Bank charges with hardship claim

[Budgie]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Hi Killer,

I hope you don't mind but I have made a few little tweaks to your letter.


Regards Budgie



HSBC Bank Plc
Service Management – CRT
Arlington Business Centre
Millshaw Park Lane
Leeds
LSI 1 OPP


Dear Sir/Madam


RE: Account Number

RE: Claim Number

Refund of Insufficient Funds Charges Request


I request a refund of the various “Insufficient Funds” charges which you have taken from my account between xx/xx/xxxx and xx/xx/xxxx together with compensatory interest thereon.

Further to recent publicity covering the High Court test case between the Office of Fair Trading and various Banks I am now aware that these charges may be considered unlawful at common law and statute.

The High Court has recently decided that the charges applied to my account can be assessed for fairness under the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999.

I believe these charges to be unfair as the terms which apply them fall under the remit of the unfair terms in consumer contract regulations 1999, Schedule 2 – paragraph (e) which states that the contract terms which have the object or effect of “(e) requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation” may be regarded as unfair.

I note the FSA’s definition of Financial Hardship as detailed in the updated waiver and believe that I meet these criteria and wish you to deal with my refund request accordingly.
I wouldn't worry about adding the Annexe as they will be very aware of the waiver conditions
My financial circumstances altered dramatically, six months ago, when my partner’s eldest daughter went to live with her father full time instead of living with us. Because of this we were no longer entitled to claim child tax credits, child benefit or maintenance money for her and subsequently starting incurring charges owing to insufficient funds in our account. I currently live in rented accommodation with my partner and 3 children. We have had to downsize property because of our spiralling debt and to try and cut our costs of living. We recently have had to pass all of our debt over to a debt management team who have taken control of our debt and we now make minimum payments to them which they pass onto our creditors who still have not agreed the payments and deemed them too low.
I am currently receiving charges to my bank account due to insufficient funds and am in arrears with council tax and with our electricity bill
We have recently been blessed with another son in our household but are very concerned as we constantly have to borrow money to buy everyday essentials such as nappies, baby food etc.
Our Nat West account has now also been passed to a debt collection agency in respect of the an outsanding balance mainly comprised of charges levied to the account over the past seven months.
I am very concerned that our new Abbey account will go the same way as we are already starting to have charges applied to it.

I have enclosed an income/outcome expenditure sheet so you can clearly see the extent of our present finacial hardship.

Your assistance in resolving this matter would be gratefully received.

Yours truly

[Paule]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

My 2p

HSBC Bank Plc
Service Management – CRT
Arlington Business Centre
Millshaw Park Lane
Leeds
LSI 1 OPP


Dear Sir/Madam


RE: Account Number

RE: Claim Number

Refund of Insufficient Funds Charges Request


I request a refund of the various “Insufficient Funds” charges which you have taken from my account between xx/xx/xxxx and xx/xx/xxxx together with compensatory interest thereon.

Further to recent publicity covering the High Court test case between the Office of Fair Trading and various Banks I am now aware that these charges may be considered unlawful at common law and statute.

The High Court has recently decided that the charges applied to my account can be assessed for fairness under the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999.

I believe these charges to be unfair as the terms which apply them fall under the remit of the unfair terms in consumer contract regulations 1999, Schedule 2 – paragraph (e) which states that the contract terms which have the object or effect of “(e) requiring any consumer who fails to fulfil his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation” may be regarded as unfair.

I note the FSA’s definition of Financial Hardship as detailed in the updated waiver and believe that I meet these criteria and wish you to deal with my refund request accordingly.
I wouldn't worry about adding the Annexe as they will be very aware of the waiver conditions
My financial circumstances altered dramatically, six months ago, when my partner’s eldest daughter went to live with her father full time instead of living with us. Because of this we were no longer entitled to claim child tax credits, child benefit or maintenance money for her and subsequently starting incurring charges owing to insufficient funds in our account. I currently live in rented accommodation with my partner and 3 children. We have had to downsize property because of our spiralling debt and to try and cut our costs of living. We recently have had to pass all of our debt over to a debt management team who have taken control of our debt and we now make minimum payments to them which they pass onto our creditors who still have not agreed the payments and deemed them too low.
I am currently receiving charges to my bank account due to insufficient funds and am in arrears with council tax and with our electricity bill
We have recently been blessed with another son in our household but are very concerned as we constantly have to borrow money to buy everyday essentials such as nappies, baby food etc.
Our Nat West account has now also been passed to a debt collection agency in respect of the an outsanding balance mainly comprised of charges levied to the account over the past seven months.
I am very concerned that our new Abbey account will go the same way as we are already starting to have charges applied to it. Not sure if this line is really needed

I have enclosed an income/outcome expenditure sheet so you can clearly see the extent of our present finacial hardship.

