Report Bank Charges successes and failures

Debt_Doll

Good point Premier, I was obviously looking at it from a different angle thinking they gave me £750 but my full claim was £2000 but at least I got something off them.

A friend of mine claimed back £12,000 and got the full amount back but that was before the court verdict

alfshrek

Wow!!! I have worked hard over the past year or so to recover mis-sold PPI costs and have to report the following successes:
MBNA £1247.25
MORGAN STANLEY (now B'CARD) £1324.91
B'CARD £5895.39
Unbelievable!!!! Thank you Martin and all others for your support and advice.
I am still chasing HSBC for what I consider to be years of excessive and punitive overdraft charges but, of course, they have refused everything since the outcome of the Test Case....I have sent a claim to the Financial Ombudsman bur, so far, they appear to be suggesting that they will take no action and hold that HSBC have done all they can to help....any suggestions on this will be most welcome.
Finally,since the Test Case outcome, there has been no result in my County Court case lodged years ago on the above. I have been told by the Court that fees are not refundable even though the case did not reach court...any suggestions on this please?
I have now been made redundant and times are hard...the lesson here is..'dont give up, there's always hope!'

Premier_2

alfshrek wrote: »

Wow!!! I have worked hard over the past year or so to recover mis-sold PPI costs and have to report the following successes:
MBNA £1247.25
MORGAN STANLEY (now B'CARD) £1324.91
B'CARD £5895.39
Unbelievable!!!! Thank you Martin and all others for your support and advice.
...

So were those amounts relating to PPI reclaims?

If so, you appear to have posted in the wrong thread/sub-forum
The correct thread is here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/524031

You reported your success regarding credit cards, including MBNA, previously in this thread here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=36640375&postcount=1023

alfshrek wrote: »

...Finally,since the Test Case outcome, there has been no result in my County Court case lodged years ago on the above. I have been told by the Court that fees are not refundable even though the case did not reach court...any suggestions on this please?
I have now been made redundant and times are hard...the lesson here is..'dont give up, there's always hope!'

Contrary to your own advice, I strongly suggest in this instance you do give up; there is no hope (and certainly not without throwing more good money at it).
The court fees you would have paid were for filing the claim. You filed it, hence why it was payable and non-refundable.

This was explained to you previously in the appropriate thread here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/36640589#Comment_36640589

mrs-stressed

Hi everyone. Firstly I am so pleased that we do get some success stories on here!! And good for you all. I would like to post a failure. I have had a long and very protracted time with Lloyds. They owed me only (!) £450 but they consistently refused to pay up even though everyone around me was getting their money back. I persisted. Sent all the letters (from this website I must say) and then went to court. That was all chucked in the air when the law (!) said that the charges were deemed to be fair. I then - in all honesty and desparateness (sorry cant spell) went down the hardship route. Well, I went through reams of paper and I was with a diffferent 'advisior' every single letter - some of them were duplicated - what a waste of a stamp or should I say stamps. Then onto the FOS and they agreed with Lloyds. What I had done wrong I have yet to determine (or not) but now I have a real sense of greivance against this robbing and thieving bank. I cant seem to shake off this feeling that it is a lucky lottery I was in and I was not lucky. They took the money out of my account and then wouldnt pay it back!! If I did that I would be in prison right now.

I have a claim going back three years now for PPI and guess who with yes - Lloyds. And guess who isnt playing ball - you guessed right - Lloyds. This is now with FOS and they have sent me paperwork with someone elses account details - FGS.

Regards to you all and WELL DONE to those that have won. Oh poo to those that havent - I am in your gang... I have 'stupid for even trying' written all over my face...

Love aggrieved and angry Mrs s x

nhyira

Bank: Royal Bank of Scotland
Amount Claimed: £2976.00
Amount Received: £0.00

I got a letter from FOS agreeing with RBS saying I was not in 'financial hardship' and not entitled to a refund even though I am on income based jobseekers allowance and receive nothing. I also have what FOS said were 'priority debts' to Child Support Agency and rent arrears.

It seems to me that FOS does nothing but sit and watch the paperwork go backwards and forwards. They cannot overturn a decision made by the bank and they have no say in what is defined as 'financial hardship'

There should be a clear definition of 'financial hardship' and the FOS should be able to overturn decisions made by the banks. This system is self regulation which means no regulation. The FOS does not see that the banks are acting in a fair way because there is no clear definition of 'financial hardship' and you cannot enforce what is not defined.

