FOS what a joke

allatsea_2

Hi all
I am looking for some advice please
We started our bank charges claim from the halifax in feb 09, all seemed to be going well till today, I am claiming just over 6 grand back to 2003 as i did'nt know when i started i could go back to july 2001 this would add another £600 to my claim .
We applied under the hardship route, as i am on jsa and my partner gets child tax credit we have over £2000 council tax and about £1500 gas & electric to pay we also have a lot off other depts that we are also behind with, we have 3 children under 10 ,
We had an offer from the halifax of £105 and charges suspended for three months this i turned down as it will not make a dent on our priority depts,
i phoned the bank a few times to ask them to look at it again but with no joy
so i phoned the fos and then sent all the info they ask for and more,
today i received a letter to say they agree with the bank and if i dont agree to contact them by the 10/08/09 but is there any point as after reading some of the posts on this site it seems fos is now on the banks side.
it would not supprise me if the lords dealing with it are directors of the banks
any advice on what to do next please

natweststaffmember

allatsea wrote: »

Hi all
I am looking for some advice please
We started our bank charges claim from the halifax in feb 09, all seemed to be going well till today, I am claiming just over 6 grand back to 2003 as i did'nt know when i started i could go back to july 2001 this would add another £600 to my claim .
We applied under the hardship route, as i am on jsa and my partner gets child tax credit we have over £2000 council tax and about £1500 gas & electric to pay we also have a lot off other depts that we are also behind with, we have 3 children under 10 ,
We had an offer from the halifax of £105 and charges suspended for three months this i turned down as it will not make a dent on our priority depts,
i phoned the bank a few times to ask them to look at it again but with no joy
so i phoned the fos and then sent all the info they ask for and more,
today i received a letter to say they agree with the bank and if i dont agree to contact them by the 10/08/09 but is there any point as after reading some of the posts on this site it seems fos is now on the banks side.
it would not supprise me if the lords dealing with it are directors of the banks
any advice on what to do next please

Are the priority debt arrears being paid off?
Did Halifax explain why they were only prepared to offer £105 plus suspension of charges and interest?
Is Halifax your main account?
When did the Financial Hardship start?

allatsea_2

hi only council tax on payment plan with rossendales
bank did'nt explain to us but the letter from fos says that the bank say our account is currently in credit ie it means £9 and generally well conducted and as my partner has another account with halifax which is in credit ie £2.56 and has had no charges in 2009 this account is never used and has never had more than £30 in it this .
yes the account is our main account
the hardship started in november 2006

natweststaffmember

allatsea wrote: »

hi only council tax on payment plan with rossendales
bank did'nt explain to us but the letter from fos says that the bank say our account is currently in credit ie it means £9 and generally well conducted and as my partner has another account with halifax which is in credit ie £2.56 and has had no charges in 2009 this account is never used and has never had more than £30 in it this .
yes the account is our main account
the hardship started in november 2006

So currently you are behind on gas and electric but not getting charges?

Have you reclaimed credit card/catalogue charges and or PPI?

allatsea_2

Hi thanks for replying
yes behind with gas & electric and rent as the council benifit dos'nt cover all the rent
and we private rent, we are still getting charges on our main account . we did go to the cccs in 2007 but they were unable to help as there was no mony left over

allatsea_2

we also have a large substancial water charge of over £2000 which at present is not being paid. Our main account and my partners account are called Card Cash Accounts and we are unable to be overdrawn so, if there is not enough to buy something it is declined. BUT if we are charged for a direct debit which does not go through they will charge us and that will make us overdrawn! I also have had the experience of loosing either £39.00 or £78.00 on the Wednesday that my JSA is credited to our account, this I have been told is illegal as this is what the Social deem the amount we can live on ie £99.87!

natweststaffmember

allatsea wrote: »

we also have a large substancial water charge of over £2000 which at present is not being paid. Our main account and my partners account are called Card Cash Accounts and we are unable to be overdrawn so, if there is not enough to buy something it is declined. BUT if we are charged for a direct debit which does not go through they will charge us and that will make us overdrawn! I also have had the experience of loosing either £39.00 or £78.00 on the Wednesday that my JSA is credited to our account, this I have been told is illegal as this is what the Social deem the amount we can live on ie £99.87!

When you did the income and expenditure form which is household income and expenditure, what did the amount come to?

allatsea_2

Hi, thanks for coming back asap, we are at present paying some parties a month and not other until following months as our income in £1545.95 and out outgoing are £1827.87 this does not include the possible £4000.00 mortgage arrears, and back council tax payments - which at present we have been able to come to an agreeable plan on both sides.

natweststaffmember

natweststaffmember wrote: »

When you did the income and expenditure form which is household income and expenditure, what did the amount come to?

lol, that wasn't the question. Did you complete and income and expenditure form when you claimed bank charges with the bank and was the bottom figure a plus or a minus?

allatsea_2

yes we did an expenditure form firstly for the Halifax and yes it showed minus incoming and also we did the same to FOS, the bank one was there own, and we just copied that for the FOS

sorry misunderstood your question

natweststaffmember

Can I ask for the reasoning behind the FOS decision? It should have why the amount is £105...