Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

crinkle wrote: »

HAILFAX

Amount hoped for around £1800, offered £455

I phoned Halifax about two weeks ago after reading all the info here and after 2 mins on the phone they said they would send through forms etc. I recieved nothing through the post until a letter dopped on my doorstep with an offer of £455. I called straight away to find out why they had come to this amount without even asking any questions and they said that the amount is the charges paid since the account was with the "collections department" or someting and would not budge. I was very angry they had decided this without any investigation into my financial hardship case.

Priority arrears: Mortgage = £7900 // Council Tax= £1015 // Elec/Gas= £600

Non Priority = £27000

Im due in court on 21st October for a repossesion hearing, Council Tax is with the Bailiffs and im getting threating letters from Scottish Power.

After pleading with several people on the phone to "hear my case" I thought I was making headway when they asked me to fax over the court papers, bailiff letters and budget planner. This took me a great deal of time to sort out and fax only for them to turn around and say they didnt feel my hardship case was bad enough to increase their offer but.....if after the court hearing things got worse i should contact them!!!! Get any worse!!! Are they taking the urine. If they paid that money back now I could at least show to the judge that I was making inroads on my mortgage payments but Halifax would not budge.

My overdraft is £1200 and I even said if they paid back the charges I wouldnt mind if they then cancelled my overdraft but nothing, nada, finito.

I just dont know what to do

What caused the drop in income?(that bit is the lifestyle issue). From that point count the charges and tell me what the figure comes to and include charges up to today. Is the halifax account still being used as your main account?

natweststaffmember

langfor wrote: »

Guys,

i was made bankrupt in April 2006 and have been discharged in April this year.

From what date can i reclaim my bank charges? April 2006 or April 2009?

Thanks

April 2006 is the date you can claim charges back and it must only be from the date of bankruptcy onwards and not before.

natwestarggh

natweststaffmember wrote: »

What stage are you at? Is it the first letter you are sending asking for the funds back? Why have you not got the student account(interest free overdraft)?

Hi thanks for the reply i have recived first response from natwest asking me to prove my hardship with them so its pretty easy to see that i am in genuine hardship with -£690.
I have now sent off the financial statement with a covering letter telling them that the 1,900 pounds worth of bounced DD not unauthorised overdrafts over the years is a joke as well as numerous discussions in branch, i have also enclosed a copy of the Financial Ombudsman letter to show im serious and not going to go away.

With regards to student overdraft i didnt want it i know im terrible with money but i want to get out of debt not into more of it.
I will be moving my accounts after my course i may leave it with natwest after them seeing how much i will be earning after uni and tell them to shove it and ill take my 1,000 a week somewhere else

Tom

natweststaffmember

natwestarggh wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply i have recived first response from natwest asking me to prove my hardship with them so its pretty easy to see that i am in genuine hardship with -£690.
I have now sent off the financial statement with a covering letter telling them that the 1,900 pounds worth of bounced DD not unauthorised overdrafts over the years is a joke as well as numerous discussions in branch, i have also enclosed a copy of the Financial Ombudsman letter to show im serious and not going to go away.

With regards to student overdraft i didnt want it i know im terrible with money but i want to get out of debt not into more of it.
I will be moving my accounts after my course i may leave it with natwest after them seeing how much i will be earning after uni and tell them to shove it and ill take my 1,000 a week somewhere else

Tom

Tom, did you list the charges? Did you complete and income and expenditure form?
Sending them the ombudsman thing really doesn't do much cos providing they have assessed you for Financial hardship then they have done their job.

The suggestion on the Overdraft was simply that it would get you out of a situation now rather than later. Furthermore, if the overdraft was maxed then there is a possibility of arguing it even more.
We will see what they respond with first of all.

morphette

Hi there can any one help me.
I banked with Halifax since 2005 til Dec 2007. In total they owe me £2399 in charges (Jan 05 til Aug 07). I wrote the standard letters in Aug 07 and received the standard reply about the test case etc. As a result financially I was suffering and took out approx £700 on credit cards in order to pay off the over draft on my halifax account in order to leave Halifax and move bank account to Lloyds. I did not close the Halifax account - I have approx 10p in that account still. I now bank with Lloyds and have no agreed overdraft and I am trying really hard to ensure that I have sufficient money in the account to pay my direct debits each months and I am more in control with my money than ever! Even with only 10p in the Halifax account I still got charged £140 in charges as they did not cancel the overdraft facility on the account Dec 07. This resulted in me visiting my local branch and arguing that as the money no longer receives any money that these charges were unlawful. They instantly waivered the £140 charges and the account still has 10p in it. Now I lost my job in Sept 08 meaning that whilst I am with Lloyds and managing my banking better I have missed payments to credit cards and as a result I now have a CCJ against me which I am dealing with.
Can anyone advise if I write to Halifax again under the hardship scheme whether they will agree to pay up what they owe me even though I no longer bank with them. The stress of the constant charges from them caused too much upset that I had no option to borrow on credit cards to pay them off and get a new account set up with Lloyds. Will this hinder my chances of hardship as no money gets put into the Halifax account anymore? Can anyone help me on this... I could really do with that £2399 pounds right now to pay off my CCJ and get my life back on track! Thanks in advance.

colbo

Hi, i too have recently received a letter from bank saying regardless of hardship or not i must wait for courts descision in october before thet will consider my case. I have a joint acc and single acc with halifax, when i first started sending letters, they responded by taking my overdraft from me, and totally cleaning out what little funds i had in, causing a further knock on effect by my direct debits all being returned as unpaid. As a gesture they said they would waiver any charges for up to 3 months but that would be it. After sending further letters to them, they have said again basically, to quit sending any more letters as im wasting my time at present. All i can do now i guess is wait to find out the outcome of supreme courts this month???? frustrating