Premier_2

nhyira wrote: »

...It seems to me that FOS does nothing but sit and watch the paperwork go backwards and forwards. They cannot overturn a decision made by the bank and they have no say in what is defined as 'financial hardship' ...

I don't think that is a totally fair reflection on what should happen at the FOS.

Providing you meet the FOS complaints pre-requisites, then the FOS should be actively considering your complaint.
It you went to the FOS before you were supposed to (before 8 weeks or receipt of a final response letter) then it possibly is the case the FOS will sit back and just watch the attempts to resolve between you and the bank.

However if you meet the requirements, then you are correct in that the FOS don't unilaterally make a judgement, but their role is to look at the evidence they already have and will probably approach both the bank and the complainant to try to facilitate a resolution.
What they are assessing is has the bank complied with the requirements to treat the complainant in a sympathethic and, in the case of financial hardship, a positive approach.

As regards to a complaint that the bank has not correctly considered a claim for financial hardship, then their own website suggests they will review this too. Indeed, they quote a case study of just such a situation (83/01)
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/83/83-financial-difficulties.htm

Admitedly, in that example, they did not uphold the complaint but apparently they did review the decision of the bank, but in that example concluded there was "no evidence to suggest she had experienced any financial difficulties" since a previous claim the bank paid out against.
(This may have been partly as a result of the complainant not willing to provide such evidence to the FOS)

It would be difficult to give a clear definition of financial hardship as each case is different and so each is assessed individually, but the lending code does go quite a way to explaining what may be considered financial hardship. You are correct in that it is not the role of the FOS to define financial hardship.

A link to the lending code and other useful resource material on financial hardship can be found in the financial hardship online resources sticky thread.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2428497

abiggs

blackhawk69 wrote: »

HALIFAX
£1286.67
9TH JULY 2007
Rejected 13th January 2010 and my case will be closed 8 weeks after that.

HELP !

how did you get on. did you give up.

Premier_2

abiggs wrote: »

how did you get on. did you give up.

Hi abiggs, and welcome to MSE. :hello:

Unfortunately, the post you quoted is from way back in February. The poster concerned was a brand new member also, and has not logged back in since they made that post.

I suggest you read through the rest of the posts and see what successes or failures others have had with Halifax.

In short, no one with any bank appears to be getting much success unless they are in financial hardship. Even then, chances vary and usually do not exceed 6 months recent charges at best.
As the claim was originally filed in 2007 and appears to have been stayed, it probably was not based on financial hardship.

SophieJane88

Hi guys.
I've just been reading through this thread after reading through the advice on how to reclaim charges, and I was wondering whether you guys could advise me on a few things -
firstly, are some banks easier to claim back from than others? I'm with Barclays and I am debating asking for my (many, MANY) charges back, as I've just left uni and obviously am struggling with a lot of debts.
I had a student account and overdraft - does this affect reclaiming at all?
I'm worried that if I try to reclaim unfair charges (including £22 every five days I was in my 'reserve amount' after I went over my overdraft (which I did NOT ask for or agree to or even KNOW about for a long time) that the bank will bring up specific things I buy or spend my money on (I'm not going to lie and say I've been angelic with all my money, I was a student and you know what students do best...) but after a period of serious illness that lasted six months, during which I could not work at all, I'm still at the limit of my overdraft, and have been forced to move in with my grandparents to get out of having to spend all my money on rent. Even though my grandparents are generously letting me live here very cheaply and helping with food etc, I still want to be able to pay them back some how, and with my job it's still difficult even working up to a stage where I can look after myself, when every paycheck I get has to go on paying back debts from friends and family and obviously trying to get out of my overdraft.

I would appreciate any help or advice you guys could give!


I wish you all luck with your reclaims, I hope banks realise they can't just take whatever they want and expect no repercussions!

Premier_2

Hi SophieJane88, and welcome to MSE :hello:

The process for reclaiming bank charges is the same no matter what bank or account is involved.

The MSE guide to reclaiming bank charges explains all.

The are two different guides depending on whether you are reclaiming based on genuine financial hardship (see the sticky thread on financial hardship online resources to help you decide if that applies to you), or a legally based challenge based on the accusation the charges are unfair. This second guide is linked to from the first.

No one has reported any success in court using the latest MSE guide based on reclaiming via court.

The banks can't take what they want from your account. They can only charge what is in their terms & conditions/tariff you agreed to for the services you use. If you believe they have taken any other charges not so included, I suggest you contact the bank and discuss the apparent error.