Report Bank Charges successes and failures

Tomtom07

Need some advice please, I've just had a response from Santander regarding my claim (See below) what should I do now? any suggestions welcome please

'Santander are unable to refund any fees retrospectively in relation to financial difficulty as this has to be assessed at the time. Santander have a specialised Financial Assist team who can discuss the account and your finances as a whole to stop any current cycle of fees which may be impacting you. As such, I can set up a call back from this team if this is something you think would be beneficial. They will discuss your financial affairs in depth and so calls can typically last around half an hour at least. They will not be able to refund historic charges but will assess the account to see if recent charges can be reversed to avoid perpetuating a state of financial difficulty.

In your letter you refer to the Lending Code (Section 9) and the Banking Conduct of Business Sourcebook (Section 5.1.4). We take our responsibilities under these provisions very seriously and at all times adopt a responsible approach to lending. We are always willing to talk to customers about any financial difficulty that they may be experiencing and there is also guidance for customers available via our website.

I recommend checking your account and balance regularly using Online Banking at https://www.santander.co.uk, any cash machine or through your local branch. You can also call our Telephone Banking Centre on Freephone XXXX X XXX XXX

If you regularly incur unarranged overdraft fees you may wish to review the features of the Choice account. For details please go to: XXX

It is important for you to manage your account to avoid paying additional fees. Our Collections & Recoveries Centre will also be happy to talk through all of your available options. They can be contacted on XXXX XXX XXXX. Please note that if Collections & Recoveries become involved in the administration of your account it may affect your Credit Rating.

If you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again. Alternatively you can contact us on XXXX XXX XXXX. We are available Monday to Friday from 8am to 9pm and Saturday from 8am to 2pm.'

dunstonh

Need some advice please, I've just had a response from Santander regarding my claim (See below) what should I do now? any suggestions welcome please

Santander are correct. Financial hardship claims are based on your current position. Not historic.

There is no requirement for the bank to refund anything. Just to look at your current situation and treat your fairly. If you are not in CURRENT hardship then there is nothing for them to do

Set_me_free

dunstonh wrote: »

Santander are correct. Financial hardship claims are based on your current position. Not historic.

There is no requirement for the bank to refund anything. Just to look at your current situation and treat your fairly. If you are not in CURRENT hardship then there is nothing for them to do

How does work if you wrote to them and they did nothing to help?
Then decide to claim back from that date?
Lloyds have been extremely unhelpful to my situation and I believe if they had done a whole financial hardship form back from my original letter we would not be suck in this cycle of charges, they responded with a letter stating I did not contact them again, what was my excuse, oh yeah I was fighting for my life while undergoing treatment for cancer, yet they believe we were not and are still not in financial hardship, I had a full review with my local branch back in July and they agreed we were only just meeting our payments

I'm at a loss to understand why they are so unhelpful, the operator lied about my original letter and the recent appoint on the phone saying there was no record, but in the latest letter he refers to it?

very confused

dunstonh

How does work if you wrote to them and they did nothing to help?

Depends on whether they felt you needed help or whether you made it clear that you wanted help. There is not a line in the sand that classes you as in hardship or not hardship. it is interpretation based on the information available.

The bank often wont know you are in hardship unless you state you are. Many people will run their accounts badly and get charges without being in hardship. Others will live a consumer lifestyle and spend money they dont have but that doesnt put them in hardship.

However, all that said, hardship is generally regarded as being unable to met your payments, having arrears/defaults and/or being stuck in a cycle of charges which keeps pushing your debt up (and increasing the charges).

You normally have to go to the complaints department to get hardship cases looked at fairly. The branch staff are not usually best placed at handling these things (yet they should be but they have targets and management pressure whereas complaints people do not).

The FOS can take action if they feel the bank has not considered your case fairly.

FinallyGettingFree

Total state of shock here!

Bank name: Lloyds TSB (now TSB account)
Amount Reclaimed: No specific amount, I just gave them the dates etc
Amount they paid: £952.61

I had been paying £9.99 a month for YEARS for a Silver account with Lloyds TSB, and then TSB when my account was transferred over. Stopped the payments in January 2015, but then read about mis-selling on MSE and realised it applied to me. Spent 2 minutes filling out the template and just checked my bank account to see the deposit sitting there! Incredible! Thanks MSE!

Natalie-R

Halifax
£5250
2/11/2015

Rejected over the phone 3/11/2015 am being sent a letter so I can take the complaint to the ombudsman. I was told the claim was rejected even though we are experiencing financial hardship all the charges stand correct. HELP! What should I do now is it worth taking it too the ombudsman?

All advise appreciated.

dunstonh

Natalie-R wrote: »

Halifax
£5250
2/11/2015

Rejected over the phone 3/11/2015 am being sent a letter so I can take the complaint to the ombudsman. I was told the claim was rejected even though we are experiencing financial hardship all the charges stand correct. HELP! What should I do now is it worth taking it too the ombudsman?

All advise appreciated.

Would have been better on your own thread if you wanted discussion.

Are you in current financial hardship? i.e. have arrears/defaults or no luxury spending (so no pay tv, dining out/takeaways, shopping at M&S food or Next, large mobile phone bills etc).

Do you think the bank has treated your request unfairly and if so why?

Natalie-R

I thought I had done it on my own thread :cool: sorry.

Yes we are in Financial Hardship my Husband is self employed and has been in and out of work for years he is always looking for work but sometimes there is just nothing about. We don't have any luxury spending and do have arrears. I don't really feel that we were treated fairly as we are generally struggling and have nothing at the moment.

Walldogg

Name - Halifax
Amount Recalimed - unspecified
Amount paid -£435

My bank charges have been spiralling out of control month on month. I called the call centre yesterday who put me on a Fee free account for 6 months meaning no more planned or unplanned overdraft charges. No offer of a refund so last night I emailed them explaining that I was in serious financial difficulties, DD's rejected, more outgoings than income and was borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. I asked for them to look back to 2011 when both me and my husband lost our jobs in same month. This morning I got a call to say they would look into it and get back to me. And as promised they have just called me know and offered £435 as goodwill for charges dating back to Jan 2014. I worked out my charges would have been £2000 to 2011. But hey, I'm not complaining and it will go towards clearing my overdraft. Well impressed it took less than 24 hours!!

Nasqueron

Natalie-R wrote: »

I thought I had done it on my own thread :cool: sorry.

Yes we are in Financial Hardship my Husband is self employed and has been in and out of work for years he is always looking for work but sometimes there is just nothing about. We don't have any luxury spending and do have arrears. I don't really feel that we were treated fairly as we are generally struggling and have nothing at the moment.

You need to make the case to the bank that you are in current hardship, if you put in a claim for 5 grand for old charges they will simply refer to the court case ruling as it sounds like you are just after old charges which the banks won the case on. With current hardship they can freeze charges, perhaps refund recent ones and help stop new ones going on