Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

ailsajayne29 wrote: »

Hi, I sent the letter to the head office in edinburgh for Halifax, the cccs income expenditure form is the one CCCS send me relating to my dmp. I used the adress I sent my original claim last year too and got a reply from saying I would have to wait but as I am now in hardship I decided to send the letter explaining that.
Do CCCS do individual income and expenditure forms or household income cos it is different as is important to know.
Lloyds did speak to me. I recieved a letter saying thank you for your letter as you are in financial hardship we are referring you to the recovery dept, they will be in touch but will not discuss your bank charges claim. The recovery department rang me to discuss reducing repayments to them etc but as I explained to them I do not owe Lloyds any money so she said all she could do was add the control facility to my account to reduce the cost of any future charges but could not comment on whether I would be receiving the £270 of claimed charges back?

To be honest Im having to move house to somewhere cheaper so that I dont end up with any priority arrears but obv moving house is going to cost me and I really do need to get this sorted!

If you do not have priority debt arrears then it is unlikely they will refund charges under financial hardship.

EDIT: do you still use LloydsTSB as your main account?

ailsajayne29

littleeff wrote: »

I couldnt agree more with you. I feel let down by the FOS as well as my bank...

I threatened lloyds with the FOS and she just went '' well we've been assessed by the FSA and are completely in the right. We do not have to repay any charges and as you dont owe us any money you can go jump'' well not in those exact words obviously but she was really rude and as far as they are concerned I just have to wait whether im in hardship or not!! Is it worth trying the FOS route? bearing in mind that while i meet the hardship criteria due to being on a DMP for loans and credit cards, and do keep incurring chrages I do not at present have priority debts (but i do think thats coming if I get any more charges!)

natweststaffmember

bracken79 wrote: »

I have been reading the advice on this site,and the advice and experience of the people in the forums for a while now.
I bank with the Nationwide and they have been taking what I believe to be,excessive bank charges from me,for late direct debits.

I and my partner have been in financial hardship since 2007,since we lost our hime due to my partners business failing.

I had planned to write to the bank,as instructed on this site,telling them we were in financial hardship,and would they consider repaying our charges to us.

Today on a whim,while I was in the bank,I asked the bank costumer service man if he could help me with it.
Shocked,he said yes.He took my details and asked me about the financial hardship I and my partner had been through.
He also gave my young daughter a packet of smarties,from I guess,the smartie room in the back(now we know what they spend our bank charges on!)...

Anyway,he informed me that paperwork was now on route to my address,for us to fill in,and then we were to send back the paperwork and await a decision.
He was VERY nice about it,and when I asked what he thought our chances were of getting a refund,he said from what I told him,our chances were very good.

I will keep you informed about how this proceeds.:rolleyes:

Ok, I can save him and you some time and get you the Income and expenditure form and even their address.....
http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?t=18427
Post 4

natweststaffmember

ailsajayne29 wrote: »

I threatened lloyds with the FOS and she just went '' well we've been assessed by the FSA and are completely in the right. We do not have to repay any charges and as you dont owe us any money you can go jump'' well not in those exact words obviously but she was really rude and as far as they are concerned I just have to wait whether im in hardship or not!! Is it worth trying the FOS route? bearing in mind that while i meet the hardship criteria due to being on a DMP for loans and credit cards, and do keep incurring chrages I do not at present have priority debts (but i do think thats coming if I get any more charges!)

No priority debts mean it is unlikely you will be considered as being in financial hardship with regards to the FSA waiver on bank charges.
I would look at reclaiming credit card charges today since there is no hold on them.

lizan71

HI I have just registered with this site and am looking for advice. My bank charges claim with Lloyds TSB and Nationwide are as "they say" justified and Nationwide continue to take charges from me - I am now in arrears with everything Mortgage, Coucil tax Utilitiy etc. I am single parent and not sure what to do next. I have even lost track of the charges I am actually owed. Any advice with be appreciated

ailsajayne29

My individual income is the same as my household! there is only me!
I really applied for hardship as it says on the annex 2 thing that if you cannot maintain exisitng credit like cards and loans you are in hardship, which I am!

Yes LLoyds is my main account, I moved from Halifax two years ago, Im still waiting to hear back from them about the charges I am reclaiming form them.They owe me £2400, I owe them £2100 (all from charges over one year). these charges came about after i had to take a lower paid job and broke up with my boyfriend who i was sharing a house with, it all went very wrong but I burie my head in the sand and tried to ignore it and halifax waited til i woed them so much money i couldnt possibly repay it and then got in touch

I moved to Lloyds and had no charges for months but after the AA took a payment without telling me they would (new direct debit, i thought first pamyment would be amonth later not two weeks, my fault as well as theirs) I was £6 overdrawn and because of when it happened I couldnt pay the £7 back in before payday and was charged £60, so the next month when they took the charge (without warning me it was going to be taken) Three other bills bounced reculting in £60 more of charges and an unplanned overdraft fee of £15 because my mobile banking payment came out. Its spiraled from there, I've treied many times to show them my income and expenditure from CCCS to proove that I dont have £60 spare money to pay continuing charges and that if that money is taken it means other things cnat be paid, but they only listened on that front once id been referred to the recovery dept. the last time i tried to talk to he customer relations man in the branch i left in tears, as he proceeded to pick through my statements and pick on every single penny i had spent as if i had wasted it all... lecturing me on where I do my food shopping (asda, but also local markets etc where its cheap) and as birthday money had been paid into my account the fact that I used my card in a book and clothes shop meant I was frivolous and did not care and would be back there next month crying because i have no money...

