Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

nova

Hi All,
Nationwide wroteback yesterday (very promptly l may add) about our FH case saying they are going to refund £910 out of a possible £4555! this helps a bit but just brings the od down to the new limit they set, although we will be able to get our tax credit money out now as they were keeping it for the od or charges and at times had no money for food! l will be ringing on monday to plead a bit more so I'll keep you posted.

Former_MSE_Wendy

I've checked with the FOS and it's policy is to deal with each complaint on a case by case basis rather than apply the same formular to all. So some may get 50% of charges for one year, some may get 50% of charges for the full six years and some may even get the full amount.

The FOS also said if someone wants to accept a partial settlement it's worth making it clear to the bank that the rest of the complaint is still on hold until the test case ends - which is what the FOS do for their cases - and not to accept anything as full and final settlement if they don't want to.

ProjectMangler

Just over a week ago I started the process to reclaim bank charges levied over the last 6 years, using your template letter, claiming financial hardship and a self compiled spreadsheet. These were mailed to the branch where my acccount is.on Dec 13. I received an acknowledgment on Dec 17 and on Dec 18 I phoned the number advised in the letter. After a couple of false starts I was put through to the 'financial hardship' department and completed the income expenxe exercise. I was told on the face of it I was suffering financial hardship and that someone would contact me in a couple of days.This they did twice today (Dec22). Firstly, I was asked to confirm some of the details I gave out on Thursday and what my current arrears were, then the second call was to tell me HSBC could make a part payment now but all of it would have to be paid to my mortgager and that I would have to sign a letter of assent agreeing to that. I refused saying I would like to pay some of my other creditors, utilities, phone, car and living expenses so I could survive over the next couple of months whilst I looked for work. The caller said he couldn't I asked why and he said the 'guidelines wouldn't allow this. I protested and said could I speak to the perosn who sets the guidelines to which he replied he'd talk to his supervisor. Couple of minutes later he came back and said he could put a small amount into my bank account to cover the utilities but the bulk would still have to go to the building society. Again I refused (whose money is it anyway) and he then stated I would have to refer to the FOS.

I'm afraid I got quite cross, I mean they were quick to dip into my account and help themselves and have made such cods financially so why should HSBC tell my where to redirect my refund

If someone can help, I would like to know:
- what guidlines is he talking about?
- by refusing HSBC' offer is my claim legally affected?
- whose money is it anyway?
- should I now write them a letter confirming my position and why

Thanks

Paul

nova

ProjectMangler wrote: »

Just over a week ago I started the process to reclaim bank charges levied over the last 6 years, using your template letter, claiming financial hardship and a self compiled spreadsheet. These were mailed to the branch where my acccount is.on Dec 13. I received an acknowledgment on Dec 17 and on Dec 18 I phoned the number advised in the letter. After a couple of false starts I was put through to the 'financial hardship' department and completed the income expenxe exercise. I was told on the face of it I was suffering financial hardship and that someone would contact me in a couple of days.This they did twice today (Dec22). Firstly, I was asked to confirm some of the details I gave out on Thursday and what my current arrears were, then the second call was to tell me HSBC could make a part payment now but all of it would have to be paid to my mortgager and that I would have to sign a letter of assent agreeing to that. I refused saying I would like to pay some of my other creditors, utilities, phone, car and living expenses so I could survive over the next couple of months whilst I looked for work. The caller said he couldn't I asked why and he said the 'guidelines wouldn't allow this. I protested and said could I speak to the perosn who sets the guidelines to which he replied he'd talk to his supervisor. Couple of minutes later he came back and said he could put a small amount into my bank account to cover the utilities but the bulk would still have to go to the building society. Again I refused (whose money is it anyway) and he then stated I would have to refer to the FOS.

I'm afraid I got quite cross, I mean they were quick to dip into my account and help themselves and have made such cods financially so why should HSBC tell my where to redirect my refund

If someone can help, I would like to know:
- what guidlines is he talking about?
- by refusing HSBC' offer is my claim legally affected?
- whose money is it anyway?
- should I now write them a letter confirming my position and why

Thanks

Paul

Hi , l dont really know if l can be of any help, but if you have mortgage arrears but have made an arrangment with the building society to pay it back gradually l dont see how the bank can take it upon itself to interfere although they do. l have something similar we've proved and the bankhave agreed that we are in financialhardship and they have paid us some charges back but only enough to bring the account down to the lower level that they set 3 weeks ago,so we stillhave no money to pay our council tax. So l've had to phone and ask for more and they're looking into it, in the next 4 to 7 working days!
Hopfully someone more knowledgable than me will be along soon.

