Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

Ali09 wrote: »

Am a Halifax customer....I have sadly been on Jobseekers allowance 7 out of the last 12 months,taking temp jobs when I can. I had given me when working £1000 overdraft, they just gave it me when I opened my account 5yrs ago.

ANYWAY back on JSA,£60 pw again. A few times I have inadvertantly gone over my authorised overdraft by 28p-£2.80. Each time they charge me £35 and sometimes £28 on top. The transactions are normally for Debit card use where there is a delay in the cash coming out of my bank.

I approached the Halifax who wouldn't help me, I explained the charges took half my weekly income and that the idea of a debit card was I thought that you could only use it in a store if the cash was in the account. No they said some stores allow up to £5 over and so it appears at the time you do have cash to cover.

I appreciate the amounts may seem small to some,but on JSA your living hand to mouth and each £35 is a chunk of my income at present.

I have gone to the Financial Ombudsman and am awaiting an outcome re the charges.

I had another letter this week saying I had gone £2.60 over and another £35 was being charged, I had in fact gone 28p over for less than 24hours.

PS.I am not reckless, I have downsized and gone from a 3 bed house to small 1 bed flat,sold my uneeded furniture etc that I have worked for and now even my utility bills are being paid weekly now.

DO you have priority debt arrears(mortgage or rent, council tax, utilities)?

Being on benefits does not necessarily mean you are in financial hardship.

Ali09_2

Yes ofcourse, I have been living off £30 a week some weeks they've taken around £200 in charges in the last 3 months.

Electric & Council Tax are now both in arrears. Rent is paid as its priority.

berkshirelady

Hi all,

I've had ongoing shennanigans with Lloyds for about a year now. I've had help from CAB, and latterly CCCS - and Lloyds is still ignoring everyone, and slapping charges on. They arbitrarily raise my OD limit, offset against it, add interest, let the OD limit get breached and then put penalty charges on. I'm more in debt now on my current accounts and credit card, to the tune of £100's than I was this time last year, despite not having used any of them since September 2008! I've been putting in money via debt management plans for months and it's all just disappearing in to a dirty great hole.

I put in an official complaint to Lloyds several months ago about their appalling lack of response to both me and my debt advisors. At that time I also requested a refund of all charges for the period of time (months) that they'd ignored me & CAB. They rejected it, despite acknowledging in their final response that my complaint hadn't been fully investigated. (To date they still haven't told me why one of their little sales bods tried to sell me life insurance that I couldn't afford, and that didn't cover the full amount I owed, and wrongly told me that they'd chase my relatives for my debt if I died).

As a result I've complained to the Ombudsman. Their latest letter says 'Your complaint is about bank overdraft charges applied to your account and, as you are aware, most of these cases are on hold pending the outcome of the High Court test case. However, as you say you are experiencing financial hardship we will now consider how the bank has handled this issue'. My complaint has been assigned to the Hardship Team.

I guess this means that without realising it, I have already gone through most of the process outlined in Martin's article on the Home Page, and should just sit and wait?

Or is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

Thx

natweststaffmember

Ali09 wrote: »

Yes ofcourse, I have been living off £30 a week some weeks they've taken around £200 in charges in the last 3 months.

Electric & Council Tax are now both in arrears. Rent is paid as its priority.

are any of the arrears being paid off?

natweststaffmember

berkshirelady wrote: »

Hi all,

I've had ongoing shennanigans with Lloyds for about a year now. I've had help from CAB, and latterly CCCS - and Lloyds is still ignoring everyone, and slapping charges on. They arbitrarily raise my OD limit, offset against it, add interest, let the OD limit get breached and then put penalty charges on. I'm more in debt now on my current accounts and credit card, to the tune of £100's than I was this time last year, despite not having used any of them since September 2008! I've been putting in money via debt management plans for months and it's all just disappearing in to a dirty great hole.

I put in an official complaint to Lloyds several months ago about their appalling lack of response to both me and my debt advisors. At that time I also requested a refund of all charges for the period of time (months) that they'd ignored me & CAB. They rejected it, despite acknowledging in their final response that my complaint hadn't been fully investigated. (To date they still haven't told me why one of their little sales bods tried to sell me life insurance that I couldn't afford, and that didn't cover the full amount I owed, and wrongly told me that they'd chase my relatives for my debt if I died).

As a result I've complained to the Ombudsman. Their latest letter says 'Your complaint is about bank overdraft charges applied to your account and, as you are aware, most of these cases are on hold pending the outcome of the High Court test case. However, as you say you are experiencing financial hardship we will now consider how the bank has handled this issue'. My complaint has been assigned to the Hardship Team.

I guess this means that without realising it, I have already gone through most of the process outlined in Martin's article on the Home Page, and should just sit and wait?

Or is there anything else I can do in the meantime?

Thx

They are assessing the claim for financial hardship. At the moment, I am not sure that they will look at any refund of charges but better to wait and see.

kianella

natweststaffmember wrote: »

1) chase barclays and ask them where they have sent the statements.
2) The bank has 56 days to respond. Did you complete an income and expenditure form?

they havent as yet asked me to fill in anything. thanks for the advice:T

natweststaffmember

kianella wrote: »

they havent as yet asked me to fill in anything. thanks for the advice:T

You want a copy of one to keep you busy over the weekend?
Barclays one, right?

Ali09_2

natweststaffmember wrote: »

are any of the arrears being paid off?

Not Council Tax, can't afford to, Electric at £5 per week.

The Bank Charges and interest payments take my extra income

pingchris

well after 6 months of phone calls the halifax have agreed to pay me £2000 via them paying off my outstanding debts,ie council tax electric bill etc,canny result so far,however they still owe me £4.000 from a £6.000 total claim,looks like they are bending a bit more,soon i hope they snap and return everyones cash,keep on at them folks,be relentless in your claims,well done martin lewis.:money:

gfara

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Do you pay your bills mostly in cash?

I do now - since being made redundant I have been temping and get paid weekly so find it easier to pay in cash