Lloyds again!

robert_m_2

Right, the sorry tale from beginning as a background is pertinent to the 'hardship' aspect of the claim.
Split up from partner in May 2007 and became homeless, living in tent and eventually a car for 16 months whilst holding down a poorly paid job (had doggie which made it impossible to get accomadation where i ended up).
Lloyds proceeded to give me bank charges of approx £2,500 since then, though they were aware of my situation the whole time.
Sept 2008 i wrote to them at Cust services in Andover asking for refund of charges. I was not aware of the hardship criteria at the time as i had virtually no internet access at the time, though that was the basis of my appeal to them. I do not have a copy of that letter. Andover passed my letter to my branch who phoned me to say that ''court case ongoing-refer to internet for details''.
Later that month i secured accomadation in a b+b and stayed there until May this year. In April 2009 i was diagnosed with cancer, packed in my job as i could not afford to continue staying in the b+b and in July underwent a successful op. Since then i have been staying with various friends to try and recuperate, so dont have a permanent or postal address. I resubmitted a claim for almost £3,000 using the ''with interest'' calculator from this site, along with letters re my health problems on 10th july, and posted this to my branch as it had ended up there the first time. Received phone call from them after 4-5 days saying they had passed it on to...........Andover! Grrrr.
Heard no more so phoned up Andover this week to be given the stock Lloyds response that the case is on hold and they are not the correct dept for financial hardship. They then pass you through to another dept who deny all knowledge of such things.
14 calls later and the best that had happened was that next months charges for 2 bounced direct debits (had thought my benefits would be through by now which would have covered them).
I have an outstanding ''payday'' type loan direct debit for £400 that has already been declined once. I know re the perils of such companies but it WAS the only way i could afford to pay off various things, and much cheaper than missing a payment on the overdraft Lloyds had kindly given me to repay some of the charges ( at the time on the phone i was told they were refunding my a/c and didnt notice all they did was give me an authorised o/d to the value of the next 2 months charges and had spent most of it before i noticed-- my nearest branch was 60 miles away, couldnt get statements as was homelessor mini-statements from a ATM).
Help required with various aspects, such as the hardship criteria that is usually quoted on here usually involves priority rent arrears, utility bills etc, but i have not been in a position to get these because i couldnt afford a house through continually paying charges on charges. How can i deal with the ombudsman when i dont have much hope of getting a postal address? (dont require advice on the homeless aspect as because of still ongoing dispute with former partner, part ownership of houses etc it is messy)
I will in the next fortnight have to go back to the tent life as i cant outstay my welcome with my friends, so i want to get process moved on while i have internet access.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

natweststaffmember

robert_m wrote: »

