Hardship claim refused by ombudsman

onesteptoofar

Hi guys,

In september i applied for refunds of charges using the templated letters for hardship with both Natwest and Lloyds. I lost my job in March last year and have been out of work since. As a result i have defaulted on a loan, credit card and overdraft with Lloyds and defaulted on another loan with Nationwide. When you have cheques for £1 bouncing and no income i thought i was a clear cut case for hardship!!

Both banks refused, as they do, so i wrote again using templates and both refused again. Fed up and disheartened i decided to take the ombudsman route as i'd previously had success reclaiming charges 3 years ago.

In november i wrote to the ombudsman under the hardship criteria. Finally, three month on, I have now heard back from the ombudsman and for both cases it has found in favour of the banks... To say i'm in disbelief is an understatement.

Can anybody advise on my next step from here? I am determined to keep going.

Thanks in advance.

PC_Gabriel_Kent

What else can you do? If the FOS said no then that is that? You may be determined to carry on but it looks a losing battle you will never win.

Jamesf81

Take it through the courts.

Nothing to say they will rule in your favour but if you put a good case favour it wont do any harm.

archive18

I was the same and I went to the FSA but they ruled in the favour of the banks. :mad: Personnell I think that the FSA is in the pocket of the banks just like this Goverment.

dunstonh

archive18 wrote: »

I was the same and I went to the FSA but they ruled in the favour of the banks. :mad: Personnell I think that the FSA is in the pocket of the banks just like this Goverment.

How did you manage to go to the FSA?

They dont handle consumer complaints and dont make rulings on individual consumer issues.

natweststaffmember

onesteptoofar wrote: »

Hi guys,

In september i applied for refunds of charges using the templated letters for hardship with both Natwest and Lloyds. I lost my job in March last year and have been out of work since. As a result i have defaulted on a loan, credit card and overdraft with Lloyds and defaulted on another loan with Nationwide. When you have cheques for £1 bouncing and no income i thought i was a clear cut case for hardship!!
Did either bank ask you to complete and income and expenditure form?
Did you speak with Lloyds when things started bouncing?
With regards to the credit cards, have you reclaimed the charges back including the £12 ones?
Both banks refused, as they do, so i wrote again using templates and both refused again. Fed up and disheartened i decided to take the ombudsman route as i'd previously had success reclaiming charges 3 years ago.

In november i wrote to the ombudsman under the hardship criteria. Finally, three month on, I have now heard back from the ombudsman and for both cases it has found in favour of the banks... To say i'm in disbelief is an understatement.
So have you read what financial hardship is? Do you have less money coming in to what is going out? On my signature is a link to the lending code. Have a read of it page 20 onwards and see if you fit that criteria.
Do you still bank with Lloyds and NatWest?
Can anybody advise on my next step from here? I am determined to keep going.

Thanks in advance.

Two points, at this stage DO NOT take your claim to court because currently newer arguments are going through the courts and if all routes to reclaiming are lost then you could find yourself not only in hardship but with additional costs against you. With regards to it being the end of it forever and ever---ignore that one since it is an ill informed judgement and offers no real advice to help you. With regards to the FSA/FOS being in the pay/pockets of the banks, well the figures on complaint data show that the FOS give over 50% of their decisions to the consumers than to the banks so the statistics do not back up the opinion.
I think I have covered all points.

onesteptoofar

Hi natweststaffmember,

Yes i completed income and expenditure forms for both banks. Natwest said that until i signed on i did not meet their criteria for hardship. Lloyds did not respond, but in the February response to my claim from the ombudsman Lloyds claimed they sent me an income and expenditure form at the backend of December to which i did not respond... As my claim with the ombudsman was lodged in November, AFTER i had already explained my income and expenditure to Lloyds i'm sure you can understand my frustrations.

With regards to my credit card, i followed the CCA route last summer and received the usual fobbing off from Lloyds. I followed the templated procedure repeatedly asking for the CCA but to no avail. Lloyds disregarded my requests and passed the debt to their collections debt, then MHA.

This debt was in dispute at the time i lodged my bank charges complaint to the ombudsman, so in answer to your question, no i have not pursued any £12 charges on this debt.

Regards to the hardship criteria i have managed to rely on living with friends/family over the last twelve months so have avoided having any utility bills in my own name, although i do owe friends/family money as a result of their own utility bills. I have also incurred further charges on my Lloyds account on a monthly basis, whilst having zero income - i have made token payments for £1 against all my debts over the last few months but even these now bounce - again i am reliant on goodwill from family....i had hoped the bank charges would go towards repaying them as charges are for over £3k in total.

My Natwest accounts are now both closed. From having a £1k overdraft on two accounts i incurred charges dragging them both over their overdraft limits - £1500 each - as i could not pay either off at the time both were defaulted and closed by Natwest. Two weeks after the default was issued i repayed both accounts in full as a result of my house sale in 2008, prior to my job loss in 2009. All equity from this sale was used to service debts at the time.

I have written to Lloyds on three seperate occasions requesting that they freeze interest and charges on my account due to my circumstances but they have declined and as a result my account is slipping £30-40 per month further overdrawn beyond the agreed overdraft limit.

The Lloyds account is still open although i have now opened a basic cashcard account elsewhere. Again, i had hoped to use the bank charges to repay the overdraft in order to close this Lloyds account.

I will take a look at the lending code now, thanks for this.

natweststaffmember

Did you explain to the banks that this had happened and to the FOS since that may be an issue with regards to proving hardship. Furthermore, without priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax et al) if would have been difficult to prove financial hardship. Friends loans are very difficult to prove with regards to financial hardship claims.

onesteptoofar

no, i haven't responded to the FOS yet, so have yet to let them know the case with the income and expenditure forms, if following back up with them is the way to go.

I didn't think hardship would be difficult for the FOS to uphold as my Lloyds account clearly shows that i have had no regular income since March 09, the account has consistently been overdrawn over the agreed overdraft level, incurring charges on a regular basis and prior to my Lloyds credit card being closed i had made repeatedly made cash withdrawals in order to service debts for a prolonged period....i know...i know...

i'm totally fed up with it all tbh

esmerellda

When you gave the bank your FH info did you include evidence of what the income from the house sale had been spent on (ie the debts) that might be an area they have found an issue with (ie why werent u living off that income when u were unemployed). Maybe a long shot.

Also - did the bank offer anything else, like freezing charges, moving accounts etc ?

Have the FOS given specific reasons ?