Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

Ok, Financial hardship claims can still be looked at by the banks and refunds of charges can be made for the period of time where the hardship occurred. In BCOBS there is this part to it:

"GUIDANCE ONLY

Dealings with customers in financial difficulty

BCOBS 5.1.4 01/11/2009 Principle 6 requires a firm to pay due regard to the interests of its customers and to treat them fairly. In particular, a firm should deal fairly with a banking customer whom it has reason to believe is in financial difficulty.

Principle 6 - Customers' interests A firm must pay due regard to the interests of its customers and treat them fairly."

To a degree the FSA Waiver made banks actually look at someone's circumstances rather then simply say that they did. This is early days after the test case so in the coming days things should become a lot clearer.

rockinrob

Llogan1988 wrote: »

I was just wondering now that the courts are in favour with the banks (a bit dodgy considering) can i claim as finantial hardship? My husband and i are on full benefits, dss, council tax and have 5 or six red letters now threatening court action/balifs can i still claim and will it be considered that because we have all claimed before the supreme court ruiling today we may still get money back? Sometimes i have had £70 of my £130 money taken leaving us skint before i even got any and with 2 kids to feed the amount of money left means spending my husbands jsa on everything thus skint again, i only have my pet insurance coming out my bank now and thats because no1 else will touch me lol

If I were you I would ask for all my money to be sent via a Giro which you can cash at the PO As you are only receiving the minimum the state allows for you to live on You should not allow the bank to have any of this money

Sappoo21

what is likely to happen with hardship cases. I have a hardship case
with an adjudicator at the fos against nationwide for 7000 of charges.
help gratefully received.

annarooster_2

Am really upset, had applied to Co-Operative Bank under hardship rules for charges back, they telephoned me approx two weeks ago to say I was due about £700 back, they spent ages on phone with me advising me re my how to use the payout effectively re my debts, and that they wouldn't use it to pay off my overdraft, i could continue to gradually reduce that. They also said they would stop any pending charges on my account.

This meant I could get on top of some debts etc, they said would call me back on day it went in account, likely one/two days from this call.

I never heard anything and couldn't get through when I rung them.

Today I ring because if a new £60 charges and am told that my hardship claim is 'under review' because of the new court ruling.
I was not allowed to speak to the person handling the hardship case just told they would ring me but they were very busy and it would be when they have decided what is happening because of new ruling.

I feel really cheated, particularly because they were so nice on the phone.

Anyone any advice on how to proceed, they weren't very nice on the phone regarding nor putting me through to this dept and I feel completely powereless

never-in-doubt

Read Nattys post here: #2490

hadenoughofthehalifaxnow

PLEASE someone help me. i put a claim in to the halifax on the 11th of november, for around 3k of charges, as i am in assive financial difficulty after leaving my job in february and subsequently being hit with £100s of pounds worth of charges since. They stalled lots, and this morning i got a letter saying basically they dont care and a income expenditure form so they can help manage my account, so i logged in here and saw about the supreme court case yesterday. this was after nearly a fortnight after my claim for hardship was submitted to the halifax, what can i do? im completely screwed now without it, i likely to lose my family home and all prospects of working for myself. My hardship claim letter even had copies of ccjs, massively overdue bills and a sheet stating evidence for each of the fsa hardship waiver criteria, BEFORE this supreme court ruling. can i do anything, or is whats been the worst year ever turn into my last year ever, cos thats how im feeling now.

gio41uk

Ive been thru the site and im not sure what addressto use. Im sending a hardship claim and im a member of the Halifax. I see addresses for HBOS,Halifax and bank of scotland or is it my local branch.
I know about the ruling but as Martin says its worth a try.

Could someone tell what to send to,im waiting with the envelope to send .

thanks for any help
gio

acslater

I have charges with Woolwich of over £10,500 plus interest of over £5,000. (£600 in one month alone)
I also have charges with Lloyds of over £4,000 plus interest of over £2,000.
My wife has charges with Lloyds of over £5,000 plus interest of over £2,500.

Banks owe me and my wife £19,500 plus £9,500 interest.

Woolwich offered me £1,000 in settlement, which they upped to £2,000 when I questioned them about their insulting offer


I found Supreme Courts conclusion yesterday very disappointing and to put it mildly, disgusting.

Banks argue that it would be an end to ‘free’ banking if these charges were removed, and that they would have to introduce a monthly fee to everyone for the use of a bank account. This is bloody unbelievable – surely they cannot levy charges to a certain type of customer to pay for all other account holders accounts.

Would if be fair if Tesco’s allowed more well off customers to wheel their weekly groceries through the till without paying and insisted that the poorer customers pay for them instead. NO!! That would not be fair. If you have a product or a service from a shop, garage, builder, lawyer, etc., you pay for it yourself – not anybody else!!!
Why doesn’t the same apply for banks?

