example HARDSHIP claim letters

[Amethyst]

We DON'T recommend a templated approach to hardship.

here are some examples of letters others have used/are using for their personal circumstances. This should give you an idea of the kind of letters which do work when claiming hardship from your bank.

you should always enclose your IE sheet and if you can evidence of priority arrears etc.

These are just drafts started for people, if you have a browse around the hardship forum you will see many ideas and other letters.


THESE ARE NOT TEMPLATES - if you are stuck what to write, have a bash and pop it up on a thread, with your IE sheet if you can and we WILL help you x

Dear Sirs

REFUND OF CHARGES - FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY

I am writing to complain about the level of bank charges that have been applied to my account. I am now, following research, aware of the High Court Judgment being appealed in the House of Lords this week, and aware that the charges applied are considered to be assessable under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations.

It is my belief that these charges are disproportionate and unfair and I request that all charges applied to my account since its inception in XXXXX (year account opened) are refunded to me forthwith.

You will be aware of my financial circumstances, but should there be any queries please see the attached current Income and Expenditure sheet. My income is made up solely of Benefits and your bank taking over £400 in the past couple of months has put me into a position of further severe hardship.

I am aware there is an exception to the FSA waiver which you have been granted. I am aware of your duties and obligations regarding customers in Financial difficulty, and as I consider myself to be in Financial Difficulty I expect you to process my complaint and request for a refund of the charges in a timely manner.

I appreciate you have withdrawn banking services from me to reduce escalation of the charges forcing me to open an account elsewhere in order to survive, although this has been passed to debt collectors who are now requesting repayment of the overdrafty in full. Considering I expect the charges you have taken from me will far outweigh the amount you alledge is owing please be aware I consider the account to be fully in dispute and ask you refrain from further collections activity until this dispute is resolved.

I would also like to draw your attention to guidance issued by the financial services authority on 19th March 2009 which stated

''V) firms to provide a range of measures to support customers and to treat them positively and sympathetically. These might include: help and guidance about dealing with FD and avoiding charges; suspending collections and recovery activity; suspending accrual of further interest and charges; consideration of a refund of charges, in particular where the charges may have added to the FD during, or immediately before, the period of FD. The rationale for why a particular level of refund has been given should be documented and clearly explained to the complainant.''

The charges incurred have snowballed and during an extended period of hardship which does not look set to improve this has compounded matters and made affording my essential living costs such as food, electricity (whatever you fancy putting) very difficult.

I suffer from (illnesses) and my income includes (benefits) which reflect that situation. My Income and Expenditure sheet also shows the level of debt I am in which was accrued prior to a relationship breakdown. I have been managing this through a Debt Management Company although this has not stopped a number of creditors obtaining CCJ's and charging orders on my home. Each month things become more difficult and the charges applied seriously do not help matters.

Please refund all charges applied to my account as a matter of urgency. I have submitted a formal Data Protection Act request to obtain a full list of charges applied and I will on receipt of that be taking my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman or the County Court if the matter remains unresolved.

Please confirm you are processing my complaint within 5 working days. Should you require any further information you may contact me on XXXXXXXXX (phone/address whichever you are happier with)

I look forward to hearing from you

Dear Lloyds

Account Number XXXXXXXXXXXXX - FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY

I am writing to complain about the charges you continue to apply to my current account held with you.

I have held this account with you since December 2006. In August 2008 I fell into financial difficulties following the breakdown of my relationship with my partner. This has left me in severe financial hardship and I ask that you consider my complaint under the financial difficulty exemption of the FSA Waiver.

I contacted you in August 2008 and your collections department agreed to a repayment arrangement on my overdraft of £50 per calendar month to be paid before the 17th of each month. Despite making payments every month before this date, in cash over the branch counter, you have continued to add charges to my account of over £100 per month.

I am now aware that the charges you have levied against me may be considered unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, a matter which is currently under investigation by the Office of Fair Trading, and is currently subject to a test case now at the House of Lords.

I enclose a copy of my current income and expenditure for your reference. You will see that despite having made many cutbacks, I am finding it increasingly difficult to manage.

I am currently facing eviction from my property and have outstanding rent arrears of £1500. I also have arrears on my utility bills.

I have no intention of reneging on any of my debts, however the charging regime you are applying to my account are making it increasingly difficult to cope.

Due to my circumstances please place a hold on my account and refrain from applying further charges. This is covered by the FSA waiver direction paragraph
15. When dealing with complainants in financial difficulty, the firm should consider the following steps in respect of the period during which they are assessed as being in financial difficulty:
(a)the firm might waive future unauthorised overdraft charges; and
(b)the firm might not enforce debts against complainants in financial difficulty to the extent that these debts are made up of unauthorised overdraft charges.

Please consider my account fully in dispute and be aware I will not be making any further payments.

I need to make you fully aware that I am disputing the sum owed and, as such, you must refrain from any further action until this dispute is fully resolved.
The current Banking Code (Section 13.6) states:


We may give information to Credit Reference Agencies about the personal debts you owe us if:

• You have fallen behind with your payments,
• The amount owed is not in dispute; and
• You have not made proposals we are satisfied with for repaying your debt, following our formal demand.

I would also like to make you aware of The Office of Fair Trading Code of Guidance in which it states: putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive This includes ignoring disputes about whether money is owed and refusing to freeze action if the debt is in dispute.

If you take any further action and proceed by making any adverse comments on my credit reference files, I shall be forced to take legal action against you under the Data Protection Act 1998.


I require a refund in full of those charges you have taken from me which have contributed to my current financial difficulties. I also require an element of compensatory interest calculated at 8% per annum, to be added to this amount. I enclose a spreadsheet detailing these amounts, which as of todays date total £XXXXX.

If anyone has other letters they have used to claim hardship which have worked if you can post them in this thread it will make a lovely resource and show how people should be approaching the issue with the banks.

[Jester]

Re: example HARDSHIP claim letters

To be honest, I simply wrote to the Financial Ombudsman Service asking them to re-examine my case under the new hardship rules. I then sent a copy of that letter directly to the HSBC Chairman - Geohegan - asking him to look further into it and so that he was aware that I had retaken up my claim through the FOS.

As I recall, Geohegan passed the letter onto his minions and told them to deal with it as the next person I dealt with was Steve Smithard in First Direct customer relations. All he asked for was proof of my hardship - which I was happy to supply - and then after about 3 weeks, First Direct made a PARTIAL settlement offer.

I must re-emphaise that I did NOT get a full settlement and that First Direct agreed that they may well have to pay out on the rest depending on the outcome of the OFT Bank Charges case (currently in the HoL).

Anyway, for what it is worth, here is a copy of the letter I sent into FOS (and copied to Geohegan) on 22 July 2008.




Financial Ombudsman Service,
South Quay Plaza,
183 Marsh Wall,
London.
E14 9SR

Dear Sir or Madam:

FOS Reference Number: xxxxxxxx

As you are no doubt aware, in the light of the ongoing test case hearing between the Office Of Fair Trading (hereby referred to as the OFT) and the leading high street banks regarding the fairness or otherwise of the bank charging regime, the FSA has today announced a new waiver to be put in place. The waiver will supercede the previous one issued in July 2007 and is not due to expire until January 2009.

Upon reading the conditions of the new waiver, I was extremely interested in the FSA’s definition of what constitutes Financial Hardship. Given that the Royal Bank of Scotland have issued court proceedings against me to repossess my home (a hearing that will take place on 29th July 2008), this is taking on a new sense of urgency.

Therefore, I would like to bring to your attention the FSA’s definition of Financial Hardship and why I believe I qualify to have my claim against First Direct dealt with on this basis.

The new FSA Waiver defines Financial Hardship in the following terms:
2. In making an assessment of financial difficulty the firm will take into account:

a. evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;
I have been unemployed since August 2007 and since then have been making every effort to secure alternative employment. I do not have any current offers of employment but I am continuing my efforts.

b. evidence of the following events:
i. items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;

First Direct have withdrawn all banking services from me in light of my financial difficulties. There have been numerous items returned on the account which can be easily demonstrated by viewing the transaction history on my account.

ii. failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;

I have enclosed my up-to-date income and expenditure budget sheet. The majority of my commitments are being handled by a Debt Management Company (the XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX).

I am also struggling to meet my mortgage payments and my mortgage provider (First Active, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group) has issued court proceedings in order to repossess my home.

The hearing will take place in my local county court on 29th July 2008, where the RBS Group will be seeking leave to repossess my home.

This is despite the fact that I am currently only two months in arrears with my mortgage payments and have made considerable efforts to reach an agreement with RBS.

iii. discontinuation of regular credits;

The main income to my account previously was my salary which totalled approximately £XXXX Net per month. This has been reduced to £0. The DWP pay all of my Job Seekers Allowance benefits (£107 per week) to First Active as part of my mortgage payment This does not even cover half of our required minimum payment needed to make interest-only payments. I am sure you will agree that this is a substantial fall in income.

iv. notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;

As indicated above, my wife and I are subject to court proceedings with the RBS Group who are seeking to repossess the family home. I have arrears on the mortgage payments and, despite a written agreement with RBS to make interest-only payments over the next three months, I am struggling with meeting these payments. My wife only earns £XXX per month. We also receive a further £XXX per month in tax credits. From these sums of monies, we have to find an interest-only payment of £XXX.XX per month in order to keep possession of our home, pay all our fuel bills, feed ourselves and three children and generally try to live our lives. We are well below the poverty line in regards to living finances and have no available disposable income as a result. The sum of money we are claiming in unfair bank charges from First Direct is £8184. This sum of money would enable us to fend off this repossession order and give us the breathing space we need whilst I continue my efforts to find employment

v. regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;

We have been unable to obtain, nor do we desire to further indebt ourselves, further borrowing. We have rescheduled our debt payments completely by handing the management of payments and negotiations over to a specialist Debt Management Company (the XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX).

vi. making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest

Our credit facilities have all been withdrawn.

vii. repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty).

First Direct withdrew all banking services to us in October 2007. However, the mere fact that we had a claim for Unfair Bank Charges totalling £8184 proves that we were incurring charges of more than £500 per annum. Furthermore, after we started our Bank Charge Reclaim in February 2007, First Direct continued to hit us with further bank charges between February and October 2007. We estimate these further bank charges to be in the region of £900.

As you can plainly see, we are in severe financial hardship. We have very little income and the very realistic possibility that we will soon be homeless to add to our problems should the RBS Group be successful at Court on 29th July in repossessing our home.

All we ask is that the Financial Ombudsman Service would re-examine our case with First Direct. First Direct (HSBC) are a large financial organisation with considerable funds available to fight a long drawn-out battle with the OFT. The current situation with the new Waiver being put in place means that we are unlikely to see any resolution in the Bank Charges Test case between the OFT and the leading banks before the end of 2008. In our current situation, we cannot afford the luxury of waiting that long for such a resolution. If First Direct were to refund the £8184 in Bank Charges that we believe were unfairly taken from our bank account over the course of the last 6 years (i.e. 2001 – 2007), our outlook would improve significantly. Whilst it would not be a long term solution, it would certainly assist us in our battle to keep our home from being repossessed and even give us some breathing space to keep up our mortgage payments whilst I secure the employment which will enable us to become financially able to meet our commitments.

I am aware of 51 cases where First Direct paid out sums totalling £140,176.71 to previous claimants before the introduction of the waiver. I was willing to present my case in the courts, however my claim was stayed and I subsequently applied to overturn the decision. I was unsuccessful in this. Since that application my circumstances have worsened considerably. I am of the opinion that had my case gone to court a matter of weeks earlier, First Direct would have repaid my charges without argument and I would not be in my current position where I face being made homeless without accommodation for my three children.

Your assistance in resolving this matter would be gratefully received. I therefore respectfully ask you formally for this assistance.

I would like to stress that this matter is particularly urgent as we have recently discovered that we have an All Monies Mortgage clause which we were previously unaware of. We have been told that this may mean that RBS Group may not be able to issue a suspended re-possession order. I therefore need your assistance to prepare my defence in full for the court hearing on 29th July 2008.

If you agree to re-examine this case, would it be possible if we could ask you to you draft a letter that we may present to the Judge at XXXXXXX County Court stating your agreement that we are in severe financial difficulty and that you are currently examining our case with First Direct on our behalf.

Yours sincerely,

[TUTTSI]

Re: example HARDSHIP claim letters

This is the hardship letter which I used and which I have adapted as a templated guide.

