Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

gemma.f

HSBC Financial Hardship Success!
Bank: HSBC
Amount Claimed: £726 + £57.72 interest = £783.72
Amount offered: £800
Date I started claim: 24/04/09
Offer Date: 06/06/09

I sent a financial hardship letter to HSBC asking for my bank charges to be repaid, as I am on Income Support. Within a few days I received a letter from them saying that bank charges were on hold, but they enclosed a leaflet, which had an income & expenditure form hidden away at the back of it! They said if I was struggling I could ring their Credit Solutions Dept with my income & expenditure details. It didnt get aroudf to doing this until 14/05/09 and then HSBC said they would get someone to ring me back to to see what they could do for me. I waited for 3 weeks & then rang them back on 04/06/09 to see what was happening with my claim. The person I spoke to said I just need to wait & they will get back to me. I asked if I could contact the Team dealing with it direct & they said no, but I said I wanted to call them myself, so in the end he gave me what I thought was their no. It werent a no for HSBC, it was actually the Financial Ombudsmen. I explained to him what had happened & he sent a letter to HSBC that day (04/06/09) giving them 8 weeks to respond. I received a phonecall from a nice lady at HSBC on Saturday 06/06/09 offering me £800! That was more than I had even asked for, since I already had £1700 charges repaid in 2007! She said that If I am still in Financial Hardship in 2 months I can reapply again!!! They also offered me the choice of having the cash, or them paying my bills for me. RESULT!

Pennys2Pounds

NATWEST
Claim Amount: £3500
Offer Amount: £3425
How Long: About 3 weeks from sending Hardship Claim

Received a letter saying they are keen to resolve the complaint under my conditions and that they are happy to make an exceptional offer of £3450. Then all i had to do is sign for it!!!! RESULT!! I received all these charges within the space of 1 1/2 years so i am happy for the refund, plus they say that if the courts decide they are unfair they will give any other monies owed to me like interest. If you can prove you are struggling even if you have no priority debt arrears Natwest seem to be very understanding,well in my case anyway!! Hope lots of you will succeed and post lots more success stories. :T :money: :T Thanks to martin for all the advice he has given!!! :beer:

alliduk

I originally sent in my letter to reclaim bank charges back in early 2007 and had the standard letter telling me to wait for results of the test case.

Then at the end of March I sent in another letter reclaiming further charges to just over £6,000 under the hardship rules. Since then I have had to twice fill in an income and expenditure form twice and then about 3 weeks ago I got a letter offering me £1,600 but they wanted to pay it direct into a loan account I have with them. My insurance is paying out on my loan account so I wrote back to them immediately saying I acknowledge their offer without prejudice but want to continue with my original claim and have said I will waive the interest if they pay me the £5,263.

As I havnt heard back from them I called today to find that they 'havnt received' my letter. Also, in addition to this they have passed my current account over to the collections department - which seems like a really dirty tactic to me. I faxed my letter to them this morning and am told their is a regular meeting at 2.30 each day to discuss hardship cases and that they will pass my details on and get a call back this afternoon.

I havnt called to make sure they receive the fax but think I should do that quickly before the 2.30 meeting.

Will let you know the outcome but has anyone else had a similar experience?

With thanks

mrsdarbs

Is it just Halifax that AREN'T paying out!!??

big_tony_2

denise070 wrote: »

im worried sick halifax are dragging their feet and said although they agknowledged my hardhip they said all they can do to help is let me speak to their finiacal management team.I need to pay off my arrears caused by halifax taking my housing benefit in charges. My landlady will not renew my contract next month unless i can pay her back my arrears.
I dont know where to turn now, i am making myself ill with worry.

its took us 3 months to get a deal of them and they wont pay us the money they want to pay the componys direct so will end up with nothing because they are paying overdraft of they are !!!!!!

wooooodzy

WELL JUST WHEN I THOUGHT HALIFAX COULDNT SINK ANY LOWER THEY HAVE SENT ME A LETTER OFFERING £35!!!! CONSIDERING MY CLAIM IS FOR OVER £3000 I THINK THEY HAVE A CHEEK!!! BY THEM OFFERING ME THIS PAYMENT IS THAT THEM ADMITTING IM IN FINANCIAL HARDSHIP???SENT FORMS TO FOS TODAY WITH LETTERS FROM DEBT COLLECTORS. iS IT WORH PHONING HALIFAX AND SAYING I WONT BE ACCEPTING IT AND SEE IF I CAN GET IT HIGHER?ANYONE ELSE IN THIS SITUATION?ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED FOLKS,IM AT MY WITS END!!!!

mandiann

barclays
claimed 3,200
paid out 2,545
started 23 /3 /09
received 1/ 5/ 09

I am so glad i visited this site ,it was so easy to reclaim ,i sent the letters that are on this site and claimed on hardship following a divorce , the bank sent me a form to fill out which was just my income and outgoings they sent me a letter saying i would hear in 10 days and sure enough i did, the letter stated it was a gesture of goodwill , £2,545 was alreadyin my account when i checked , thanks to martin lewis :T

jowass

I originally put in a claim to Halifax (for £1383) in Aug '07 and got the usual 'on hold' letter.
Since my husband has just took a pay cut and am unable to find any work, things are really starting to get on top of us.
Two weeks ago I sent them another letter claiming financial hardship and also adding on the charges I have accumulated since my original claim, bringing the total amount I want refunded to £1903.
Does anyone know what is likely to happen now?

big_tony_2

jowass wrote: »

I originally put in a claim to Halifax (for £1383) in Aug '07 and got the usual 'on hold' letter.
Since my husband has just took a pay cut and am unable to find any work, things are really starting to get on top of us.
Two weeks ago I sent them another letter claiming financial hardship and also adding on the charges I have accumulated since my original claim, bringing the total amount I want refunded to £1903.
Does anyone know what is likely to happen now?

we are sick of them they have told us we can have £2800 back but they will pay are bills and over draft and thats the only way we can have it and they still have not put pen to paper so still in the dark

giddyg

Hi
I'm new to this forum and am not sure if I am posting this correctly so please guide me if I am wrong.
Can anybody out there help me with a query?
We are about to start our hardship claim with Natwest for £6500 approx and have contacted the CCCS for further advice with our finances, they have suggested starting up a basic bank account with another bank but not with any that we have credit cards with, which are MBNA, Tesco, and Capital 1. Does anyone know if these cards are linked to any banks?