If everyone was able to keep their accounts in perfect order, banks would then not be able to make their current £2.6bn pure profit a year from them. Banks would need to find another way to make up that £2.6bn. My guess is that they would then introduce a charge for the privilege of having an account. I find this a perfectly fair way of charging.

Banks must be itching to do this, as it probably a more profitable and fairer method of ripping us off. They wont do it of course because they would be admitting that their current system is totally unfair and prejudiced against lower income people or people with awkward cash flows (like me).

Banks have recently lowered or restructured their fees – isn’t that an acknowledgement that their fees were wrong.

Banks have settled some claims – isn’t that an acknowledgement that their fees were wrong.

Woolwich offered me a settlement – isn’t that an acknowledgement that their fees were wrong.

In line with what Martin Lewis (MSE) said yesterday (25.11.09), if the banks rightly gave us back our money, it would be a great catalyst for the economy. A large chunk of that money is likely to be spent, which will filter through shops and business’s, back to the banks. Why is it that the government have shoved money by the train load in the banks mouths? I am not an economist, but I know that if the general public got their hands on money (not the banks) then that would be better for the economy. What business wants to borrow from banks at the moment – borrowing is too expensive (compared to the base rate), and people do not want to buy at the moment.

Money needs to be fed into the economy from the bottom up.

Why are the banks being looked after so well? What have they done to deserve this preferential treatment? What is being done with the money that the government gave them to put into the economy, I think it was called Q.E.?

Why cant we have someone with a voice to represent us? The politicians don’t!!

A short while ago, political leaders were getting involved and ‘expressing their concerns’ about this matter. The cynic in me tells me that those ‘leaders’ were in on the result before us and were just giving us lip service. They knew that banks wouldn’t have to pay us back. Anything to get a vote, aye? Spineless bast***s.

jonpnash

annarooster wrote: »

Am really upset, had applied to Co-Operative Bank under hardship rules for charges back, they telephoned me approx two weeks ago to say I was due about £700 back, they spent ages on phone with me advising me re my how to use the payout effectively re my debts, and that they wouldn't use it to pay off my overdraft, i could continue to gradually reduce that. They also said they would stop any pending charges on my account.

This meant I could get on top of some debts etc, they said would call me back on day it went in account, likely one/two days from this call.

I never heard anything and couldn't get through when I rung them.

Today I ring because if a new £60 charges and am told that my hardship claim is 'under review' because of the new court ruling.
I was not allowed to speak to the person handling the hardship case just told they would ring me but they were very busy and it would be when they have decided what is happening because of new ruling.

I feel really cheated, particularly because they were so nice on the phone.

Anyone any advice on how to proceed, they weren't very nice on the phone regarding nor putting me through to this dept and I feel completely powereless

You are not alone. Co-operative are one of the most hardline of the bank. It took months and months going through the FOS to even get a reply from them.
Then they agreed to pay back credit card charges instead of dealing with my case.
Now that the current FSA waiver is lifted I suggest you write to ask them to fulfill their promises as soon as possible. And take it up with the FOS who are helpful in bending the arm of the Coop.
Ethical banking, my ar...se

ps... do you have a direct number for customer services at the Cooperative bank?
they always have given me the wrong number on each occation...

mojoparrot

jonpnash wrote: »

You are not alone. Co-operative are one of the most hardline of the bank. It took months and months going through the FOS to even get a reply from them.
Then they agreed to pay back credit card charges instead of dealing with my case.
Now that the current FSA waiver is lifted I suggest you write to ask them to fulfill their promises as soon as possible. And take it up with the FOS who are helpful in bending the arm of the Coop.
Ethical banking, my ar...se

ps... do you have a direct number for customer services at the Cooperative bank?
they always have given me the wrong number on each occation...

I had trouble with the co-op too. My hardship claim went to the FOS in May this year. Coop refused to respond to the FOS, said they had conacted me for more info 3 times (they didnt). Eventually at the beginnng of this month after i send a bundle of credtor letters they sent me a letter saying I wasnt in hardship and had £1200 a month disposale income! That is all my wage!
On advice of the FOS I contacted the bank direct direct last Thursday and spent around 20mins on the phone speaking to an advisor who told me to contact CAB and that the payback £2800 really wouldnt touch my debts but that if I sent out more info on my debts that he would reevaluate my claim i 2-3 weeks. He told me that he had not been able to look at my debts as the info sent had not got monthly payments on it so he had to ignore it. He told me to send info with monthly payment ammounts on it which I did.
I now realis that he was stalling for time!
Igree ethical my a**e!