Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

[Amethyst]

Letter posted by Scoobydoo on other thread for discussion.

the are lots of people in hardship with claims/complaints currently held up by the FSA waiver , and in the decision of the courts to apply stays to virtually everything and being very hard on what consitutes hardship.

A nudge letter following the initial judgement may help get some of these moving again...thats the plan anyway.

To XXXXbank

From XXXXX
Reference account number XXXXXXX Case numberXXXXXX
Dear sir / madam

I refer to my claim on the above account. I am fully aware of the current case regarding charges and the ruling that has been published.

However I wish to bring to your attention again the condition of the Waiver.

This is an extract from:
FSA waiver statement 27/7/2007 & Memo to Treasury select committee 9/10/2007
.
Consumers who are in very difficult financial circumstances - 'hardship cases'
Banks and building societies will have to conduct a filtering process to ensure that cases of genuine hardship are still dealt with during the waiver period.
Also as I am sure you are aware the banking code requirement for banks to deal with persons in financial difficulty sympathetically and positively has not been affected by the waiver.


The agreement reached between the banks, FSA, FOS and OFT prior to the OFT v banks case being submitted to the High Court at the end of July clearly states that responsibility for determining and resolving a ‘hardship case’ lies with the bank, that the waiver granted to banks, allowing complaints re charges to be held pending the outcome of the High Court case does not apply to ‘hardship’ cases, and banks should therefore seek to identify and resolve such cases; further that where agreement cannot be reached between a customer and a bank the bank must issue a final response letter as a precursor to the FOS seeking to resolve matters.


I am therefore (again) identifying myself to you to one of the cases where the excessive charges have been a cause or have worsened my present position . You are fully aware of my situation from previous correspondence in your possession.


The fact that I have commenced legal action is not a factor as the ability of the banks to request stays was made with proviso that banks would continue to consider hardship cases.

I fully believe that my difficulties meet any definition or criteria of hardship. If you disagree confirm your reasons in writing together with your reasons for not adhering to the terms of the waiver. I look forward to your reply within the next 7 days

Yours sincerely :tung:

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

For info this was based on a letter and covering detail that was sent by an A&L customer after the waiver who received his charges in full. I think also there was an Abbey national case that won charges on this basis with help from the FOS as well.

I have one other Abbey case that has agreed to be used " as a guinea pig" to see what reaction we get and also I think she would consider publicity . I have done a summmary to the best of my knowledge and I hope she is working out how to post on the site at the moment. I have also sent pm to a couple of the others as well.

[enaid]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Nice one scooby, I was reading this morning and most of the cases were told to go to the FOS, but then the end was never concluded. I just sumised they had been put on hold.

[Amethyst]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

You wouldn't have links to the original information would you ? Be interesting to see the specific circumstances involved in that case.

Thanks u xx

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Success at A and L via hardship case route

poster is annoyed from caerphilly as I am not sure if link will work.

I have always been honest and said I can not claim credit for letter.

[EXC]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Re the letter, I wouldn't mind having a little play around with it tomorrow. Im so much better in the mornings!

[Amethyst]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Success at A and L via hardship case route - The Consumer Forums

thats the link scoobs Thanks u xx

Hi,

Have recently settled with A and L for £6483.5, which was total amount of charges claimed in relation to 3 accounts.

Given that the Court due to hear my case (Cardiff) applied stays, rather than wait for the outcome of the High Court case I decided to determine whether they was another pathway I could take.

Following advice from the FOS I reapproached the bank and asked for each claim to be reconsidered as a hardship case, arguing that their own literature (standard letter re stays) and that of the FOS indicated that banks had a duty to identify those cases where the claimant was suffering genuine financial hardship. (The FOS advised that I was able to follow such a pathway even though my case had been submitted to Court).

After much debate and being bumped around various departments the bank accepted the evidence put forward (ill health had led to long term sickness absence and reliance upon state benefits, the amount of charges being deducted causing further financial hardship, leaving me unable to meet existing financial commitments).

However, though I was successful in the end the main sticking point that delayed matters for a no. of weeks appeared to be the stance of the Credit Control dept. who oddly are the dept. at A and L tasked with dealing with bank charges cases. Initially their stance was that they could not consider matters and, given my legal action sought to refer me to Wragge and Co., despite my arguing that Wragge were merely legal advisers to the bank and would not be able to reach settlement.

Headway was only made when I sought the support of the Chief Executives dept., being passed through to a PA from switchboard, who referred me on to the Customer Care Team, who seemed to have the authority or standing to persuade the credit control dept. to drop their stance, leading to consideration of my submission by the manager of credit control dept. (Alision Riley) and eventual offer of settlement.

I was happy to settle on the basis of repayment of charges, foregoing interest and court costs, which though in total amounted to just over £1,300 , given the total value of the settlement seemed a reasonable course of action to take - give a bit to get a lot !

Advice re following this course of action - ensure there is genuine evidence, medical and financial to support your hardship case, and that you submit a detailed fax or email listing each, continue to the seek support of customer care team, and importantly, be wary of a supervisor in the credit control dept. called Mr.Garnett, who you may be referred to first of all - not only does he act as though any refund will come out of his own pocket, but in my opinion would gladly argue black is white, not only will he aim to lead you up the garden path, he may also infuriate you with a whole range of underhand tactics, the best of which is returning your call and more or less immediately stating he has to terminate the call (which he made !) to go into a meeting. Progress only seems to occur when the customer care dept. deal directly with Alison Riley, manager of Credit Control.

If like me illness has robbed you of part of your life and through reduction in income caused enormous financial problems, worsened by onerous bank charges, then clearly you are a hardship case. Dig in, follow the above pathway and though it may take you a number of months, you should be successful.

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Re: My Story - Simon -V- The (SH)Abbey

simon7685 posts from end of Oct- Rest of thread would take hours - but was paid on hardship basis

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Re the letter, I wouldn't mind having a little play around with it tomorrow. Im so much better in the mornings!

no problem

but a little too much info there!

Jan

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Qae poster - thread my day in court - see from post 20 onwards

jan

[Amethyst]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Advice on applying to bank for stay to be lifted - The Consumer Forums

Scoobs - this might be of interest....lloyds & hardship. poss bankruptcy unless charges returned etc.

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

I think she will be over soon

[Bluebell]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Hi, I'm crystalcag from the CAG - thanks Jan for referring me to this site! There is lots of really useful info here. To be honest I'm in two minds about what to do next. Since being given advice from CCCS that bankruptcy is probably my best course of action the thought of being free from all my creditors seems irresistible. Having said that if a hardship letter to LLoyds were effective it would take a whole load of presure off. It would by no means get rid of all my debt but it would help - and stop me going under completely - might give me a bit of time. ALthough the whole process might take months too ... ??? I'll carry on reading here and see what I can come up with.

[scoobydoo]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Hello!

and welcome

Exc is going to review the above letter and I think it would be important to personalise it as well. I think the idea is that to see how the reply excuses them from the waiver agreement and then we can refer the relpy to the FSA.

could you post a quick sumary of where you are with everything and hopefully we can get you some help . I will ask amethyst for the best place for you to start a thread. Welcome again

Jan

[Bluebell]

Re: Hardship Letter ref Waiver (review)

Thanks Jan,
I submitted a claim for bank charges about a year ago. At that time it came to about £4,000 I think (including contractual interest). I also made a claim to A&L (for about £500). Both claims were stayed - the Lloyds one went as far as going to court to appeal against the stay on the grounds of hardship but it seems that the judge in my area (Devon) has no interest in lifting stays..despite my case being obviously genuine and Lloyds putting pressure on me to reduce my £2,000 overdraft or incur charges blah blah.

Meanwhile debts have mounted, they include Council tax, electricity and water arrears, 2 x store cards, 2 x credit cards (Lloyds and Egg), various outstanding bills and other debts altogether amounting to about £12,000. I received one claim form from the court for an old Orange bill (despite having written with inc/exp info and telling them I have no spare funds) and several letters threatening court action. It feels like it's all getting out of control to be honest. I'm expecting a baby in June and my partner's income only just covers our day to day expenses at the moment. (he too has debts amounting to about £20,000 and had his house repossessed 2 years ago). I don't know where to start dealing with any of this and all I want is to get rid of the stress so that we can concentrate on our baby! I already feel like the whole of the pregnancy has been in turmoil and spent a long time worrying about the effect it might have on the baby. Now I just want to try to make the best of the future...however that may be. :decision:

I hope I haven't just emptied my head with a whole load of irrelevant information ... and any ideas/thoughts are greatly appreciated!