Financial difficulties/hardship case

mikeandrach_2

well done yummy mummy. we've just had the same from abbey, £1150 paid back into account the same day letter arrived, cleared student overdraft, well, £6 short but we have managed to find that! we are in the process of claiming approx £1500 from lloyds, i have sent them a strongly worded letter pointing out that abbey agree we are in financial hardship so if abbey do they should, will wait and see, any tips from anyone for how to deal with lloyds?

A_fiend_for_life

Sorry in advance this is verbose...

Personal account with Bank of Scotland

I am taking the financial hardship route through the financial ombudsman service for my bank account. I have been charged over £500 in the last year, have rescheduled utilities like mad and am in arrears with rent but not council tax. I am £230 over my authorised limit of £1950. Total £2180. However the overdraft includes around £2500 of unclaimed charges.:eek:

I initially had an agreement for £10 a week but could no way pay this - I was half asleep when they phoned. They refused to renegotiate and the agreement was withdrawn.

The bank has offered an agreement that if I pay 10% of the overdraft and all the interest they will be put me on an agreement - about £300. This is impossible for me to pay.The bank also know I am unemployed and receiving JSA and housing benefit. I have received no letter stating 'final decision'. (Is this usual?)

I am making token payments as best I can to the bank.

The full overdraft has been forwarded to debt collection - Albion Collections Ltd and I have received two letters and a phone call this morning possibly other calls too. Person asked for me and I asked what it was about, she said it was 'Albion collections and asked if ** was available'. I said yes its me, she said it was re HBOS account and that they need to ask some security questions, I said I am dealing with the bank etc and she started discussing the balance... Are they permitted at all to say that the balance 'x' has been passed over to them without confirming the security details? I think not! Who do I speak to regarding this?

Anyhow, phoned FOS this moring and FOS has requested that I fill in their complaint form. Has any one gone throught the FOS for hardship? Do you include the Annex 2 stuff or will FOS deal with that?

FOS say it will take between 2 and 6 months. How do I deal with DCA in the mean time?

victor16_2

Desperate for help....

Am seriously struggling financially. Can afford to pay my bills and my DMP but am left with literally nothing to live on - can't afford to eat or put petrol in the car.

Have had a few charges over the past few months but not loads as I've managed to starve to avoid them... do i still qualify as a hardship case even though I'm in full-time employment?? I am owed £3.5k by NatWest in charges and this would solve all my probs if could get it back...

Please help!!!!!!

keefybhoy

hi folks

great site and some fantastic advice on here , looking for a little advice or help myself . i bank with teh HSBC (booooooohissss) . and have amounted £2481 in charges over the last 5 years (in scotland). i got the list of charges very easily by making a call and had them within the week , so far so good . i downloaded and amended the 2nd letter to claim the monies back under the financial hardship as i had lost my job and currently have zero income , bills are not getting paid etc , stupidly i did not send the 2nd letter recorded delivery , the 14 days have now past and no word from the bank .

so what now ? call them ? resend the claim (recorded this time) ? or proceed with the threat of court ?

any help is much appreciated

kind regards

Keefybhoy

keltbrat

Hey all, now i am not being lazy looked, through all the thread but can't seem to find if there is a 'hardship' template letter. Anyone advise please?

Thanks

Briggsy.notts

It's not that I can't be bothered to read everything but I'm writing this quickly before I go to work. I have been helping my dad claim over £1000 in charges from HSBC under Financial hardship rules. Yesterday he got the standard letter back from the bank about their charges being fair (don't think £150 each time is fair) and that he needs to complete the financial statement. This I'm fine with as I've done all the reading about it on this site. What does confuse me is that it says not to send the statement to them but to ring them instead. I'm a bit concerned about this as I think this is there way of talking their way out of paying the charges. They say they want to see what else they can so but whenever my dad has rang in the past they do nothing.

So my question is do we send the statement back to the bank instead of ringing?

Many thanks in advance.

esmerellda

Briggsy.notts wrote: »

It's not that I can't be bothered to read everything but I'm writing this quickly before I go to work. I have been helping my dad claim over £1000 in charges from HSBC under Financial hardship rules. Yesterday he got the standard letter back from the bank about their charges being fair (don't think £150 each time is fair) and that he needs to complete the financial statement. This I'm fine with as I've done all the reading about it on this site. What does confuse me is that it says not to send the statement to them but to ring them instead. I'm a bit concerned about this as I think this is there way of talking their way out of paying the charges. They say they want to see what else they can so but whenever my dad has rang in the past they do nothing.

So my question is do we send the statement back to the bank instead of ringing?

Many thanks in advance.

Yes send it in HSBC are very difficult with hardship (the FSA really need to get some standard continuity between banks) and they find any excuse not to pay out for hardship cases. Unless theres immediate reposession threat its unlikely you'd get a payout, but they can stop future charges, move to basic accounts etc. They will try sell you loans too grrrrrrrrrrrr so just say no. It really depends on the circumstances how far they are willing to go, and HSBC its usually not very far. Sorry. Post it in with a covering letter outlining the circumstances fully. Then call in a week to ensure they have recieved it and are looking at it.

esmerellda

keltbrat wrote: »

Hey all, now i am not being lazy looked, through all the thread but can't seem to find if there is a 'hardship' template letter. Anyone advise please?

Thanks

You would be better off writing your own to be honest, there are a few examples about, it depends where you are at with your claim already or if this is your first letter, and what your financial circumstances are....arrears on council tax and mortgage are what they mainly focus on. Also complete an income.expenditure sheet - the banks use the CFS (common financial statement) from the money advice trust as a standard. If you put a few more details I'll get a letter example for you.

esmerellda

keefybhoy wrote: »

hi folks

great site and some fantastic advice on here , looking for a little advice or help myself . i bank with teh HSBC (booooooohissss) . and have amounted £2481 in charges over the last 5 years (in scotland). i got the list of charges very easily by making a call and had them within the week , so far so good . i downloaded and amended the 2nd letter to claim the monies back under the financial hardship as i had lost my job and currently have zero income , bills are not getting paid etc , stupidly i did not send the 2nd letter recorded delivery , the 14 days have now past and no word from the bank .

so what now ? call them ? resend the claim (recorded this time) ? or proceed with the threat of court ?

any help is much appreciated

kind regards

Keefybhoy

Give them a call and ask if they have received your letter, if they have then give them 7 days to reply else you will take the claim to court/FOS under hardship. It does sound as though you have a case for hardship, you will need to send in a full financial statement, and HSBC are quite difficult at the moment to claim from, so your hardship case needs to be spelt out to them as strongly as you can.

esmerellda

victor16 wrote: »

Desperate for help....

Am seriously struggling financially. Can afford to pay my bills and my DMP but am left with literally nothing to live on - can't afford to eat or put petrol in the car.

Have had a few charges over the past few months but not loads as I've managed to starve to avoid them... do i still qualify as a hardship case even though I'm in full-time employment?? I am owed £3.5k by NatWest in charges and this would solve all my probs if could get it back...

Please help!!!!!!

hi victor, I hope you are okay I know your post was a long time ago now - if theres other things you need help with please give me a shout. the unfairness of the hardship system is if you have struggled hard to keep your bills paid at the cost of eating - they don;t see you as being in hardship. Wrong in my opinion. please shout though if you need any help with your other debts DMP etc.
esme
xx