Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

Nathan_Spleen

Scottie_Boy wrote: »

Hi,

I took my claim to the Ombudsman as was getting nowhere with Lloyds TSB. The Ombudsman has communicated with me now on three occasions. He admits that I am in financial difficulty but doesn't think the bank is to blame. According to guidelines I should come under the Hardship Ruling as charges in the last year were well over £500 and I have been on a Scottish Trust deed for three years (like an IVA). Actually, I would say the bank was a lot to blame ....but does that actually matter based on the ruling since even the regulator agrees I am in financial difficulty. I haven't seen anything in the guidelines to suggest this is a blame game thing. Surely you are either in difficulty or you are not?

Here comes the quote/s from the Ombudsman:

"It is evident from the documents that you have provided that you are experiencing financial hardship and in my view the bank has not disputed this. However, as I have suggested in my previous letter, your debts are elsewhere, so we would not expect the bank to refund the charges that you have complained about to assist. If the reverse was true and Lloyds TSB had made a demand that you repay a debt, then in this situation it may be appropriate for the bank to utilise one or more of the remedies available.

As expained, the bank is under a duty to treat cases of financial difficulty positively and sympathetically. But that does not mean that there is any kind of financial difficulties "threshold" which, once reached, triggers a refund of charges.

I acknowledge that you feel that the bank charges applied to your current account are unfair and that this caused your financial difficulties. Nonetheless, it remains the case that the issues surrounding bank charges will be concluded by the High Court. Therefore, at this stage there is no onus on the bank to refund the charges that you have complained about and that Lloyds TSB is entitled to apply charges and interest as defined within the terms and conditions of your account......"

".....If you have not responded by this date (11th Feb), I will then ask the bank to retain a record of your request for a refund of charges until the outcome of the High Court test case is known. The bank should then contact you direct"

The refunded charges would only just pay off expensive loans I've taken out to avoid more bank charges - but I get the feeling I'd be having more luck as a hardship case if the bank were hitting me with those charges all the time!

Do you think I should now lodge my case officially with the Scottish Sherrif courts rather than deal direct with the banks. I'm led to believe it might be easier to get a case heard in Scotland? Has anyone any advice?

This is a very disappointing response from the Ombudsman.

Contrary to what the letter states, there is no requirement in the waiver direction for your hardship to be ''caused'' by bank charges, for the purposes of your bank to deal with your case under the hardship rules.

Although he ''acknowledges'' that you ''feel that the bank charges applied to your account are unfair'', the fact is that the OFT - the authority on the matter - have declared the charges unfair.

You also might want to remind them that prior to the test case, the Ombudsman had a 100% record in awarding refunds for bank charge claims. Under the waiver terms, recognised cases are not applicable to the waiver and therefore there is no reason why they shouldn't award you a refund.

Scottie_Boy_2

Nathan_Spleen wrote: »

This is a very disappointing response from the Ombudsman.

Contrary to what the letter states, there is no requirement in the waiver direction for your hardship to be ''caused'' by bank charges, for the purposes of your bank to deal with your case under the hardship rules.

Although he ''acknowledges'' that you ''feel that the bank charges applied to your account are unfair'', the fact is that the OFT - the authority on the matter - have declared the charges unfair.

You also might want to remind them that prior to the test case, the Ombudsman had a 100% record in awarding refunds for bank charge claims. Under the waiver terms, recognised cases are not applicable to the waiver and therefore there is no reason why they shouldn't award you a refund.

Thanks Nathan.

Can you please just explain what you mean in your final sentence by 'recognised cases'.

Nathan_Spleen

The guidance in the FSA's waiver direction states:

9. [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman][FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]Guidance[/FONT][/FONT]: If the complaint relates also to other matters, including but not limited to disputed transactions, or financial hardship, this direction does not modify the firm's obligations to deal with the other matters in the usual way.

In other words the waiver and test case do not apply to recognised hardship cases.

Also read annexe 2 of the waiver direction for more info. http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Notify/Waiver/pdf/disp_monthly.pdf

From the point you tell the bank that you believe you are suffering financial hardship they have 8 weeks in which to tell you if they agree or not. If not you can ask the ombudsman to adjudicate. However, the Ombudsman appeared to agree that you are and really he should be doing more than he is IMHO.

andyg0507

HI ALL, SPOKE TO CREDIT MANAGEMENT TEAM AT NATWEST AGAIN, AND LO AND BEHOLD THEY HAD MY CASE ALL THE TIME AND NOW BEEN TOLD I WILL BE CALLED TODAY WITH A DECISION(MORE CHANCE OF HELL FREEZING OVER) BUT FINGERS CROSSED:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

andyg0507

just had the phone call, and guess what, my claim for hardship has been rejected, so the £11 me my girlfriend and son have till the end of the month is going to be tight, i cant belive they can just toss it aside like that:mad: :mad:

So now i presume i have to take this to the fsa??? Any sugestions on where to go from here??

andyg0507

hi all, after being told today by natwest that my claim for hardship has been rejected i decided to phone the ombudsman, having spoke to fella on the other end he has told me that because my accounts from the natwest were closed 2 years ago( by them) for owing £3000 in overlimint charges on two accounts, and that i must have been in fianacial hardship since that time (two years ago) that my case is basicly not worth bothering about..:mad: :mad: :mad: i seem to have hit a brick wall, i am in financial hardship, lost job,cant pay debts etc..etc... so trully could do with some advice on the matter, has anyone else had a similar situation with natwest??

any info would be great

wleigh

andyg0507 wrote: »

HI ALL, SPOKE TO CREDIT MANAGEMENT TEAM AT NATWEST AGAIN, AND LO AND BEHOLD THEY HAD MY CASE ALL THE TIME AND NOW BEEN TOLD I WILL BE CALLED TODAY WITH A DECISION(MORE CHANCE OF HELL FREEZING OVER) BUT FINGERS CROSSED:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Hi Andy, very sorry to hear Natwest are not helping you - I suspect my claim may well go the same way...What phone number did you call initially or did you write to them?

andyg0507

hi if you search my posts u can find the no for the glasgow collections office give them a call, good luck if you need any info just let me know

raaaaa

I applied to get my bank charges back off HSBC 2 years ago, and only became aware of this Hardship exception issue this week. I decided to give HSBC a ring to discuss this, and (after being transferred 3 or 4 times) ended up speaking to someone in the 'Hardship team' who took some current financial details from me, then said it sounded like I'd qualify for it and that it would be referred to his supervisor to make a decision and then I'd get a call back from HSBC about it within a week.

I'd like to think that this is a good sign & that the bloke didn't just fob me off to get me off the phone!! We'll see...

susie40

So Happy

Just received notification that ALLIANCE AND LEICESTER WILL PAY ME £2900 FOR RECLAIMING AGAINST PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE AGAINST PAST LOAN.

A BIG HUG TO MARTIN AND ALL WHO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS SITE.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORKS

SUSAN