Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

natweststaffmember

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?

What did you do at the time you were incurring charges?
Did you speak to the bank and what was their response at the time?
Did you have priority debts at the time and how did you resolve that situation?
What time period are the majority of the charges within?

natweststaffmember

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

Did you approach the bank at the time?
What was their response at the time?
What income did you have coming in at the time? How much of it was compromised by the charges?(do not give me exact figures on here but merely rough amounts will do).
What did your priority creditors do at the time to help you out and how did this correspond with bank charges at the time?

LittleLady81

Hi All,
I'm a newbie on here. Glad to hear of peoples successes with the charges. Fingers crossed that there will be more good outcomes.

I have had (before the case went to the high court) success with Natwest (£1100 received my intial claim was for £1800) and Halifax (£700 received my intial claim was for £1200) in 2006 by sending the initial couple of letters on here and a bit of to-ing and fro-ing.

I want to now try claim back my OH's bank charges from Yorkshire Bank who I've heard are pretty much a nightmare to deal with. I wonder if anyone has had/know any success with them as I've not heard many stories of successful claims with them.....

Also, dunova - RBS own Natwest and I think Halifax so I would assume may take a similar stance to them on the charges issue? Good Luck with them.

natweststaffmember

dunova wrote: »

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.

Letters I have seen from the forums use the word "may" rather than will but if you are in financial hardship that consideration is to be quite frank, irrelevant because the issue is helping you to get out of financial hardship.

natweststaffmember

LittleLady81 wrote: »

Hi All, I'm a newbie on here. Glad to hear of peoples successes with the charges. Fingers crossed that there will be more good outcomes.
I have had (before the case went to the high court) success with Natwest (£1100 received my intial claim was for £1800) and Halifax (£700 received my intial claim was for £1200) in 2006 by sending the initial couple of letters on here and a bit of to-ing and fro-ing.

I want to now try claim back my OH bank charges from Yorkshire Bank who I've heard are pretty much a nightmare to deal with. I wonder if anyone has had any success with them as I've not heard many stories of successful claims with them.....

Also, dunova - RBS own Natwest and I think Halifax so I would assume may take a similar stance to them on the charges issue? Good Luck with them.

Lloyds Banking Group own Halifax(previously was part of Halifax Bank of Scotland and unconnected to RBS ).

natweststaffmember

knowga wrote: »

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.

I wasn't take a pop at your knowga and apologies if it came across that way. What evidence did you send to Abbey of financial hardship?

dunova

Im sorry i dont really understand what you are saying this is all new to me couold you please elaborate??:( I am thinking of not bothering becaise of the transfer to the basic account. I still have to bank with RBS

natweststaffmember

dunova wrote: »

Im sorry i dont really understand what you are saying this is all new to me couold you please elaborate??:(

Apologies for that. I don't think you should be worried about the bank account changing to a basic one since that is not the main issue you are approaching the bank about. It is about your situation and financial hardship. If a basic bank account reduces bank charges/stops them then that in itself is a positive thing.
Remember to complete the I&E form in full and for household income and expenditure. Send copies of arrears and priority debts, etc,etc,

MrAverage

natweststaffmember wrote: »

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

I sent the FO and the bank EVIDENCE of all the financial details. The end result is Abbey or Santander are a bunch of money grabbing, selfish, arrogant and inpersonal muppets. Having complained to the FO twice you expect them to ACT with the info you supply, but in truth they just pass it to the bank.

The banks dont want to help out people by giving overdrafts as they earn far too much from ridiculous charges.

troughmonster

Hi
I have been trying to claim for nearly 1000 pounds of charges, under hardship rules, and have recently been told that my hardship claim has been accepted, but they have offered me less than 100 pounds

I am thinking of challenging the offer and trying to get the offer up - any advice anyone?