Worth claiming back charges?

tsb88

Hi,

A friend of mine has incurred around £1500 of bank charges in the last 6 years and recently they have been getting really out of control (£700 of it in the last year alone).

He does not have a mortgage as he owns his home outright, but has been really struggling with finances recently and is now getting constant charges (on average around £60 a month but sometimes upwards of £150) and bounced cheques struggling to pay for council tax, food, utility bills and all these charges racking up.

I think that he should try claiming back some of the charges but do you think they would look at the fact that he has no mortgage and simply reject the claim?

Thanks

dunstonh

I think that he should try claiming back some of the charges but do you think they would look at the fact that he has no mortgage and simply reject the claim?

If he meets the hardship criteria then he can try that route. However, he needs to be aware that it is at the goodwill of the bank. Even the FOS cannot tell them to refund now (although they will ask the bank to consider it fairly).

Typically this means the bank will look at his transactions in depth. If they see transactions going through to betting, gambling or a number of transactions related to more discretionary spending than cost of living spending then they will usually reject. If they can see he is cutting to the bone and suffering then they will usually look upon it fairly.

tsb88

dunstonh wrote: »

they see transactions going through to betting, gambling or a number of transactions related to more discretionary spending than cost of living spending then they will usually reject. If they can see he is cutting to the bone and suffering then they will usually look upon it fairly.

Thanks for your reply dunstonh. He is not paying out anything to gambling or anything like that, it is only normal cost of living items (utility bills, car/house insurance, council tax, food, petrol, kids etc). Believe it to be worth a shot, nothing to lose. Additionally will suggest he shops around and sees if there's anyway to get some savings on some of these with better providers and hopefully avoid some future charges.