Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

arkangel

Bank: Abbey
Amount claimed: £990
Amount received: £862

Started back in May 2008 after seeing Martin on GMTV. Followed step by step instructions on this site and sent off template letters. Didn't expect to get anywhere with Abbey, but after standard bank delay tactics i finally tried the financial difficulty approach, and on Monday morning i received a letter from Abbey repaying £862 :j !!.

My eternal thanks to Martin and the team.

Moral of this story: DO NOT BE SCARED OF THE BANKS!. WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE ?.

OurTommy

Bank: Natwest
Amount Reclaimed: £2200ish!
Amount Awarded: £1623

Hi everyone

This is only my second post ever on these boards and i'm really chuffed that its a sucess story. Yesterday i got a phonecall from the missus to tell me that NatWest had offered us £1623 in relation to our claim.

I wrote to NatWest in October to put in my claim under financial hardships, and after various letters and phonecalls was told in November that they would freeze any further charges on my account until the next stage of the Bank Charges court case was know in Jan 2009. Being a bit skint at the moment and constantly going over my limit i agreed to this, then out of the blue a letter came yesterday with an offer!

I am really pleased with the result and all i can say to anyone with a case on hold is hang in there. To be honest, i didn't think id get anything back from them but it goes to show that anything is possible.

Tommy:cool:

MRC_2

Posted this in credit cards, by accident

Bank- NatWest
Amount Claimed- £519
Recieved- £592

After around 3 months of trying for my money back under hardship (student, utility debts), I have today received the above offer. Sent straight back so awaiting cheque now!

Happy Days. Good luck to everyone else.

DONDEE_2

Bank: Bank of Scotland
Amount Claimed: £4000
Amount Received: £4400

Began my claim Feb 2008, was fobbed off continually, however, followed the MSE advice to the letter and finally went the whole hog and claimed financial hardship, received a written offer and if I signed the acceptance would receive funds within 14 working days, no suprisingly, this didn't happen had to phone them several times and have finally had my cash. Thanks for all the advice on your website. Can now say I have cleared my debt and its onwards and upwards for me.
:beer:

quest

Hi
We calimed from two banks Nat West paid out in full £3938 an Halifax £3503 both under hardship rules provided as much information about debts and paid with no problem but had to reduce banking facilities at Nat West down to basic account but hey it was worth it and Halifax account was already closed. Good job. If they pay out on hardship why not to others as they must be admitting they are wrong or no matter how much your ar in debt if they were right they wouldnt pay out no matter what or am I just being sinical . Make them pay I odnt mind charges as long as they are reasonable.
Thanks for the template letters Martin well done:T

Astra

RBS
Amount Claimed £13,071.26
Amount received £15,194

After offering me a business loan for £371K (which included the security of my first born) RBS decided they would pull the plug on my personal account. This left me with a £14K loan and £5K overdraft. I initially wrote in July 08 they responded on 9 September 08. Off now to reclaim mortgage arrears payments.

With utmost appreciation and thanks.

kdbetteshanger_2

Bank Nat West
Charges claimed £3,500 (About 2 years ago - just before court case)
Have just received an offer of £5,000 (had to double check the figure several times before believed it!). Put in a financial hardship claim form (sent to us from the bank after writing a letter according to Martin's advice). Our salaries had dropped dramatically! Filled in the form, sent it back and received a phone call to confirm all info we had given was correct, sent maestro cards back to NatWest and received Solo cards within a 2 or 3 days. The next day received a letter from bank offering the £5,000. Have been told that it could take up to 21 days to get the money in our account. This should now help our situation!!! Hope other people are prepared to go to just a bit of effort and maybe it will pay off too.:j

kitty187uk

hi,
bank: halifax
amount claimed: 1st claim 552
2nd claim 535
amount received 1st claim 500
2nd claim .........awaiting reply
i managed to reclaim £500 off halifax back in may o7 thanks to templates etc on this site, after checking accounts realised i had racked up approx another £500 in charges since , so put in claim under hardship sep 08, after many calls was told a few days ago my case had been accepted as a hardship and am now waiting to hear! so fingers crossed and thanks to all on here!
will let you know what they come up with!

lellyor

We wrote to HSBC to reclaim about £600 of unfair bank charges and after the first letter they paid all money owing to us!
:j

stashingcash

I wrote to HSBC in early January 2009 to say i would like to reclaim just over £1500. (I had already reclaimed £2700 sucessfully in 2004). I am in financial hardship, and 9 months pregnant with no income apart from Maternity Allowance, which is swallowed up by being over my overdraft limit every time it gets paid in. They sent me a reply saying they wouldn't pay out but to fill in a Personal Financial Summary. I filled it in and returned it the same day. I then got a call from someone in the hardship team who gave me the 3rd degree about my finances, telling me the only criteria that they consider for FH is if you can eat, pay your rent and pay your council tax, gas and electric. When I proved I can't, he said he had all the info he needed and someone would call me. Five days later I spoke to another person from this department, who went through everything again. This is what they have offered me... along with £7000 of other debts I owe £800 in council tax and £238 in gas arrears from a previous address. They have offered to directly pay off these two "priority debts" to the companies but won't give me a penny into my account. I have been on to National Debtline who reckon I can freeze these debts and make a offer of £5 per month due to my circumstances. I explained this to the HSBC woman, who said that is their final offer until the test case is resolved. I have complained to HSBC Customer Relations at Canary Wharf who have raised a formal complaint but say that the financial hardship team's decision is final.
How can they say they will pay off £1000 of my debts, i.e. admit I am in FH and they are in the wrong with the charges, yet not offer me a penny? I need to buy baby things, my "priority debts" they want to pay can be frozen and paid off interest free yet I can't afford a pram??!!!
THESE BANKS MAKE ME SO ANGRY!!!!!!

Does anyone think I should accept the offer?? (I just think I don't have anything to lose right now by waiting for the test case to be over if I can get my debts put on hold with minimum payments until then, and I might get the whole £1500 back instead of £1000 of debts paid now???!!!)