HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

**leclerc** · 25th September 2015, 12:31:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

I know a fair bit about hardship claims albeit through the bank. You've stated that HSBC have acknowledged that you are in financial hardship. The question is what have they suggested to resolve this because under the Lending Code they do not have to refund a single penny in charges to have complied with the regulations.
You've stated BCOBS and I have no idea where that is coming from unless this is about dealing fairly with customers. Well, let's just take a step backwards: they have assessed your position and stated that you are in financial hardship so that ticks one box. Until I know what solution that they have suggested then it is difficult for me to determine whether this solution covers them in terms of dealing with this via the FOS or whether I need to call in the cavalry to look at whether there is a legal basis in which you should go to reclaim bank charges.

**cookie1976** · 25th September 2015, 14:21:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by leclerc View Post

I know a fair bit about hardship claims albeit through the bank. You've stated that HSBC have acknowledged that you are in financial hardship. The question is what have they suggested to resolve this because under the Lending Code they do not have to refund a single penny in charges to have complied with the regulations.
You've stated BCOBS and I have no idea where that is coming from unless this is about dealing fairly with customers. Well, let's just take a step backwards: they have assessed your position and stated that you are in financial hardship so that ticks one box. Until I know what solution that they have suggested then it is difficult for me to determine whether this solution covers them in terms of dealing with this via the FOS or whether I need to call in the cavalry to look at whether there is a legal basis in which you should go to reclaim bank charges.

Thank You for fast reply. best way whould be to send You scans of my letter , their respond and letter i just prepered regarding fairnes with customes and taking customer interes in to regard( so yes you correct).
whats the best way to send those scans so you will have a look if You find a minute to do it?
Thank You

**cookie1976** · 25th September 2015, 19:14:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by leclerc View Post

I know a fair bit about hardship claims albeit through the bank. You've stated that HSBC have acknowledged that you are in financial hardship. The question is what have they suggested to resolve this because under the Lending Code they do not have to refund a single penny in charges to have complied with the regulations.
You've stated BCOBS and I have no idea where that is coming from unless this is about dealing fairly with customers. Well, let's just take a step backwards: they have assessed your position and stated that you are in financial hardship so that ticks one box. Until I know what solution that they have suggested then it is difficult for me to determine whether this solution covers them in terms of dealing with this via the FOS or whether I need to call in the cavalry to look at whether there is a legal basis in which you should go to reclaim bank charges.

this is letter i posted to bank

Dear Sir/Madam,

SORT : ...................ACCOUN T NUMBER : ......................... ........
REQUEST FOR CONSIDERATION AS A CASE IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY ( HARDSHIP)

I am writing to reclaim all bank charges on my account from............................
I am unhappy that these charges have been applied to my account and in this letter I am registering my complaint. I refer to the Lending Code guidelines to which you subscribe, issued in ............... I request that you stop adding interest and charges to the above account. The interest and charges serve only to add to the Financial Difficulties I am currently experiencing. In this connection, I draw your attention to paragraphs 224 - 227 in Section 9 of the Lending Code.
I need you consider my case as a matter of urgency as I because I am in financial hardship. This is because since we came in to United Kingdom most of the time we ( my family) where living on one salary. Because lots of problem at that time and Court case in ............. between my wife and her previous husband regarding their daughter there was lots of expenses strictly connected to that situation and that pushed us to extremely bad financial situation. Our debt was growing from year to year and we ended up asking citizens advice bureau for help with they done. Our situation was going to be better and then in ..................... my dad killed himself ad I had to go back to ............... to assist and arrange funeral

. Again because of our financial hardship I had to borrow money from family, I had not paid some bills to arrange all that. Since then we do have ongoing financial problem from witch one we did not recovered till now. Unfortunately I do have 12 defaulted credit accounts because I was unable to repay because of financial hardship and all problem around. From that time ................. I’m unable to meet priority financial commitments including, but not limited to, council tax, food and utility bill. I do not repay any creditors because I don’t have any money I can offer. Since.................... we do receiving support from government e.g. working tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit due to fact I’m the only person working in our family ( me , my wife, and two daughters). Since I remember we always had problems with reaching basic financial commitments. Over those yeas that effected with multiple accounts defaulted, utility accounts with balance around -5000 pounds, delays on council tax bill (arrears of about 800 pounds) and further complications ( attachment to earnings because non-payment o council tax). Within time due to changes in legislation our situation becomes even worst due to constant decrease of applied amounts we were entitled to. All that lead me to problems with stress, difficult in controlling my own emotions and depression. At the moment I’m fighting for my marriage

