Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

daveprince37

Bank – HSBC
Amount Claimed - £3111.50 Without interest
Amount Offered - £480.00 Not final offer
Date Started – 25/7/08
Date Offered – 08/06/09

Hi guys and gals…

Put initial claim in 25th July 2008 for £3111.50 without interest, received letter approx. November stating No as test case etc…

In September they withdrew my debit card – so now I have to go to a bank to withdraw money.

Sent another letter in the December 2008 to no avail… In January saw about the financial hardship case

Claimed financial hardship again received same letter as before No/test case etc…

Sent another letter in March – they sent a personal expense form – filled in and sent back – Heard nothing..

Sent letter on the 6th May stating have they received my completed form… got letter back stating yes and due to test case… NO etc.

4th of June sent Ombudsman complaint form – Monday 8th June received a phone call – answered a couple of questions and later in the day had another phone call offering me £480.00 (not a final settlement and will be reviewed in 3 months time.)

Said ‘No Deal’ and awaiting letter to decline…

So nothing until I called in the ombudsman.

During this I have been to see my bank and they have tried to sell me Car Insurance, Life Assurance and even home insurance as well!!! & they have still been charging me up to £150 a month!!!!!

At least they are now communicating with me…

Thriftkitten

Hardship claim to Lloyds for £1009.90 22/4/09
Paid into my account £1009.90 10/6/09.


I began my claim completely lost and confused, but with the help of this site and legal beagles I have been successful in claiming back the full amount.
The initially dismissed my claim for Financial Hardship on the 29th May, but a few steaming phone calls to Andover and a few more letters along with one of this and LB's speedy setlement templates, I was succesful,
Thankyou to all who have helped, I was beginning to lose faith as apparently Lloyds are one of the worst for paying out under financial Hardship, but today they credited the money into my account which cleared the overdraft and gave me about 190.00 for other bills in my hand and I closed the account and bid them farewell...
I will gladly help anyone I can through my own experience and will be also adding to the list of contact numbers and address's for Lloyds which I hope someone will find useful.:T

mandij30

daveprince37 wrote: »

Bank – HSBC
Amount Claimed - £3111.50 Without interest
Amount Offered - £480.00 Not final offer
Date Started – 25/7/08
Date Offered – 08/06/09

Hi guys and gals…

Put initial claim in 25th July 2008 for £3111.50 without interest, received letter approx. November stating No as test case etc…

In September they withdrew my debit card – so now I have to go to a bank to withdraw money.

Sent another letter in the December 2008 to no avail… In January saw about the financial hardship case

Claimed financial hardship again received same letter as before No/test case etc…

Sent another letter in March – they sent a personal expense form – filled in and sent back – Heard nothing..

Sent letter on the 6th May stating have they received my completed form… got letter back stating yes and due to test case… NO etc.

4th of June sent Ombudsman complaint form – Monday 8th June received a phone call – answered a couple of questions and later in the day had another phone call offering me £480.00 (not a final settlement and will be reviewed in 3 months time.)

Said ‘No Deal’ and awaiting letter to decline…

So nothing until I called in the ombudsman.

During this I have been to see my bank and they have tried to sell me Car Insurance, Life Assurance and even home insurance as well!!! & they have still been charging me up to £150 a month!!!!!

At least they are now communicating with me…

Hey Dave, congrats matey on finally getting somewhere with HSBC ( even if it isn't satisfactory )
I too am fighting with HSBC atm, After finally replying to my first template letter I sent, they sent me through a stupid booklet with a expenditure form inside, and a telephone number to call them. Well after over an hour on the phone, being sent to and throw to all different departments. Finally spoke to someone, and they have said I don't qualify for hardship because I have disposable income of £56 every month. Which I find ridiculous, seeing as they charge me £125 every month. So I have no disposible income.

Anyway, after reading your struggle with them, and you being Told no on various occasions initially, I wonder if you have any advice where I should go from here on. All advice is appreciated

Mandi x

princesswizzy

Hardship claim £1170 BARCLAYS
Payment received £427 Goodwill Gesture

I applied on 1st May this year due to financial hardship had 2 letters arrive 2 weeks later 1 of which was 4 pages long telling me about test case etc other letter said that I was being considered for financial hardship and would have a reply within 10 days. On 10th day I rang asking what was happening lady said theres a letter on computer waiting for the blanks to be filled in (her words not mine ) should be sorted by the next day. Still not heard anything by monday this week so rang again and was told no decision had been made and would take a while more as due to a huge influx of claims they are getting backlogged and taking longer than they thought. I said if I'd not heard anything by friday then I would call back but she didnt sound to hopeful that a decision would be reached by then. Tuesday morning I went to cashpoint to check my balance and Barclays had paid in £427 as a goodwill gesture!!!! Is this cos they had messed me about or thats their offer ??? Had no letter or phonecall to say what its for or if its any of my charges ??

