Report Bank Charges successes and failures

turnbull21 wrote: »

Ok thank you for clarifying. I will reword my letter and remove the bits above.

You also don't need to attach any schedule of charges, the Bank already know what you've paid.
You need to understand that Banks will not refund historical charges, so there is no point referencing money difficulties from 2012 or even 2015.

You should be detailing your CURRENT Financial Hardship. You do mention that your wage has apparently dropped, but you don't mention exactly which ESSENTIAL bills which you are struggling to pay or are in arrears with. Remember, anything you mention will be checked against your statements. If your statements show expensive monthly payments to a mobile phone provider, subscription television, gym membership or even shopping at Waitrose these are all examples of simply spending beyond your means. If your statements show no such luxury, and the Bank agree that you are in (their definition of) Financial Hardship then you might reasonably expect the Bank to refund (some) charges-typically those in the last six months.

However, as Dunston explained above, the Bank are under no obligation to refund anything at all and they have a range of other measures available to them which would show them as treating your hardship case fairly. In other words, your request may result in you simply having interest on your overdraft suspended for a time or they could insist that you accept a debt management programme.

So do consider carefully what you hope to achieve before you send that letter...

You might also want to read through recent pages of this thread. Below is a typical response from February 14th this year:

Shoegrrl wrote: »

I am trying to reclaim charges relating to my overdraft and the fees I incurred. I used the templates on here to submit my claim and they have denied it. They also state I have not demonstrated financial hardship.

Morning all

Just had a quick skim through and noticed the comments about the letter being sent as an out of date one
It’s the same template I just used for RBS, and is the template that’s on the main article on the site about reclaiming charges. I kind of assumed it was the most up to date one :-(
Same with the one on this thread, it was made after the ruling so I made an assumption that it was the best letter to use since then :-(

Oh well, I haven’t had the money for the last 6 years I shouldn’t rely too heavily on having it now :-)

I also didn’t realise that it’s only current financial hardship that was taken into account now, I’m still in my overdraft every month and I’m still getting unpaid direct debits/standing orders every month but not as many and I’m now at least only a few days behind on my mortgage rather than 3 months behind as I was a few years ago.

Really good thread, not holding out a ton of hope but I will update when I hear back from RBS. I’ve used the wrong template too so I reckon I am in with a smaller shot! We live and learn right?

Procrastination101 wrote: »

I've the same template I just used for RBS, and is the template thats on the main article on the site about reclaiming charges. I kind of assumed it was the most up to date one

It is the most "up-to-date" template. Unfortunately, it's prefaced by an article clearly stating that it should be used only by people in CURRENT FINANCIAL HARDSHIP. Anyone simply seeking a refund of historical bank charges will be flatly denied

Since 2009, the Banks have been under no obligation to refund any charges at all. They won their court case on charges in that year.

The article on MSE does encourage making a request for a refund of charges, but it does also clearly explain that it's only if you have experienced a recent "snowballing" of charges that you realistically stand any chance of getting (some) charges back.

Obviously you have already sent the letter and I don't wish to rain too heavily on your parade, but the chances of getting a refund of six year old charges is slim indeed.

You can read back just a few pages of this thread or even the aforementioned MSE article:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges
for more detailed information about who is likely to be refunded (some) charges.

Procrastination101_ON_ANOTHER_THREAD wrote: »

It's only been the last 6 months that this has really stopped (payrise at work and no longer having to pay the guarantor loan helped!)

With this comment you reveal that you don't meet the criteria for claiming that you are in current financial hardship. The Bank will be able to see this from your recent statements..