Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

natweststaffmember

MrAverage wrote: »

I sent the FO and the bank EVIDENCE of all the financial details.
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are any of the arrears being paid off?
Do you have credit card charges/store card charges/ catalogue account charges?(they can be reclaimed)
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.
Did you receive a final response? Are you aware that the FOS are effectively mediation, ie they have to request from the bank the information as well and to confirm that they have done everything that they are required to do? I understand you are angry but Financial hardship is not a loophole to reclaiming.
The banks dont want to help out people by giving overdrafts as they earn far too much from ridiculous charges.

If you lent someone £100 and they decided they would pay you as and when, would you lend them another £100.00 when you could not be certain that they would repay it?
Financial hardship link is on my signature, please read page 20 which is the start of section 9. Re read and re read it(i'm even spotting things, I have missed and I have read it a few times).
Financial hardship is about household income, it's about an event that occurred to cause a loss of income and its about priority debts.

natweststaffmember

troughmonster wrote: »

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?

What caused your financial hardship?
Have you got priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Have you contacted your priority creditors?

troughmonster

Yes - arrears on mortgage and council tax.
DMP on other debts.
hardship caused by a combination of too many commitments, charges didnt help, and reduced household income when my wife became very ill for 12 months

natweststaffmember

Are any of the arrears being paid off the mortgage currently?
Are any of the council tax arrears being paid off?

Did you contact the bank when things started to bounce? What was there reaction?
DId you contact the bank when your wife became ill? What did they do?

ajausten

the charges were largely over a 3 and a half year period and initially the bank agreed to an overdraft but after the arrival of another baby and i was on rubbish maternity pay things got bad and the bank actually called me in to discuss the situation. the solution this time was a loan of 6000 in spite of the fact they knew i was on maternity leave (by the way they added PPI without informing me and i have reclaimed that successfully after a long 2 year period of them denying my claims!!) i was able to negotiate reduced payments with most of my creditors but eventually had to rely on credit cards and additional credit (which had been cleared with the bank loan!) to get me through- the bank know all of this! we did manage to get ourselves back on track and overdraft cleared in 2007 at which time we closed this account as there were many occasions when the bank refused to honour payments despite knowing that my full salary would be in the account within hours- thus they charged and the creditor charged!!! as you can gather for a period of time we were in a cycle and the solutions being offered were not really assisting our situation.

natweststaffmember

ajausten wrote: »

the charges were largely over a 3 and a half year period and initially the bank agreed to an overdraft but after the arrival of another baby and i was on rubbish maternity pay things got bad and the bank actually called me in to discuss the situation. the solution this time was a loan of 6000 in spite of the fact they knew i was on maternity leave (by the way they added PPI without informing me and i have reclaimed that successfully after a long 2 year period of them denying my claims!!) i was able to negotiate reduced payments with most of my creditors but eventually had to rely on credit cards and additional credit (which had been cleared with the bank loan!) to get me through- the bank know all of this! we did manage to get ourselves back on track and overdraft cleared in 2007 at which time we closed this account as there were many occasions when the bank refused to honour payments despite knowing that my full salary would be in the account within hours- thus they charged and the creditor charged!!! as you can gather for a period of time we were in a cycle and the solutions being offered were not really assisting our situation.

On financial hardship, current hardship there is no case.
However, was the loan before or after you spoke with your creditors? Did you incur charges after speaking with your creditors?
Did they offer any other solutions to you apart from a loan?
Have you got copies of the loan paperwork(yes, it might be important for past financial hardship)?
Never assume the bank knows more than they really do. Been there and done that.

Lou293

Hi, I also have a similar problem. I have a hardship claim for bank charges with Barclays for £2210 (totaling £3155.06 with interest). They responded asking for a financial statement for now when the hardship claim I clearly stated came to a head in 2007 when they basically forced me into a resolve loan on top of an original loan, which will finally end in 14 months time. I have already successfully claimed the ppi on this loan through the FOS.
I don't know what to do next especially as I no longer use Barclays as my main bank. I'm also worried that they'll say they resolved my problem with the loan. Please can anyone advise me.

natweststaffmember

Lou293 wrote: »

Hi, I also have a similar problem. I have a hardship claim for bank charges with Barclays for £2210 (totaling £3155.06 with interest). They responded asking for a financial statement for now when the hardship claim I clearly stated came to a head in 2007 when they basically forced me into a resolve loan on top of an original loan, which will finally end in 14 months time. I have already successfully claimed the ppi on this loan through the FOS.
I don't know what to do next especially as I no longer use Barclays as my main bank. I'm also worried that they'll say they resolved my problem with the loan. Please can anyone advise me.

