Report Bank Charges successes and failures

josephinejanemay

Hi,

Ive been following this thread for a long time now and have been followingthe process to claim back my bank charges from HSBC.

In the past 7years I was charged nearly £1700 in bank charges. 3 years of this and when most of the charges happened I was at university. By the time i left university I was around £2500 overdrawn. As a smart move I cut up the card and moved my banking to lloyds. I really dont like HSBC customer service and to date have not had a single problem with lloyds. Since leaving university 3 years ago I had been trying to repay the overdraft, it seemed i could keep HSBC happy if i was seen to be paying in money even if it was £50 a month. In the time i was trying to repay I was made redundant and went on to a basic pay job which just about covered my living costs so i had to pay back even less...however i was paying.

I had the overdraft down to £1100 when HSBC wrote to me and requested the full amount paid off of it would be past on to debt collectors. I paid £400 from my wages and borrowed £700 from my parents thankfully.

Now what frustrates me is if i hadnt had the bank charges...i wouldnt have had half the overdraft i had! I have followed the route as specified on MSE but HSBC have wrote telling me they will not be refundung any charges....should I write back? As such I am not in financial difficulty now but i still owe my parents money and still have credit card student debt. Even a gesture of goodwill would please me.

Any advice would be welcomed!

Thanks xxx

georgina38

Barclays Bank double success

PPI Claim upheld for £7.5k
Bank Charges received in full BEFORE Final court ruling £2.5k
GE Money 45k arrears re-capitalised - no repossession!

There is hope - Thanks to your threads for all the advice etc.
you just need to know the law and fight!

G

jeannie1505

I recently had success with a PPI claim with Black Horse, and having read your success stories with reclaiming bank charges, i thought I might chance my arm.
I used your template letter and adapted it to fit my personal position, emailed it to the CEO.
Two days later I had a response from LTSB customer relations, stating that they were looking into my complaint and apologising for the inconvenience it had caused me.
The same day i received a letter from the same lady stating she had attempted to contact me by phone and had been unsuccessful, interesting given that mobile was by me all the time!! And that she had considered my case and had decided that I was not entitled to any payment, however, if I gave her more information she would reassess my complaint. This was obviously to put me off.
I wrote back further explaining that their charges had meant that during my hardship i had not been able to pay other creditors and that this had led to my being listed as having defaults and long term this had affected my credit rating.
two days later I received two payments totalling £300 into my accounts, not what I had asked for but at least recognition that they had definitely had the upper hand in the relationship.
I am awaiting receipt of a letter detailing their decision.
However, i would state that all of you that have tried and the banks have attempted to put you off keep going, stand firm, but also when you write about hardship don't forget the long term effects that this has on your ability to apply for credit/loans/mortgages and additionally the stress that this has caused.

Good luck and a huge big thank you to MSE and Martin Lewis:

aliyah

Hi
I first attempted bank charge reclaim in 2008. Lloyds TSB gave a resounding no.

On a whim, sent a letter last week stating Martin's hardship points and explaining how the charges made an already difficult financial and social situation worse. Also explained how I am still repaying them slowly through a debt collection agency and ....

10 days later received full settlement of £1300!

:T

Thanks Martin and MSE!!!

moogie100

I was about to post a questionaire to BOS to claim a refund for missold PPI but I received a letter from them saying that they believed that I had been unfairly sold PPI. I phoned them and answered a few questions. They confirmed that I had been missold the PPI. A few weeks later I received a letter stating that the amount of refund would be £11,668. This wiped out my balance with them and I got a cheque for the balance.

Thank you so much for all the help on your site

Pat Clarke

chelle-belle84

:j
I wrote to Lloyds last week asking for my bank charges back - i took the human argument route and wrote all about the difficult times we have faced since my husband’s redundancy. Less than a week later i had £1010 refunded to my account when i called them to question the deposit they advised due to our vulnerable situation we were in they have refunded all bank charges from the redundancy until now. This has been an amazing help to us.

Thank you Martin i couldn’t have done it without your advise!!!

thedakini

Bank: LLoyds Tsb
Ammount claimed: £1200
Ammound refunded: £680 (+ £200 wavered current charges)
Duration of claim: 7 Days

Using the template on this website, I outlined my position using the Human argument and financial hardships rules. I expected a firm 'jog on, kitty' from the bank, but within 7 days I had a very reasonable offer from them. I called them to try getting more off them, but the lady told me she had done all she could and had additionally wavered a further £200 of charges that would have been due in the next 2 months. So, I accepted the offer, not wanting to go tke it any further as I am still waiting on an Obsmundundunbum (can't say it or spell it!) claim for ppi which has taken months. 'A bird in the hand and all that' y'know?

Thanks again to martin and this website, and I encourage anyone to just gof or it and try your chances.

never_too_old

Afternoon

well i have read most of the comments on here,didnt really notice many success stories on bank charges .My claim is going in today for £ 2493.70 plus interest,:eek: definately caused financial hardship so will wait and see what happens.

Premier_2

l.m.hart wrote: »

Afternoon

well i have read most of the comments on here,didnt really notice many success stories on bank charges .My claim is going in today for £ 2493.70 plus interest,:eek: definately caused financial hardship so will wait and see what happens.

I'm sorry, but I think you have mis-understood.

If, as appears the case, you are claiming the charges caused the financial hardship then your claim will almost certainly fail.

Read again the MSE article and the sticky thread on financial hardship online resources. You need to demonstrate you were in financial hardship at the point you incurred the charges initially, and that the charges only made that situation worse.

By the contents of your own signature, it would appear at first sight that you may have simply overspent rather than found yourself in financial hardship as defined ny the lending code, and the things you overspent on also indicate that your claim of being in financial hardship may well be incorrect. I am not criticising you or judging you in this respect, as I can see you are indeed in financial difficulties, but financial hardship has a defined meaning under the lending code (and it is that meaning the lender will want to compare you against) and I fear you may well not meet it. sorry.

never_too_old

Premier wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I think you have mis-understood.

If, as appears the case, you are claiming the charges caused the financial hardship then your claim will almost certainly fail.

Read again the MSE article and the sticky thread on financial hardship online resources. You need to demonstrate you were in financial hardship at the point you incurred the charges initially, and that the charges only made that situation worse.

By the contents of your own signature, it would appear at first sight that you may have simply overspent rather than found yourself in financial hardship as defined ny the lending code, and the things you overspent on also indicate that your claim of being in financial hardship may well be incorrect. I am not criticising you or judging you in this respect, as I can see you are indeed in financial difficulties, but financial hardship has a defined meaning under the lending code (and it is that meaning the lender will want to compare you against) and I fear you may well not meet it. sorry.

Thanks for your reply,
at the time all the charges were made,my dh was suffering from depression,the recession had hit us hard( construction) and all money going in was being swallowed up by charges, this was all put in my letter,My sig shows all monies that are owed on either hp or loans and are all up to date now,but during a 18 month period our bank didnt help us by taking away our overdraft.
I have not lost anything by trying and alot to gain if successful,the worst they can now do to us is say no, a year ago the worst they could do was take away our overdraft .We are learning by our mistakes and blame no one else.Like many people we took advantage of being able to get hp for a car and van and didnt anticipate the recession and our income being slashed by half but things could have been worse we could have credit card debts as well which thankfully we dont have a credit card.:(