Report Bank Charges successes and failures

[Deleted User]

moneymoner said:

Deleted_User said:

moneymoner said:

dunstonh said:

Given the very small amount involved, its like the FOS came to an arrangement with the bank to waive the FOS fee (which is more than the amount owed) if it was resolved quickly without investigation.  i.e. cheaper for bank to refund than to let it go through the process and allows the FOS to clear a case quickly as they are very behind on workload.  Win win for all involved.

Not really a win win for me, the default's against me and the negative impact on my credit score would not be covered by £450 of fee's being refunded. I was managing the account quite well before the bank changed their T&C's and forced me into a difficult situtation financially. I was unable to obtain any kind of credit after this fiasco.

Your post made it clear you were already in significant financial trouble (not only living in the overdraft but exceeding it and constantly paying the fees) which damaged your credit long before the changes. You were unable to clear the account before they changed the system, so nothing was affected by the extra charges - for future reference ask the bank for a financial hardship case rather than just ploughing on struggling, they have to help you deal with your situation.

There was no negative impact on your credit score, as you do not have a credit score, the gimmick number shown by CRAs is nothing more than a bit of fun for anyone who knows about the credit system, your score is not even seen by lenders let alone used to make a decision on credit, they only look at your credit history which showed you were in deep trouble so lending to you would not be responsible.

Totally incorrect, I was managing my finances very well, the very small overdraft was not financial hardship.

The excessive increase of the overdraft fee and charges was the issue. These fee's have been reviewed now by regulator's and were seen to be excessive at the time. I also did not have any loan's or cc's so I was nto in deep trouble as you mentioned. My credit score or history or whatever, was impacted.

You had a £1200 overdraft and were not only living in it constantly, you were going over it every month so getting fees. That is not a "very small overdraft" nor were you managing finances well or you'd be in credit with no overdraft - further evidence being the fact you were told you could close the account and pay it off and were unable to do so financially. Being stuck in a cycle of charges and being unable to clear your debt (which is what an overdraft it) is the definition of financial hardship and the bank would have helped. You were in deep trouble (and you seem in denial about that fact) and the extra charges certainly didn't help but again, you could have asked for financial help.

The FCA agreed in 2019 that banks should change their systems to make OD charges simpler, fairer and easier to manage but did not rule they were excessive and this is not something applied retrospectively - but the outcome was effectively the same anyway in that rather than getting more fees, you would simply have been charged more interest - as happened after the ruling. In your case with Santander, rather than the tiered rate, you would have been charged 39.9% interest.

I would point you to this case study from the FOS seems to be an identical situation to you and the regulator ruled the bank acted correctly

Your credit rating would have been trashed long before because of the extensive overdraft and the inability to keep in the limit

moneymoner

Deleted_User said:

You had a £1200 overdraft and were not only living in it constantly, you were going over it every month so getting fees. That is not a "very small overdraft" nor were you managing finances well or you'd be in credit with no overdraft - further evidence being the fact you were told you could close the account and pay it off and were unable to do so financially. Being stuck in a cycle of charges and being unable to clear your debt (which is what an overdraft it) is the definition of financial hardship and the bank would have helped. You were in deep trouble (and you seem in denial about that fact) and the extra charges certainly didn't help but again, you could have asked for financial help.

Your credit rating would have been trashed long before because of the extensive overdraft and the inability to keep in the limit

Totally incorrect again. I had a free arranged overdraft which was part of the £10 per month account fee.

The bank changed the overdraft to an unarranged overdraft part way through the account being opened.

I used the overdraft for a small loan and as it is was only £10 per month, not really a huge amount to borrow by today's standards.

I refused to pay the increased charges and disputed the overdraft being turned into an unarranged one.

Not made clear to me when opening the account, apart from possible fee's and charges changing.

So effectively mis-sold the account and forced me to stop all transactions in and out of the account.

I also had plenty of income to pay off the overdraft but declined the banks offer and took it to the FOS

as mis-sold account. Eventually I settled the full amount with the bank.

You can argue as much you like that the bank operated within regulations but that's not how I see it.