Your assistance in resolving this matter would be gratefully received.

Yours truly

Make sure you are quoting the correct banks in your letters

PKea

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

ok sent both letters of this morning so just have to wait and see what there reply is, if i understand correctly they have 8 weeks to reply or i can complain to the ombusman.

[EXC]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Correct. The 8 weeks also applies to them having to give you a definitive decision on whether they consider you have hardship status or not and if not who can ask the FO to adjudicate.

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

just a qwick update nothing going on as yet on my claims i dont suppose anyone knows hsbc and natwest numbers i could ring to make sur ethey have recieved them?

[jax007]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Did you send them 'signed for'?? If so you can track your post online. As long as you've got your receipt slip with the delivery number on it you can see if it has been signed for and who signed for it.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/t...authentication

hope this helps
jax

[enaid]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

The Manager,
Service Quality Team,
HSBC Bank plc,
Arlington Business Centre,
Millshaw Park Lane,
Leeds,
LS11 0PP.

telephone: 0800 881 155* (+44 1226 261 020) (textphone 18001 0800 028 3516),

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Thanks for that number enaid have spoke to them and they have recieved my letter the guy i spoke to actually had a copy infront of him, he was very pleasent and helpfull i just hope his kindness will be mirrored in the people looking in to my claim.

Anyone got a number for natwest department for hardship claims please?

[enaid]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Hi killer,
I have this number for Natwest Customer Response Sevices Unit 0845 3030 456
this may not be the right dept, but it's the number that was sent with the lads paperwork Enaid x

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

hello all just a qwick update natwest have sent me one of there income/outcome expenditure sheets which i have filled in and sent off and nothing esle on hsbc so will just have to wait

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

I have just had an intresting conversation with a lady from HSBC there was a bit of confusion with my contact details anyway we started talking about the test case and she went on to say " i see you have a claim for charges mr killersla and i believe the outcome of the test case will be over very soon and to be honest i think we will be paying you the full amount of charges back because the customer will win" to which ofcourse was very nice to hear but as we all know nothing is set in stone.

Edited by Budgie : Removed surname

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Ok i have just spoke to HSBC again and because my claim for charges i have with them is dating back for like 5 years they cannot help me with hardship because of my circumstances now.

I first started my claim against HSBC approx 1 Year ago and that is the main reason the guy said that they cannot proceed with my claim for hardship.

I have asked trhem to put that in writing to me and will post the letter up here when i recieve it.

Is that the wright code of practice though because of them reasons they dont have to listen to my claim for hardship?

[jules2008]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

hi sounds like you are in a similar position to me as i have to wait until halifax authorise my claim for hardship just to let you know i have had my claim in for over a year with them, Then it got caught up in the stays in court and because of this i am going for hardship status.
i am not an expert but if they dont agree to it take it to the FOS and they will take up yr case that is what i am doing if i dont get any joy from the bank the FOS will access my case.

i think they are trying to fob you off to be honest,but very interesting to see what they come up with.

I could be in the position where they will say because i have a court case which is held up that they may not be happy to pay me we shall see.

have you had over £500 worth of charges over the last 12 mnths as this may be what they are banging on about?
let us know exactly what they come up with.

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

so ill just wait and see and if the letter basically states the same as the telephone conversation then i could take it to the FOS but i think by the time all that happens we will prop of heard the outcome of the appeal in jan.

And yes i have had £800 + of charges in 6 months alone but not from hsbc though.
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
I think they were just saying because the charges i incurred with them has not been a part of me getting into hardship now so that wont listen to my case.

[Amethyst]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

HSBC are one of the worst to get money back from under hardship. I don't think it is fair what they are saying and other banks look at it differently. You can take it to FOS yes but as you say theres a bit of a wait unless you have impending reposession. These latest charges where are they from, can you get those back/cancelled?

Dont hold off taking it to FOS, the waiver may well go on much longer than January.

Natwest are a bit similar to HSBC unfortunately although I don;t know their specific position on past charges for current hardship.

Umm one thing you could try - are any of the charges in the period since you ''became in hardship'' if so you could possibly ask for just those in the interim from HSBC ? long shot i know.