Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

Missp1

Bank:Abbey
Charges claimed:£1,300
Charges received £1,300
The Story:

Hi
Today I received a letter from Abbey confirming they will be paying me my bank charges in full some £1,300. Upon checking my account this has already gone in. I don't have an overdraft with them so this will be all mine!!!!
I had initially made my claim before the Banks went to court and appealed, putting my claim on hold,however with the Financial hardship exemption, I set out my case again and was determined to get back what I was entitled to. Although I work full time I like so many people have debts and I feel many of you can reclaim under this exemption.
I had to write to Abbey twice to get them to send me a form for earnings incoming/outgoings. Once I filled this out they wanted to see letters relating to debts owed. Once I sent these in they tried to further stall me by phoning me up and claiming I earned more than they deemed financial hardship, I was however not intimidated and responded by telling them I would not be intimidated or bullied and that this money was mine and I would not stop until it was returned to me in full. I further made it clear to them that I would not discuss anything over the phone again.
I put in a written complaint for intimidation and further informed them , I would proceed to small claims court and if this happened I would add interest to my initial claim.
Just over a week later I received an apology letter for the unprofessional phone call received by me, I was advised that the person who made the call was taken off my case and it was passed onto someone else.
It is now a week later and I have received my confirmation letter and my bank charges returned to me.
I hope this helps anyone trying to reclaim charges. The Banks know they owe many of us this money but they will try every trick in the book to get out of paying you what is YOUR MONEY!. My advise to you is, you don't need a solicitor to present your case, be fully prepared to take your bank to court (They do not want to go to small claims court at all).Send all letters by recorded or Special delivery and always write in the letters to them, "I am sending this by recorded/special delivery so I will be fully aware of when you have received this letter".
This way the clock is ticking for them especially if you have given them a deadline before you commence legal proceedings.And most importantly DON'T GIVE UP BE A THORN IN THEIR SIDE.

Good Luck

mumof5boys

ABBEY SUCCESS COMING MY WAY

just a little update to give all the other abbey customers hope - i got a letter yest asking me to call them to discuss my claim, and the guy just wanted to check i was still in financial hardship, since aug. So told him so, and everything still the same, and he said he had recommended i got the full amount reimbursed (6200) in fee's. he said i am at top of pile and should here soon ! happy days - let u all know when i hear. just a little tip - i had sent a letter from inland revenue, we owed them 2k. he said obviously that was a very major case of hardship!!

UPDATE 30/1/09
Just got a letter from abbey saying they have paid £2610, out of the £6k plus that i claimed for into my bank account. the letter doesnt appear to give me a chance to accept this or not. It just says thats that really - not sure what to do now? can anyone give me advice, should i write to them saying its not good enough? they guy i spoke to on phone in dec and again 10days ago, told me he and a colleague had recommended i got full amount but it was upto big bosses? anyone help??

Becki-Boo_2

Barclays
Amount claimed £1500
Amount paid £300!!!!(under duress)

Wrote to barclays under hardship rules mid October 2008 (genuine real hardship). Sent proof of mortgage payments arrears, court letters from three utilities and council tax. Explained I have lost my part-time job (one of my three jobs;one full time, one part-time, one seasonal) due to cut backs. I am also the only provider for two children. They offered to pay half of my charges over the past year (£195), after calling and pleading my case for 20 minutes or so, this was increased to £300 of which I am still waiting to receive.

The person I spoke to was unsypathetic, abrubt and actually...quite rude. Unlike customer relations at Natwest, who were fantastic, reasonable and understanding.

pacey365

Barclays

Amount Claimed £1050
Amount Paid £525

Initially they offered £300ish which was basically 50% of the last 3 years to my girlfriend. A pleasant conversation later they offered 50% of the last 6 years as part payment until the bank charges result is known

Thank you very much Martin. I have now recouped over £7k for various people using this website !!!

missemsy

I have managaed a sucessful claim under the finanical hardship claim allowance. I have only tried 1 of my 3 bank accounts, but the 1 i tried the bank had previously dismissed my claim when the reclaiming first came about.

Bank: Halifax plc
Claim: £627.00
Received £637.00

They did take their time responding to me, in 1 phone call 2 months after they received my completed form i was on the phone to them for 27 mins mainly on hold and was told somebody would ring me back - they never did but a month later i did get a letter with the offer which i accepted as it was the total charges + calculated interest and an extra £10.00.

Im still to do battle with HSBC and Natwest, but this result has given me a positive attitude.

Ive claimed under financial hardship, whilst i have debts, I work about 24/32 hours a week at a rate above minimum wage p.h. I do not have my own home, i live with my parents. I do not always live on the bread line. What im saying is: try it see if you can claim under financial hardship you may be suprised

polaroid

applied to barclays in October and i have just had 50% of my claim paid into my account today. i received the letter and rang the number and the woman asked if i would like to accept the offer. i accepted it has it was higher than i had thought i would get. i am wondering if i should have disputed but nevermind. so it took three months in total, but i did chase it via the phone every week. and some nice member of staff gave out a name of someone in customer services by mistake! so i used that everytime i rang.

just to say to everyone, dont give up, persivere and you will get there.
thanks for all the people on MSE

kamperkat

Partial Success with Barclays!!!

Amount claimed £2510
Amount paid £938.50

My OH sent the first template letter on October 13th claiming hardship - he is a self employed plumber and we have recently moved house (and county) so we are struggling to keep up - received hardship form within two weeks and sent it back.
Barclays wrote to us early December offering £350 goodwill and said we had to contact them before 6th January to confirm.
Eventually, my OH managed to get through to a real person (lovely helpful girl - he said!!) who said the most they can offer is 50% of three years charges and calculated it at £938.50...
We have accepted it as it pays off about 25% of OH credit card...

I've just updated my Sig, and including this most recent money we have now paid off £5437 - just over 19% of our debt in just 5 months!!!!

Thank you so much to Martin and to everyone who posts on MSE - we would never have done this with out you!

Briggsy.notts

Woohoo. After months of trying on my dad's behalf I can finally report that HSBC, the one bank that seems to hate refunding charges, have offered £725 out of over £1000 of charges. We claimed through hardship rules. Originally they said no but suddenly changed their minds. This is great as we really needed the money. They also waived bank charges for this month so in total he's got £825. Still gonna claim the rest.

potlessdaz

BANK-HALIFAX

AMOUNT CLAIMING-£4063

AMOUND OFFERED-£4855

Thank you to everyone on this site for your words of advice. Today i arrived home from work to find a large letter from HBOS. Oh god another fob off letter, i thaught. Opened it up and was very pleased to find they have offered me £4855 HOOOORRRAAAYYYYY. Its my birthday next week and this will go a long way to paying off debts and bills, and maybe a birthday celebration.
Once again thank you all and do not give up the fight, THE BANKS WILL NOT WIN

:T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T

Catbag

From: Halifax

Claimed: £2830

Received: £2098

Claimed under financial hardship at the beginning of September, heard from them the week before Christmas offering £2098. Accepted this and received payment on 30th December. All gone on bills now, but much, much happier :beer: