Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

MrAverage

The FO are rubbish also. They passed my claim to Abbey only for them to say "watch your account" etc. Twice they have done this, why pay to some but not all.

natweststaffmember

knowga wrote: »

Hello
I received my further reply from Abbey for the bank charge claim using the hardship/new legal arguments. They refuse to pay anything back. Their answer to my hardship claim was basically "watch your account" and the legal arguments were refuted clause by clause.
FO here I come...

What proof of financial hardship did you send? Apologies to knowga but I am really quite annoyed that the argument people are doing for financial hardship appear to be ones that are sent because they believe there is a loophole to reclaiming.
YOU HAVE TO SEND PROOF OF FINANCIAL HARDSHIP. Read the lending code page 20(It's on my signature so that those who cannot google search it can get to it straight away. If the link doesn't work then PM me and I will double check it).
Please do not stop reading past the first few paragraphs but read the whole of section 9 and understand it. Even if you use a pen and paper for an income and expenditure form which should be for the household then do so and send copies of arrears to the bank. If you go to the FOS on a wing and a prayer then expect a NO. Apologies but rant is over.

natweststaffmember

MrAverage wrote: »

The FO are rubbish also. They passed my claim to Abbey only for them to say "watch your account" etc. Twice they have done this, why pay to some but not all.

What EVIDENCE of financial hardship have you supplied? Do not ASSUME the bank know your INDIVIDUAL circumstances.

knowga

I decided to post my refusal by Abbey on the new templates with the fin.hardship/legal argument letters...as the section is for "successes and failures"...my next step is the FO. Apologies for the post.

ajausten

for the past two years or so I have been trying to get charges of over 5,000 from an account that is now closed. After the test case i received the usual rejection letter but replied saying that i wanted the file kept open and looked at under 'financial hardship' which i was definitely in for a substantial period of time whilst banking with this institution and am currently experiencing again due to husband being out of work. I filled in all the forms sent by the bank and provided copies of arrears letters and statements etc. Today i have received their final reply which states that they acknowledge that i am in financial hardship but they do not believe their charges (5,000 worth just to repeat!!!) conytributed to this and they would advise me to contact my current bank provider or take my complaint to FOS. They also claim their records show they offered support - this would be a loan to which they added mis-sold ppi which i have already successfully reclaimed from them.

What is the likelihood of the FOS agreeing with the bank here. has anyone successfully claimed via hardship on a closed account?

markdsmith_2

markdsmith wrote: »

Update on my case. I received a rejection letter from Nationwide stating that although they are "sorry to hear about your current circumstances" they "have to be fair and consistant" in their approach. They claim ""we believe you have suffcient income to cover your essential monthly expenditure".

They now say I should deal with the debt collecting agency KKPR.

What's my next step? There is no way I can afford to pay back the money they are claiming.

The overdraft is £1800 and I'm claiming £2950 + interest in charges (going back to Jul 07). One of the criteria for hardship cases is if you incurr more than £500 a year in charges. Is this correct? Please help.

Update 2: re-approached Nationwide by phone and letter and they are sticking to their guns. Tried the route that the charges caused further DDs to bounce thus causing additional charges hence causing hardship, but they just said "you should've changed your DD dates then". :mad:

Now with the FOS to see what they can do. From my statements it clearly shows their charges coming out caused this vicious circle. Now banking with A&L with no problems as I'm out of the cycle. Problem is, the O/D with Nationwide still stands so I need to get this wiped out. Has ANYONE had any success against Nationwide via the hardship route? :think:

Update 3 - After sending letters to the FOS, they contacted me firstly by letter dated 11th March, then I had a very nice call from a lovely lady from the FOS by telephone to explain the procedure and that Nationwide have until 26th March to respond.

On Saturday 20th March I had a call from a debt collecting company saying the debt was now with them (£1,840.41 with intertest being added) but they would accept £1,000, like I have that sort of money hanging around! I had never heard of this debt collecting company so refused to give details and asked for the information in writing, which they were not happy about. I received this letter on Monday 22nd March so I called them immediately saying I would not pay anything until the FOS had made a final decision. They weren't happy, again, saying I should pay or it may go further. I refused to pay anything again stating that the FOS were involved so nothing would be paid. They didn't believe me so I said I would copy them the FOS letter and send them an explanation of my case. I will also be sending this to the FOS.

Funny that this was given to a new debt collecting agency just after the FOS got involved!

I will keep you updated.

Update 4 (the_insider please note this is an update and not a request for help) - The FOS adjudicator called today and asked me to send a copy of the letter from the Debt Collecting Agency as they are asking Nationwide why they approached another debt collecting agency 1) Without informing me and 2) Whilst this investigation was ongoing.

Hopefully I will give a positive update soon.

UPDATE 5!!

Had a letter today from the ombudsman saying they have rejected my claim as the bank did all they could to help by 1) reducing my overdraft by £1,000 with 21 days notice and 2) agreeing to my attempt to reduce the overdraft further by £100 per month.

However, they seen to have ommited that I also asked for all further charges to be suspended until I had cleared the overdraft to assist me in clearing this debt. But these charges still got added causing me to go over the reduced overdraft each month and then incurring further charges.:mad:

I am struggling with other debts at the moment and have written to other creditors asking for help (i.e. reduced payments and suspending interest for a three month period to help me). Two out of four have agreed. But this letter today ha realy knocked me back. Don't know what to do now

markdsmith_2

ajausten wrote: »

for the past two years or so I have been trying to get charges of over 5,000 from an account that is now closed. After the test case i received the usual rejection letter but replied saying that i wanted the file kept open and looked at under 'financial hardship' which i was definitely in for a substantial period of time whilst banking with this institution and am currently experiencing again due to husband being out of work. I filled in all the forms sent by the bank and provided copies of arrears letters and statements etc. Today i have received their final reply which states that they acknowledge that i am in financial hardship but they do not believe their charges (5,000 worth just to repeat!!!) conytributed to this and they would advise me to contact my current bank provider or take my complaint to FOS. They also claim their records show they offered support - this would be a loan to which they added mis-sold ppi which i have already successfully reclaimed from them.

What is the likelihood of the FOS agreeing with the bank here. has anyone successfully claimed via hardship on a closed account?

ajausten, I would go via the FOS now. Make sure you inform them this is a hardship case. If you look back on this thread, Natweststaffmember offers some excellent advice on how to go about this.

Good luck

maz1964

:mad:

Babatree wrote: »

I have been following the guide on the site, and am now pursuing the Human Argument, (i.e. I was suffering financial hardship) to reclaim my Bank Charges.
However, I have had a reply from HBOS and they are asking me to complete a financial statement for the current time!

My circumstances have changed substantially since the period I complained about, (9 years ago), does this mean I can no longer claim my charges back because I have worked hard and managed to improve my financial position despite the banks efforts in 2001-2007?

hiya me too im in a bit of the same whilst im now unemployed, my hubby works full time and since ive managed in the past year before redundancy get back on track with our joint accounts, hardship other then being unemeployed, we have cleared the mortgage arrears and other arrears but now to complete a financial statement it will appear as if we are no longer in arrears but we were back then and the charges impacted heavily and we still have the overdrafts which we have not cleared and would do if the charges are paid back so yes please what do we do now, ive had the bank final letter and for us to go to them if we are still unhappy before fos i guess i wish to send a clear letter of why im claiming back and more of less tell them the above since now hbos have done the daily overdraft charge this is now not letting me clear the overdraft any quicker infact slower as they are now taking average 31 instead of about 16 pounds a month:mad:

still worth a shot im thinking but how do i approach this now ?/

glad of any advice cheers maz

markdsmith_2

maz1964 wrote: »

:mad:

hiya me too im in a bit of the same whilst im now unemployed, my hubby works full time and since ive managed in the past year before redundancy get back on track with our joint accounts, hardship other then being unemeployed, we have cleared the mortgage arrears and other arrears but now to complete a financial statement it will appear as if we are no longer in arrears but we were back then and the charges impacted heavily and we still have the overdrafts which we have not cleared and would do if the charges are paid back so yes please what do we do now, ive had the bank final letter and for us to go to them if we are still unhappy before fos i guess i wish to send a clear letter of why im claiming back and more of less tell them the above since now hbos have done the daily overdraft charge this is now not letting me clear the overdraft any quicker infact slower as they are now taking average 31 instead of about 16 pounds a month:mad:

still worth a shot im thinking but how do i approach this now ?/

glad of any advice cheers maz

If they have refused you and given their final response, I would go to the FOS claiming hardship and saying why this is. I'm claiming hardship due to the fact I'm finding it difficult to get out of the vicious circle.

Natweststaffmember on this thread gives great advice. Take a look.

Good luck.

dunova

I too am thinking of recliaming over £3k from the RBS but the thought of the basic bank account worries does anyone have any experience of this ? I have sent a letter and they hve sent me an income/expend form back to complete but letters states will revert to a basic acct once I make the claim.