Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

Panther1_2

Hi Dohadeer, I am also chasing Lloyds at the moment and in fact have just come off the phone to the Customer Service Recovery Centre after giving them 7 days to respond to my 4th leeter regarding my claim.

Direct contact details (which should help) are as follows:

Lloyds TSB Bank Plc
Customer Service Recovery Centre
Charlton Place
Andover
Hampshire
SP10 1RE

Tel: 01264 725214
Fax: 01264 832238

This is the department who will deal with your case (whether it has got that far yet or not, I would recommend contacting them anyway).

Lloyds have been a nightmare in my case, and will either not respond or send 4-8 week holding letters at every opportunity. After giving then 7 days to pay my claim last weekend, I have rung them this afternoon to see why I have not had a response. I was informed they have written to me today (last minute as usual!) with ANOTHER holding letter. I informed them on the phone that I would be issuing a court claim against them on Monday, which I have followed up by fax.

Having read the waiver of the FSA website, I believe they have breached the conditions of the waiver for financial hardship. I will be detailing this in my court claim in the hope that this will negate any attempt to have the case stayed.

I will let you know if this has any success!

christylynch10

Hi there just looking to enquire about contact details for the halifax.I`m looking at going to the small claims court in Northern Ireland to claim back £600.I`m hoping that they`ll settle before.I`ve currently moved jobs to be closer to my partner and son.They`ve given me the legal hold jargon and a budgeting plan (blank).My argument was that they refused to upgrade my bank account even though I was earning £24k a year as it was in their interest to charge me for my unauthorised overdrafts which never went to more than £75.Id be grateful if you have any info to help me.So happy you got something back off them.

schles2002

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for some clarification please, I placed a claim for refund of bank charges with Abbey just before the test case was announced, so the claim is now on hold. The claim amounts to about £3500.

I have recently put in claim to them for financial hardship, I have recently, like thousands of others unfortunately been made redundant. I completed the income and expenditure form and they have replied saying that they will agree to refund £950.00 of charges, a result!! But a paragraph in the letter is a bit disturbing and I quote:

"Our Collections and Recoveries team will contact you to discuss how this has been credited and how you can manage your finances going forward. If the value of this refund does not cover your arrears with Abbey, they will also arrange, a new, or update any existing plan. Their telephone number is 08459 724 724"

The situation is that I have an overdraft of £1300, are they going to wipe out my overdraft with this refund and can they do that? And what happens to my previous claim can I proceed with it once a decision is made?

I would be grateful for any comments, Thanks for reading


Lesley

natweststaffmember

Not necessarily. They may well want to clarify that the priority debts are being paid out from the refund. Remember that you need to subtract that from any amount your are claiming. Furthermore, if you have lost your job since their last assessment you may want to state this because it is a further change in circumstances.

natweststaffmember

Panther1 wrote: »

Hi all. Working in Estate Agency, I have had my income reduce by around 35% in the past 12 months leaving me in financial hardship (reduced mortgage payments, missing loan, credit card and utility payments).

I wrote to Lloyds in November after 2 months of charges totalled over £600 on my 3 main accounts (I had rung them initially and was told I had incurred the charges so there was nothing they could do - after saying I therefor wanted to reclaim my charges I was given a POBox address to write to).

I received no reply, so wrote again at the beginning of December complaining which I also copied to Customer Services by fax. I received my charges breakdown on my main account which I then wrote back claiming (£1613). At this point I had no communication - verbal or written - regarding my financial hardship or its assessment.

2 weeks later I wrote again complaining and asking for the breakdown of charges for the past 6 years on my other 2 credit accounts - copied by fax to customer services - which I received a few days later.

Just before Christmas, I received a letter from the "Customer Service Recovery Centre" saying it had been 4 weeks since my complaint but it had not been assessed so it would take another 4 - 8 weeks.

I rang on 2nd January to complain that this was ridiculous having clocked up another £300+ in charges since my first letter in November and still noone had dealt with my claim/complaint. I was put through to the Customer Support Unit who went through a verbal assessment of my income/outgoings and stopped my charges for the next 2 months and changed my accounts to limited charges accounts due to my situation.

I have now written to the bank giving them 7 days to pay the charges for all 3 credit accounts (just over £3200) or I will commence court proceedings. Having studied the Waiver and having had past experience in court in my past career (taking 30+ cases to court) I believe the Bank has failed in its obligations in the waiver both to assess Financial Difficulties and its timing in doing so. I feel they do not have grounds to enforce they elements of the waiver which suit them - but ride roughshod over their own obligations in the waiver.

Any opinions or successes in this situation?