Complete the income and expenditure but specifically include a letter detailing exactly how they dealt with your case. I do suspect that the loan being taken to clear charges may in fact be the decider against your case for financial hardship since the bank did do something rather than simply ignore the whole problem but you need to ask the bank the question and we will see their response.

MadysonBelinda

Great News

desperatedut

Hi, sorry if this goes on but to give all the background;
Originally claimed £2,700 across 2 accounts with Yorkshire Bank in 2007 (includes interest), they rejected the claim, we took them to court, paid the £150 etc, case was then put on hold while the test case began.
We waited patiently, and at the same time began to get ourselves straight and out of our overdraft. This was only for a while though, sure enough the charges began appearing again, one thing gets returned and all of a sudden YB begin hammering the charges on and before you know it the cycle begins again and we cannot get out of it again. Our income has dropped over the last few years, not massively, but dropped nevertheless. My husband suffered a near fatal accident in Dec 07 which added to our worries. Charges began dissappearing out of our account left, right and centre and we lost complete track of what was going where and just tried to concentrate on getting each bill paid as quickly as possible. We are not overly committed financially or anything like that, but the charges were knocking us over each month, or interest was going on the overdraft at different times etc, we just could not predict what was happening on the account, and just survived day to day, bill to bill. I took out a loan for £1000 to clear the overdraft, but sure enough, the charges have kept coming and I am now in arrears with the loan and the overdraft is back up to its limit. We have been forced to take a payment holiday from our mortgage to avoid getting into arrears, we have had late payments on credit cards, a catalogue bill and are in arrears with our Yorkshire Bank credit card (other ccard companies have been helpful, no suprise that YB have not). Things came to a head at the start of this year and we decided enough was enough, we switched all our DDs and salaries to a new account with A&L to try and break the cycle, we have no new overdraft and planned to pay the original YB one down each month.
We have gone over and over our finances and our expenditure does not outweigh our income, but the charges YB have slaughtered us with have left us in hardship, unable to pay bills on time, and without money for food etc. February this year, for example, YB charged us for £220??!! In one month??!! Strange, given they will have known we were moving banks by this point....
We honestly feel as if we have been ripped off, literally like we have had money stolen from us - it was impossible to tell what the charges related to, so impossible to tell if they were legitimate.
At no point have YB ever tried to help, never called or written, when we have called to try and understand what is going on we just got the usual charges are in the terms and conditions of your account, onus is on you to understand them, didnt have the time to even try to explain.
Then lo and behold we get a letter once our salaries have moved to A&L saying overdraft is no longer suitable after reviewing your account please call to discuss. My husband called the bank, our local branch, whose words were, no word of a lie, we can't help you, you have stopped having your wages paid into your account, it needs paying off immediately. He obviously was fuming, explained that THEY had written to US, and demanded to be put through to main customer services. Once through to them, lady perfectly reasonable and agreed a repayment plan on the overdraft.
Now, we are keen to refer our original claim to the Ombudsman, and also want to add all the subsequent charges on that we have incurred since. I wondered if anyone had any advice on the best way to tackle this, have read so much on here and there is a lot of different info, so wanted to make sure I take the right approach. Obviously, I need to ask YB for list of all charges since June 07, pay the £10 etc, but can I go to FOS in meantime, and say here is my original claim, we are waiting for new list of charges from YB that will add to it? I know YB will reject hardship claim (goes without saying, have yet to hear a success story from them) so am keen to get the ball rolling with the FOS as things are so bad here we risk losing the house (mortgage payment holiday now over).
Sorry for the length of this post, am desparate for help/advice, anything will be much appreciated.
Thank you.