Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

sarahlq32

Hi, this is my first post- finally had success with abbey. started claiming last year for £3800-got £500 back which i accepted as part payment before cases were put on hold, applied again under financial hardship on 20th october received a letter today stating they are going to pay me another £3000 - just over 2 weeks start to finish. i wouldn't have been able to do it without this brilliant site. thank you. :beer: sarah

bradderz

We started our claim for a refund in May 2007 and on 27 July 2007 our case was stayed with everyone elses.
We immediately set our case out for financial hardship [see my previous posts].
Bank sends out "statement of means" form which we eventually and reluctantly filled in and returned [the capacity for the banks to use this against us made us weary].
The FOS named our personal advisor who, it has to be said was extremely knowledgeable, proffessional and courteous. We faced repossesion and his advice was invaluable.
His advice and our perserverance resulted in an offer of around £1000 [appx 2/3 of our claim] which we accepted. This wasn't the full amount and neither did it include interest, but it includes the provision for the settlement to be revisited when the legal routes are extinguished - why ? If the OFT eventually loses we don't have to return the money that's just been agreed. But, if the OFT wins and it works out the court solution would have been more generous to us than the FOS brokered deal we have just agreed to, we get another payout making up the difference between what the court would have paid us and what we have been paid.
It's a no lose situation and I urge anyone who is genuinely in financial trouble to go down this route.
It took us just over a year, but bear in mind that the processing of FH cases have only really been moving since the waiver renewal.
Scan in your mortgage arrears letters etc etc and attach them to your FOS complaint to bolster your cliam for Financial hardship. Take the resultant letters from your banks with a cautious pinch of salt as they WILL try and dissuade you from continueing, alledge that other agencies have concluded not to proceed with your case etc etc. Stay with it and perserveer. If you really are in genuine FH they must "deal" with you.
Lastly thanks to the FOS :beer: we owe you one.

GOOD LUCK ALL

eurekar

Hi All

So glad to hear you have also had some joy with Abbey - they just paid out £972 of the 5.5 k they 'could' owe me....letter accompanying also says that following my successful application to file for financial hardship they are looking at it now and will be contacting me shortly to devise a 'plan'???
Has anyone else had a letter worded like this?

Woohoo!!!!

daniellesims

Hi

So far Ive claimed £2000 from Abbey National, £aprox £1500 from MBNA credit card and im currently trying to claim £3600.00 from Natwest, they have sent me a financial questionair, but as i have been to court twice for seperate issues for repossession and im currently not working. Lloyds just keep sending the same responce letters no one ever gets in touch.

barclaycard also refund some but no where near what I asked for and they just automaticaly paid the money into my account

mumov4

Hi all thought I would share this with you.

My case was on hold with the Ombudsman after I had been paid nearly 700.00 as goodwill from abbey, we applied 4 weeks ago under hardship cases and kept getting yes we will ring you etc etc, I got really mad on wednesday and emailed the head of complaints he didnt answer so forwarded me email to him 10 times guess what got a call from his assitant the same day and yesterday got the remaining 3k back they insist on paying it to my abbey mortgage that has 3k arrears but thtas cool with me, I dont want to print names on here but if anyone need the email address at abbey it works first [EMAIL="name.lastname@abbey.com"]name.lastname@abbey.com[/EMAIL]! ie [EMAIL="john.smith@abbey.com"]john.smith@abbey.com[/EMAIL] good luck x

They said it was goodwill gesture does that mean I can reclaim if found unfair??? I'm being greedy sorry - good luck everyone xxx

lismarlilmia

Bank: ABBEY
Amount reclaimed: £746.00
Amount they Paid: £746.00

Put in claim for hardship on the 15th October, received form back from ABBEY asking for all financial details. Sent back on the 14th November and heard nothing! phoned every week told to wait 2-4 weeks for reply then yesterday I phoned and was told as the bank are so busy it will now take 6-8 weeks! I was not happy with this so I sent an e-mail to the Head of Complaints outlining my annoyance, I sent this email 14 times annoying I know, but lets see how they like it! Anyway it worked like a dream, because this morning I got a call to say my case was now a priority and would be resolved today, I then got a phone call at 11.30 am to say I had been sucessful and the money is in my account. I am over the moon! now I know I should not really encourage people to send countless emails but i'm sure I would still be waiting if I had not! By the way ABBEY specifically do not give out personal email so I will not name names but lets just say for arguments sake the person was called Joe bloggs it would be [EMAIL="joe.bloggs@abbey.com"]joe.bloggs@abbey.com[/EMAIL].
hope this helps!

funkyhamsta

Claim duration: 15 months...
Claimed £1700
Offered £2700!!

Unbelievable result - very pleased. Took a long time and quite a bit of faffing to provide them with enough details of financial hardship, copies of bills, a complete financial summary of ins/outs for the month, but worth it in the end.

Can finally pay off overdraft, credit card and have a christmas filled with consumerism.....

UKroseblue

Amount claimed: £450.00
Amount refunded: £540.00 :beer:

Went throught the FH route, I had my statements already so first letter to claim sent August 2008. They replied refunding 2 pending charges of £80.00 (included in above amount) but refusing to refund any more. 2nd letter sent September 08, replied saying still investigating with a follow up letter asking me for some more detais of FH. This was sent on 26th November and letter received from them on 4th Dec! Money in my account same day.:T

Good luck everyone.

jojogirly

Bank: Halifax
Amount Reclaimed: £1400
Amount they paid: £2047
The story: Started the claim just before the court stopped anyone reclaiming and got the usual letter. It wasnt until much later I realised you could claim under financial hardship so in went my claim. Filled in one of their forms and waited about 12 weeks for a reply. Had a letter on Friday offering £2047. Money will be in my account in 14 days just before Christmas and I can have a good time knowing I have cleared some bills. Thank you Martin.
Good luck to everyone else claiming.

moo_cow

BANK CHARGES SUCCESS AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!

BANK: HALIFAX
AMOUNT RECLAIMING: £1300
AMOUNT THEY PAID: £1553


THE STORY: Started reclaiming bank charges for my neighbour and her husband about a year ago. her hubby lost his job a while back and they got into financial difficulty. So I sent another letter to the Halifax and another and another and...................eventually, yesterday neighbours hubby recieved a letter 'as a gesture of goodwill' saying it will be credited back to his account within 14 days. which is fantastic news as it will help to clear her mortgage arrears and keep her in her home. we're keeping everything crossed for hers now as they were dealt with together.

A BIG THANK YOU TO MARTIN FOR HIS TEMPLATES, HIS ADVICE AND OF COURSE THIS SITE. YOU'RE A STAR MARTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!