Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

Paulxo wrote: »

Nationwide has just replied to me saying that they are "unable to refund my bank charges" under the financial hardship application. They then went and charged me £440 for last month. Considering I'm on a salary of £715 per month, this ironically puts me in financial hardship.

I went directly to my branch to complain and do you know what they said? "Cancel direct debits". Hmm, ok I'll just cancel my mortgage, council tax, utility bills, car insurance, etc, cos my bank says so and they'll charge me.

I then asked for advice on what to do about my charges - about £3,000. (I'm now £2k overdrawn, which if you think about it, means that I would actually be £1k in the black). On telling them I'd had a letter back saying 'No',they said just escalate it until you're happy....

HMM.

I think you need to go back to them because your circumstances have worsened further. If you have council tax, mortgage/rent arrear, utilities arrears then that may be financial hardship criteria.

squink

Paulxo wrote: »

Nationwide has just replied to me saying that they are "unable to refund my bank charges" under the financial hardship application."

I tried this with Barclays last year and they made it clear that bank charge refunds, and financial hardship help requests, were dealt with entirely separately - that help re f/h ranged from advice on how best to manage your bank account, to temporary help with short term cash flow problems (ie. a loan?!) They also suggested I was using the f/h claim as an alternative to a bank charges complaint, to obtain a refund (ie. using it as a ploy - boy was my return letter cutting!)
The point is - I checked with the FOS if this was correct and they said yes, the 2 things were dealt with entirely separately ie. the banks didn't give charge refunds to alleviate hardship. Each was a separate issue.
Strangely though, after 18 months of wrangling, I got a letter out of the blue from Barclays today saying "we have recently revised our policy...we have accepted your claim of financial difficulty...I confirm the sum of XXX will be transferred to your account" (???!!!)
Think they make the rules up as they go along, so just keep pounding on the doors.
Trouble is, a) they put it into my account which has a fat overdraft which I'm reducing through a debt management plan (account open but no longer used), so don't know if I can actually access that cash or if they've just paid themselves back a bit (anyone know?)
b) it's less than half of my claim, so guess I should pursue it now with the FOS on the chance I may get more.
Also does anyone know, if I now go to the FOS, do I have to inform the bank so that the account remains "in dispute", since they've closed this complaint, and if the dispute is over they may go back to asking for the full overdraft back again (as they tried before) ?
BUT some success at last, so hope for you yet....

mum2one

You can accept the payment, but make sure you put it in writing that it is without prejudice, leaves you to continue the claim for when the charges get relased.
Is there any way you can withdraw the money, but it does look like its credited your account, I dont knwo how you stand as ur in dmp plan, sorry. x

chipbeck

Barclays got back to me and told me I'd get a decision by the 1st of April. Hope they don't make a foolish offer!

simon1111

Hi , i have written to hsbc requeasting my charges which they have provided. i feel i qualify for financial hardship as i meet all the criteria i have lost my job, maxed out cards reurned dd the list goes on.My question is what next , i have sent the second letter asking that they refund all charges and that i am suffering financial hardship. i have sent this to the account holding branch , is that correct? and how long do they take to respond?
Finally i do have a business account with them however it was a limited company can i still claim?.Any help would be gatefully excepted

sniffy152

I have been trying to reclaim for well over 1 year now for £2500 for the ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND. I sent the letter in dec(recorded) to say I was in financial difficulty just to see if it moved it along any, as I have 2 outstanding loans with arrears. They wrote to say I would recieve the full amount OF £2500 but use it to clear the some of the arrears just after a few weeks.
However, I wrote on the 9th of dec to say I had £1000 mortage arrears and if I could receive that in my bank and the rest to clear of my loans.
I knew it would be a chance, but 30 dec 08. I recieved a letter to say that they would accept this and credited my account with £1000. cleared of my £500 loan so its now paid off. And put the other £1000 towards my big loan (which now I am going to try and claim PPI) Thank a million martin!!

Keep at it everyone its worth all the letters!!!

squink

chipbeck wrote: »

Barclays got back to me and told me I'd get a decision by the 1st of April. Hope they don't make a foolish offer!

After wrangling since July 07, got a payment out of the blue from Barclays last week, saying had reviewed their policy and now accepted my hardship claim - was very chuffed until realised a) was less than half my claim and b) had gone into my overdrawn account so guess I won't see it (going to ask anyway).
Interestingly, when I looked on the forum for successful claims on here, there are loads of recent Barclays payouts - annoyingly some are full, others partial - grrrr! So must be clearing the decks or something.

squink

simon1111 wrote: »

Hi , i have written to hsbc requeasting my charges which they have provided. i feel i qualify for financial hardship as i meet all the criteria i have lost my job, maxed out cards reurned dd the list goes on.My question is what next , i have sent the second letter asking that they refund all charges and that i am suffering financial hardship. i have sent this to the account holding branch , is that correct? and how long do they take to respond?
Finally i do have a business account with them however it was a limited company can i still claim?.Any help would be gatefully excepted

Get a copy of the banks complaints procedure (have nice glossy booklets these days) - that should tell you the time limits/what they have to do etc. Good practice to always stipulate a time frame in your letter, for their response (eg. "I request a response to my letter within 14 days") then it is in print and goes against them if they don't. I forget the stipulated time frames but 14 days seems to ring a bell - if it doesn't happen, send a letter quoting expected practice etc.. I first wrote to my branch who forwarded it on - customer relations I think, may get given a dedicated complaints advisor (whoopee!)
On your bank info it should also explain how hardship claims are dealt with - my experience is, they will send you a budget form to fill out your income/outgoings, from which they can see your situation to make their judgment. Also the FOS is good in giving advice/guidelines on procedures etc. - find online, and get their phone no.. I found if you appear to match the criteria for hardship, some banks still may knock you back (law unto themselves) in which case follow the procedures for taking out a complaint to the FOS - they then advise the bank to pay out if they agree you qualify (or something like that).
BUT I got a surprise payout last week (see last post) so wonder if maybe all the banks will be changing tac due to the court proceedings - might have hit it lucky with your timing...?
Have a careful look through the advice Martin gives about going about things - it pays off to take the time to know the procedures and do it properly, otherwise mistakes can slow things down/!!!! them up. Also if you sound like you know what you're talking about/the law etc., they tend to take more notice.
Don't know about the business side - is there a forum on here for that? - good luck

sclancy1

Is there a template letter to send off to claim under financial hardship.. unable to find one on this site...

mum2one

If the 1st letter works on the same basis as the original set of the bank charges then the bank have 40 days in which to reply. x

sclancy - dont think theres an actual letter, if you use the 1st template letter, and then add on financial hardship details that should surfice.
x