If you take it to court you cannot use the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges since it is not case law. You can ask the FOS to relook at your case. I would say that if you have not priority debt arrears then the bank may have considered that your case didn't merit hardship. The bank DOES NOT have to refund charges but they can suspend charges. If you have read PAGE 11 of the FSA Waiver, then I would have written to the bank quoting those elements of the waiver that are specific to you.

schles2002

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for some clarification please, I placed a claim for refund of bank charges with Abbey just before the test case was announced, so the claim is now on hold. The claim amounts to about £3500.

I have recently put in claim to them for financial hardship, I have recently, like thousands of others unfortunately been made redundant. I completed the income and expenditure form and they have replied saying that they will agree to refund £950.00 of charges, a result!! But a paragraph in the letter is a bit disturbing and I quote:

"Our Collections and Recoveries team will contact you to discuss how this has been credited and how you can manage your finances going forward. If the value of this refund does not cover your arrears with Abbey, they will also arrange, a new, or update any existing plan. Their telephone number is 08459 724 724"

The situation is that I have an overdraft of £1300, are they going to wipe out my overdraft with this refund and can they do that? And what happens to my previous claim can I proceed with it once a decision is made?

I would be grateful for any comments, Thanks for reading


Lesley

natweststaffmember

schles2002 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I am just looking for some clarification please, I placed a claim for refund of bank charges with Abbey just before the test case was announced, so the claim is now on hold. The claim amounts to about £3500.

I have recently put in claim to them for financial hardship, I have recently, like thousands of others unfortunately been made redundant. I completed the income and expenditure form and they have replied saying that they will agree to refund £950.00 of charges, a result!! But a paragraph in the letter is a bit disturbing and I quote:

"Our Collections and Recoveries team will contact you to discuss how this has been credited and how you can manage your finances going forward. If the value of this refund does not cover your arrears with Abbey, they will also arrange, a new, or update any existing plan. Their telephone number is 08459 724 724"

The situation is that I have an overdraft of £1300, are they going to wipe out my overdraft with this refund and can they do that? And what happens to my previous claim can I proceed with it once a decision is made?

I would be grateful for any comments, Thanks for reading


Lesley

Post 276 was intended for you, apologies but I should have quoted you

Panther1_2

natweststaffmember wrote: »

If you take it to court you cannot use the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges since it is not case law. You can ask the FOS to relook at your case. I would say that if you have not priority debt arrears then the bank may have considered that your case didn't merit hardship. The bank DOES NOT have to refund charges but they can suspend charges. If you have read PAGE 11 of the FSA Waiver, then I would have written to the bank quoting those elements of the waiver that are specific to you.

I have now refered this matter to the FOS together with sending a full bundle of my letters (and their responses) to the bank by recorded delivery.

What has surprised me in dealing with Lloyds, is that I have never received a single phonecall from them and have received standard letters only. I believe the bank is failing to meet its obligations in assessing claims - they have certainly provided no evidence to the contrary!

I will see what comes of my complaint to the FOS.

angiechesh

Well done to anyone who has managed to get a result under the hardship ruling.
I wasn't so lucky and I don't have any faith in the FOS after how long they dragged their feet over my request for help.
Funnily enough the bank I'm with is Lloyds and their lack of response to my original request for my bank charges back meant that I had to write to the FOS and by the time they got back to me the test cases had been announced so it was put on hold.
I received a repossession order on my home, baliffs visiting because of non payment of council tax and arrears on other things. I managed to get a loan to cover all the arreas but at a higher interest rate and wrote to request my case be looked at under the hardship case.
Lloyds took so long getting back to the FOS I had managed to not accrue any more charges and because I had regular money going into my acc they rejected my request.
If we are able to reclaim our charges back again in the future when the court decide we can does anyone know if we will still be able to try and claim back the original amount we had requested before everything went on hold or will it be 6 years back from when the decision is made to start them again.

natweststaffmember

angiechesh wrote: »

Well done to anyone who has managed to get a result under the hardship ruling.
I wasn't so lucky and I don't have any faith in the FOS after how long they dragged their feet over my request for help.
Funnily enough the bank I'm with is Lloyds and their lack of response to my original request for my bank charges back meant that I had to write to the FOS and by the time they got back to me the test cases had been announced so it was put on hold.
I received a repossession order on my home, baliffs visiting because of non payment of council tax and arrears on other things. I managed to get a loan to cover all the arreas but at a higher interest rate and wrote to request my case be looked at under the hardship case.
Lloyds took so long getting back to the FOS I had managed to not accrue any more charges and because I had regular money going into my acc they rejected my request.
If we are able to reclaim our charges back again in the future when the court decide we can does anyone know if we will still be able to try and claim back the original amount we had requested before everything went on hold or will it be 6 years back from when the decision is made to start them again.

Have a read of the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges especially pages 6 and 7 which deal with your question but the answer is NO.