Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

natweststaffmember

David_HGV wrote: »

"Having reviewed your account carefully, I am satisfied that the fees were correctly applied. However, in view of your current financial circumstances, to hel you i would like to offer you a payment of £112 which ammounts to the fees debited to your account beteween March and August 2009"

Thank you in advance.

David

Is March when there was a change in your circumstances, ie lost your job, loss of hours, etc, etc,? Apologies if you have said this and I haven't read back on the thread.

natweststaffmember

Mercyknight wrote: »

I've just put in for financial hardship with Lloyds TSB. The guy agreed on the phone that I was in financial hardship and gave me a number to contact to arrange for all my outgoings to be reduced:

0800 917 78 04 - Does anyone know how this service works, apparently they aren't linked to Lloyds but will contact them on my behalf, apparently it is not an IVA, but will it effect my credit rating,

And secondly, and most importantly, he agreed to pass all my case over to the team dealing with bank charges, stating that I am in financial hardship and advised me that they will contact me within 5 working days...

Has anyone else gone down this process before?

The first number is for Pay Plan who are nothing to do with LloydsTSB(I rang the number just to check .
I would wait for the team to contact you.

David_HGV

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Is March when there was a change in your circumstances, ie lost your job, loss of hours, etc, etc,? Apologies if you have said this and I haven't read back on the thread.

Yes it was.

There was also a similar period of being out of work last year (if it is based upon how long you are out of work)

natweststaffmember

David_HGV wrote: »

Yes it was.

There was also a similar period of being out of work last year (if it is based upon how long you are out of work)

That is how they have worked out the refund. The issue you have is that if you can argue that financial hardship, ie priority debt arrears have been caused because of last years unemployment and that any job you did get did not allow you to clear those arrears then and the charges were not helping, they might increase the amount. Otherwise £112.00 is about right, unfortunately however the remaining amount is still payable on the conclusion of the OFT test case issues.

seannaylor

I wrote to Barclays a few months ago and got a load of statements, then did nothing as thought it was all on hold. Thanks to this website I put in a claim under financial hardship. They wrote back a week later saying no but that someone might be in touch.

Last night I checked my bank account and found that Barclays had put £2,200 in without even telling me. A letter came this morning saying it is a goodwill gesture, but they haven't even told me the full amount of the charges!

I have no choice but to take the money but will write back asking for the full amount and will take it from there!

Many thanks to Martin and all who have contributed to these threads, I never would have known about the hardship rules, we're going to have a go at First Direct now, they owe us £3,800!

Kindest regards

Sean :beer:

natweststaffmember

seannaylor wrote: »

I wrote to Barclays a few months ago and got a load of statements, then did nothing as thought it was all on hold. Thanks to this website I put in a claim under financial hardship. They wrote back a week later saying no but that someone might be in touch.

Last night I checked my bank account and found that Barclays had put £2,200 in without even telling me. A letter came this morning saying it is a goodwill gesture, but they haven't even told me the full amount of the charges!

I have no choice but to take the money but will write back asking for the full amount and will take it from there!

Many thanks to Martin and all who have contributed to these threads, I never would have known about the hardship rules, we're going to have a go at First Direct now, they owe us £3,800!

Kindest regards

Sean :beer:

Congratulations on a payout but did you receive or total up the charges that Barclays owed you?

chatsworthbuccaneer

Hi there. I'm an MSE virgin so go easy. I've been reading these forums for ages but this is my first time actually posting so here goes.
I had started to claim charges from Abbey in 2007 but the hold sort of put me off untill earlier this year when i saw about the FH thing. I was made redundant in December 2008 (Yeah, right before christmas) and my girlfriend was expecting so bad times. Anyway, I wrote to Abbey again using the templates from here and sent them another letter claiming approx £2200. They sent back the I&E form so I filled that baby in and sent it back to them. I received a letter 14th August 09 saying:
"Our research is taking........blah blah blah......If we are unable to complete our investigation beforehand, we will write to you in 4 weeks time to let you know how we are getting on."

Ok I thought, just more stalling. Checked my account at 0330 this morning (I work nights, not an insomniac) and I almost wet myself. Account in credit for first time since december, "ACCOUNT ADJUSTMENT - £902.79 PAID IN"
Oh my god. Rang Abbey just now to check what it was for and the lady said it's a goodwill gesture because, and I'm quoting this: ".....although there is a test case on at the moment, we at abbey like to help any of our customers who are in hardship...!"
Ok, so the reason I'm actually writing is; obviously I'm going to accept this (Baby son hasn't learnt how to poo money yet), just wondered what you guys in your oracle-like wisdom would suggest in relation to getting the other £1300 off them. Do I leave it till after the test case or keep battering them. Oh, and should I write a letter saying that I "accept this payment (£902.79) as partial settlement blah blah blah but gimme the rest aswell please!"?

Sorry about all the questions. I've been reading these forums for months now and it's sounds sad but it does cheer me up when I see people helping each other to give these banks a bloody nose. I wanted to thank everyone in advance for any answers I get and also for the advice I've taken from reading the threads, especially you NWSM, you must be every bank's worst nightmare. Just glad you're on our side.

............and I'm spent
xHx

natweststaffmember

Ok, well, congratulation on two fronts, a new baby and an interim payment from abbey which equates to just under 50% of the claim. Does that help with priority debt arrears that you may have(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are they going to confirm the amount in writing?

holl3

Hi,

am completly new to this so dont know if i've posted in the right place. Lloyds tsb have charged us since 2001 in excess of £5100. We started this claim in 2007 but it was put on hold. We are now experiencing financial hardship which lloyds tsb have even stated themselves in a letter!! however they have said in the last letter they sent that they would not consider our case further until the test case was settled and that they didnt have too!! we have written to the financial obudsman who has written to them and told us to expect a response however nothing... was just wondering if anyone can tell us if we are in hardship and the bank even admit this what do they have to do?? feel like they are basically saying they are refusing to look at our case! they have provided us with a phone number to contact them but when you ring the advisors dont understand what we're saying (follow a script) and feel it neccessary to patronise us!! some advise where to go from here would be greatfully received!!

thanks!!!

natweststaffmember

holl3 wrote: »

Hi,

am completly new to this so dont know if i've posted in the right place. Lloyds tsb have charged us since 2001 in excess of £5100. We started this claim in 2007 but it was put on hold. We are now experiencing financial hardship which lloyds tsb have even stated themselves in a letter!! however they have said in the last letter they sent that they would not consider our case further until the test case was settled and that they didnt have too!! we have written to the financial obudsman who has written to them and told us to expect a response however nothing... was just wondering if anyone can tell us if we are in hardship and the bank even admit this what do they have to do?? feel like they are basically saying they are refusing to look at our case! they have provided us with a phone number to contact them but when you ring the advisors dont understand what we're saying (follow a script) and feel it neccessary to patronise us!! some advise where to go from here would be greatfully received!!

thanks!!!

Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are any of the arrears being paid off?
What was the cause of the charges? Did you lose a job, reduced hours,etc,etc,?