Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

antilloyds wrote: »

Lloyds TSB is killing me could someone help me please???
I have been paying unplanned overdraft charges for the last couple of years, at the moment my account has been pssed to the Collection department and i cant manage to pay anymore charges. Last week I received a letter from Lloyds says i have to pay them the full amount overdraft back by 18th of this month otherwise i'll be given to court! i havnt got idea about what to do! can anyone help me please?

Firstly, I would ask lloyds for a list of charges or statements on the account dating back to July 2001. Once collections call you, by the way, tell them that you are disputing the amount owed with Lloyds and you are asking for further information and for them to put a hold on collection activities on your account for 2 weeks and you'll update them then(main thing we need to get from them is more time and do not pay them a penny). Furthermore, if you receive benefits or any monies to the account then please open a basic account with a bank not connected to Lloyds so not Halifax or bank of scotland.

mojoparrot

techspec wrote: »

I helped a friend prove financial hardship, and Barclays wrote back saying "you will still have to wait until the test case is resolved". Its now with the FOS.

Ive been trying to reclaim charges with the Co-op Bank since April 2009 when I lost my job due to ill health, my case is with the FOS who have had it since June 2009. Looks like the bank won't repay (approx £2500) as I am not out of my £200 overdraft. So what they are saying is I should accrue more charges with them before they will decide if they can give me my other charges back!! Talk about irresponsible lending. I'm now only able to pay priority debts like my mortgage and utilities and do it all by cash. The bank know I cancelled my DD's to stop the charges some time ago. In fact they told me to do that to stop their charges adding to the debt. My FOS advisor is now on leave until 1st December so I'm not holding my breath.

Seems a bit pie in the sky to me

mojoparrot

natweststaffmember wrote: »

How did you argue your case? Remember the FOS will look at your view and their view and decide on who is right. You have to argue that Barclay are wrong in their view and that a specific period of time started the charges that impacted on your ability to pay for rent or mortgage, council tax or utilities and the charges took money from your budget for this. No bank have to refund 100% of the charges even under financial hardship. I would have looked at arguing perhaps for a higher amount rather than necessarily have gone to them because their offer was low and backed it up with my reasoning. I hope that makes sense if you have a chance to appeal the ombudsman decision.

Sounds like my case I'm about the same ammount short a month due to losing my job throughill health. Found the FOS to be long and drawn out and its unnlikely I'll be offered anything. My bank is the ultra ethical Coop. I was hoping to use any money to catch back up with other non priority debts that I havnt been able to pay. Don't think that will happen. Reclaiming is not as easy as you think. The length of time this has dragged on for - almost 6 months with the FOS-has really taken a toll on my health. I dont think I'll ever get back to where I was before being out of work.

njhsmiler

Hi Natwest Staff Member...

We are in a minus....

We did fill in the forms...

The arrears are getting worse...

What should I do about being refused under hardship...

natweststaffmember

njhsmiler wrote: »

Hi Natwest Staff Member...

We are in a minus....

We did fill in the forms...

The arrears are getting worse...

What should I do about being refused under hardship...

What is their reason for stating that you are not in financial hardship?
I think we might have something to argue. Can I ask you to hit the quote button when you reply to save me a bit of time searching for your info?
Thanks in advance.

natweststaffmember

jwilliams95 wrote: »

I am a new user of this site but could anyone help me, i recently had a conversation with a friend of mine, who is on benefits and struggles financially, who told me that he had recently had 120 pounds charged to his nationwide account for not having enough funds in his account to pay four direct debits all of which were below 20 pounds each, these direct debits all seemed to be requested when his account had little money in it. He says this happens a lot and seems to get caught out each month with some sort of charges on his account. I FOUND THIS OUTRAGEOUS, how are people who are already struggling to pay for the basics in life are expected to maintain these sort of charges without getting deeper and deeper into trouble.???? As ive been reading this website for some time, I remembered that Martin had spoken about being able to reclaim certain charges, does anyone know whether this is one of those cases???

Any single individual can reclaim bank charges irrespective of how they occurred. They could have been the most irresponsible person or been on benefits or had reduced hours and got charges. The fact they have charges means that they can reclaim them.

natweststaffmember

mojoparrot wrote: »

Sounds like my case I'm about the same ammount short a month due to losing my job throughill health. Found the FOS to be long and drawn out and its unnlikely I'll be offered anything. My bank is the ultra ethical Coop. I was hoping to use any money to catch back up with other non priority debts that I havnt been able to pay. Don't think that will happen. Reclaiming is not as easy as you think. The length of time this has dragged on for - almost 6 months with the FOS-has really taken a toll on my health. I dont think I'll ever get back to where I was before being out of work.

Mojo, you are not going to like my post and it is not meant with any malice whatsoever. My personal opinion is that it is unlikely they will agree to a refund of charges since the priority creditors are being repaid.
One question though, did the Co-op give a reason why they did not think you were in financial hardship?
However, it does bring up another question, are there non priority debts with charges that can be reclaimed or even missold PPI?

jonpnash

After reopening my case through the FSO the coop has offered to refund all my charges to my credit card (around 350) but not my current accounts. As final settlement to my financial difficulty case which was based on my current account charges. This is money I was not claiming in the first place so it is a bonus, although it is paid onto my credit card account, and they don't allow me a card anymore, so does not really help out my current situation in some ways.
Should I just accept the payment? Will this affect any future claims for further financial difficulty?
Many thanks in advance.

jonpnash

mojoparrot wrote: »

Ive been trying to reclaim charges with the Co-op Bank since April 2009 when I lost my job due to ill health, my case is with the FOS who have had it since June 2009. Looks like the bank won't repay (approx £2500) as I am not out of my £200 overdraft. So what they are saying is I should accrue more charges with them before they will decide if they can give me my other charges back!! Talk about irresponsible lending. I'm now only able to pay priority debts like my mortgage and utilities and do it all by cash. The bank know I cancelled my DD's to stop the charges some time ago. In fact they told me to do that to stop their charges adding to the debt. My FOS advisor is now on leave until 1st December so I'm not holding my breath.

Seems a bit pie in the sky to me

The Coop are very hard line about how they interpret the financial difficulty annex to the waiver, from my experience and in my opinion. Until now they have more or less ignored my financial difficulties but with persistence the FSO pushed them to refund further credit card charges even though I had not put a claim in for these.
Good luck

njhsmiler

natweststaffmember wrote: »

What is their reason for stating that you are not in financial hardship?
I think we might have something to argue. Can I ask you to hit the quote button when you reply to save me a bit of time searching for your info?
Thanks in advance.

They said we have got sufficient income to meet our commitments but we are behind on our mortgage and the mortgage company took us to court but they put the repossesion on hold for now...

What should we do....