Financial difficulties/hardship case

Edinburghlass_2

Please read Martin's updated article regarding financial hardship here...

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

It means that the bank is obliged to have a look at your claim to see if they consider you are having financial difficulties but don't assume that your charges will automatically be refunded.

steve77

Hi im having a major problem getting my bank to look at my claim under the hardship criteria. My most recent letter to them identified how i met the criteria E.G If you have had charges over £500 in a 12 month period between 1/1/08 & 30/1/08 on just 2 of my accounts i had charges totalling just short of £1000. i qualify on more than just this one point. I have raised a complaint with the fos and im awaiting there decision I have also contacted the fsa to ask how they are monitoring the situation as they have said they will lift the waiver if they believe the banks are not playing fairly. The response i have had does not fill me with confidence as the guy i spoke to did not have a clue what they were doing to monitor the waiver and also told me it was the oft that put the waiver in place not the fsa.

esmerellda

steve77 wrote: »

Hi im having a major problem getting my bank to look at my claim under the hardship criteria. My most recent letter to them identified how i met the criteria E.G If you have had charges over £500 in a 12 month period between 1/1/08 & 30/1/08 on just 2 of my accounts i had charges totalling just short of £1000. i qualify on more than just this one point. I have raised a complaint with the fos and im awaiting there decision I have also contacted the fsa to ask how they are monitoring the situation as they have said they will lift the waiver if they believe the banks are not playing fairly. The response i have had does not fill me with confidence as the guy i spoke to did not have a clue what they were doing to monitor the waiver and also told me it was the oft that put the waiver in place not the fsa.

grrr training !

Let us know what response you get from the FSA. The banks are obliged to supply monthly reports to the FSa with details on hardship cases taken on so I assume they have some kind of quota to fill. Check out the FSA site for details.

What other circumstances do you have as well as the over £500 a year issue.

Which bank are you with?

steve77

Hi Esmerellda the bank is rbs they are a complete nightmare. I have mortgage arrears which they know about as my mortgage is with them. I have lost my business due to there charges which they also know about so im on benefits. They kicked me out of the bank when i successfully claimed £2700 back on my business account and started trying to claim on my other accounts. My outgoings are more than i have coming in i have letters from creditors all threatening to do all manner of nasty things to back this up. I have filled in there financial statement plus outlined all the trouble i was having and still they wrote back saying they do not consider me to be experiencing financial hardship. The one positive for others in this is i successfully claimed the charges back on my business account even though the waiver was in place.

HillyBillie

I'm trying to claim my charges back from Nationwide, but when I sent them a letter listing why I fit the criteria - I fulfill a few of the ones Martin has listed - they sent a standard letter back saying they had looked at my account and couldn;t see a problem. They didn't even offer me an income and expenditure form. I'm just within my o-draft limit every month, mainly as I had stopped paying some of my bills just so I wouldn't have more bank charges!!!

I've complained to the OFT and am hoping to get further with them as they said they had quite a good track record of getting the charges back via harship claims. Is this the experience of other people or is it more likely to be another dead-end?

HB

Orford

I've complained to the OFT and am hoping to get further with them as they said they had quite a good track record of getting the charges back via harship claims.

You can complain to the OFT, but they will not act on individual cases. You need to lodge a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service

HillyBillie

D'oh! I meant the FOS!

HB

shamrock7

steve77 wrote: »

Hi Esmerellda the bank is rbs they are a complete nightmare. I have mortgage arrears which they know about as my mortgage is with them. I have lost my business due to there charges which they also know about so im on benefits. They kicked me out of the bank when i successfully claimed £2700 back on my business account and started trying to claim on my other accounts. My outgoings are more than i have coming in i have letters from creditors all threatening to do all manner of nasty things to back this up. I have filled in there financial statement plus outlined all the trouble i was having and still they wrote back saying they do not consider me to be experiencing financial hardship. The one positive for others in this is i successfully claimed the charges back on my business account even though the waiver was in place.

Send your complaint to the FOS now and tell RBS you are doing so. They will do this for you due to financial difficulties;)

esmerellda

steve77 wrote: »

Hi Esmerellda the bank is rbs they are a complete nightmare. I have mortgage arrears which they know about as my mortgage is with them. I have lost my business due to there charges which they also know about so im on benefits. They kicked me out of the bank when i successfully claimed £2700 back on my business account and started trying to claim on my other accounts. My outgoings are more than i have coming in i have letters from creditors all threatening to do all manner of nasty things to back this up. I have filled in there financial statement plus outlined all the trouble i was having and still they wrote back saying they do not consider me to be experiencing financial hardship. The one positive for others in this is i successfully claimed the charges back on my business account even though the waiver was in place.

Business accounts are exempt from the waiver

how long ago did you claim hardship ? ie was it before 27 July this year ?

yummy-mummy-77

just an update guys but i recieved a letter today 23/09 to say all my bank charges are to be refunded due to my financial curcumstances, thanks so much for all your advice. result!!!!