Is this the end of the line for my claim for hardship?

MikePrice_2

As with everyone else my I have had my claim put on hold so I raised the issue of hardship (both lost our jobs and my wife is claiming disability, 2 loans with debt collection agencies).

This was rejected so I contacted the FOS, they tell me that the bank cannot help me any further as I have no debt to the bank involved.

Quote "I am not disputing your claim for hardship, However I have to look at the bank's responsibilities and whether or not the bank is required to do anymore. the bank is under duty to treat cases of financial difficulty positively and sympathectically. But that does not mean there is any kind of of threshold which once reached, triggers a refund of charges."

As we have no outstanding debt with NatWest (account was closed by us before we were made redundant).

Quote "we can not expect the NatWest to pay back charges in order to service other debts."

What I want to know is, is this in line the financial hardship rules or are the FOS misinterpreting them?

Regards

Mike

MikePrice_2

hmm I had some replies according to my email but there are no replies here

natweststaffmember

Apologies, Mike, there was a problem with another poster and a few posts had to be removed from the forum(on this thread and another one--cos I am sure I put some advice here earlier), will take another look and post up some advice.

natweststaffmember

MikePrice wrote: »

As with everyone else my I have had my claim put on hold so I raised the issue of hardship (both lost our jobs and my wife is claiming disability, 2 loans with debt collection agencies).

This was rejected so I contacted the FOS, they tell me that the bank cannot help me any further as I have no debt to the bank involved.

Quote "I am not disputing your claim for hardship, However I have to look at the bank's responsibilities and whether or not the bank is required to do anymore. the bank is under duty to treat cases of financial difficulty positively and sympathectically. But that does not mean there is any kind of of threshold which once reached, triggers a refund of charges."

As we have no outstanding debt with NatWest (account was closed by us before we were made redundant).

Quote "we can not expect the NatWest to pay back charges in order to service other debts."

What I want to know is, is this in line the financial hardship rules or are the FOS misinterpreting them?

Regards

Mike

Ok, under the FSA waiver on bank charges they are mostly paying out on priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities). If you don't have priority debt arrears then they are right and as the account was closed by yourself then it is unlikely to be paid out until the conclusion of the OFT test case. However, if you priority debt arrears then definitely go back to them on this and/or you present bank under hardship rules.

MikePrice_2

ok thanks for the information, it seem the fsa's waiver rules are somewhat cloudy I interpreted them entirely differently from how the FOS have, I assumed that if they agreed I had financial hardship then the bank would have to pay me back some of the charges but it seems that isn't the case the bank just have to ensure they are not adding to my problems.
Ah well it was worth a try I guess the cases will be resolved sometime in the 25 century so my grandkids grandkids might be able to claim the charges back.

natweststaffmember

MikePrice wrote: »

ok thanks for the information, it seem the fsa's waiver rules are somewhat cloudy I interpreted them entirely differently from how the FOS have, I assumed that if they agreed I had financial hardship then the bank would have to pay me back some of the charges but it seems that isn't the case the bank just have to ensure they are not adding to my problems.
Ah well it was worth a try I guess the cases will be resolved sometime in the 25 century so my grandkids grandkids might be able to claim the charges back.

But think of how much the claim is earning for them ,they will be millionaires