Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

[Shazzaw]

I'm helping my brother with regards to his claims and after sending HBOS an initial LBA was astounded that my brother received a letter straight back advising him that they would be making a full offer of charges of just over £4,000 as they had identified him as a hardship case.

Absolutely brilliant news and I couldn't believe it until my brother showed me a copy of the letter.

HOWEVER, he's spoken to Halifax today about his refund and they have said that they will be using it to offset his overdraft on the account (apprx £2k) which is fair enough but also using the remainder to offset against a separate loan he has with them and his credit card he has with them.

Are they surely allowed to do this as the charges were incurred on his bank account and I'd have thought should be used to clear any overdraft on his current account with the remainder refunded to him.

Would appreciate any advices!!!

[Guest]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Is he in arrears with his loan and credit card?

If he is not, then they have no right to pay these off early, however, if there are arrears on either account then the bank do have the right to set off any sums against those liabilities.

[Paule]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

I presume that he is behind on his loan and card payments, due to hardship
With Halifax they usually have a clause int the contract that enables them to do this.

Look at it as he is clearing more of his debts off, so helping him out of hardship.

If you claimed on hardship grounds, you can only expect that they help you with that, and thay have done this by clearing/reducing other debts

[Budgie]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Sadly, you will probably find that they once they have paid £2000 into his bank account they will also then remove his overdraft facility.

[Shazzaw]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Thanks for the comments all.

At least a win is a win and it's helped him clear some of his debts!!!

Seems there are some lenders out there after all who are dealing with Hardship cases so hopefully this will give some hope to others!!

[Celestine]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Thats the first victory I've heard of in ages. Well done to your brother!

Would you mind detailing his hardship issues so that we may assess if they could help other claimants?

:whoo:

[Kafka]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Good news Shazz and a very interesting case.

Can you share with us the grounds for the hardship please? This is just so unusual and it would be really helpful for fighting other hardship cases if we knew why this one has succeeded where nearly verything else fails.

[Shazzaw]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

I'll speak to my brother as I do not know what discussions he has had with them prior to this.

To be honest I told him to get his claim in and even wrote up the standard LBA for him expcting them to respond with their standard letter saying complaint is registered until outcome of test case, blah, blah so it was a shock to say the least when they wrote back saying that they would be making a full refund.

Once I've spoken to him further regards to his situation and what he had discussed with Halifax I'll post up.

[Sapphire]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Brilliant news and as you say a win is a win is a win :cheer2:

[Paule]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Just a thought here regarding similar cases

Could it be that when a customer has debts outstanding across a variety of products such as this case, that the banks are refunding the charges because they are just clearing monies already owed to them and not actually givng the custonmer the money. and that they are usign the Guise of a Hardship claim to justify it.
It will help the bank on the current credit crisis as they are reducing their risk against the customer
Are the Banks worried that the result of the Test Case may make tham have to pay the actual customer back direct and NOT offset the monies to any outstanding debts within the bank

PKea

[Budgie]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Just a thought here regarding similar cases

Could it be that when a customer has debts outstanding across a variety of products such as this case, that the banks are refunding the charges because they are just clearing monies already owed to them and not actually givng the custonmer the money. and that they are usign the Guise of a Hardship claim to justify it.
It will help the bank on the current credit crisis as they are reducing their risk against the customer
Are the Banks worried that the result of the Test Case may make tham have to pay the actual customer back direct and NOT offset the monies to any outstanding debts within the bank

PKea

Good points Pkea, Also bear in mind that they have just paid back the charges ( according to what was said in the original post ). They haven't paid back any interest so IMHO have actually been unjustly enriched by their actions. I don't know why Shazzaw's brother took out the loan with HBOS but just for a moment imagine that the loan was taken out so that he could reduce his overdraft at some point in the past. He was paying interest to the Bank on his overdraft, then and now is also paying interest to the Bank on the loan as well. OK, the overdraft level wasn't and isnt now totally due to the bank charges being applied to the account. But by just paying back the charges the Bank are still hundreds, if not thousands of pounds richer as a result of the overall deal because they have profited by using this money whilst it has been in their possession and not just by charging interest on these amounts to Shazzaw's Brother but also by being able to lend out his money elsewhere at their APR rate.

I suppose we can class this as a WIN, but it's actually a WIN / WIN. Because the Bank is still in an overall winning situation.

Personally, I would still be inclined to go after them to request that they pay this refund in cheque format so that Shazzaw's Brother can decide how he wishes to spend his own money and also maybe by seeking assurances that they will not reduce his authorised overdraft level.

Budgie

[Amethyst]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I have a few comments on this but will think how to put them for a bit.

[Shazzaw]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Budgie,

The ideal would be for him to receive a cheque so that he can decide how to use the refund (even a cheque for the difference between clearing his overdraft on his bank account and the charges due would be fair).

What chance though that HBOS would have to do this rather than use the full refund against his account overdraft, loan account and credit card??

[Amethyst]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Was he in arrears on loan and c/card payments ?


ALSOOOOOOO are there late payment charges on those ?

[Budgie]

Re: Halifax offer today (1st May)!!!! But....

Was he in arrears on loan and c/card payments ?


ALSOOOOOOO are there late payment charges on those ?

Good point Batman !!!