BFace_2

Hi

Quick question I am hoping someone can help me with. I applied for my Barclays charges back ages ago.. Maybe a year or more now and it currently sits with ombudsman on hold. I am fairly sure I qualify for hardship as I exceed my o/d and am charged every month as well as drawing money on my credit card which I had once cleared this year by immersing it in my joint mortgage and doing balance transfers from cc to bank a/c most months.

Anyway

As My stuff is with the ombudsman not the bank and I have probably occured another at least £600 of charges on top of this.. should I just start from scratch applying to the bank and redo my spreadsheet and everything to include the new charges?? Or do I do it with the ombudman? I imagine starting again is easier than re-working it all...

Any help gratefully received!

B

ProjectMangler

Thanks for having a 'stab' at it Nova. The mortgage is about to be sent to litigation next month as I am now just 3 months behind. It is further complicated due to the fact that it's an original Portman mortgage who are now being merged with the Nationwide and this won't be completed until next month when I will then have a Nationwide account, until then I can't deal with it, apparently although I did make a small contribution to the arears when I phoned them earlier this month, hoping that this may dealy the litigation until February when, if I havent found a job, I qualilfy for Housing Benefit. My suggestion to HSBC was I took part of the settlement they were offering, pay one month off my mortgage arrears, to bring me to down to two months in arrears and use the rest to distribute amoungst the rest of my creditors (including HSBC). I think thats a responsible and reasonable suggestion. I do see this as a refund of my money not theirs.
By the way, and apologies as I'm not sure what your circumstances are and if you've already tried, but have you contacted your local JobCentre to investigate what your benfits entitlements are? You may be able to get help on your council tax.

regards
Pd

nova

Hi, so if your mortgage is with the nw why is hsbc poking their noses in paying your arrears, bloody cheek, mind you they're all thieving wotsits taking the charges in the first place.
We've tried claiming housing benefit but because oh is self employed they needed to see the up to date accounts which we could'nt have done as where the bank had taken so much in charges didnt leave us enough to pay the accountant! HB is'nt like WFTC where they'll accept last years accounts or an estimate of earnings. So we're stuck really. We've borrowed the money off my dad to pay the accountant, so hopefully after xmas l can claim but in the meantime they still need paying.

nova

BFace wrote: »

Hi

Quick question I am hoping someone can help me with. I applied for my Barclays charges back ages ago.. Maybe a year or more now and it currently sits with ombudsman on hold. I am fairly sure I qualify for hardship as I exceed my o/d and am charged every month as well as drawing money on my credit card which I had once cleared this year by immersing it in my joint mortgage and doing balance transfers from cc to bank a/c most months.

Anyway

As My stuff is with the ombudsman not the bank and I have probably occured another at least £600 of charges on top of this.. should I just start from scratch applying to the bank and redo my spreadsheet and everything to include the new charges?? Or do I do it with the ombudman? I imagine starting again is easier than re-working it all...

Any help gratefully received!

B

l would ring them and see what they say, they may get hold of the bank for you, it's worth a call, make sure you have your ref no. to hand.

Guandi78

Well i had a strange phone call from HSBC on xmas eve saying they had to re structure my loan to they could take out the load protection, i was uterly gobsmacked because i didn't have a clue that they'd accepted my claim. When i asked how much they were paying they didn't actually know due to it being the local branch etc...

I had to wait till today to know how much i was getting anyway i expected about £2,500 this is 6 years worth anyway the letter arrived this morning and WOW what a start its going to be for the new year. They offered an unbelievable £9,654 i've been walking around in a daze ever since. Thank you to this site and everyone on it because without reading this i wouldn't of bothered claiming.

alams

Hi wendy and thanks once again!!

Barclays have just called me after my last discussion with them, the lady i spoke to was willing to refund another 50% (i think) of the previous year (2007) charges now. I stated that i am still quite unhappy with this. I advised her that i commenced studying in 2005 and from this period is when i mostly started incurring charges and had such a bad time mentally, stress etc, so ideally if she could go back to that date i may be contempt. They will call me back again after reviewing my case! hopefully i seem to be getting somewhere. however, come to think of it, i want it do date back to 2004, when all the charges started, so should i just wait for their next response and then when they offer (if they offer) i can then state that i am still unhappy and then push for more?? i am trying to take it step by step!! After their next response i am going to request not only 50% but the full amount.

By the way, you are doing a wonderful job!! I really appreciate it, and am sure everyone does as well!!

Regards