Financial difficulties/hardship case

Edinburghlass_2

Q. I am currently having financial difficulties, is there any way to reclaim?
A. There’s a ‘hardship case’ exemption to the hold on reclaiming. In other words those with financial difficulties may get cases hear. Banks have to conduct a filtering process to ensure that cases of genuine hardship are still dealt with during the waiver period.
Until the waiver was extended in July 08 the definitions were woolly and as such it was very difficult to push the hardship exemption. The new waiver includes more guidance of genuine hardship is and roughly equates to…
When your income isn’t enough to cover reasonable living expenses and/or afford necessary financial commitments such as utilities, rent and council tax or those struggling to repay your debts such as mortgage arrears or heavy credit card debts.
Examples of how you may be in hardship include loss of employment, disability, serious illness, imprisonment, relationship breakdown, the death of a partner, starting a lower paid job, parental care leave or starting full time education.
If you have a basic bank account this could help your case, as these are generally intended for those with financial problems.
If you contact your bank to say you are having financial difficulties, it is likely to send you a financial statement to complete.
The July 08 guidance ensures that as a minimum it’ll need to take the following into consideration, sadly it's not always plain English, so we’ve tried to give some guidance each time.

The above is a quote from the updated section of Martin's article regarding financial difficulty cases read it in full here..

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

[Deleted User]

A few months back I claimed back some charges on my RBS account. This claim was successful, but when I went to withdraw the reimbursed charges I saw to my horror that most of the money had been eaten up by yet more (and much higher) mysterious charges. When I asked someone in branch about it, I had been informed that my account had been changed without my permission or knowledge to one that makes monthly charges, causing me to go overdrawn and to incur higher charges than with my previous account. Angered by this I closed my account and then tried to reclaim these new charges.
I put my case forward that I should be reimbursed as I am in financial hardship. I dont get any assistance from my family and am 23 so technically a mature student but not old enough to qualify for mature student status with the student loans company. My priority outgoings are more than my incomings and I dont currently have a job as I was made redundant from my previous job and have not been able to find one yet.
I got a letter this morning saying that they weren't going to pay out because I didn't meet their criteria to be in financial hardship. Can I appeal and any advice on this will be very welcome.

Orford

From Banking Code Guidance March 2008:

Upgrading your account
7.2 We will not upgrade your current account from a free account to a fee-paying account without your permission, unless we plan to upgrade all free accounts of that type.

Subscribers may offer customers the opportunity to upgrade their current account from a free account to a fee-paying account. An upgrade should not take place unless the customer has given their express consent for the subscriber to do so.

Express consent is not required where it is the subscriber’s intention to move all customers on the previously free account to a fee-paying service. In these circumstances all customers will be:
• given at least 30 days notice of the subscriber’s intention;
• given the opportunity of 60 days from the date of notice to, without penalty, close their account or switch to another account; and
• informed of any alternative free current account with equivalent facilities currently marketed by the subscriber.

You have the choice of either filing a claim or complaining to the FOS here:
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/default.htm

tazjay2006

At the end of March I lost my job and am now starting the process of trying to reclaim my bank charges. i have read that cases where people have lost jobs etc will still be dealt with.

As I live in a privately rented flat with my partner (whose wages wont even cover the basic bills) and am awaiting an appointment to start claiming jobseekers allowance, will I be seen as a hardship case or as my partner is working will I have to wait?? Please Help

Thanks
Emma

[Deleted User]

how do I file a claim, do you mean with small claims court or something? And does this cost? (im claiming £80)

Orford

how do I file a claim, do you mean with small claims court

Read through the guide here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

And does this cost? (im claiming £80)

Court fee would be £30

nephasu

There woulod be no £30.00 charge if you are on low income fill out claim form.
good luck to you.

boy1der

Ive read a couple of posts on here stating that reclaimers have been successful with recent applications for reclaiming bank charges by claiming financial hardship.

What sort of circumstances are they referring to?? Disability perhaps?? recent redundancy maybe???

Any clues??

MsMatronic

Hi all,

I have just added up 6yrs charges £1677.50 on a Nationwide flexaccount which I don't use anymore. I am using Martins template including the financial difficulties part. Do I need to give as much info as possible i.e. enclose a financial statement. My mortgage is with the Nationwide and they are aware of my current situation due to arrears.

Also is it ok for me to put the claim in my name alone, I am seperated from my husband
Any comments appreciated

Regards
Vikki

zimsabre

can this be classed as a hardship case?

lost his job for being a PRAT at work.. so he got fired.

he is a bit dippy when it comes to this, he has just lost his job ( FSA hardship cases), luckly he uses online banking and all of the charges are there for me to send off the letter for him. he has copy's of the letter proving he has just lost his job.

here are the charges and some are crazy! lowest i saw was £0.40 giving him a £30 charge!

Martins/R S Mccoll £5.39 Paid Item £35.00 29th April 2008
American Amusement £11.25 Paid Item £35.00 29th April 2008
American Amusement £10.50 Paid Item £35.00 29th April 2008
One Stop 0679 £5.79 Paid Item £35.00 26th April 2008
Sainsbury'S S/Mkt £2.55 Paid Item £35.00 26th April 2008
Eupaycom.net £21.07Paid Item £35.00 17th April 2008
O2(Uk)Ltd Prepay £10.00 Paid Item £35.00 9th April 2008
O2(Uk)Ltd Prepay £10.00 Paid Item £35.00 26th March 2008
Tesco Express 2688 £4.34 Paid Item £35.00 18th December 2007
One Stop 0679 £1.41 Paid Item £30.00 9th December 2007
One Stop 0679 £2.40 Paid Item £30.00 9th December 2007
O2(Uk)Ltd Prepay £10.00 Paid Item £30.00 9th December 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.40 Paid Item £30.00 8th December 2007
Sainsbury'S S/Mkt £2.43 Paid Item £30.00 8th December 2007
Sainsbury'S S/Mkt £0.49 Paid Item £30.00 8th December 2007
Tcs Ifield Drive £2.58 Paid Item £30.00 15th November 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.49 Paid Item £30.00 13th November 2007
Conister Trust Plc £37.98 Failed Item £39.00 8th November 2007
Conister Trust Plc £17.98 Failed Item £39.00 2nd November 2007
O2(Uk)Ltd Prepay £10.00 Paid Item £30.00 19th October 2007
One Stop 0679 £4.07 Paid Item £30.00 19th October 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.40 Paid Item £30.00 18th October 2007
O2(Uk)Ltd Prepay £10.00 Paid Item £30.00 16th October 2007
Conister Trust Plc £37.98 Paid Item £30.00 9th October 2007
Tcs Ifield Drive £2.58 Paid Item £30.00 4th October 2007
Conister Trust Plc £17.98 Failed Item £39.00 3rd October 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.40 Paid Item £30.00 3rd October 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.40 Paid Item £30.00 2nd October 2007
Southern £2.70 Paid Item £30.00 26th September 2007
One Stop 0679 £1.34 Paid Item £30.00 23rd September 2007
Sainsbury'S S/Mkt £0.41 Paid Item £30.00 22nd September 2007
One Stop 0679 £1.88 Paid Item £30.00 22nd September 2007
One Stop 0679 £3.40 Paid Item £30.00 21st September 2007

LJW_2

Hi watched Martin on GMTV the other day and he said if you were in dept you could claim back your bank charges now? anybody know how to do this and what sort of proof is needed?

Hope you can help