No luck with FOS for me

ceecile

Hi everyone.

1st time post so bear with me.

My experiences as follows.

Back in October 08, my bank, Alliance and Leicester failed to process my paycheque in time for my monthly direct debits. I very quickly ran up unauthorise overdraft fees of around £125.

Trying to be 'on the ball' I got straight on the phone and to cut a long story short they agreed to refund the charges in full (I declined their 1st offer of 50 quid on the basis that the charges would snowball due to my circumstances). They sent a letter confirming the fees would be repaid. I had a couple of unauthorised overdraft fees earlier that year which I happily paid due to my own stupidity.

Basically they didn't bother and in Dec 08 I told them in writing I was refusing to fund the account as they had charged over £400 in fees and simply could not afford to do so, they sent a few letters etc saying the the complaint was being looked at and they would respond in due course. In the meantimeI switched everything to another bank account so that all the direct debits were paid

Feb 09 I lodged a complaint with the Financial obudsman service and much to my embarrassment had to request the case be looked at under hardship reasons due to other debt payments etc (That's another story). Alliance and Leicester didn't bother to send any paperwork relating to this and informed me my account was in default, pending closure at just over 800 overdrawn. Of course the test case happened and I heard nothing until Dec 09

Just before Christmas I got a letter from A&L wanting almost £1100 immediately, I thought it best to log onto my account, check it out and get it sorted - I could argue things later. The sods had locked my access (and I had lost my login details) and refused to reinstate the facility to view my accounts online. One of their reps promised to send it out but when pressed during a later call some snotty little so and so said I had zero right to this as the account was closure pending. Foolishly I hadn't printed off the statements thinking that they could be accessed online.

Back on with the FOS, They were quite helpful but informed me of the following.

The letter A&L sent me did not mention the amount to be refunded - £125 as agreed verbally so the £50 goodwill would stand. Sneeky I thought.

A&L claim to have sent the hardship paperwork, I honestly didn't get it, but looking at the facts the FOS can only assume A&L fulfilled their obligation to do so.

A&L have agreed to refund an additional £125 and when the FOS has looked at my account they are happy the fees (on balance of probabilities) have been correctly applied and I'm just going to have to fork out over £1000 now to clear the account.

Do I just take this on the chin or do I have any other avenues to explore? I've just come through 6 months of reduced pay due to the recession and I simply don't have the money to clear this yet cannot afford a default on my credit file as it will seriously damage a new career move I'm trying to make.

Any help appreciated!!

natweststaffmember

ceecile wrote: »

Hi everyone.

1st time post so bear with me.

My experiences as follows.

Back in October 08, my bank, Alliance and Leicester failed to process my paycheque in time for my monthly direct debits. I very quickly ran up unauthorise overdraft fees of around £125.

Trying to be 'on the ball' I got straight on the phone and to cut a long story short they agreed to refund the charges in full (I declined their 1st offer of 50 quid on the basis that the charges would snowball due to my circumstances). They sent a letter confirming the fees would be repaid. I had a couple of unauthorised overdraft fees earlier that year which I happily paid due to my own stupidity.


Basically they didn't bother and in Dec 08 I told them in writing I was refusing to fund the account as they had charged over £400 in fees and simply could not afford to do so, they sent a few letters etc saying the the complaint was being looked at and they would respond in due course. In the meantimeI switched everything to another bank account so that all the direct debits were paid

Feb 09 I lodged a complaint with the Financial obudsman service and much to my embarrassment had to request the case be looked at under hardship reasons due to other debt payments etc (That's another story). Alliance and Leicester didn't bother to send any paperwork relating to this and informed me my account was in default, pending closure at just over 800 overdrawn. Of course the test case happened and I heard nothing until Dec 09
How is the A&L account increasing your financial hardship if the account is not being used? Furthermore, did you not send them a detailed income and expenditure form at the time you were saying financial hardship since the FSA waiver on bank charges at the time did mention these things?
Just before Christmas I got a letter from A&L wanting almost £1100 immediately, I thought it best to log onto my account, check it out and get it sorted - I could argue things later. The sods had locked my access (and I had lost my login details) and refused to reinstate the facility to view my accounts online. One of their reps promised to send it out but when pressed during a later call some snotty little so and so said I had zero right to this as the account was closure pending. Foolishly I hadn't printed off the statements thinking that they could be accessed online.

