Am i classed as a hardship and can i reclaim

denise070

About two years ago i successfully claimed back nearly £2000 worth of bank charges.:j
Since then, i became very poorly and had to give up work, so now live on benifits. I now have £1200 of new bank charges. Its getting out of hand, halifax takes a £35 bank charge which means there is not enough money in the account for the next DD.
This month alone i have paid out £140 and there are still £70 which they will take out my housing benifit on monday, meaning i wont be able to pay my rent.
So i have sent my first letter to halifax asking for them to refund my charges back, I am still awaiting a reply, but i am sure they are going to say i am either not in hardship or because they have already paid out two years ago, they wont pay back these new charges.
What will be my next move, do i class as finacial hardship is it true they will not pay back if you already had a successful claim in the past.
I have already approached Halifax about them taking money out of benifits and they basically said that they are in their rights to use my benifits, is this correct as well?
Many thanks
Denise

natweststaffmember

denise070 wrote: »

About two years ago i successfully claimed back nearly £2000 worth of bank charges.:j
Since then, i became very poorly and had to give up work, so now live on benifits. I now have £1200 of new bank charges. Its getting out of hand, halifax takes a £35 bank charge which means there is not enough money in the account for the next DD.
This month alone i have paid out £140 and there are still £70 which they will take out my housing benifit on monday, meaning i wont be able to pay my rent.
So i have sent my first letter to halifax asking for them to refund my charges back, I am still awaiting a reply, but i am sure they are going to say i am either not in hardship or because they have already paid out two years ago, they wont pay back these new charges.
What will be my next move, do i class as finacial hardship is it true they will not pay back if you already had a successful claim in the past.
I have already approached Halifax about them taking money out of benifits and they basically said that they are in their rights to use my benifits, is this correct as well?
Many thanks
Denise

It's irrelevant the fact that they paid out two years ago.
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilites)?
They are correct on the benefits thing. I would say that you might want to review the DD's you have because they are costing more that you can afford to give to the bank.

denise070

I have a huge electric debt and have rent arrears.
Apart from internet every other DD is normal house hold bills

natweststaffmember

denise070 wrote: »

I have a huge electric debt and have rent arrears.
Apart from internet every other DD is normal house hold bills

OK, what you need to do is to work out your charges, I think you have done already. You then need to send them a letter asking them to consider you for hardship. Include this. http://www.moneyadvicetrust.org/content.asp?ssid=38
Which is an income and expenditure form. If you have arrears notices then photocopy them and include them with it.
Hope that helps.

krisskross

Open a bank account elsewhere for your benefits to go into, like a post office account. Pay your bills with cash, no DDs.

Start the reclaimin process with the original bank.

denise070

thanks for the advice, i have started looking for banks, any one know what the basic abbey account is like.
I have already sent my first letter to halifax asking for my charges to be refunded due to hardship, no i guess its a question of waiting for them to send an expendure form.

clayts

List of basic bank accounts in PDF format here :

http://www.payplan.com/pdf/bank_acc.pdf

natweststaffmember

denise070 wrote: »

thanks for the advice, i have started looking for banks, any one know what the basic abbey account is like.
I have already sent my first letter to halifax asking for my charges to be refunded due to hardship, no i guess its a question of waiting for them to send an expendure form.

If they haven't responded within 14 days then send the second one and include everything I have told you. Remember 8 weeks after the first letter you have the right to go to the FOS

denise070

Still not heard from halifax, but not been the full two weeks yet, but good news, i have a new bank account with a free £250 overdraft so hopefully this shouldnt happen again....also i have a job interview tomorrow. If i get the job will this interfere with my claim.

natweststaffmember

denise070 wrote: »

Still not heard from halifax, but not been the full two weeks yet, but good news, i have a new bank account with a free £250 overdraft so hopefully this shouldnt happen again....also i have a job interview tomorrow. If i get the job will this interfere with my claim.

Fingers crossed for you for tomorrow.