Bank Charges Financial Hardship Success Stories

jos004

leemrobinson wrote: »

I cannot understand why people would register with a company and pay them to claim charges back on your behalf. Its a free process that consists of sending a couple of letters to your bank (you don't even have to think up what to write as the template letters on this site are already written) and then you need patience.

All that these companies will do is exactly the same as aboce but will take a massive chunk (upto 60%) of any refund.

Madness.

I thoroughly agree. I've lost count how many calls I've had from these type of companies, of late.

Bank: Abbey
Amount Reclaimed: 884 pds
Amount they paid: 630 pds
How long did it take: 11 weeks
The story: Submitted I&E form in August this year. Abbey wrote back early Sept. asking for more time. They then wrote two further letters, one asking me to complete another I&E form - but I refused. The other telling me to go to the FOS: but I didn't. Paid money into my a/c 31st October.

Still waiting for letter which they said they posted 29th Oct. Simply persevere everybody. Funny how Abbey realised I am in financial difficulty but HSBC could not see this. I will write back to them asking for the balance.

natweststaffmember

jos004 wrote: »

I thoroughly agree. I've lost count how many calls I've had from these type of companies, of late.

Bank: Abbey
Amount Reclaimed: 884 pds
Amount they paid: 630 pds
How long did it take: 11 weeks
The story: Submitted I&E form in August this year. Abbey wrote back early Sept. asking for more time. They then wrote two further letters, one asking me to complete another I&E form - but I refused. The other telling me to go to the FOS: but I didn't. Paid money into my a/c 31st October.

Still waiting for letter which they said they posted 29th Oct. Simply persevere everybody. Funny how Abbey realised I am in financial difficulty but HSBC could not see this. I will write back to them asking for the balance.

With Financial hardship reclaiming, you can be in financial hardship with one account but not necessarily the other since the priority debt arrears may come out of the account where you are classed as being in financial hardship.

raybeb2005

but can i stop using them without any hassle and do things on my own???

natweststaffmember

mooooo wrote: »

With the help of Legal Beagles I have been refunded £1039

Natwest
Claim Amount:£917
Received £1039

I had to send letters and my proof in three times before they acknowledged me on 11th September, I then resent my proof and filled in their IE the very next day. To be clear I had already sent a very detailed letter about my situation and included proof of all my arrears.
I was declined hardship and sent to collections, despite having a 2.5k deficit in finds every month and £917 in charges in 3 months.
I then sent around 100 red collection letters, default notices, etc to collections and again to customer response unit. I also emailed the ceo about my case.
They reviewed my case and then asked for my cards to be sent back (i had already chopped them up and was using a parachute acc)

3 weeks after i sent my cards back I received an offer letter stating they wanted to make me an exceptional offer lol (it was - I was only expecting 60% of my charges back)

All I can say is everyone claiming hardship must not give up, be very detailed, very prompt and ask for a review if denied hardship and if all else fails go to the fos.

If it wasnt for the support and help received by the beagles I would have given up and filed for bankruptcy.

I hope you don't mind if I say on behalf of Legal beagles website, thank you for your very kind words which are very much appreciated. I will relay them back.

natweststaffmember

raybeb2005 wrote: »

but can i stop using them without any hassle and do things on my own???

Apologies for the response you received earlier. It is unusual that we hit the poster over the head first time(so you must have got lucky ).
You need to see the contract you have signed and whether there is any clause that allows you to stop them from continuing with your claim because there could be a cost involved in doing so. If you can afford to ditch them, then by all means do so.

sam3359

I have had along running battle with hsbc about default charges as i was incurring up to and over £100 per month,I tried juggling my bills and basically anything I could do inclusive of working overtime any extra hours available to help with my mounting debt,all this was taken away each month by the hsbc in default charges and i ended up getting a letter from my morgage people as i was behind in my payments,i then contacted hsbc and explained i was in danger of losing my house but got absolutely nowhere so the ombudsman was my next port of call and as i had letters to prove my house was in danger of being repossesed i thought i had a good case for financial hardship...not at all,hsbc refrained the bank charges for a few weeks as a gesture of goodwill and i am back to square one,this is totally criminal and the way the court allows it to drag on stinks!!!!

natweststaffmember

sam3359 wrote: »

I have had along running battle with hsbc about default charges as i was incurring up to and over £100 per month,I tried juggling my bills and basically anything I could do inclusive of working overtime any extra hours available to help with my mounting debt,all this was taken away each month by the hsbc in default charges and i ended up getting a letter from my morgage people as i was behind in my payments,i then contacted hsbc and explained i was in danger of losing my house but got absolutely nowhere so the ombudsman was my next port of call and as i had letters to prove my house was in danger of being repossesed i thought i had a good case for financial hardship...not at all,hsbc refrained the bank charges for a few weeks as a gesture of goodwill and i am back to square one,this is totally criminal and the way the court allows it to drag on stinks!!!!

A few charges for a few weeks?

I understand your last comment but the OFT test case is a specific legal case so no one is dragging anything on. The law is being clarified as to whether bank charges are assessable for fairness and the evidence is vast so the decision has to be based on huge amounts of evidence that WE do not have access to.

Julieandruss

Bank Abbey
Amount reclaimed 6,556.00
Amount recieved 2,050

:j:j:jI wrote to the Abbey two weeks ago reclaiming bank charges for 2 accounts one for 2,300 pounds and the other over 3,000. I included a list of charge which I put together using this sites calculator but could only be accurate on one account as some of the information about my charges was not received for the final sum I was only able to make a partial claim on this second account.

I have had no correspondance in two weeks but have just opened a letter which I thought were more bank charges to find a cheque for £2050. Not much of an explanation just one line in the letter saying please find cheque inclosed in relation to your recent complaint.

I am so please, I am assuming that because the other charges claimed did not have all the relevant details attached that I will get that back once it has been worked out.

Well done Abbey! you have acted very honourably in this case, you will definately retain my accounts and mortgage if you continue to act in the same manner. Thank you so much.

I will keep you all updated as to how I get on claiming the rest of the money back.

Hullabaloo27

First post on here but long time lurker and was at one time a seasoned reclaimer on the old 'reclaimunfaircharges' site (hello to any old posters on here - hazy memory only recalls Smasher I'm afraid!!).

Anyway, just thought I'd chime in with my recent hardship success story to give others hope (I remember only too well how much faith other people's success stories instilled in me back in April 2007 when Lloyds gave me back £4.5k which they'd stolen from my account over the previous 6 years :T).

A very long* and protracted game of cat and mouse with Natwest finally ended with them offering me £1100 minus an outstanding balance of around £400. This came after a few months of correspondence with the FOS, although I'm really not sure what authority they have if any judging by my larger claim from Lloyds at the current time. I shall indeed post details of this success WHEN it happens. Keep the faith.

*1st letter claiming financial hardship sent around November 2008, many more in between. FOS complaint sent around April 2009, many more letters and emails between us, then offer from Natwest in September 2009 for full amount. :j

leemrobinson

Having made a claim to Halifax several weeks ago asking them to give me my money back (over 3 grand), I have today made a quick follow up call to their Customer relations dept to see how things were going.

I was told I'm in the pile with everyone else and must wait until the court case is resolved.

When I asked if it was being looked after under the 'hardship rules' the reply was "I did'nt realise that you were asking us to consider your claim under this system". This is despite my letter clearly setting out the grounds for my claim to be assesed under the hardship definition and the word HARDSHIP being written within my claim letter no fewer than SEVEN times!

Anyway, the delightful lady at the other end of the phone has referred my case to a manager and says my claim will be assesed 'immediatly' - whatever that means!!