Severe financial hardship: reclaiming Barclays fee

debitoluf

Hi All - could somebody offer me thoughts on the following?
I have a Barclays Bank Account that I have had since 1995 (as a kid). From 2002 onwards it was overdrawn as I used it at university and beyond. Since 2005 I was pretty much maxed-out overdraft.

Originally, it was a Graduate Additions account. The O/D was £3k, but was reduced to £1.5k 3 years after I left university. Since then, I've found it hard to make ends meet and have, very sadly, been in debt ever since (forgetting student loans which are repaid). My life is a mess but I am taking steps to sort it out.

I rang Barclays today as I have recently started working after being out of work for several months (former employer went under last year); I have arrears with all my creditors and have been working with StepChange to try and sort everything out. I'm not on a DMP as my financial problems were temporary, but in essence on a monthly basis I am just about surviving.

For that reason, my Barclays overdraft hovered at the limit. I never used the account, but I couldn't afford to pay towards the overdraft as I didn't have surplus money each month.

Today, I had to discuss the arrears on my account - the charges have been added and my overdraft is now £200 over the limit (£1700); I was told that I needed to do something about this or the account would be closed. I explained that now I am back in work I would be able to make the £200 payment at the end of this month.

The issue is this:

1) I have written to Barclays many times in the past explaining that I am finding it tough and citing financial hardship (and I reclaimed my PPI on a Barclays Loan I had many years ago, thanks to MSE)
2) Barclays told me that I had been paying £9.50 for a 'Tech Pack' since February 2017
3) I have been paying £1.50 bank charges every single day since July 2014 - and it is these charges that have caused me the pain

When I took out the Graduate Additions account there were no charges. Then they were £7 a month. Then they were £45 a month from July 2014. In 2016 they cancelled the Graduate Additions account and switched to a standard Barclays Account. And because of this, what's been happening is that every month I get a call from Barclays asking me to make a payment to get it under the limit, and I have to scrape together the money to get the account back in order, only for the charges to increase again the next month; I don't have £45 spare to clear it.

On the phone just now I explained that I was really distressed and surprised to learn that I was paying for the TechPack as I genuinely had no idea that it was a paid product. I didn't ask for it at all. I was told that I failed to opt-out and that they wrote to me last year to explain it was going to be added.

I explained to them that because of my financial situation, I estimate that I have received possibly 500+ letters from Barclays over the past decade (in fact, it could easily be nearer 1k - I reckon it's 2 a week) and I simply didn't notice the Tech Pack being added.

Is there any merit in trying to reclaim not just the tech pack charges (which I didn't use), but also claim the other charges on the basis that it was pretty obvious I was in financial hardship.

What I'm trying to say is that my overdraft is £1,500. Since 2014, Barclays have made £2,094 from me in charges alone. Can I not try and reclaim all/some of this on the basis that it was obvious I was in financial hardship, I had written to them informing of them on several times previously, I was in regular telephone contact with their collections team virtually every other month from 2014 to present and no-one (until Wednesday this week) told me about the tech pack, or considered the charges)?

I fully accept that perhaps I should have paid more attention to the letters Barclays sent, but when they send you 500 - 1000 letters in that timeframe, not to mention other creditors, it becomes very difficult to differentiate between the things you need to action and the things you don't. I just assumed that the tech pack was a free perk of having the bank account (for which I thought I was paying a £7 monthly fee...not £1.50 per day).

Or should I just give up?

dunstonh

What I'm trying to say is that my overdraft is £1,500. Since 2014, Barclays have made £2,094 from me in charges alone. Can I not try and reclaim all/some of this on the basis that it was obvious I was in financial hardship, I had written to them informing of them on several times previously, I was in regular telephone contact with their collections team virtually every other month from 2014 to present and no-one (until Wednesday this week) told me about the tech pack, or considered the charges)?

Hardship claims do not mean you get back all the charges.

They will consider whether you are in genuine hardship (and not living beyond your means. i.e. living a consumer spending lifestyle). If they agree you are in hardship, they have a number of options open to them. They may put you on a debt management plan. They may suspend charges for the next 3 months or they may refund the last 6 months of charges or any combination.

You need to put your case to them. Don't refer to the charges as being unfair. Tell them how its impact on your ability to live. Hopefully, your statements back that up and dont have Costa Coffee, M&S sandwiches, clothes from Next, big tv packages etc on them. They may ask you to do a budget breakdown and will then consider your case and make a decision from there.

BorisThomson

Is someone else posting under the same username debitoluf? Your SOA is not one of someone in current financial hardship, and that is what the bank will look at.

[Deleted User]

debitoluf wrote: »

I estimate that I have received possibly 500+ letters from Barclays over the past decade (in fact, it could easily be nearer 1k - I reckon it's 2 a week) and I simply didn't notice the Tech Pack being added.

If the Bank have sent you two letters a week for ten years then I'm amazed that your account has not been closed long before now. Far from allegedly adding a paid element to your account, I'm stunned that they haven't called in your overdraft.

Why exactly have the Bank been writing to you twice a week (for a decade)?

debitoluf wrote: »

I was in regular telephone contact with their collections team virtually every other month from 2014 to present and no-one (until Wednesday this week) told me about the tech pack, or considered the charges)?

If you've been in touch with "Collections" on a bi-momthly basis since 2014, then why have the Bank allowed this to continue?

You've told the bank that, now that you are working again, will be able to afford to bring your overdraft back to the agreed limit. If that is the case, it sounds like a Financial Hardship refund will not be granted.

EDIT:
Has you account been accessed (mischievously perhaps ?) by someone else? The Statement Of Affairs you posted elsewhere yesterday paints an entirely different financial picture than the one "you" paint here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/73957831#Comment_73957831

Or are you just yanking our chains?:eek: