HBOS Settlement Of Fees - ADVICE NEEDED!!

Dawalka

Hi,

not sure if this is the right board, but sure if its not one of you helpful MSE's will be able to "bump" me there (or whatever it is you guys do!)

I have today received a letter from HBOS regarding a complaint I made a few months ago about unfair bank charges. Since the original complaint I have gone into a DMP with Payplan and am happily getting my life back on track. As a result I have effectively left the current account with said fees refer to to stagnate, and transfered all payments to a new basic account with Abbey.

Now the tricky part, the letter offers me £1309.00 as a settlement of my unarranged overdraft fees. Great! But does this have to be paid to the account with Halifax, thus lessening the overdraft (which with fees stands with a balance of around -£3200.00) or would this be seen as undue favourtism towards HBOS, against the terms of a DMP!? As it is these fees that got me in the mess mainly (obvious knock on of missed payments elsewhere and fees building up!) I am keen to have the money for me, rather than pay it back to them?!

The letter says "This offer is made without admission of liability" I assume meaning its not legal but a "goodwill" gesture (pft!) So can I ask for it to be paid to another account, like my Abbey account, so I can make a lump payment to Payplan so it clears all the debt equally and fairly!?

any legal minded boffins know where I stand? will HBOS just say screw you and take the offer away if I ask for payment to another account (because if it comes to it Id rather take it and lessen my HBOS debt!

Help greatly appreciated, hope someone can help!?

Deep_In_Debt

I think you may find that they will expect the money to be used to pay off the overdraft - you may not even see the money, as it will probably just go automatically towards your debt.

I'm not up on this so I could be wrong.

Dawalka

Thanks Deep in Dept, I think they will want it to their account (as can be understood) but I dont want this to be seen as unfair prominence to one creditor, incas ethe others rip up the DMP!

rigger_john

Dawalka wrote: »

The letter says "This offer is made without admission of liability" I assume meaning its not legal but a "goodwill" gesture (pft!)

I can't help you with the rest but i'm studying law and I would say this means if you accept the offer you can't later go to court for the rest and use this payment as proof of their liability

Just my opinion

John

Dawalka

Thanks rigger_john. I dont really want to take them to court, so thats not a big issue (as I am happy doing the DMP) I just would rather have the money in hand than let them give it to themselves for fees that were a result of the fees they are now trying to give me back....like taking from Peter to Pay Paul!

Deep_In_Debt

Dawalka wrote: »

Thanks Deep in Dept, I think they will want it to their account (as can be understood) but I dont want this to be seen as unfair prominence to one creditor, incas ethe others rip up the DMP!

I hear where you are coming from. It's like making reduced F&F's on some debts and not on others which I have done. I played it that the other creditors would be receiving more money monthly this way which they wanted in the first place, but couldn't afford to offer them a F&F. So you could use the same, by clearing this off, you will still be paying the same amount and they get more.

I'm on a dmp and had no problem with this.

Dawalka

Yeah thanks, i think I will be OK makng the payment to reduce the HBOS debt, but I kinda want it to go where I want it to go, its my money the illegally took from me (although they wont admit it, should i ask for it to go to another account, and if they refuse threaten them with the Financial Ombudsmen?