Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

colley20

i have claimed £2,000 from halifax, i am claiming under hardship the bank have offerd me £242, can anyone tell me were i can get a template for a refusel letter

sparkle2607

sarah73076 wrote: »

I have written to both Lloyds and Alliance & Leicester regarding my bank charges and requesting they deal with the case now because of financial difficulty. I was separated last year (divorce now final), and left my job due to my current partner's new job which required us to move up north. So basically I have no income and am in both of my overdrafts. I haven't had any bank charges for a while (getting rid of ex-husband helped), but money is very tight while I'm looking for a job.

Alliance & Leicester sent me a form and only gave me 10 days to return it. I had to list all my income and debts, and I did list my partner's income and debts on there as well. It looks fairly clear that even with our modest budget, we don't have enough to pay our bills and are going further into the red every month. I sent it a few weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Will be following up as soon as we are back from seeing family in the U.S. (which we really can't afford, but tickets were booked months ago!).

As for Lloyds, the account I was making the claim on was my now-closed joint account with my ex-husband. They sent two identical form letters, one addressed to both of us, one addressed just to me. The letter rambles on for a few pages, but does promise to contact me within a week about my financial difficulties. No one has contacted me, and it's been well over a month. I've written them again saying I will go to the ombudsman if I don't get a satisfactory response in two weeks.

Will try to keep this updated if anything happens. Hoping some others will join this discussion!

I have just received a financial hardship reclaim cheque from Barclays after filling in the income expenditure form. The amount they have sent is nrly 50%lower than my claim. They know you are desperate which is unfair and know you won't refuse a cheque. Please also be careful in case your husband gets the cheque as our cheque and letter were only addressed to my partner(not married)!!! and I was not mentioned on either and if a problem could have lost my share of it!!!!

sparkle2607

Go to the citizens advice and they will help you deal with the bank. Go and open another bank account the co-op is good and put all your monies in there and set back up your direct debits. It is a spiralling situation and apply to your old bank for the reclaim and financial hardships route.

jones1234_2

Has anyone ever had success with lloyds? Please share.

natweststaffmember

sparkle2607 wrote: »

I have just received a financial hardship reclaim cheque from Barclays after filling in the income expenditure form. The amount they have sent is nrly 50%lower than my claim. They know you are desperate which is unfair and know you won't refuse a cheque. Please also be careful in case your husband gets the cheque as our cheque and letter were only addressed to my partner(not married)!!! and I was not mentioned on either and if a problem could have lost my share of it!!!!

Sparkle, remember that you get the rest once the OFT test case issues are resolved.

Shams_2

I am going to try and reclaim bank charges for my partner, claiming financial hardship because he has had more than £500 of charges in the last 12 months. Will I affect his chances if they see that he has savings in his ISA which is also with the same bank I want to claim from????? I dont know if withdrawing and placing the funds elsewhere will help????

squink

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Point taken, Legal bit was an minor error but I do think that being objective as well rather than stating the bank are "bully boys and lie to you" might be better on your part....

....someone had come on the forum either same day or day before saying they had had costs awarded against them for attempting to lift a stay on the basis of Hardship. QUOTE]

Cheers for that.
Sadly that was an objective comment based on it happening frequently to me - that is, the initial bank response is often clearly designed to frighten off a prospective claim (usually interprets as "no chance" - it worked the first time for me, left it nearly a year until I came back on this site) and gives wrong information (Halifax actually stated the true cost of my going over the limit was the £35 charged, for eg.; Barclays stated would definitely NOT refund charges in connection with my hardship claim (suggested this was a ploy on my part, picked up through the media eg. this site?)), which subsequently is frequently turned around (they refunded! - and in my experience too, that is insurance company tactics). I'm also escalating a complaint with Barclays due to the "complaint handler" blatantly lying (in his letters - low IQ or what?) and then finally putting a hold on my statements being sent out (yes that's true!).
Reading how miserable it makes other people who haven't got used to the tactics does make one more to the point don't you think?!
Interested on figures on FOS lack of effect - had been led to believe otherwise - oh dear....
Didn't quite get the last bit - did you mean someone was actually charged costs for trying to lift their stay due to hardship, by the court?

squink

aliyah wrote: »

Can I ask some advice re a Barclays hardship claim please?