As far as I see, the T&C's were changed and I disagreed but was prevented from closing the account

and the debt be passed to a collector. The bank chose to keep the account open for several months

with the new charges being applied which I disputed many many times by letter and telephone calls.

[Deleted User]

moneymoner said:

Deleted_User said:

You had a £1200 overdraft and were not only living in it constantly, you were going over it every month so getting fees. That is not a "very small overdraft" nor were you managing finances well or you'd be in credit with no overdraft - further evidence being the fact you were told you could close the account and pay it off and were unable to do so financially. Being stuck in a cycle of charges and being unable to clear your debt (which is what an overdraft it) is the definition of financial hardship and the bank would have helped. You were in deep trouble (and you seem in denial about that fact) and the extra charges certainly didn't help but again, you could have asked for financial help.

Your credit rating would have been trashed long before because of the extensive overdraft and the inability to keep in the limit

Totally incorrect again. I had a free arranged overdraft which was part of the £10 per month account fee.

The bank changed the overdraft to an unarranged overdraft part way through the account being opened.

I used the overdraft for a small loan and as it is was only £10 per month, not really a huge amount to borrow by today's standards.

I refused to pay the increased charges and disputed the overdraft being turned into an unarranged one.

Not made clear to me when opening the account, apart from possible fee's and charges changing.

So effectively mis-sold the account and forced me to stop all transactions in and out of the account.

I also had plenty of income to pay off the overdraft but declined the banks offer and took it to the FOS

as mis-sold account. Eventually I settled the full amount with the bank.

You can argue as much you like that the bank operated within regulations but that's not how I see it.

As far as I see, the T&C's were changed and I disagreed but was prevented from closing the account

and the debt be passed to a collector. The bank chose to keep the account open for several months

with the new charges being applied which I disputed many many times by letter and telephone calls.

I have quoted your post, if my post is "totally incorrect" then your original one must also be,

You're welcome to argue that with the bank, the facts don't agree with you. Good day.

moneymoner

Deleted_User said:

I have quoted your post, if my post is "totally incorrect" then your original one must also be,

You're welcome to argue that with the bank, the facts don't agree with you. Good day.

OK, sorry you are totally correct and that all this was my fault. I was actually having all the problems that you mentinoned and living off an overdraft. Are you satisfied now.

moneymoner

How do you delete a post in this forum? I'd like to remove the original post about the FOS claim.

I'm tired of idiots replying to it and making decisions about my financial situation.

alonehiker

I have recently been awarded £8k+ from Bank of Scotland for excessive overdraft charges on a current account dating back to 2015.

Whatever your situation is my advice is, challenge your bank and be persistent. Bank of Scotland fobbed me off but the Financial Ombudsman thought otherwise and awarded my case.

I probably wouldn't have even batted an eye lid if I weren't a member of the website or subscriber of the weekly newsletter.

[Deleted User]

A_Lone_Hiker said:

I have recently been awarded £8k+ from Bank of Scotland for excessive overdraft charges on a current account dating back to 2015.

Whatever your situation is my advice is, challenge your bank and be persistent. Bank of Scotland fobbed me off but the Financial Ombudsman thought otherwise and awarded my case.

I probably wouldn't have even batted an eye lid if I weren't a member of the website or subscriber of the weekly newsletter.

Care to post the ombudsman decision / case details

alonehiker

Deleted_User said:

Care to post the ombudsman decision / case details

This is the case published:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/314584/DRN-2981906.pdf

[Deleted User]

OK so it's actually a financial hardship consideration, not a ruling that the charges themselves were unfair or excessive, but rather they should have taken action about living in the OD. Awarded 8k seems a bit of a strange statement given they were told to remove charges/interest and use them to clear the overdraft and only then were any excess returned. Strange they decided to retrospectively apply the new financial hardship rules

alonehiker

Deleted_User said:

OK so it's actually a financial hardship consideration, not a ruling that the charges themselves were unfair or excessive, but rather they should have taken action about living in the OD. Awarded 8k seems a bit of a strange statement given they were told to remove charges/interest and use them to clear the overdraft and only then were any excess returned. Strange they decided to retrospectively apply the new financial hardship rules

It's still a success regardless.