Back on with the FOS, They were quite helpful but informed me of the following.

The letter A&L sent me did not mention the amount to be refunded - £125 as agreed verbally so the £50 goodwill would stand. Sneeky I thought.

A&L claim to have sent the hardship paperwork, I honestly didn't get it, but looking at the facts the FOS can only assume A&L fulfilled their obligation to do so.

A&L have agreed to refund an additional £125 and when the FOS has looked at my account they are happy the fees (on balance of probabilities) have been correctly applied and I'm just going to have to fork out over £1000 now to clear the account.

Do I just take this on the chin or do I have any other avenues to explore? I've just come through 6 months of reduced pay due to the recession and I simply don't have the money to clear this yet cannot afford a default on my credit file as it will seriously damage a new career move I'm trying to make.

Any help appreciated!!

Set up a payment plan initially because the Bank Charges Test case did not give the banks' carte blanche on their fees. I will give you more info in the next few weeks but thankfully I am very much convinced that bank charges can be claimed, financial hardship or otherwise, but it will very much be on your own individual circumstances.

davidgmmafan

I can't helpt with this as I'm not well up on hardship, but I just wanted to give a message of support and say, despite everything which has been achieved ridiculous like this still occur and its not acceptable.

I appreciate it is not causing you difficulty now because you've moved your everyday stuff to another account but I thinks its madness that a bank would, having spoken to a customer who couldn't afford £125, increase the balance to over £1000.

natweststaffmember

davidgmmafan wrote: »

I can't helpt with this as I'm not well up on hardship, but I just wanted to give a message of support and say, despite everything which has been achieved ridiculous like this still occur and its not acceptable.

I appreciate it is not causing you difficulty now because you've moved your everyday stuff to another account but I thinks its madness that a bank would, having spoken to a customer who couldn't afford £125, increase the balance to over £1000.

we've both been on the forums for a while. Sometimes people leave the accounts, which the OP did, and the letters stating charges would be added or asking to contact them would be ignored. We can't really fault the bank entirely on this one as the account was left dormant as well.

ceecile

natweststaffmember wrote: »

we've both been on the forums for a while. Sometimes people leave the accounts, which the OP did, and the letters stating charges would be added or asking to contact them would be ignored. We can't really fault the bank entirely on this one as the account was left dormant as well.

The facts weren't quite so clear cut at the time. In fact my biggest problem was getting any correspondance back from them

Result anyway as A&L have just refunded £483 and I've cleared the balance on the account

natweststaffmember

ceecile wrote: »

The facts weren't quite so clear cut at the time. In fact my biggest problem was getting any correspondance back from them

Result anyway as A&L have just refunded £483 and I've cleared the balance on the account

Glad of the result for you.

davidgmmafan

I too am pleased by the result. I seem to have seen a lot of positive results recently, makes me wonder if the banks have been told to be reasonable to simply feel it would be the best course of action to try to avoid future legislation/rulings on the issue.

I know people sometimes ignore accounts, and in that sense the bank cannot be faulted for the charges. However what I am concerned about is how does the system work? (ideed does it?). I cannot understand the logic of increasing a balance, sometimes at an expenential rate.

Do they have top nothc insurance policies that mean they can't lose? Do they make money when they sell the debt on (doubtful)?

Unless one of the above is the case I can't see why they do it other than some vague idea that they ought to be punished.

I am thinking in particular of a newspaper article/consumer chamption section (can't recall which) where the writing complained that they had contacted the bank to explain the situation and continued to be bombarded by threatening letters. The bank apologized about the letters, saying they were automated, and the newspaper obsevered - what is the point in debt recovery departmens if its automated?

Truth is most of them are, which results in much anxiety for the uninitiated, and waste vast amounts of people's time.