Bank charges with hardship claim

[EXC]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

I don't think there would be any harm in killer calling tha FOS for advice on the basis that the bank have at least verbally refused to recognise him as a hardship case.

The bloke I spoke to was quite sympathetic to the idea that the FOS should look at adjudicating on hardship status sooner rather than later.

His details are: Jonathon Locke, Tel 020 7964 0334 e-mail Locke, Jonathan

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

ok all i have just recieved a letter from nat west basically saying they will not consider me for financial hardship within there criteria.

I have got all the forms from the FOS so im going to fill them out and take it up with them.

I will do this with both of my complaints HSBC and Natwest i will keep you all updated with the progress.

[Amethyst]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Have forwarded your docs on to Bud xx

Have they given a reason specifically ?

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

the letter from natwest is as follows my scanner wont work so here goes the typing.

You recently completed and returned a "Customer Financial Statement Form" and we have undertaken a review of your financial position.

Following our review of the information you have provided, we have determined that you do not fall within our criteria which classify "Financial Hardship". Therefore, at present we will not look to take your case further and review your bank facilities.

If your circumstances change or you have additional information you can provide, please do so and we will review this. You may also wish to contace your local Citizen Advice Bureau or another suitable free debt counselling service to obtain further information relating to options available to you.

As we mentioned in our previous letter to you, we acknowledge receipt of your complaint about bank charges. We believe the charges are fair, transparent and lawful. However, the bank (along with a number of other banks) has now become involved in legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in relation to personal current account charges which will resolve the legal issues regarding the fairness and legality of your bank charges.

Once the case between the OFT and the banks finishes, we will deal with your complaint as quickly as possible.

We are sorry we have not been abot to respond in full to your complaint now, but we (together with the FSA and OFT) think it is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how to respond to your complaint.

the bit i have underlined doesnt seem right it just seems like a letter to fob me off.

Also i have spoke to someone at natwest and they said i can appeal to this decision in wrting only.

So could someone please help me with an appeal letter before i go to the FOS with this.

Annex 2 – Dealing with complainants in financial difficulty




1. The firm will be sympathetic and positive when considering any financial difficulties claimed by the complainant. Firms will not subject a complainant to harassment or undue pressure when discussing their problems.




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;




b. evidence of the following events:

1. 1. 1. items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;
      2. failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;
      3. discontinuation of regular credits;
      4. notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;
      5. regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;
      6. making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and
      7. 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).

Everything i have underlined there is my circumstances which are in the guidelines of how to consider financial hardship and i showed evidence of this to Natwest but they still fobbed me off so any kind of help with an appeal letter would be great please.

[WendyB]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Perhaps as a start you could write and ask them by what criteria they have assessed you for hardship, and ask them to set out exactly why you don't qualify.

Following our review of the information you have provided, we have determined that you do not fall within our criteria which classify "Financial Hardship". This isn't a reason, it's a fob off, IMO.

Have you provided them with evidence to back up your underlined bits, i.e copy statements, letters etc etc?

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

yes i sent them current bank statments and copies of all the charges that they applied to my account.
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ok i have done a qwick letter as an appeal against the natwest letter any thoughts on it would be great thanks.

Customer Service Response Unit
The Cornerstone
60 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
EH12 9WF

Dear Sir/Madam


RE: Account Number
RE: Sort code


I have recently received a letter from yourselves regarding my claim for charges under the new FSA guidelines regarding Financial Hardship Rules to which I have attached a copy of your letter.

Please can you explain to me in full your criteria into assessing hardship cases as I believe you have not followed the FSA guidelines in assessing financial hardship.






Annex 2 – Dealing with complainants in financial difficulty



1. The firm will be sympathetic and positive when considering any financial difficulties claimed by the complainant. Firms will not subject a complainant to harassment or undue pressure when discussing their problems.




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;




b. evidence of the following events:

1. 1. 1. items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;
      2. failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;
      3. discontinuation of regular credits;
      4. notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;
      5. regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;
      6. making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and
      7. 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).

The quote I have stated above are the guidelines set out by the FSA as to how a company should asses the grounds for hardship and the parts I have underlined and are in bold I have show evidence of this to your selves in the form of bank statements copies of charges made by yourselves.

Please can you fully explain to me why you have not agreed to consider my claim for hardship.

(Following our review of the information you have provided, we have determined that you do not fall within our criteria which classify "Financial Hardship”)

The sentence I have underlined above is a quote from your letter this does not explain to me in anyway your reasons for not classifying me as a hardship case.

I look forward to a full and prompt response from yourselves.





This is just a bit of a thick question but is it the FSA that have set out the guidlines for hardship or is it the OFT

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

just got of the phone with my local court in regard to the judge putting a stay on my HSBC claim by the courts own motion and have been told if i want to appeal this i have to spend yet another £75 just so he will hear my reasons why, i think that is absoultly rediclouis considering im trying to claim under hardship although the judge doesnt know that yet but its still qwite obseen i think.