*money-magnet*

I have been tryin to claim under the hardship with Lloyds but had no luck.
I would be most greatful if you could help me, as I started my claim in Feb & have been fobbed off. :mad:

*money-magnet*

Please help me.

liberty_lily

Thriftkitten wrote: »

Hardship claim to Lloyds for £1009.90 22/4/09
Paid into my account £1009.90 10/6/09.


I began my claim completely lost and confused, but with the help of this site and legal beagles I have been successful in claiming back the full amount.
The initially dismissed my claim for Financial Hardship on the 29th May, but a few steaming phone calls to Andover and a few more letters along with one of this and LB's speedy setlement templates, I was succesful,
Thankyou to all who have helped, I was beginning to lose faith as apparently Lloyds are one of the worst for paying out under financial Hardship, but today they credited the money into my account which cleared the overdraft and gave me about 190.00 for other bills in my hand and I closed the account and bid them farewell...
I will gladly help anyone I can through my own experience and will be also adding to the list of contact numbers and address's for Lloyds which I hope someone will find useful.:T

Hi Thriftkitten,

Very well done on getting your money back from Lloyds and so quickly too!

OH and I have been in contact with them for a few months now, having originally approached them for a refund of charges before we knew about the 'hardship' criteria.

We have now sent them proof of priority debt arrears, our own I&E form (they haven't supplied one), proof of income etc but still they are fobbing us off with the 'we are looking into your complaint' nonsense.

We haven't tried phoning them as we thought it was best to keep everything in writing, but from what you have said it sounds like calling them and being ultra persistant pays off!

I presume you had priority debt arrears etc - what else did you do/send to prove your case if you don't mind me asking please?

Any help you can offer to us and the other Lloyds victims would be most welcome, thank you:D

Liberty_Lily xxx

irishgirl62

lewgante wrote: »

silvervixen wrote: »

And for those people whos benefit goes into your account, there is a little know act, which I was told about today at the local job centre plus office! Its called the Social Security administration act 1992 (chapter 5)! It basically means in simple terms if you have £90 benefit going into your accout no matter what the status is, the bank are not allowed to take their charges!

Help please I looked at the chapter five of the act and can not see a paragraph that says the bank are not allowed to take their charges out of our benefits can anyone point me to where the paragraph is please?

LJ1911

irishgirl62 wrote: »

lewgante wrote: »

Help please I looked at the chapter five of the act and can not see a paragraph that says the bank are not allowed to take their charges out of our benefits can anyone point me to where the paragraph is please?

Hi Irishgirl - I have only been looking into this this morning and found that it is section 187 that you are looking for:

187.—(1) Subject to the provision of this Act, every assignment of or charge on–
(a) benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
[1(aa) a jobseeker’s allowance;]
[2(ab) state pension credit;]
(b) any income-related benefit; or
(c) child benefit,
and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the
bankruptcy of a beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person
acting on behalf of his creditors.
(2) In the application of subsection (1) above to Scotland–
(a) the reference to assignment of benefit shall be read as a reference to
assignation, “assign” being construed accordingly;
(b) the reference to a beneficiary’s bankruptcy shall be read as a reference to the
sequestration of his estate or the appointment on his estate of a judicial factor

under section 41 of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980.


I too hav e a claim with halifax and I have sent off the forms and spoken with their money management team. I was told by them that customer relations would suppress the charges and I would receive a goodwill gesture. However the communication between these 2 departments is awful and after nearly 2 weeks the information has still not been passed from money management to customer relations. I have been calling daily and I personally had to chase up money management (something I feel customer relations should have been doing).

Anyway I have been nice and patient so far but if I am told 'leave it with me' again today I think I might blow a fuse. I have had only child tax credit, working tax credit and child benefit paid into my account for the last 5 years and this could mean they have been taking charges illegally. Therefore I feel it may give me room for negotiation with them. I can only wait and see.

Goodluck with your case - your next step I think will be to speak with money management (0845 6039079) as customer relations can't do anything until you speak with them. Keep on at them though

irishgirl62

Thank you Lj for your post, I rang the halifax and they have told me a letter was sent out yesterday offerring me 70 quid I am claiming for £3,000 will ring the customer relation dept now ..