ADDRESS 1


ADDRESS 2


ADDRESS 3


ADDRESS 4

TEL/FAX XXXXXXXXX


EMAIL XXXXXXXXXX

FOA: Mr Ronan Coyle
Location Code TS6 D03
Abbey National PLC
Abbey National House
2 Triton Square
Regent Park
London NW1 3AN DATE…………..





BY RECORDED DELIVERY


Dear Mr xxxxx/ or Sir or Madam

YOUR NAME
Bank ACCOUNT NUMBER:- XXXXXXXX
CLAIM NO:- XXXXXXX

I am writing to you regarding my claim and my financial hardship
situation which I understand meets the FSA’s recent update to the
complaints handling waiver and their guidelines on financial difficulty.

I would like to attach documentation in support evidences
of our hardship case which evidences my extreme financial difficulty,
as follows:-


1 : An updated spreadsheet showing my claim value as £XXXXXXX with <bank name.> at the present time.

2 : A Joint personal budget sheet which shows a monthly deficit of £XXX

3.

4.

5.

6.

HERE WRITE A DESCRIPTION AS TO WHY YOU FEEL YOU ARE A GENUINE HARDSHIP CASE AND THE EFFECT IT IS HAVING ON YOU/ AND YOUR FAMILY, ETC ETC….


Change these paragraphs to suit
My husband and I are currently finding it very difficult to cope during the present economic climate coupled with the real threat of losing the residential home as a result of the suspended possession order.

This financial situation is putting a terrible burden on both myself and my family, and I please ask that you reconsider my claim and my circumstances given the current waiver criteria and the banking code.

I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours sincerely



xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[fuzzybrain]

Re: example HARDSHIP claim letters

This was ours

Thank you for your letter dated the 7th August 2008 in response to our email to Mr Ronan Coyle on the 4th August 2008.

We would like Abbey to consider our claim in respect of an early settlement in respect of financial difficulty and hardship.

As evidence of the hardship we are currently experiencing we attached several letters and documentation for your consideration as evidence of our increasing financial hardship.

Included are:

3 letters from Abbey informing us that we will be charged for the return of direct debits

2 letters from Peugeot finance informing us that our direct debits were unpaid this month and amounts that we are in arrears. We have set up a repayment plan with Peugeot to clear these arrears over the next 3 months. This was completed by phone call; we have not received any documentation confirming this arrangement.

4 pages of statements from Natwest showing charges for exceeding our overdraft. A temporary increase in overdraft has been arranged with natwest over a 6 month period in order to clear the amount the overdraft was exceeded. We have agreed that £** will be repaid on the 6th of every month to bring the account back to its agreed overdraft limit.

Letter from AA informing us of a returned DD and that they have charged us £12 for the returned DD and will take the DD again on the 15th August.

Letter from beneficial finance informing us of arrears on our account and we will be charged £15 for a late payment. An arrangement has been reached with beneficial finance to clear the arrears over a 3 month period.

Letter from Zebra finance informing us that our DD has been cancelled (this was because there was insufficient funds in the account). An arrangement has been agreed to clear the arrears)

A letter from Studio detailing late payment and charges added to the account.

A letter from E–on detailing our arrears of £** and agreeing to a repayment programme.

Letter from Auto direct informing us of a returned DD. A charge of £12 has been added to the account.

We are also in £** arrears with our mortgage. I have been in discussion with our mortgage company (West Brom) and they have agreed to allow us to clear the arrears over a 6 month period, commencing on 25th August 2008.

We do not have any supporting evidence to confirm our council tax is also £** in arrears, however when I have managed to clear some of the above arrears I will be contacting the council in order to make an arrangement to clear those arrears.

We are also exceeding the limit regularly on our credit cards due to charges and interest being added. We are making every effort to bring these below the limit of our credit cards in order to prevent charges being occurred.

We also have a £**** overdraft with Abbey that we are exceeding on a regular basis.

If we are able to settle the above claims then we will be in a favourable position to dramatically reduce or even clear these arrears and regain a stable and steady financial foothold.

If you require any additional information, then please do not hesitate to contact us. The best method of contact ******** via phone on the following number *********

Thank you for your kind assistance in this matter, we very much appreciate the prompt attention you have afforded us in this matter and we hope that a speedy and amicable solution to all can be reached.


Yours sincerely