Reclaiming bank charges and mental health problems

improvedaily · 14 July 2017 at 1:19PM

Hi there,
I've been unwell with my mental health for many years. After a lot of therapy I am much recovered and building my life back up. I've had some issues managing my finances. One of the symptoms of the disorder I have leads to an overwhelming urge for perfectionism and crippling procrastination. I have been unable to make a start on anything that I care about for fear of not getting it exactly right. One of the areas that has suffered from this is money management. Consequently I have repeatedly gone over my overdraft limit –!not through excessive spending, but because my income has been very low and I haven't been able to pull myself together to remedy the situation. Now I am in a position to manage myself properly, this is no longer happening. I have tallied up my bank charges for going into my overdraft and they run into the thousands over the last 6 years. I would like to make a claim to see if I can recoup any of this money. Please can anyone tell me whether it would be beneficial or not to my claim letter to be honest about my mental health issues? I read on the advice from Martin that the Ombudsman like honest stories. I guess my fear is that I don't really want to share such personal information with the bank. Any advice would be very very much appreciated.

antrobus · 14 July 2017 at 2:02PM

Basically, you can't reclaim bank charges.

But if you are in financial hardship you can approach your bank who should offer you a rebate of your current charges.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Don80 · 14 July 2017 at 3:52PM

Firstly, well done on getting this far. And for being brave and speaking out about mental health issues - I wish more people would do so.

The first thing you need to do is write to your bank and explain what has been happening. They may offer to refund some of the charges for you. I seriously doubt that their initial offer would amount to thousands, and certainly not six years. If you would be happy enough with that, all's well. But you do need to speak to the bank and exhaust their internal processes before you can go to the ombudsman.

I don't think you should worry about being honest with the bank about your health issues. They're unlikely to be negative about it, and if it helps explain what happened I'm sure they would be more sympathetic. It certainly shouldn't hurt. I'd suggest it is also positive, it shows things are getting better and you are starting to get a handle on your finances.

I think you may (and I'm no expert, this is based on my reading of the MSE guide) be able to claim under several categories. Check
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Chalkius · 14 July 2017 at 9:55PM

You can't claim them back as such. The Banks won a court case in 2009 basically meaning they do not have to refund legitimately applied bank charges, whether or not someone feels they are unfair or unjust.

What they do have to do is treat you positively and sympathetically. So that might include refunding a portion of previous charges as a goodwill gesture and finding a way to help your financial situation going forward. Explain your circumstances to them. They may be able to stop further charges for a period of time while you get back on track for example.

improvedaily · 15 July 2017 at 1:22PM

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it.

Chalkius · 15 July 2017 at 2:33PM

No problem. I hope you can get something sorted, and I hope you can keep making progress with your mental health.

Reclaiming bank charges and mental health problems

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