Bank Charges Financial Hardship Disussion

natweststaffmember

squink wrote: »

would I be right in thinking, if an account was closed and monies owed passed to a debt collecting agency, this then would be a debt therefore that would then apply?

If the account was closed then the benefit money wouldn't be going into the bank account and incurring charges so am not sure I follow you with regards to when a debt collection agency gets involved. By then I would expect the individual would have set up a basic account elsewhere since they wouldn't necessarily have an account to receive benefits from.

roberto1982

mrsdarbs wrote: »

don't want to put a dampner on things, but though I should let you know that we started our claim with Halifax back in November 08 and i have now just filed a complaint with the FOS as Halifax agreed we were in hardship and we have been told to wait til the end of the test case!

(I will admit a little of this delay was our fault for not doing the letters quick enough - but we had been phoning every other day throughout April as we kep being told different things by people on the phone and by what their letters were stating!!!:mad:)

Got a letter back yesterday from Halifax, I asked for £over £3000 charges, they offered me £133 lus no charges for 3 months should I keep writing to them??

chatty1_2

hi

I have been awaiting a claim for charges from barclays. I sent off a budget statement at the beginning of april. I received a letter saying i should hear within 20 working days. However i am still waiting despite many phone calls. I phoned on sat and was told a letter was on its way out to me and hopefully settlement should be sorted by the end of they week. So here's hoping

vanessamachogg

NATIONWIDE
Amount reclaiming: £1600

I wrote to Nationwide a month ago requesting the above amount as I am in financial hardship. Receiving Jobseekers Allowance and paying reduced bills. I also sent a statement of finances to them at that time. They then asked to send in another statement of finances and then wrote to say I would hear back by May 25th. I received a letter on Saturday saying that they were still investigating and that they would write with an outcome by June 22nd.
I have now sent them another letter stating that this is unsatisfactory as whilst in financial difficulty another month not knowing is unfeasible.
Nightmare. I hate the way that they keep putting it off.
Will keep everyone posted. Fingers crossed!

sgmt2006

Claiming from Halifax Over £4000.

Result:
£511 paid now, case then on hold until test case. Plus 3 months no charges. Not sure wether to take it further? Any advice?

sjh1978

Hi there - any thoughts on my situation would be appreciated!

Whilst not currently in great financial hardship (I living within my means, with approx £100 excess each month going towards paying off my CCs), I had a period from Jan07 to June 08 where I accumulated £4.1k in charges. I wont go into the details, though needless to say that many cancelled direct debits and subsequent payments by cheque attriibuted to this. I ended up moving banks (HBOS to RBS) and things are generally fine now.

My question is, would I be able to make a hardship claim for this specific time frame (Jan 07 - June 08) under the hardship rules? I have my claim in with HBOS already (standard initial response from them), but wondered whether hardship cases can be retrospectively applied for and whether the July 08 revision to the FSAs guidance on reclaiming charges underhardship would be used by the bank as a get out cause? I.e. they would say that my charges were applied before the definition of hardship was expanded upon.

Thanks for your time

Steve

jopwo_87

Anyone got success's with lloyds under the hardship? Would be interested to know as iv heard they are rejecting all hardship cases atm?

Orford

sjh1978 wrote: »

My question is, would I be able to make a hardship claim for this specific time frame (Jan 07 - June 08) under the hardship rules?

Unfortunately not, a hardship claim will depend on your present circumstances

gerry257

hi. my 18 yr old daughter had a £100 overdraft which she exceeded by 2 purchaces of £2.47 and £3.20. she received a letter saying that she would incur charges of £35 on 6th June and £28 at the month`s end. They haven`t been taken out yet and I don`t want her to have to fight to retrieve them later as she starts uni sept. Can she stall the charges until a judgement on their fairness is made?

squink

gerry257 wrote: »

hi. my 18 yr old daughter had a £100 overdraft which she exceeded by 2 purchaces of £2.47 and £3.20. she received a letter saying that she would incur charges of £35 on 6th June and £28 at the month`s end. They haven`t been taken out yet and I don`t want her to have to fight to retrieve them later as she starts uni sept. Can she stall the charges until a judgement on their fairness is made?

Particularly if they're first time charges, ALWAYS phone up and plead with them to remove them (play innocent, it was accidental, got dates of incoming money wrong, that type of thing) - different banks have different policies but usually refund on request first time at least (despite also having a claim against barclays for over £1K I've done this with them loads of times; HBOS seem to have a policy of only doing it once - pays to shop around). I'd be surprised if she didn't get them removed. If they play tough suggest then nicely argue the case for it being proven charges do not reflect true cost of going overdrawn (averages £2.50 max I've read) so (you/she) would definitely pursue case with FOS particularly given she's a struggling student and this would be actually CAUSING her financial hardship (which they have to deal with reasonably and helpfully - read their code of practice/complaints leaflets - handy to keep by you).
You get to learn some of the rules of the game after a while....;)