sorry I got off the point there! Its just so hard to sit there and be told its all my fault and that im not trying to help myself and all the other things he said that really just are not helpful when all Im asking for is my money back, or even part of my money, they charge me all this money and often dont even send me a letter to say ive gone overdrawn, so what it for? they charge me interest on anything o/d as well...

sorry I end up feeling like ive done something very wrong whenever i tlk about any of this and end up justifying myself every step of the way and i think its just because of how they behave when i try to speak to anyone about it!

natweststaffmember

ailsajayne29 wrote: »

My individual income is the same as my household! there is only me!
I really applied for hardship as it says on the annex 2 thing that if you cannot maintain exisitng credit like cards and loans you are in hardship, which I am!

Yes LLoyds is my main account, I moved from Halifax two years ago, Im still waiting to hear back from them about the charges I am reclaiming form them.They owe me £2400, I owe them £2100 (all from charges over one year). these charges came about after i had to take a lower paid job and broke up with my boyfriend who i was sharing a house with, it all went very wrong but I burie my head in the sand and tried to ignore it and halifax waited til i woed them so much money i couldnt possibly repay it and then got in touch

I moved to Lloyds and had no charges for months but after the AA took a payment without telling me they would (new direct debit, i thought first pamyment would be amonth later not two weeks, my fault as well as theirs) I was £6 overdrawn and because of when it happened I couldnt pay the £7 back in before payday and was charged £60, so the next month when they took the charge (without warning me it was going to be taken) Three other bills bounced reculting in £60 more of charges and an unplanned overdraft fee of £15 because my mobile banking payment came out. Its spiraled from there, I've treied many times to show them my income and expenditure from CCCS to proove that I dont have £60 spare money to pay continuing charges and that if that money is taken it means other things cnat be paid, but they only listened on that front once id been referred to the recovery dept. the last time i tried to talk to he customer relations man in the branch i left in tears, as he proceeded to pick through my statements and pick on every single penny i had spent as if i had wasted it all... lecturing me on where I do my food shopping (asda, but also local markets etc where its cheap) and as birthday money had been paid into my account the fact that I used my card in a book and clothes shop meant I was frivolous and did not care and would be back there next month crying because i have no money...

sorry I got off the point there! Its just so hard to sit there and be told its all my fault and that im not trying to help myself and all the other things he said that really just are not helpful when all Im asking for is my money back, or even part of my money, they charge me all this money and often dont even send me a letter to say ive gone overdrawn, so what it for? they charge me interest on anything o/d as well...

sorry I end up feeling like ive done something very wrong whenever i tlk about any of this and end up justifying myself every step of the way and i think its just because of how they behave when i try to speak to anyone about it!

Right, let's work this one out and get somewhere further here.
Is there any credit card charges to reclaim?
The bank will look at priority debt arrears(mortgage or rent, council tax, utilities) because they would get you kicked out of your home, lose your liberty and/or lose essential utilities).
Without that it is difficult to argue that you are in financial hardship.
How much do you owe against how much they owe you? The answer could put you into a strong position against them. Remember, at the moment you are still in control.

PeppyLaPugh

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Have they stopped the charges being applied or are they still applying them. That letter is not particularly clear. Who was it from?

Hi Natwest.staffmember. The letter was from
Natwest,
Glasgow collections centre,
West George street,
Glasgow.

And like you I do not understand the letter either, I do not know whether it means they are stopping the charges or not, it is not clear.:mad:

Anno_3

I, like a lot of other people had my claim put on hold when the test case came to light. I cancelled all of my debits from the account to ensure no further charges would be incurred. The amount I was claiming was 3,500. That was back in March 2008. Shortly afterwards I fell seriously ill and was unable to work, running up large debts as a result of the large drop in income.
Last month I found out about the 'hardship' situation and decided to pursue, filling in the relevant income/expenditure forms out to me by Nationwide, very quickly recieved I might add.
Yesterday I called them to chase up the progress and was delighted to be told by the woman on the phone that the society were going to be refunding ALL of my charges, would be put into my account within 7-10 days and a letter was on it's way to me. I was obviously delighted!!!
Imagine my dismay then upon receiving the letter this morning only to find out that they were actually only going to refund the charges incurred SINCE my hardship began, totalling some 800 that I didn't even KNOW about!!!!! (I had moved in the meantime and not given them new address so received no statements). As I said earlier, I had cancelled ALL debits from the account to avoid any further charges. This 'refund' payment therefore only takes the account back up to a nil balance, which clearly has no effect on my current financial situation.
I called them immediately to find out what was going on and was told they were only going to refund charges since hardship started, at least until the test case was finalised. I explained my situation and how it has no effect on my situation whatsoever and they have promised to look into it again and write to me within 5 days.
I will keep you up to speed on my progress.

A.

natweststaffmember

PeppyLaPugh wrote: »

Hi Natwest.staffmember. The letter was from
Natwest,
Glasgow collections centre,
West George street,
Glasgow.

And like you I do not understand the letter either, I do not know whether it means they are stopping the charges or not, it is not clear.:mad:

Worth clarifying to be honest.