Report Bank Charges successes and failures

kirabear

Hi
I put a complaint in to LLoydstsb for charges approx £1250.....got a letter saying NO, then sent Martins reply letter back to them. They rang me and after a chat they refused again. To be honest I didn't really understand all the jargon they used.Lol
Got a letter this morning confirming there refusal and it states that because of the court ruling they haven't done anything wrong basically.
They asked me to explain the argument of abuse of dominant position to them.....
Said if I want to take it further I can go to the Ombudsman and sent me a leaflet how to do it.
So not sure weather I should pursue it....any ideas anyone ??????

Thanks in advance
Mandi

HAVEFAITH

BIG_MAC wrote: »

Had a great result from Santander, through the Ombudsman who ruled in my favour, got a cheque from them for £7,802 from 2002 until present day. All due to the peoples champion Martin and his great web-site. Many many thanks.

Hi, I'm about to start my claim v Santander ... be good if you could tell us more of your experience? Thank you

Premier_2

HAVEFAITH wrote: »

Hi, I'm about to start my claim v Santander ... be good if you could tell us more of your experience? Thank you

It appears to relate to mis-selling of PPI

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=41545866&postcount=12183

BennyTheBoy

I started my case back in 2002 through the challenge your charges route and was claiming for £2400 back from HSBC. At that time my account was overdrawn by £1500 and I was being stung with huge charges every month. It got to the point where I just has to cut my losses and open a new account at a different bank and pay my wages into that. After writing to them many times explaining that I couldn't afford to continue to pay there exorbitant charges they put my account in the hands of a debt collector. I contact the bank again explaining that if my challenge your charges case was unsuccessful that I would set up some type of payment scheme to clear the account. They didn't even respond. The debt collectors rang me constantly. Some times even twice a day along with letters every day. I tried explaining the same thing to them but they were uninterested. In the end even before the case failed I had to start paying. Thankfully they accepted my financial hardship statement and I make a token payment of £1 every month. Since then I have now complained to the financial ombudsman and they are dealing with my complaint. However they are saying that is it very unlikely that I will get anything other than help from the bank. When I asked what that help would be I was told this would be ing the form of a payment scheme like making a token payment of £1 per month.

If my complaint is not upheld what can I do to take if further? It looks like yet again my bank is going to get away with charging me £2400 to use my overdraft and pay off the remaining £1400 that I owe. I simply cant afford it? I work full time and earn a good wage but I have massive debts and am strugling to stay on top and keep a roof over my head. I earn about £1600 a month take home but my debts a mortgage payments take nearly a £1000 before I have paid any bills or put food in the house or fuel in the car. I have been renting out a room in my house but that has now stopped and my partner has moved in to help me with the bills and stuff.
So far the information I have been given about my debts is that I dont have enough money after bills and everything to take a debt management plan and one of my debts is secured on my mortgage and they just wont budge.

Hope you can help.

Kind Regards

Ben

jasmine22

had some money last year from santander,then they said because of the court ruling i couldnt claim any more and in 8 weeks the case would be closed can they do this ? or could i try again i am in financial hardship please could u let me know .

ally6969

Hi
I put in a claim before the court case finished with regards to financial hardship. They kept asking for one thing after another proof of paying rent etc. Its not until the court case had finished that I had realised they were stalling and basicly turned round and said I couldn't claim no with a dear john letter. Is that still the case if I am in financial hardship?

Now with santander they have charged me for going over by paying for petrol even though I checked online that I had money I had delayed payments from a week ago. My girlfriend looked though and was baffled and thought it was useless bank with payments coming out everywhere. They are taking charges out from January in March.

Premier_2

ally6969 wrote: »

Hi
I put in a claim before the court case finished with regards to financial hardship. They kept asking for one thing after another proof of paying rent etc. Its not until the court case had finished that I had realised they were stalling and basicly turned round and said I couldn't claim no with a dear john letter. Is that still the case if I am in financial hardship?

Now with santander they have charged me for going over by paying for petrol even though I checked online that I had money I had delayed payments from a week ago. My girlfriend looked though and was baffled and thought it was useless bank with payments coming out everywhere. They are taking charges out from January in March.

The decision of the Supreme Court back in November 2009 does not affect claims based on financial hardship as such claims have no legal basis; it is simply a code of practice (some) lenders agree to abide by and where they do, the only requirement is that complaints so made are handled positively and sympathetically (so no guarantee of any refund)

I suggest you read the MSE guide to reclaiming bank charges to better understand the situation.

SMILEY_3

BANK :HALIFAX
CLAIMED:£2856
RECIEVED :£2397

Hi All

Just a massive thank you to Martin Lewis and to everyones advice on here for making me write to my partners bank.

Wrote letter to local branch (using Martin's template) based on financial hardship (with paperwork attached as evidence).

Within a week got a phone call from the bank stating they would offer a percentage(think it was about half).Then phoned them back the same day to push for more and they offered nearly the whole amount.

Whole process took about 2weeks.

Thank you soo much everyone ...this is going to make a huge difference to our lives.Will hopfully get on the straight and narrow.

Love this site..........everyone please try ...you have nothing to lose.

outtapocket

soulcurls wrote: »

Well I have reached the end of my reclaiming fight.

Although I am in extreme hardship at the moment with 0 income and am staying afloat only through the tremendous kindness of family and friends paying my mortgage and essential outgoings; Abbey have only paid me £500 (as a good will gesture) of the in excess of £2000 in charges I have claimed.
I complained to the ombudsman, not that Abbey had refused to refund my charges, but that Abbey had rejected my claim of hardship due to the fact that I am not in mortgage arrears, my point being that these are not the criteria set-out by the FSA; incredibly however the Ombudsman ruled in Abbey’s favour, stating that Abbey are only obliged to treat me ‘fairly’ and within the law.

I cannot see what is fair about being told that I am not a hardship case despite being penniless and up to my proverbial in debt, because I am fighting by the skin of my teeth not to incur more charges…apparently if I were still incurring charges they would consider me a hardship case, or if I had let myself get into rent arrears or mortgage arrears…Abbey have made up their own set of guidelines for judging hardship and the Ombudsman (at least the one who looked at my case) is fine with this.

Considering my financial difficulties were so greatly exacerbated by Abbey’s £2000 worth of ridiculous charges in the first place, one would have thought that they might see fit to reward my struggle to keep from incurring more charges, but apparently my mistake has been allowing family and friends to keep my head above water…I should have just stopped struggling and let myself sink…

I am incredibly lucky that (so far) my family and friends have put their own finances at risk to help me and I feel extreme guilt and gratitude hourly…I was also very grateful for the £500 from Abbey that helped take the strain for a couple of weeks, but considering how hard I am trying to play by their rules I do feel a little cheated when I read about all of the many success stories…pleased for others but cheated never-the-less.

:embarasse:mad::(:(:mad::(:(:(:mad:

Did you give up????:(:eek:

outtapocket

Anyone else feel that the financial ombudsman are on the banks side???