Yorkshire Bank

John_Hurley

Me and my wife have got two claims currently, against Yorkshire Bank. One against the bank itself, to reclaim unauthorised overdraft charges, and the other against Yorkshire Bank Visa, for mis-selling Payment Protection Insurance.

Nearly three months down the line, and neither matter has been concluded. They write to us, advising that matters are being investigated, by that it is taking longer than anticipated to finalise matters.

As regards the first claim, we have suggested that, as well over £500 in charges were levied, within the past 12 months, the claim should not be stayed, but be treated as a "hardship case", in line with the FSA's definition.

They have sent us an Form to complete, called an AIR form, requesting details of our financial situation, but we are reluctant to divulge such information, to them.

Has anyone been down this road, with Yorkshire Bank, and has anyone had a successful outcome, against them, since the test case went to the Lords??

stu1975

If you are claiming under financial hardship you have to fill in the AIR form and send it back to them alng with any evidence of hardship, ie mortgage/rent arrears, council tax, utility etc etc.
Under the waiver they have to look at your case but they still do not have to pay back 1p.
If you send all the information that they ask for and they deem you to be in hardship they will make you a GOGW payment and they rest will be on hold until the outcome of the test case.

Hope this helps

Busy_B!

Hi

My husband is also claiming against Yorkshire bank. He was sent the form to complete as we are claiming under a hardship case. We returned that and he was paid £70 (in two £35 installments). They said they are awaiting the outcome from the high courts and then they will decide what to do.

Can anyone explain to me what this means and how long should we expect to wait from now?

John i would say to return the form asap and then at least they will get on with the claim.

Thanks

simmo123

Hi, I thought I would reply to your story, mine was the same, I had to go through a telephone call where i had to tell them all my income and expenditure with them.

I received a letter stating that they would like to help me with my financial hardship and were willing to credit £700.00 into my account (which was £1200 overdrawn, due to going over my overdraft limit and more bank charges) and that they were always here to help me and this did not affect my claim in any way.

The money went into my account, I tried to use my card for shopping last night and they had closed my account, my card was declined and when I telephoned them this morning they said that the credit went into my account, and that because I owed £500 on my overdraft facility my account had been passed to their debt recovery deparment. So the bank have won again, I dont know if they are allowed to do this, but beware.............. even though they have part paid my claim of £2500.00 due to my financial difficulty they have won again, by not allowing me to access the credit they put into the account.

natweststaffmember

simmo123 wrote: »

Hi, I thought I would reply to your story, mine was the same, I had to go through a telephone call where i had to tell them all my income and expenditure with them.

I received a letter stating that they would like to help me with my financial hardship and were willing to credit £700.00 into my account (which was £1200 overdrawn, due to going over my overdraft limit and more bank charges) and that they were always here to help me and this did not affect my claim in any way.

The money went into my account, I tried to use my card for shopping last night and they had closed my account, my card was declined and when I telephoned them this morning they said that the credit went into my account, and that because I owed £500 on my overdraft facility my account had been passed to their debt recovery deparment. So the bank have won again, I dont know if they are allowed to do this, but beware.............. even though they have part paid my claim of £2500.00 due to my financial difficulty they have won again, by not allowing me to access the credit they put into the account.

That is a breach of the FSA Waiver on Bank charges plain and simple.
Point 13.18. I think you need to complain to the FOS on this issue since the timing of closing your account and refunding seem suspiciously close.
"(18) the firm must not close accounts or threaten closure of accounts of customers when it might reasonably appear that this is for the purpose (or with the intent) of penalising customers that have complained about unauthorised overdraft charges for having complained, or deterring future complaints from these customers or others. For the avoidance of doubt, the firm may close accounts or threaten to close accounts where there is good justification for doing so based on the circumstances of the particular case;"

Furthermore I would say they breached the FSA Waiver on this part as well:

"15. When dealing with complainants in financial difficulty, the firm should consider the following steps in respect of the period during which they are assessed as being in financial difficulty:
(a) the firm might waive future unauthorised overdraft charges; and
(b) the firm might not enforce debts against complainants in financial difficulty to the extent that these debts are made up of unauthorised overdraft charges.
16. Before closing a personal current account of a customer in financial difficulty, the firm might offer the customer a basic bank account, if this is a facility that the bank offers."