Report Bank Charges successes and failures

Nasqueron

Thewaldron5 wrote: »

I sent a letter to my bank 3 weeks ago asking for my chargrs back as we sre suffering severe hardship atm.. but havent had a reply yet. What shall i do now

I would re-write to them (or even phone them) but do remember you want the bank on your side, asking for charges back isn't the right way to do it (not least because they don't need to do that), freezes on future charges for example are a possibility or removing old charges, there is no guarantee of any refund. Contact them again and expect to go through their help process looking at your spending habits. I'd also suggest going to the Debt Free pages on here where people will help you budget better if you post a full and honest statement of affairs (SoA).

mik67

Filled out claim on resolver, never heard anything from TSB but got 2 payments from them totalling just under 2 grand but still no other contact.

societys_child

but still no other contact

Money travels faster than snail mail, should get a letter soon.

Nasqueron

mik67 wrote: »

Filled out claim on resolver, never heard anything from TSB but got 2 payments from them totalling just under 2 grand but still no other contact.

Would this be a packaged account or similar or was it really bank charges?

rhyswales12

" I am writing to request that you repay all the charges in relation to direct debits, unauthorised overdrafts, standing orders and direct debits that have been applied to my account in the past six years.
I have been in serious financial hardship for around 6 years with my personal debt snowballing from a few hundred pounds to thousands. This has occurred due to having a drop in income as I took a pay cut to further my education, cost of living and not budgeting correctly. I live month by month living off unplanned overdrafts, planned overdrafts, payday loans, regular loans, family hand-outs, credit cards and catalogues. By living this way my financial situation would worsen with me having a total of 5 payday loans, 4 credit cards, 2 catalogues, 1 regular loan and family loans. Due to things snowballing I have failed to pay the majority of these loans leaving me in payment plans with debt collection agencies.
As I would regularly go into my unplanned overdraft I would occur charges that would then leave me with no financial means of supporting myself forcing me to take out further loans, going without food, failing to repay debt therefor incurring further charges, unable to pay for fuel to get back and forth work and causing me severe depression and ill health. Because I would incur unplanned overdraft charges, usage fees and interest as there weren’t funds in my account to pay direct debits and standing orders thus incurring further returned charges Lloyds and the recipient adding to my problem.
Often I would only go a couple of pound into the unplanned overdraft occurring single charges of up to and over £80 for a single month. I have been in this financial cycle for a long time now and its really upsetting me and I want to sort my financial situation out. Since Lloyds abolished the charges in November 2017 I have seen a slight benefit as I would no longer incur large charges but I still have my historically debt to pay off.
I have recently been putting thing into place to sort my finances out and to pay off my debt. I am writing to you to request that I have my unplanned overdraft fees, overdraft usage fee, overdraft interest, returned standing order fee and returned direct debit fee refunded so I can pay off my debt therefore allowing me to be debt free and I can get myself out of this hardship I’m currently in. My life would change dramatically if this would be the case and I would be over the mood. I am a young man that has been a customer of Lloyds since I was 18 and would love to continue being a customer in the future.

The charges total £2,014.06 and I ask that you repay me the full amount.

All charges are from February 2014 until October 2017
Unplanned overdraft fee - £1180
Unplanned overdraft interest fee - £42.06
Overdraft usage fee - £252
Returned Standing order fee - £70
Returned direct debit fee - £470

Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Yours faithfully,"

rhyswales12

Also any of you email them or use resolver for reclaiming bank charges ?

Nasqueron

I'm not sure if you have somehow missed the numerous comments on here, or indeed the MSE article but you cannot reclaim bank charges and writing to the bank listing all the charges will just get you a polite refusal.

Understand that there is no obligation for banks, even if you are currently in hardship, to refund anything, period. You may get charges for the last 6 months, you may get a freeze on future charges, they may even just invite you to speak to them to discuss budgeting advice.

You need to write to them about your CURRENT financial hardship and ask for assistance. Remember, while they are obliged to assist people in hardship, you still need them on your side and demanding £2000+ in charges back isn't the right way. Be prepared for an evaluation of your funds and any luxury spending like Sky tv, eating out or expensive mobile contracts will count against you.

[Deleted User]

rhyswales12 wrote: »

I am writing to request that you repay all the charges in relation to direct debits, unauthorised overdrafts, standing orders and direct debits that have been applied to my account in the past six years.

You should be detailing only your CURRENT Financial Hardship.

Six years is far too long and such historical refunds will not even be considered.

You do mention that your wage has apparently dropped, but you don't mention exactly which ESSENTIAL bills you are struggling to pay or are in arrears with. Remember, anything you mention will be checked against your statements. If your statements show expensive monthly payments to a mobile phone provider, subscription television, gym membership or even shopping at Waitrose etc these are all examples of simply spending beyond your means. If your statements show no such luxury, and the Bank agree that you are in (their definition of) Financial Hardship then you might reasonably expect the Bank to refund (some) charges-typically those in the last six months.

However, as Nasqueron explained above, the Bank are under no obligation to refund anything at all and they have a range of other measures available to them which would show them as treating your hardship case fairly. In other words, your request may result in you simply having interest on your overdraft suspended for a time or they could insist that you accept a debt management programme.

So do consider carefully what you hope to achieve before you send that letter...

You might also want to read through recent pages of this thread. Below is a typical response from February 14th last year:

Shoegrrl wrote: »

I am trying to reclaim charges relating to my overdraft and the fees I incurred. I used the templates on here to submit my claim and they have denied it. They state I have not demonstrated financial hardship.

Moneysavermum

Just in case it’s of help to anyone, I wrote to HSBC after having months of snowballing charges and was going to send the template letter but luckily read on the forums first and personalised it/took out demands etc. I posted it before Christmas with no real expectations except it was worth the cost of a stamp. I’ve managed to get myself out of the snowball effect in the meantime, but yesterday had an email from them telling me the usual stuff about how the charges were valid and suggesting services to help manage my money - but also telling me they would credit £300 if charges back to me as a goodwill gesture. And they have. Thank you all for your very helpful tips.

Timemeans_2

Hi,

I'm a little late to the party in reclaiming back charges. I'm no longer in financial hardship as a result of them, however I was at the time - primarily 2007-2014 - it took a long time to get out of the hole they created.

I accrued a total of £1500 during that time. Given some are over 6 years ago and the hardship no longer exists, is there any point attempting to reclaim?