Right, the sorry tale from beginning as a background is pertinent to the 'hardship' aspect of the claim.
Split up from partner in May 2007 and became homeless, living in tent and eventually a car for 16 months whilst holding down a poorly paid job (had doggie which made it impossible to get accomadation where i ended up).
Lloyds proceeded to give me bank charges of approx £2,500 since then, though they were aware of my situation the whole time.
Sept 2008 i wrote to them at Cust services in Andover asking for refund of charges. I was not aware of the hardship criteria at the time as i had virtually no internet access at the time, though that was the basis of my appeal to them. I do not have a copy of that letter. Andover passed my letter to my branch who phoned me to say that ''court case ongoing-refer to internet for details''.
Later that month i secured accomadation in a b+b and stayed there until May this year. In April 2009 i was diagnosed with cancer, packed in my job as i could not afford to continue staying in the b+b and in July underwent a successful op. Since then i have been staying with various friends to try and recuperate, so dont have a permanent or postal address. I resubmitted a claim for almost £3,000 using the ''with interest'' calculator from this site, along with letters re my health problems on 10th july, and posted this to my branch as it had ended up there the first time. Received phone call from them after 4-5 days saying they had passed it on to...........Andover! Grrrr.
Heard no more so phoned up Andover this week to be given the stock Lloyds response that the case is on hold and they are not the correct dept for financial hardship. They then pass you through to another dept who deny all knowledge of such things.
14 calls later and the best that had happened was that next months charges for 2 bounced direct debits (had thought my benefits would be through by now which would have covered them).
I have an outstanding ''payday'' type loan direct debit for £400 that has already been declined once. I know re the perils of such companies but it WAS the only way i could afford to pay off various things, and much cheaper than missing a payment on the overdraft Lloyds had kindly given me to repay some of the charges ( at the time on the phone i was told they were refunding my a/c and didnt notice all they did was give me an authorised o/d to the value of the next 2 months charges and had spent most of it before i noticed-- my nearest branch was 60 miles away, couldnt get statements as was homelessor mini-statements from a ATM).
Help required with various aspects, such as the hardship criteria that is usually quoted on here usually involves priority rent arrears, utility bills etc, but i have not been in a position to get these because i couldnt afford a house through continually paying charges on charges. How can i deal with the ombudsman when i dont have much hope of getting a postal address?
Will any of your friends allow you to use their place for a postal address?
I write down what has happened to you in a chronological order from the dates that you wrote to LloydsTSB and the run around you went through.
Furthermore, please can you make a complaint to the FSA Bank Charges Waiver monitoring team. So far in the last 15 months they have received just 18 complaints in total and clearly this seems to outweigh the problems that you have encountered.My gut feeling is that TODAY you are not in financial hardship since you have no priority debt arrears, however you were when you started the process.
Furthermore, make the FOS aware of the problems you have had getting LloydsTSB to deal with Financial hardship
(dont require advice on the homeless aspect as because of still ongoing dispute with former partner, part ownership of houses etc it is messy)
I will in the next fortnight have to go back to the tent life as i cant outstay my welcome with my friends, so i want to get process moved on while i have internet access.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

I hope that helps for now/

robert_m_2

Ta for that.
Would be able to get one of my friends as correspondance address but when i have to go again i will be 250 odd miles away again which will make correspondance tricky and i believe you have to have a residential address in order to get a PO box??? Could be wrong tho.
My old employers were keeping my job open and if i am fit enough to go back to work i will do that. Cant use them as postal address as it is just a shed at the side of the road from which to launch a boat.
Should also state that in terms of hardship i have had a crisis loan of £60
which is my only income in last 8 weeks (benefits pending).
Will do on the FSA waiver team but with regard to the FOS do i complain that i cannot get a ''final response''?

natweststaffmember

robert_m wrote: »

Ta for that.
Would be able to get one of my friends as correspondance address but when i have to go again i will be 250 odd miles away again which will make correspondance tricky and i believe you have to have a residential address in order to get a PO box??? Could be wrong tho.
My old employers were keeping my job open and if i am fit enough to go back to work i will do that. Cant use them as postal address as it is just a shed at the side of the road from which to launch a boat.
Should also state that in terms of hardship i have had a crisis loan of £60
which is my only income in last 8 weeks (benefits pending).
Will do on the FSA waiver team but with regard to the FOS do i complain that i cannot get a ''final response''?

FOS, explain the circumstances and that means the issue of a correspondence address which might unfortunately play into the hands of the bank. HOWEVER, make them aware that everytime you wanted to speak by telephone they told you to go to the branch and vice versa. It is worsening your initial hardship since you have no money, are now homeless which would be alleviated if the bank repaid charges, etc.etc.
You have to provide the FOS an income and expenditure form.

robert_m_2

Will download the necessary and do the letters over the weekend to send on monday.
Thanks again and will update this if i receive any good news,
I find it bizzare that only 18 complaints to the waiver team and would urge all who read this who have had the same Lloyds treatment to complain.
Would have thought it would have been in the thousands.

robert_m_2

Do you have contact details for the FSA waiver monitoring team, i might br grtting old cos i cant find it on their website. Might be a good idea to stick it on here somewhere as then more folk would be liable to complain.

natweststaffmember

Email: centralwaiversteam@fsa.gov.uk