Barclays bank have refused my hardship claim. Can they do this?

monlou

I sent my claim to barclays bank a few weeks ago.
I got one letter stating the following

Dear ...................
I am wrting in reply to your letter regarding charges that have been applied to your personal current account following the introduction on the 18th August 2008 of our new account terms and conditions.

As a valued customer, I am sorry that you are unhappy that we have apllied these fees to your account but must advise you that we will not be refunding these charges as a result of your complaint. In June 2008 we wrote to all our personal current account customers to advise that we were making significant changes to our personal current accounts which were designed to improve your day to day banking with barclays. The most important of these changes was the introduction of a fundamentally new approach to overdrawn balances on our personal current accounts, together with the introduction of new fees which we apply for the use of certain borrowing services, and when customers exceed the borrowing limits avalible on their account.
Although these changes were all explained in our new terms and conditions and the documentation sent to you in June 2008, i am enclosing a further reminder of the charges and the charges we will apply to your account.
you should keep these documents to hand as they will help you to manage your account so that you can minimise the fees you may incur in future.
I hope that this letter and the enclosures are of assistance in explaining our fees, and enable you to understand why we will not be offering you any refund in response to your complaint. I am sorry you are unhappy with this decision.

It then goes on to say if i require any further assistance then give then a call. or if i am still not satisfied i may ask for help with the financial ombudsman.

Can barclays bank do this? I thought there were meant to send you a form in the post to show what you outgoings are. They said that they will keep my complaint on file for 8 weeks.
Can i still go to the Financial Ombudsman?
Do I have a case?

I have set up another account else where but i am currently overdrawn about £322 (I think). nothing goes in or out of the account. Could this be the reason why they will not refund the charges? They also sent some information with the letter regarding personal reserve. My overdraft limited was £250 and my reserve was £0 i dont remember asking for a personal reserve account. so i am a bit confused about this personal reserve.

sorry if this is a bit long

esmerellda

If the charges are all reserve fees then they are arguing that they are exempt from the test case/the waiver/ and thus hardship exemptions.

If you don't have a personal reserve then you may have got a template letter in error. However I would give the bank a call to check you havent been given a personal reserve? and if you have CANCEL IT and complaint strongly you werent aware of it etc.

What were the amounts of your charges you are claiming ? Personal reserve charges are £22 every 5 days.

monlou

The charges total £4,357.61
I have had a look at my last statement from february and it says on the bottom:
Overdraft limit £250
Reserve £

As far as i am aware they are not reserve fees some are unpaid direct debit fees etc..

I then got another letter last week bascially saying that I am apparently in discussions with someone from the consumer finance Debt management department. But i havent spokent to anyone from that department. It then goes on to say that they will make every effort to deal with my claim as soon as possible which may take up to five working days. And someone will be in contact shortly.

Its all very confusing.

can i still cancel the reserve even if i am overdrawn?

natweststaffmember

monlou wrote: »

The charges total £4,357.61
I have had a look at my last statement from february and it says on the bottom:
Overdraft limit £250
Reserve £

As far as i am aware they are not reserve fees some are unpaid direct debit fees etc..

I then got another letter last week bascially saying that I am apparently in discussions with someone from the consumer finance Debt management department. But i havent spokent to anyone from that department. It then goes on to say that they will make every effort to deal with my claim as soon as possible which may take up to five working days. And someone will be in contact shortly.

Its all very confusing.

can i still cancel the reserve even if i am overdrawn?

Yes is the answer althought they may not want you to cancel it(make sure you take a name when it is cancelled and write down the date and time)

pippitypip_2

Hi monlou,

From the sounds of it you don't have a personal reserve to cancel if it's 0. Barclays changed their fee structure to one they call a personal reserve account. All accounts are under this fee structure from August 2008 and they decide how much of a personal reserve to give you.

I'm with Barclays with no reserve. They have been a complete and utter nightmare. I had given up for a bit but may try again with renewed vigour now that I have an alternate bank account set up.

They do dispute that the current charges court case applies to any of the "new charges" from the changeover to the personal reserve and £8 a charge system; they say any charges after August 08 are exempt and they only consider claims for refunding charges pre this changeover (when I say "consider" I mean, put on hold till the court case is decided).

I don't know where we actually legally stand on trying to recover the £8 charges since August 08 under their new system at all.

Hope that helps but do let me know if you have any questions re Barclays set up as will try to answer.

pippitypip

esmerellda

The £8 charges could still be reclaimed but we suspect that this is around the level the charges will be allowed to be after the test case.

Even though in south africa they proved returning a direct debit cost about £0.30.

pippitypip_2

Thanks esmerellda, that's interesting.

Does anyone know what to do if Barclays (as they have done in monlou's and my cases) refuse to consider refunding these £8 charges?

I am also applying for a refund under financial hardship and sorry monlou - not meaning to hijack your thread!

pippitypip

esmerellda

Legally the bank need to go into court and prove that the charge of £8 is NOT disproportionate to the cost of dealing with the unpaid direct debit/returned cheque etc.

They havent been decided as fair in any way whatsoever although they are comprehensively more fair than £39.

It depends how far you want to take things.

Hardship wise, you won't get those charges, you could get the £22's and you can get those £39 jobbies pre august 2008.

DON'T FORGET - NO REFUND RECEIVED NOW WILL BE IN FULL AND FINAL - THE REST OF YOUR CLAIM AND INTEREST WILL STAND FOR AFTER THE CONCLUSION OF THE TEST CASE.

pippitypip_2

Thanks esmerellda, that's so useful and makes sense. So the other charges remain part of the test case, but they would (hopefully!) refund the older £35 charges in hardship cases.

Hmm I think I will definitely be pressing forward with it.

monlou do let us know if you hear back from Barclays re the second letter.

Thanks,
pippitypip

monlou

Hi There

Just wanted to clarify with you guys
I can still claim these charges?
or am i only allowed to claim the charges before the personal reserve can into force.

what whould you advise i do now write another letter to barclays or go to the financial obusman?

thanks

Monlou

natweststaffmember

monlou wrote: »

Hi There

Just wanted to clarify with you guys
I can still claim these charges?
or am i only allowed to claim the charges before the personal reserve can into force.

what whould you advise i do now write another letter to barclays or go to the financial obusman?

thanks

Monlou

Claim all the charges back.