Hardship Claim

Fluentwoof

Hi Everyone, this is my first post.

I wrote to Lloyds TSB back in March regarding the reclaim, got the usual response of waiting for the test case etc. etc.

I have just now written to them claiming financial hardship. They replied stating in their letter that they agree that we may be in financial hardship and offering me a call of "assistance" (i.e. repayment plan) from the customer care team and stating that they are not making any payments until the end of the test case (same as before).

My question is, if I accept any repayment plans as assistance out of our financial hardship, does this harm my claim under the hardship banner? I was intending to write to them saying that I am going to the FOS, but do I do this with or without accepting their "help"?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Jenny

natweststaffmember

Fluentwoof wrote: »

Hi Everyone, this is my first post.

I wrote to Lloyds TSB back in March regarding the reclaim, got the usual response of waiting for the test case etc. etc.

I have just now written to them claiming financial hardship. They replied stating in their letter that they agree that we may be in financial hardship and offering me a call of "assistance" (i.e. repayment plan) from the customer care team and stating that they are not making any payments until the end of the test case (same as before).

My question is, if I accept any repayment plans as assistance out of our financial hardship, does this harm my claim under the hardship banner? I was intending to write to them saying that I am going to the FOS, but do I do this with or without accepting their "help"?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Jenny

Jenny can you ask the LloydsTSB to send you a financial hardship final response letter so that you can take it to the ombudsman, so we can check their reasoning behind this.

Fluentwoof

Thanks for your reply.

It is my assumption that this was their final response. Basically, they said that they want to help customers who are in financial hardship which is why they've offered the repayment plan (presumably charging me more interest!).

From looking at the responses on Martin's site, it appears that this is the standard "wriggle out of it and get the customer to drop it" response. They have said that they believe their charges are fair. This is why I wanted to write to the ombudsman. In the meantime though, I am constantly getting dds rejected and further charges applied to my account, so getting some kind of help would be useful, but i don't want to damage my chances of going to the ombudsman if I essentially get myself out of the difficulty.

esmerellda

What is going to repayment plan? your overdraft ?

If it will help you draw a line and get out of the circle of charges then accept it. If you are constantly getting bounced DDs then there is something going wrong somewhere and getting rid of the overdraft, putting charges and interest on hold on it and starting fresh will really help.

It won't stop you going to the FOS, however they may well agree with Lloyds that they have acted as far as they need to under the waiver. We don't know anything of your circumstances beyond you are finding it difficult to manage each month - are there priority arrears like mortgage/ren/utilitys/council tax ? they are kind of the only reasons for getting any kind of refund from the banks at the moment.

I would, personally, write back to lloyds and say yes it would be useful thank you for the offer, can we move the overdraft to 'customer care' put interest and charges on it on hold and arrange a repayment plan of what your IE shows you can manage each month. As i am in priority arrears with X and X if you could refund (amoutn of arrears) in the interim whilst waiting for the test case it would help me get out of the spiral etc.

Then i'd cancel all my DD's/SO's, open a new basic account and sort your finances out so you know exactly what is going out each month. Pay by cash/paypoint/card over the phone/bill payment for a couple months while you get sorted - If you can set up new DD's to go out on one day after that it would be easier, if you get paid monthly.

Its hard without seeing your IE to know exactly what the situation is, are you on repayment plans with any other companies ?