Report Bank Charges successes and failures

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jackie18 wrote: »

I followed Martin's guide to claiming back bank charges, I wrote to the Cooperative Bank twice with no luck then wrote to the FSA. The FSA contacted The Cooperative Bank and came to the conclusion that it was my own fault the charges had been made on my account as I did not make sure the money was there for direct debits. Even though the £35 a time bank charges helped me to get into financial difficulty the FSA said the bank had been fair.

Try suing them...

poohbear59

GingerFurball wrote: »

Bank: Halifax/Bank of Scotland
Money Claimed: £324.00 + interest
Amount offered: £136.00

Just wanted to share this, seeing as on the last few pages there seems to be a lot of people getting nowhere with their banks.

I wrote to my local BoS branch last week using the template offered, paying particular attention to the human aspect of my claim: I'm a student, and I lost my job in November, which meant that for 4 months my only income was the £180 or so a month I was getting as a student loan. I've had to borrow significant sums of money from my parents to get by, and move back to my mum's to save money that I was frivolously spending on stuff like rent and food. The vast majority of the charges I've claimed back were accrued between February and May, and a lot of them were activated by charges I'd previously accrued tipping me over my overdraft limit, thus leaving me in a vicious cycle where previous charges would trigger new ones. Thankfully, I got myself a new part time job in March, and have been able to work largely full time hours over the summer, which means my finances are in a healthier state.

I got a letter through today explaining that while the bank disagrees with my complaint, having taken into account the circumstances I'd outlined they're offering me a refund of the last 6 charges against my account, totalling £136. Not as much as I was initially claiming, but I'm very happy with how quickly they've got back to me, and £136 is better than nothing, so I'm inclined to accept it.

Hopefully this might act as inspiration for anyone who's unsure of whether or not to approach their bank.

Thank you for your letter. My son has now accrued charges of over a £1000 now and they are still going up each month. It all started in February when the new charges kicked in and he went over his overdraft limit by just £7 on an account that he hadn't used for about two years. Despite letters, phone calls etc we still have had no help at all. He too had to leave uni and come home to just try to pay the charges. He hopes to go back to uni later this month and resit his final year and I have now had to start paying off his debts at £50 a month that I don't have to spare either.

We are going to contact the Ombudsman today to see if we can get anywhere with this.

pwinfield77

Hi I bank with nat west. I was owed £15000 in bank charges. I agreed with the that i would accept £7500 initially and then after the court case if they were found to be wrong I would get the rest. Does anyone know if i will be able to get the rest of the money back? if so what do i need to do.:eek:

MARTIN WILL YOU PLEASE HELP ME

podperson

I think you have answered your own question
"after the court case IF they were found to be wrong I would get the rest."
They were not found to be wrong by the court case (however much we may disagree with it!) and unless you think you have a case for financial hardship you have very little chance of getting the rest back. At least you got half of them back which is more then a lot of people managed.

spender717

Please HELP ME Martin!

I filled in a hardship request to Nationwide, and also did an income/expenditure form for them too.
Today I have been told I was unsuccessful due to not having the money in my account for DD's even though I'd lost my job etc. Anyway, just thought I'll appeal the decision.

Open next letter to find a letter telling me Nationwide have reviewed my overdraft limit, and due to my new scoring they are reducing my overdraft limit from £1100 to £500 on 25th Sept and I have to ensure I'm within this new limit or I'll be charged 18.9% and unauthorised overdraft fees on the extra amount! They've never had issues with my account before in all the time I've been unemployed, been overdrawn etc etc, only suddenly after I tried to reclaim my old charges. I'm on maternity and can't afford to come up with this money, especially straight after I told them I'm in hardship!

I have a number to phone if I have an issue with this decision, what should I do?

Premier_2

spender717 wrote: »

Please HELP ME Martin!

I filled in a hardship request to Nationwide, and also did an income/expenditure form for them too.
Today I have been told I was unsuccessful due to not having the money in my account for DD's even though I'd lost my job etc. Anyway, just thought I'll appeal the decision.

Open next letter to find a letter telling me Nationwide have reviewed my overdraft limit, and due to my new scoring they are reducing my overdraft limit from £1100 to £500 on 25th Sept and I have to ensure I'm within this new limit or I'll be charged 18.9% and unauthorised overdraft fees on the extra amount! They've never had issues with my account before in all the time I've been unemployed, been overdrawn etc etc, only suddenly after I tried to reclaim my old charges. I'm on maternity and can't afford to come up with this money, especially straight after I told them I'm in hardship!

I have a number to phone if I have an issue with this decision, what should I do?

Just an idea, but have you tried calling the phone number supplied? :huh:

Overdrafts are repayable on demand, so the bank appear to be within their rights to do so. They appear to have rejected your claim for any refund and apparently don't even consider you are in financial hardship.

You could, of course, take the decsion as to whether you are in financial hardship to the FOS to consider, but remember, even if financial hardship is proven, the bank are not obligated to refund even 1p in charges.

The FOS will, if they disagree with the finding of the bank regarding your financial hardship claim, only seek to ensure the bank has handled your complaint with a positive and sympathetic approach.

It may well be, if you call the number they suggest, they may be able to offer you a loan repayment scheme for either the amount you need to find by 25 Septy, or even the whole amount.

