banks taking money for fines while on benifits

[sandra j]

my bank for years now has been taking £25 a time on insufficient funds, but have not paid the money due so basically i have paid thousands in bank charges,and still had to pay the direct debit or payments due,i am disabled and they have been taking these fines from my benefits just for sending an insufficient funds notification to company the monies are due,is this legal i only live on a set amount as it is and sometimes they have taken up to £100 ponds in one hit and ive still had to pay the monies due to company its not as if they have paid it for me then gave a fine sometimes been ove a stingy 48 pence under payment due

[Kati]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

tagging [MENTION=48934]Debt Camel[/MENTION] xx

[leclerc]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

my bank for years now has been taking £25 a time on insufficient funds, but have not paid the money due so basically i have paid thousands in bank charges,and still had to pay the direct debit or payments due,i am disabled and they have been taking these fines from my benefits just for sending an insufficient funds notification to company the monies are due,is this legal i only live on a set amount as it is and sometimes they have taken up to £100 ponds in one hit and ive still had to pay the monies due to company its not as if they have paid it for me then gave a fine sometimes been ove a stingy 48 pence under payment due

It is legal but I would suggest that if the amount of charges is more than the benefit coming in that you approach the bank. I would probably do a few things firstly. I would review your statements and look at all your direct debits/standing orders and see whether or not that is causing the account to go overdrawn.
Once you can identify where the problem is, you can approach your bank and state clearly that you believe that you are suffering financial hardship due to the charges and that it is impacting on your ability to meet basic needs due to the charges. They do not have to refund any single charge but they might consider a temporary overdraft that would reduce over time to ensure that you can get back on your feet.

That would effectively mean that the bank would follow its responsibility under the Lending Code and financial hardship.

[Debt Camel]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

There is no law that says a bank can't take money from benefits to pay charges.

However, you may be able to get some money back if you are in fiancial hardship. the best guide to doing this is here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges. It goes through what you need to do, including template letters.

At the same time you need to stop this happening any more by moving to a basic bank account, where you can't go overdrawn and where NO fees are charged. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/new-basic-bank-account/. This may feel like a hassle but it is going to save you a lot of money.

[leclerc]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

There is no law that says a bank can't take money from benefits to pay charges.

However, you may be able to get some money back if you are in fiancial hardship. the best guide to doing this is here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges. It goes through what you need to do, including template letters.

At the same time you need to stop this happening any more by moving to a basic bank account, where you can't go overdrawn and where NO fees are charged. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/new-basic-bank-account/. This may feel like a hassle but it is going to save you a lot of money.

I worked on a ton of financial hardship claims back in the day when we were never sure how they were done. I hate a template letter on financial hardship. I think an individualised letter which incorporates the elements of financial hardship is better rather than a templated generalised letter. I spotted as well that we don't appear to do a financial hardship guide on here either .

That was the big surprise for me....

[Debt Camel]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

I too think individual letters are better, But many people find having a template letter is helpful as it may mention things they wouldn't think to put in. And some people are too uncertain of their case or their written English... template letters are better than using a Claims Firm, which just sends standard letters and charges you a fortune.

[leclerc]

Re: banks taking money for fines while on benifits

I too think individual letters are better, But many people find having a template letter is helpful as it may mention things they wouldn't think to put in. And some people are too uncertain of their case or their written English... template letters are better than using a Claims Firm, which just sends standard letters and charges you a fortune.

Claim firms should NEVER take on hardship claims for the simple fact that there is no guarantee that the bank will refund anything, unlike PPI cases where they do. I was very surprised to see that Legal Beagles does not do hardship claims guide albeit, we rarely get that kind of traffic.(hint hint to admin here ).