Chelski

Hellooo,

wondering if someone can respond to this asap (know this is cheeky to ask lol) as I want to get onto the bank first thing this morning (its now 2:45am on Monday)

To cut a very very long story short I will bullet point the facts then ask my main question -

Jan 07 I left education to work for HBOS (just as stupid to work for as to bank with) and had to have a HBOS account which had £1000 overdraft on - July 07 had to resign due to cutting of department staff and unable to take voluntary redundancy due to the short time been there

I hence fell into rent arrears whilst I struggle to find a new job and was charged a LOT by HBOS over this time in unpaid DD, interest and the like


Oct 07 worked for Barclays (best bank I know to be fair to them) had to have barclays account so switched from HBOS ensuing in that account goin into default overdraft ended up roughly £1500 in total and thats £500 of charges and interest -

Barclays have charged me a lot of fees over the last two years - in July last year was made redundant and went back to education full time as there was such a lack of jobs it was nigh on impossible - I worked for 3 months full time this summer and am now unemployed, on JSA, awaiting to hear on my housing benefits/council tax claim and in trouble

Thing is I'm so proud that I have fully paid off my overdraft and credit card but Barclays continually charge me £22 per use of my 'reserve' and £22 each five days i'm in it - there's no way I can actually pay this - my partner is on reduced hours of 15 per week and so we literally between us have about £900 coming in this month from JSA and his work - rent is £600 and CTax is £150 so even ignoring the other bills we have for gas/elec/water we have £150 to feed ourselves and for him to travel to work which is a necessity and he uses public transport. I physically do not know where to get the £10 for subject access request for two banks and when I can claim from and for how much it's all getting too much - i see so much on hear of priority debts/arrears but I have worked so hard to clear my debts I can't physically go back to having arrears but clearly we don't have the money to pay anything other than rent ctax and food (god knows how yorkshire water will be paid in November)



i put in a 'complaint' regarding my overdraft fees with barclays but that hasn't stopped the £66 of fees coming out on friday which now means we have £5 til this Thurs and no food

really sorry took longer than I thought :(:(:(

natweststaffmember

colbo wrote: »

Hi, i too have recently received a letter from bank saying regardless of hardship or not i must wait for courts descision in october before thet will consider my case. I have a joint acc and single acc with halifax, when i first started sending letters, they responded by taking my overdraft from me, and totally cleaning out what little funds i had in, causing a further knock on effect by my direct debits all being returned as unpaid. As a gesture they said they would waiver any charges for up to 3 months but that would be it. After sending further letters to them, they have said again basically, to quit sending any more letters as im wasting my time at present. All i can do now i guess is wait to find out the outcome of supreme courts this month???? frustrating

The Supreme Court decision will NOT lead to a direct refund of charges. Their decision is whether the OFT can assess terms for fairness and NOT if the terms are fair themselves.

natweststaffmember

Chelski wrote: »

Hellooo,

wondering if someone can respond to this asap (know this is cheeky to ask lol) as I want to get onto the bank first thing this morning (its now 2:45am on Monday)

To cut a very very long story short I will bullet point the facts then ask my main question -

Jan 07 I left education to work for HBOS (just as stupid to work for as to bank with) and had to have a HBOS account which had £1000 overdraft on - July 07 had to resign due to cutting of department staff and unable to take voluntary redundancy due to the short time been there

I hence fell into rent arrears whilst I struggle to find a new job and was charged a LOT by HBOS over this time in unpaid DD, interest and the like


Oct 07 worked for Barclays (best bank I know to be fair to them) had to have barclays account so switched from HBOS ensuing in that account goin into default overdraft ended up roughly £1500 in total and thats £500 of charges and interest -

Barclays have charged me a lot of fees over the last two years - in July last year was made redundant and went back to education full time as there was such a lack of jobs it was nigh on impossible - I worked for 3 months full time this summer and am now unemployed, on JSA, awaiting to hear on my housing benefits/council tax claim and in trouble

Thing is I'm so proud that I have fully paid off my overdraft and credit card but Barclays continually charge me £22 per use of my 'reserve' and £22 each five days i'm in it - there's no way I can actually pay this - my partner is on reduced hours of 15 per week and so we literally between us have about £900 coming in this month from JSA and his work - rent is £600 and CTax is £150 so even ignoring the other bills we have for gas/elec/water we have £150 to feed ourselves and for him to travel to work which is a necessity and he uses public transport. I physically do not know where to get the £10 for subject access request for two banks and when I can claim from and for how much it's all getting too much - i see so much on hear of priority debts/arrears but I have worked so hard to clear my debts I can't physically go back to having arrears but clearly we don't have the money to pay anything other than rent ctax and food (god knows how yorkshire water will be paid in November)



i put in a 'complaint' regarding my overdraft fees with barclays but that hasn't stopped the £66 of fees coming out on friday which now means we have £5 til this Thurs and no food

really sorry took longer than I thought :(:(:(

It was a long story
Ok. do not deal with branch staff on bank charges cos they are like Jim Henson's creations(with regards to Bank Charges); muppets. However, start the process of reclaiming and furthermore, ask Barclays to remove the reserve cos it is costing you £22.00 every 5 days.

paxo1

hi,all.just hopeing someone can help,back in may was accepted for hardship by barclays and in june recieved goodwill gesture of £9oo,claim was for £2300.had letter saying rest would be looked into after test case,anyway since then have still been getting charged each month,so now would like to add this to original claim,im still in hardship as council tax was nearly £2000 and rent £1000 at the time due to not much work.im now on benefits so getting rent and council tax paid at the moment but still have arrears which obviously im being hasseled for.is there a letter i can copy from here or any advise what i should put in letter.also do you think i should now add interest.any advise would be grateful.thx paxo