If that is considered to be a positive and sympathetic approach the bank have adopted to your situation, then even if the FOS say you are in financial hardship, they will say the bank has adopted the appropriate approach to the situation.

Call the number, see what they say, and come back if you need more help or advise.

spender717

Premier wrote: »

Just an idea, but have you tried calling the phone number supplied? :huh:

Overdrafts are repayable on demand, so the bank appear to be within their rights to do so. They appear to have rejected your claim for any refund and apparently don't even consider you are in financial hardship.

You could, of course, take the decsion as to whether you are in financial hardship to the FOS to consider, but remember, even if financial hardship is proven, the bank are not obligated to refund even 1p in charges.

The FOS will, if they disagree with the finding of the bank regarding your financial hardship claim, only seek to ensure the bank has handled your complaint with a positive and sympathetic approach.

It may well be, if you call the number they suggest, they may be able to offer you a loan repayment scheme for either the amount you need to find by 25 Septy, or even the whole amount.

If that is considered to be a positive and sympathetic approach the bank have adopted to your situation, then even if the FOS say you are in financial hardship, they will say the bank has adopted the appropriate approach to the situation.

Call the number, see what they say, and come back if you need more help or advise.

I wanted to know where I stand before I called, so as to try and resolve the issue asap.
The reason they gave for refusing the reclaim for charges is that they consider we have a 'large surplus income' before we make payments to other creditors and they think expenditure should be minimised, one way by approaching other creditors to reduce payments.
Well if they consider food and mortgage as things we can minimise, and us having anything as a surplus when our outgoings are more than incomings, and are unavoidable due to job loss etc...!!!!

But the point I was trying to make is that my account has been in dire straights for a year before when I lost my job and not once did they reduce my overdraft, it's now not too bad actually, but same day as refusal they reduce it by £600, so blatantly!

In the reclaim refusal they said 'they understand customers may experience unforseen difficulties and it is certainly not our intention to make things more difficult' and 'they will always be sympathetic and positive if you are in difficulty', then in a seperate letter tell me they're going to add charges if I don't repay X amount of OD!
Can I request that they don't apply any charges on the existing amount I'm already in my OD? Who can I complain to to about this treatment that will get me answer either way before 25th Sept if they won't help?

Premier_2

spender717 wrote: »

...Can I request that they don't apply any charges on the existing amount I'm already in my OD? Who can I complain to to about this treatment that will get me answer either way before 25th Sept if they won't help?

You can request it, but I'd be surprised if they agree to such a request.

You can only complain to the FOS, and then only if either 8 weeks have passed since the original complaint was raised, or that you have a 'deadlock' or final response letter from the Nationwide.
Even so, it's unlikely you'll get any resolution from the FOS in 2 weeks ... they typically talk in terms of months to come to a conclusion in considering a complaint.

... Or you could call the number the Nationwide have given you, see what is said, and take matters from there.

colinbrown5013

Hi everybody,
I complained to my bank they rejected it. The Ombudsman has rejected me twice and today I sent this final letter.

Angela Galer,
The financial Ombudsman.
Dear Angela, Ref.
I am getting fed up with being fobbed off, about my reclaim of charges, from the Halifax Bank.
I list below some of the grounds to claim on, taken from a well known internet site.
• Can’t pay debts. You’re struggling to make loan and credit card repayments.
I am using services from CCCS to help me with considerable debts.
• Payments regularly returned.
• Substantial drop in income.
I have retired and I find it difficult to do many tasks because of arthritis. I am taking pain killers
subscribed by my doctor and will soon be needing surgery.
• Disability or illness. As described above.
• Going bankrupt or into debt management. I am involved with CCCS, in a debt management plan
• Frequently over overdraft limit. My charges exceeded £500 per year.
• Bank charges have hurt your situation.

The charges have contributed to making your financial hardship situation. Most of the times I was

overdrawn was simply because of the charges.

3. You were stuck in a cycle of charges you cannot break out of


This is known as snowballing and effectively means you’ve had charges on charges, so you’ve been stuck in a trap of not being able to clear charges before new daily or monthly fees are added on top.

This was absolutely what happened in my case.

I have pointed out some of these things in my previous letters. It is not as if I am in just one of the
situations above, I qualify in all of them.

I am claiming benefit for guaranteed pension credit.

I want you to reconsider your judgement, which has clearly been wrong and I assure you that I will be going to court if this final letter continues to get your fob off treatment.

I am claiming that the bank failed to treat me fairly when I was obviously in hardship.
Yours sincerely
Colin Brown.

The bank took over £900 in 4months, at the height of my problems.
If I do not qualify I fail to see who could.
The grounds on this site qualify me over and over again.
I do intend to go to court after this final letter.

Yours truly
Colin Brown

MikeSharp

I had been writing to teh Halifax for several weeks and not once would they accept that the charges were unfair and they sent my final response stating they would not re-charge or pay compensation. Having worked as a complaint handler myself for a large building society i decided to write to teh ombudsman. After a few short weeks they resoponded and Halifax have upheld my complaint and i am receiving a cheque for £1772.00
ombudsman are easy to deal with and after filling our a short form i got £1772.00...well worth the effort!!! :beer::beer::beer: