IVA bank charges can i claim them back

The_Pudster

Me Again now the IVA uis paid off can i claim my bank charges form when before the IVa and my credit card charges as well please say yes someone thanks ......:beer::money:

chocwom

Please can someone answer- my best friend has assumed she can't but I'm not so sure....

thecableguy12

you cant, as they have accepted you in an iva for maybe 25-35 dividend how much more discount will they give, answer is no this should have been done before the iva was commenced

PaulinWeston

IMHO I think you can claim them! The reason I say this is because I am "post IVA" and I have claimed them (after the IVA compleated) - and won!...

The argument I used was this:

The charges are not recoverable and should not have been included in the IVA. By including the charges the creditor is misleading the courts about what they are owed and depriving other creditors of a fair share of the IVA dividend.
While it is accepted the creditors could argue that any reduction in the debt while IN the IVA would be reflected in a reduction of the size of the claim the bank/credit card companies can make in the IVA, whilst the IVA is in progress, therefore reducing the share of the dividend the IVA will payout to that creditor and increasing the share of the dividend the other creditors will receive. Moreover, this discussion board includes examples of people in this position, where they were able to reclaim the charges, which they were then obliged to declare as “windfall payments” and as such, pay into their IVA.
However, once the IVA completes, the opportunity to reduce the debt in the IVA dies, as it is considered settled.

The creditors tried to argue that I should not receive a refund of the charges as I never actually paid them, or, I still owe them as part of the debt I entered and the creditor claimed in the IVA which, I didn't repay in full anyway.
However, the credit card companies and banks state in their terms and conditions on the loan/credit card agreements that payments are made reduce the balance on a customer’s account in the following order:

1. Default charges and interest on default charges
2. Promotional balances (including interest) and fees
3. Other interest fees and charges
4. Standard rate purchases and balance transfers
5. Cash balance.

Therefore – where the companies have received a dividend under the IVA, or sold on the debt to a third party (before the IVA started), their default charges and fees would have been the first element of the debt to have been paid.

As such - I claimed the charges back and have (so far) receivied 75% of what I have claimed back

happychappy74

I claimed back credit card and bank charges accrued prior to the IVA, whilst under the terms of the IVA, which has now finished.

The companies involved were listed as part of the IVA and paid out as per expected. Under the terms of my IVA any amount over £500.00 would be classed as a windfall, but each of my claims all fell just under this amount. Some of the companies dealt with me directly. Some sent the cheque to Payplan, who then sent it to me as it was under £500.00 and some sent it to me after trying to fob me off saying it couldnt count as I was in an IVA at the time.

The bank charges claims are still on hold in the courts so I will have to wait and see.

Hope this helps.

tiggerbabe16

I applied to and won the right to recover my bank charges accrued by Abbey a couple of years ago, but as I owed them an overdraft of just over £2k at the time, the Abbey said that they would deduct the bank charges (totalling to just over £1,700) from the outstanding overdraft.

Due to the spiralling bank charges and other debts, i ended up taking out a Trust Deed in 2005, which was discharged in Oct 2008.

Whilst cleaning up my credit files I noticed that Abbey were still showing a default balance of exactly what my overdraft was at the time of signing up the Trust Deed, but this debt had been included in the Trust Deed.

I queried with the Financial Ombudsman the fact that as Abbey had not reduced my balance by the bank charges, and that as they were now showing my balance as "settled" that technically those bank charges should still be refunded to me.

The ombudsman thought that it was a total shot in the dark, but they would re-contact Abbey on my behalf with my old claim and see what the outcome would be.

A couple of weeks later I got a call from the Ombudsman stating that Abbey had agreed that although they did not feel that the charges had been made unfairly, they had agreed to refund them previously, and would honour that.

Within the week, I received a cheque from Abbey for £1,736 which I enjoyed spending immensely! :rotfl:

Good luck to all in their quest - it is possible!