Clydesdale/Yorkshire Bank - Hardship Claim

ChilliP2012

Has anyone had any dealings with Clydesdale/Yorkshire Bank in reclaiming bank charges under 'Hardship'?

I have been receipt of ESA since Nov 2011 and since then I have amassed a total of £375.00 in charges and when you add 8% interest to those charges of £29.57 it comes to a total of £404.57. I sent them a letter dated 14th November 2013 requesting these charges back and have had a response today stating the terms & conditions of their current account and as a gesture of goodwill a refund of £50 in bank charges (for Sept & October 2013), which I find a slap in the face. I have sent them an email (which has been confirmed as received over the telephone) giving them another 14 days to look at their decision again otherwise I will take it to county court.

Is there any other advice that members here could give me or do you think I should just wait for their response to my latest email?

Thanks.

dunstonh

I have sent them an email (which has been confirmed as received over the telephone) giving them another 14 days to look at their decision again otherwise I will take it to county court.

Why would you want to take them to county court? The banks won the court case on charges. You are just adding to potential costs doing that.

ChilliP2012

Thanks for your reply. The simple fact is that I have been treated unfairly under BCOBS rules and court action would be my next step.

Rule 5.1.1 R states “A firm must provide a service in relation to a retail banking service which is prompt, efficient and fair to a banking customer and which has regard to any communications or financial promotion made by the firm to the banking customer from time to time.”

Rule 5.1.4 G “Principle 6 requires a firm to pay due regard to the interests of its customers and to treat them fairly. In particular, a firm should deal fairly with a banking customer whom it has reason to believe is in financial difficulty.”

A judgment for a breach of BCOBS is very serious and the FSA would be empowered to act.

dunstonh

The simple fact is that I have been treated unfairly under BCOBS rules and court action would be my next step.

How have you been treated unfairly? Remember that banks won the unfair charges case.

A judgment for a breach of BCOBS is very serious and the FSA would be empowered to act.

The FSA no longer exist and when they did, they did not take action against banks in respect of charges.

If you are going to go to court, you need to look at law. Not whether you personally feel it is unfair. Depsite the millions of pounds this site generates and legal teams looking at it, no-one has found success or a potentially successful legal option since the banks won the unfair bank charges case. Why do you think you will be successful where others have failed?

ChilliP2012

Whilst banks won their court case, you are still allowed to claim back bank charges under hardship rules. We're going round in circles here. I got what I needed over at CAG.

You maybe want to look at this section of MSE regarding that.

Thanks anyway. I won't waste my time going round in circles here when obviously people over at CAG have more of a clue.

meer53

You don't request a refund of charges if you're in financial difficulty.

You call your bank and discuss it with them. They look at your income and expenditure and they decide whether to refund any charges for you. It seems they have listened to what you have said and decided that they can help you by refunding the most recent fees for you.

They will have looked at your account details, transactions, standing orders and direct debits etc and made their decision based on that. It doesn't sound as though they agree with you regarding the financial hardship.

If you want to take them to court, they will let you, as they know you have very little chance of success. I suppose CAG have told you a different story ?

JuicyJesus

ChilliP2012 wrote: »

Thanks anyway. I won't waste my time going round in circles here when obviously people over at CAG have more of a clue.

They don't. They just have a lot more wishful thinking. Their answer to everything is to go to court.

dunstonh

Whilst banks won their court case, you are still allowed to claim back bank charges under hardship rules.

No you are not. You ask the bank to consider your case and they decide if they will do something or not based on that information. You have no right to any refund.

We're going round in circles here. I got what I needed over at CAG.

CAG lol. fair enough.

I won't waste my time going round in circles here when obviously people over at CAG have more of a clue.

ask them to point a successful court case. They cant. However, if is your money to waste. CAG tell everyone to go to court. Its not their money so they can do that. They tell you want you want to hear. Not what you need to hear.

ChilliP2012

Think I'll stick with CAG on this one rather than be stone walled by dunstonh. They seem more willing to help. I asked about it here after reading an article on this very site about reclaiming bank charges under hardship rules.

I personally have never, ever had any bad advice from anyone at CAG and equally so at MSE. I respect your opinions about them, but I am more inclined to pressure the bank and if needs be serve them court papers. However, this is probably why you won't read about the success stories over there, 9 times out of 10 the banks don't want to take it to court and will quite happily agree to refund them.

I'd also like to ask dunstonh to point me in the direction of any success stories here as well. No offence dunstonh, but I found your replies rather unhelpful, maybe I am misconstruing what you are typing, but it sounds to me as though you're siding with the bank on this.

dunstonh

I'd also like to ask dunstonh to point me in the direction of any success stories here as well.

There is only one known success case in the courts and that was unusual circumstances that involved the person being looked in an interview room.

No offence dunstonh, but I found your replies rather unhelpful, maybe I am misconstruing what you are typing, but it sounds to me as though you're siding with the bank on this.

People looking to be told what they want to hear dont often like being told different. You clearly want to hear people telling you to proceed. Not to hear those saying different. The advice here is consistently that you put a strong a case to the bank possible in respect of the hardship and go with making the person reviewing your case feel sympathetic to your plight.

The next stage is to consider the FOS. The Ombudsman has said it is willing to look at specific types of bank charge reclaims, primarily involving severe hardship and if you can go this way, it's a far safer option. It doesn't mean you'll win, but the risk of losing is less. The FOS cant force the bank to pay anything either but it can look to see if they bank have considered your case fairly. You are still allowed to go to court if you lose at the Ombudsman – though you can't go to the Ombudsman once you lose in court. So, why bypass that option? Although I am sure CAG told you that you should do that first seeing as they have your interests at heart.

Also read what the MSE guide says. Quote: [when other options fail] the only chance is to go to court, and that means the landscape is radically different. We need to be honest - while we have a Bank Charges Court guide which goes into the complex legal arguments you could try, we've not heard of anyone actually winning.

It is possible the bank will decide it is cheaper to settle rather than fight. There will be people that have won this way. Sometimes it is just cheaper to settle than to fight. Or it may just ask the court to throw it out with reference to the supreme court case or it may fight. You never know in advance and you need to be aware that you are now playing a game that can see you suffer costs. Small costs if small claims court but larger if it is outside of that. If knowing all that and you decide to proceed then that is an informed choice.

[Deleted User]

ChilliP2012 wrote: »

Think I'll stick with CAG on this one

I've no idea why you posted on this site at all if you trust CAG to sort this out for you. They'll just tell you to take the Bank to court and (having lit the blue touch paper) they will retire to watch the fireworks when you fail.