So if im going to get this stay appeal sorted i need to get this sorted asap so will have to go to the court tomorrow and pick up the appeal forms.
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and muster up £75 qwid aswell

[Amy]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

You may qualify for remission or exemption from court fees if you can show that to pay them would cause you hardship.

You should download the EX160. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=168

[TUTTSI]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Hi KS

Did you also send in:-

1. An income and expenses schedule which accompanied your claim, which might show your monthly deficit culminating in you fitting the Financial Hardship critera.

2. Attach evidences of Financial hardship.

3. Did your letter explain the full reasons why you consider yourself to be in financial hardship and how difficult it is for you to to cope because.... ie arrears in Rent or Mortgage, electricity, gas and Council Tax, bank charges.

4. Are there any impending court cases. ie Suspended Possession Order or other

It may be that you may not have given then sufficient info for them to access you.

xx

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

i sent everything you have stated there yes.
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there are no pending court cases no

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

i presume this is a hard one for people regarding what to put in the appeal of the stay being imposed by the judge of his own motion to be honest i havent got a clue what to put in it

[WendyB]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

Am I getting my wires crossed here?

Should we be looking at two separate issues? One being the appeal against the stay for next week, and the other one being the "appeal" to HSBC to get them to reconsider the hardship?

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

right ok at the moment i have had a letter from Natwest saying they will not consider me for hardship i have written the letter i a post above.

I have also spoke to HSBC over the phone and they said they will not consider me for hardship because the charges i have incurred with them have nothing to do with my circumstances now.

Also i recieved a letter from my local court about my HSBC claim which is already stayed with the court but the judge on his own motion wants to put a stay on it untill a complete outcome of the test case including any appeals and i have untill the end of the week to appeal his decision.

So there are three different things going on in this thread sorry if its all a bit confusing.

[Budgie]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

right ok at the moment i have had a letter from Natwest saying they will not consider me for hardship i have written the letter i a post above.

I have also spoke to HSBC over the phone and they said they will not consider me for hardship because the charges i have incurred with them have nothing to do with my circumstances now.

Also i recieved a letter from my local court about my HSBC claim which is already stayed with the court but the judge on his own motion wants to put a stay on it untill a complete outcome of the test case including any appeals and i have untill the end of the week to appeal his decision.

So there are three different things going on in this thread sorry if its all a bit confusing.

I can draft you up something for your HSBC claim to use in an application for stay removal Killer but owing to work load I wont be able to do so until this evening or tomorrow morning. I think it is worth giving this a try, it's not a hard thing to do, finding the time to do it is the difficult thing.

Can you draft up a few paragraphs summarising your hardship situation at the present time that we can include in the application. This really just needs to be a point by point summary of the current situation. Further detail can then be provided to the Court at a hearing if your stay lift is succesful or in a complaint to the FOS or and the FSA if your application to the court fails.

IMO it is irrelevant that you are no longer receiving charges on your HSBC account. Your present financial hardship and your ongoing spiral of debt was certainly not helped by the historic application of charges to your account by HSBC and you would certainly not be in such a severe situation if (a) those charges had not been applied in the first instance and (b) were now repaid by HSBC.

Budgie

[killersla]

Re: Bank charges with hardship claim

ok a brief summary of my circumstances and how i came to be in hardship.

From around march of this year my partner, our first son, my partners oldest daughter, my partners second oldest daughter and myself moved into a new property which was more spacious and would suit us better.

Because of maintence money and benfits we recieved for the children we started to spend more money on credit cards and a loan and online catalogues. But because of the money we were getting for the children we were just able to make minimum repayments on all monies owed.

we also borrowed money of our parents to purchase a bigger car to accomidate all the children this was a very expensive car to run.

In July of this year my partners oldest daughter decided to move in with her farther full time this was a very seressfull time for both me and my partner and all the children involved.

We soon realised that because of my partners oldest child's decision to move, the amount of money we would loose because of this i.e. maintence money from her farther, child tax credits and child benefit money we would not be able to keep up minimum payments on all monies owed. Now because of this move by the eldest child you would think that our out goings would come down aswell but this is only the case for food all other out goings i.e tv water used and other bills would remain basically the same even after the oldest child moving.

We soon realised that we were loosing approx £400 a mounth because of this and then we started incurring bank charges from nat west and between the mounths of july and september we have incurred just over £800 worth of charges because we just didnt have enough money to pay the bills.

We had to take drastic measures to save money i.e we have moved into a flat to cut costs of living and we have had to sell the car because it was too expensiuve to run.

Even after all these things to cut costs we still find our selves incurring charges from our new bank simply beacuse we do not have enough monay to pay the bills.


Right ok that basically sums up why we are in so much debt and unable to meet minimum payments on joint loans and credit card payments.


Regarding my HSBC claim for hardship i would agree by saying if they never charged me when they did i would of started this relationship with my partner in a better financial position and would of been better placed to weather this storm. And ofcourse any return of the charges now would ofcourse help through our financial harship now.


I hope this is what you were after budgie if not please let me know.

Thank you for all your help in this hard time for me and my family