Stop Press - View On Oft/bank Announcement

lindilou39

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/your-money/current-accounts/2007/10/08/whats-happening-with-bank-charges.aspx?source=ioowftxt0010011
Update.

techspec

Just been on hold with Barclays for 20 minutes regarding a hardship case.

They said the cannot speak to me on the phone, because the account is a closed one.

Barclays are the kings of excuses - they should write a book.

TC1973

Is it still worth sending the paperwork in to the bank to try and re-claim bank charges, it's one of the things I've been meaning to do for weeks but never got around to it, have I missed the boat?

TC

Edinburghlass_2

You need to read Martin's Emergency Guide here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/oft-bank-charges

but you have to be in it to win it

techspec

Just reading that guide, what happened to the waiver review at the end of September?

tilley441

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by eddrich
i have recently heard that some banks are refunding charges to students and people who are experiencing hardship. has anyone else heard this??

thanks
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Make claim in the normal way, but point out that you are claiming under the hardship rule, which gives banks 8 weeks to sort it.

If not, goto the financial ombudsman.









how do i go about doing this my claim that is on hold was to pay off other bills

Jester

Edinburghlass wrote: »

Please don't give up now, get everything together and send it off to the FO and see if they will take it on. I certainly isn't a speedy option but you have nothing to lose and could be everything to gain if they will take it on.

Hi EdinburghLass,

With everything else going on, I forgot to come back and thank you for the advice.

I wrote to the FOS on the very day you told me about it. But I have heard absolutely nothing back from them as yet.

Oddly enough, I received a letter from First Direct today because 'following a review of my account' they 'noticed that there have been no funds paid into the account for a considerable amount of time' and 'wondered if I was dissatisfied with their service in some way'.

As they invited me to contact their customer services team to discuss what was wrong, I thought I would chance my arm and do just that.

I went through the whole saga with customer services and explained to them that I am on benefits following being made unemployed earlier this year and that was why I no longer use the account, together with the fact that I am extremely irritated by their actions in delaying my court claim continually and then applying for a Stay on my court case which got granted.

To be honest, their customer services person was somewhat taken aback by how much I know about what is happening in these bank charge reclaim cases and had to do an awful lot of back-tracking and also asking her supervisor for advice. I think I got them 'on-the-hop' to be honest as she was not sure how to react.

Interestingly, she actually stated that they accept that 'some' of the charges were unfair but because it had gone as far as being dealt with by their solicitors - D&G Solicitors - that there was nothing she could do. I did point out to her that under FOS rules they are expected to deal with hardship cases but she refused to deal with it saying it would have to go through D&G - and those people refuse to speak to anyone about the bank charge reclaim cases as I have found out on many occasions since I started this whole procedure back in February 2007.

I also informed her that I have lodged a formal complaint about their (and D&G's) conduct in this whole thing with the FOS (though didn't tell her that the FOS have not yet responded). I made her more than aware that I know my rights and that they should be dealing with my claim due to my financial hardship and she even admitted that I know far more about how this all works than she does.

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that they have now 'withdrawn' all of my banking services completely. When I pointed out that I have Child Tax Credits and Child Benefits paid into my savings account and that they are not allowed by law to stop me having access to these due to my circumstances, all she was prepared to do is allow me to go into a local branch of HSBC this afternoon and have the funds paid to me over the counter. She also told me to ensure that in future I should ensure that both the Child Tax Credits and Child Benefits are paid into another account. The total amount of these two payments are only £195, but in my current circumstances even £195 is a LOT of money to me as it enables me to feed my family.

So much for First Direct's claim that they have the 'best customer services' of any bank. The way they have treated me is extremely shabby, though I suppose one could say that my 'chancing my arm' like this backfired on me badly and is my own fault.

So now I have to get in touch with the Child Tax Credit people and the Child Benefit people and get them to pay the monies into another account.

In the meantime, my mortgage company have now formally threatened me with re-possession and I have several other creditors threatening to pass me on to Debt Collectors. Life is so wonderful at the moment.

I'd like to formally thank the OFT for completely screwing my life up by their actions. If it was not for the OFT, my case would gone ahead at Cardiff County Court and by now I would probably have received the £8K I claimed in the first place and at least would have some breathing space until I found myself another job.

It's going to be a wonderful Christmas for me and my family living in a caravan somewhere in complete poverty !!

techspec

I cannot believe how much hardship the OFT case has caused. Current claims at least, should have been allowed to continue.

I was fortunate enough to have been succesful in many of my big claims before the OFT action, but i really feel for those like yourself, who were so close with their main one.

Write to the FOS ASAP , and point out again that you are an hardship case. Tell them your circumstances. Do the same with the bank. Use bold and capital letters to point this out, as they only see the words bank charges, and send the bog standard reply.

Also, ring the FOS and plead you case.

The OFT action was meant to have no effect on people who were hardship cases, and the fact it as been abused so blatantly brings shame on the OFT, FSA and FOS. :mad:

Jester

techspec wrote: »

I cannot believe how much hardship the OFT case has caused. Current claims at least, should have been allowed to continue.

I was fortunate enough to have been succesful in many of my big claims before the OFT action, but i really feel for those like yourself, who were so close with their main one.

Write to the FOS ASAP , and point out again that you are an hardship case. Tell them your circumstances. Do the same with the bank. Use bold and capital letters to point this out, as they only see the words bank charges, and send the bog standard reply.

Also, ring the FOS and plead you case.

The OFT action was meant to have no effect on people who were hardship cases, and the fact it as been abused so blatantly brings shame on the OFT, FSA and FOS. :mad:

Already tried calling the FOS to plead my case. They told me that they have a large backlog and have not yet reached the date on my complaint. Told me to phone back this time next week and they 'may' have seen it by then !!

agnes_2

Hi has anyone on here got the 19th October oral hearing in Cardiff CC, I have been told by the court that there are quite a lot 10.30 on Friday, we must support each other