Made original claim in 2007, took small claims out but stayed as are so many cases.

Claim is now for 3,600.

Claimed hardship last October, no answer.

Again in December - Barclays asked for information etc.

I provided this and more.

In February I was told by letter that Barclays were considering my claim.

In March I wrote again demanding settlement under hardship.

I quickly received a letter saying someone may be in touch by phone or letter with queries within 5 working days (I see other people have had a call at this point and now have a payout)

No call or letter from Barclays. Three weeks ago I sent further strong evidence of hardship and another demand for payment.

No answer.

Two weeks ago I phoned Barclays hardship dept and asked why there was no action. Told the case manager was away that day. I asked whether Barclays had received enough evidence from me or could I send some more?

Was told ' Oh no we have everything we need...'

Since then nothing....

Anybody have any advice, contact details that may help PLEASE??

Thankyou

• get copy of barclays complaints procedures (usually get sent one/pick up in bank) and also banking code (ditto). That'll tell you time limits eg. when they have to respond to you (important). If they don't/haven't, that's evidence against them treating you reasonably (as put in their code). Write a list of what you/they've done (or not) with dates - then you can clearly track what's happened.
• ALWAYS send letters rather than phonecalls, and recorded (evidence - they may get "lost" in the post otherwise)
• ESCALATE your complaint to higher dept (suggest Barclays Legal and Litigation, Churchill Place, London I think - is on their complaints leaflet) detailing all their mispractice/not following own guidelines - they then have to take it further (again, with timescales).
• Phone FOS (tel. no. on their site), explain what's happened (make it brief/to the point - write it down first) - they should explain clearly what your and bank's obligations are/what to do next (take notes).

All their bad practice is evidence against them but only if you use it
I eventually got a partial payout (accept it if they do, that can't stop you claiming the rest) and am claiming the rest via the FOS, though not sure how effective they really are, so await the outcome!

squink

icecube2009 wrote: »

I have a quick question . have sent my letter to natwest clamining financial hardship, as I have £600 bank charges i am trying to reclaim, I have a £700 overdraft on this account & have just started a DMP with the CCCS, so the £600 would greatly reduce my debt to the Natwest!
They have sent me a reply with a financial statement to fill in, problem is it doesnt include a lot of the things that are included on my statement of affairs with the CCCS, so would it be OK for me to send them a copy of the CCCS one (which they would already have, as they sent me a latter today accepting my reduced payments, but assume this may be a different department) or do I havw to fill in their (very badly photo copied & not great at all) one???

Thanks

Yes I'd put "see attached statement" on their form and staple the cccs copy - they are really naff aren't they (one might think not user friendly??)
Oh and send everything recorded (trust to nothing)

missymish

Hi,

I have been trying to claim my bank charges for a good few years but with all the cases being put on hold etc nothing has gone through. Since December I have been trying to get my money back because of financial hardship. Nationwide have refunded a few of my charges mainly because charges were taken out the same day my housing benefit payments have been paid in. So far it has been £240 given back. They have recently wrote to me saying that they are going to give me back a further £180 of charges due to hardship, but what they have done is took £150 of charges but then refunded but effectively this means I got nothing. The total amount I am trying to claim is in the region of £2000. At one point they tried to say they wouldnt give me any charges back due to hardship as the charges were taken in previous years and they couldnt proove my hardship at those times, so I sent them in letters from baliffs and letters from a County Court about an eviction process I was going through with my local authority, still they wouldnt pay. I am in the red by about £450 each month and they have agreed I am in financial hardship they say they will pay a measley £180 but then take that off me in further charges. I really dont know what to do now, do I take it to the Ombudsman, has anyone got any advice?

Thanks