't afford to pay the council tax. Paying it now though.

natweststaffmember

mrcaptain wrote: »

The reason I haven't had bank charges is because I cancelled all my direct debits, because I couldn't afford to pay them on time.

Yeah it's my main account, £700 overdraft.

Got council tax debts which i've just incurred from this year. The addition of a baby has made things even tighter, and we just couldn't afford to pay the council tax. Paying it now though.

This is a difficult one to argue because the charges are not making the situation worse now in spite of the lack of bank charges. The fact that no interest or charges are on the account in the next 3 months could be a good thing to help clear arrears.
You have elements of a bank charges financial hardship case but there are elements of it that aren't there ie charges making the situation worse today.
Unless you can argue that the bank charges from last year directly contributed to the arrears this year then you will have a difficult case because you did cancel all the DD's last year(which I think is the right thing to do as well).