MSE newbie - to reclaim or not with RBS

money65

New to this amazing site so bear with me if I've missed the answer to this somewhere.

I made claim to RBS in July 07 for approx £1200 charges.

Received letter soon after to say case on hold and they'd be in touch.

Received letter December 09 to say claim rejected and case would be closed if they didn't hear from me within 8 weeks. I didn't reply as letter suggested they couldn't be challenged.

However I have now read lots of interesting threads, so...........

Should I pursue one last time?
If so, do I go to RBS or ombudsman first?
I believe I fell under hardship category at the time these charges were applied.

Premier_2

Who did you claim to? Just the bank?

If so, the deadline they applied has now passed and thet've probably closed your case.

You could ask the bank if they would still consider the matter on the new grounds, or you could just restart the claim on new grounds. Start with the bank.

However, you say you were in financial hardship at the time of the charges. Are you in financial hardship now? Why didn't you claim for financial hardship at the time (almost 3 years ago)? If you had, the matter should have been dealt with at that time.

money65

thanks

yes it was the bank that I applied to direct
but my focus with the initial letter was not around my financial circumstances it was on the charges and asking specifically for their repayment following a suggested template
I can't recall the advice around 3 years ago for including your personal circumstances - there seems to be much more in that area now as opposed to templates quoting acts and their dates

I may try afresh but include detail of my circumstances this time around

Premier_2

Initially the advice was to just ask for the bank charges back and perhaps threaten court action if the fees were not forthcoming.

And initially the banks paid out without accepting any liability as it was cheaper to pay out in the odd case than defend any claim.

However, once the gravy train got into full motion, the banks stopped. That resulted in the county courts being clogged up with claims and so eventually it was decided to run a high level case. Whilst that was ongoing (and finally decided by the Supreme Court in November 2009), claims were being held.

However, at the point it was agreed that claims could be held pending the outcome of the case, there was an exemption in place to carry on considering all financial hardship cases. This was necessary as those who were in genuine financial hardship needed help then, not at some unspecified time in the future (which ended up being a good 24+ months later)