Another insulting offer from HBOS

[Coldfingers]

I have received a letter from the Halifax today, following my hardship claim which started on 17th July 2009. When i started the claim, the amount of the claim was £1966, and since then they have added a further £945 of charges.
The letter that i received today said that in view of my current financial circumstances the are offering me a payment of £245 which is the fees debited to my account 1st sept 2009 - 30th Sept 2009.
This amount does not come close to even covering monthly payments to my priority creditors.
Is there anything that i can do to try to increase the offer?
Thanks in advance.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

I have received a letter from the Halifax today, following my hardship claim which started on 17th July 2009. When i started the claim, the amount of the claim was £1966, and since then they have added a further £945 of charges.
The letter that i received today said that in view of my current financial circumstances the are offering me a payment of £245 which is the fees debited to my account 1st sept 2009 - 30th Sept 2009.
This amount does not come close to even covering monthly payments to my priority creditors.
Is there anything that i can do to try to increase the offer?
Thanks in advance.

Can I ask when the account went into collections? I have heard it said that they are only refunding charges since the account went into collections so am testing the theory.

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

I sent my CFS to them on the 31st August so it appears that your theory may be true.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

was the account with collections before then or not?

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Ahh, sorry i misunderstood your first post, i'm not sure to be honest, they had written to me several times prior to that when i went over my authorised overdraft, but i don't think it would have been classed as with collections.

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Could anyone advise me whether to accept this offer and contact the Halifax again, or should i go straight to the FOS?

[Budgie]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Personally, I would have one more try direct with the Halifax before going to the FOS.

Did Halifax actually state in their letter that they considered you to be in financial hardship? IE Was their offer actually made in relation to the hardship claim that you sent them?

A final letter saying that you are disappointed that whilst they appear to consider you to be in financial hardship they are making a paltry offer of the return of only 1/4 of the charges that they applied to your account after you first sent them your hardship request for assistance.

Request that they increase their interim offer and say that should they fail to do so within 7 days you will take your claim to the FOS.

[Tools]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Does the offer cover the arrears etc which you presented as your evidence of hardship status?

For example, if you stated you were in £500 arrears with your mortgage, £200 arrears with Council Tax and they have offered you £700 as an interim payments against £2000 worth of disputed charges I am afraid the £700 would be deemed as acceptable as it clears your arrears and removes you from hardship (yes I know you may still be skint). This being said, it woud not exclude you from returning in, say, 3 months time if you are again in arrears with something to ask for a further payment.

Receiving an interim payment under hardship does not mean they repay all or a certain % your charges, it is merely to help you repay any priority arrears.

If the £245 will not cover the arrears on priority debts (not future payments) then by all means point this out to them and ask for more.

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Thanks budgie and tools for your replies. The letter did state that they consider me to be in financial hardship, and the payment doesn't cover my arrears on priority debts, so i will put that into my letter to them today.
The letter specifically stated that the payment is to cover charges taken from my account in September, i'd love to know why they picked Sept, because my hardship began in June, and the charges fron July were £560!!
I'll post again when i receive a reply from them, thank you for your help so far

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

UPDATE**

I wrote back to HBOS on 7th October asking them if the could review my case, as the offer doesn't even scrape the surface of my priority debt arrears, and i received this reply today:

Thank you for your letter dated 7th October 2009.

You have stated that you do not wish to accept the offer of our letter dated 30th September 2009. (i didn't state that at any point in my letter) Please be aware that this is our final offer pending the outcome of the ongoing court proceedings.

We would like to refer you back to our previous letter in which we stated that to ensure you are not disadvantaged by accepting this offer prior to the outcome of the court proceedings, we can assure you we have registered and stored details of your complaint. Once the legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish, we will review your complaint again as quickly as possible, to ensure this offer reflects the court's findings.

We would also like to remind you that if you still remain unhappy with our decision we have previously provided you with the details of the Financial Ombudsman service, whom you can refer your concerns to.

Yours sincerely,


So, upon reading this i felt that i was being 'fobbed off' so i called them. Eventually i got to speak to someone that informed me that yes basically i was being fobbed off, because despite my request they WILL NOT re-asses cases once the initial review has been made, and told me that if i was unhappy with that I should contact the FOS.
As that appears to be the only avenue open to me, i will persue it, but do i accept the initial offer from the Halifax in the mean time or not?

many thanks for reading my wall of text if you got this far!

[Tools]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Yes accept it as a partial resolution to your hardship claim as your situation is so desperate that even this paltry amount will help in a small way. Also inform them you will pursue the remainder via a complaint to the FOS detailing their unwillingness to help you any further.

I would also highlight this to Napthalia when you speak with her

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Thanks for your reply tools. The FOS forms are in the post already and got the acceptance form and a covering letter to go with it ready to be posted in the morning Oh joy, the Royal Mail strikes, lol.

[Mochamoo]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Post it quick lol Im posting everything (that i can afford to) as special delivery atm so they get delivered before the strikes xxx

[Coldfingers]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Another update!

I sent the acceptance form to them 18th Oct, stating that i was accepting it as a PARTIAL settlement as i have taken the case to the FOS. I hadn't heard anything from them or received the offered amount so i phoned them today.

They are refusing to pay it as i stated that it was only a partial settlement :censored:

I am so bloody angry that i could scream, they have taken another £105 out today and yesterday, one of them relating to a DD that i cancelled 3 months ago.

On the plus side, Tools, things are still progressing re: Napthalia, so hopefully they may be able to get a half decent response where I have failed!

[scoobydoo]

Re: Another insulting offer from HBOS

Over to the FOS then . Hope they do a good job for you. even putting aside the terms of the waiver for the moment they are surely disregarding their own t&C on how to treat customers when they are in financial difficulty.

Hope you get a reply soon - and make sure they know they are still adding charges.