because is on the edge of brake down and my 8 year old daughter suffering from stress because difficult situation between me and my partner. Today I had to call council tax recovery section to ask them if I can delay payment of 75 pounds because I don’t have money to cover my food and fuel to work as I got 170 pounds left on my account till next salary in .................... 2015. My wife does not work because she have back problems since she had car accident back in October 2011 and she was recovering from accident over fallowing next two years.
Please not I did contacted bank on multiple occasion over phone with request of cancelling bank charges because of financial hardship on some occasions You agreed to cancel it ( 2 occasions) over those years, but most of the time it was refused based on fact as I was told that you can cancel in your good faith once over 6 months period. I tried twice to ask bank for help with charges by setting up something or by stopping charges to be applied to my account I was not provided with any help or advice from your bank. Thru all those years my situation went from bad to extremely bad.
I do please You to concider all the facts I had provided to You all of them can be confirmed by my credit file, confirmation of case my wife had against her previous husband in Poland, my wife accident documents, my father death certificate, my financial statements, current utility bills, ctax bills, housing benefit award, child tax credit award etc.
Furthermore I enclose a schedule of charges which have been added to my account during this period of Financial Difficulty.
I therefore request that you repay all my default charges since January 2010 which total 3688 pounds.

Under the FCA guidelines, HSBC BANK PLC has 8 weeks to resolve my complaint. I trust that you will deal with my case within this period. If not, I will refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman

.

I look forward to receiving a full response to this letter within 14 days
Yours faithfully,

**cookie1976** · 25th September 2015, 19:25:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by leclerc View Post

I know a fair bit about hardship claims albeit through the bank. You've stated that HSBC have acknowledged that you are in financial hardship. The question is what have they suggested to resolve this because under the Lending Code they do not have to refund a single penny in charges to have complied with the regulations.
You've stated BCOBS and I have no idea where that is coming from unless this is about dealing fairly with customers. Well, let's just take a step backwards: they have assessed your position and stated that you are in financial hardship so that ticks one box. Until I know what solution that they have suggested then it is difficult for me to determine whether this solution covers them in terms of dealing with this via the FOS or whether I need to call in the cavalry to look at whether there is a legal basis in which you should go to reclaim bank charges.

main points from their response:

1.they sorry about my recent personal circumstances and they understand this has adversely affected my finansial situation.
2. asking me to fill finansial statement they provided ( nothing provided)
3.informing me about legality of charges and about fairness and lawfulness ( test case 2007-2009) in supreme court.
4.."clearly youve asked that we review the charges accured on your account, during what must have a very difficult time for you. However you'll appreciate that they been correctly applied for providing founds to you on an informal overdraft"
5.and i can complaint to ombudsman.

**cookie1976** · 25th September 2015, 19:29:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by leclerc View Post

I know a fair bit about hardship claims albeit through the bank. You've stated that HSBC have acknowledged that you are in financial hardship. The question is what have they suggested to resolve this because under the Lending Code they do not have to refund a single penny in charges to have complied with the regulations.
You've stated BCOBS and I have no idea where that is coming from unless this is about dealing fairly with customers. Well, let's just take a step backwards: they have assessed your position and stated that you are in financial hardship so that ticks one box. Until I know what solution that they have suggested then it is difficult for me to determine whether this solution covers them in terms of dealing with this via the FOS or whether I need to call in the cavalry to look at whether there is a legal basis in which you should go to reclaim bank charges.

this is what im planning to add as per fairness and customer good interes:

Dear Sir/Madam

I am in receipt of your letter of ..................................you have sent under my request to revise bank charges added to my account since ..........................
I believe that thise letter was sent to me by way of a refusal notice, although this is not at all clear to me.
As you well know the account in respect of witch you have issued those charges was not eligable to overdraft facalities ( i did request small overdraft limit on several occasions over internet banking system as well as over phone and in the branch, that i belive were properly logged by your assesement team), therefore in my understanding there should be no overdrawing account possible. On several occasions we had discusion regarding "why hsbc allowing informal overdraft charging hefty sum of charges for it insted to allow normal standard overdraft line with normal fees", each time Your bank possition was that account not eliglable for standard overdraft but informal is ok( well not ok but acceptable), no further help.
Therfore your are in breach of your obligations to Treat Customers Fairly as required under the Banking Conduct Of Business (BCOBS) regulation 2009 whitch have been introduced by the FSA under Finansial Service and MArkets Act 2000.
The Subject of our dispute:
1. Bank charges added to my account from january 2010 + any other charges added to account till such time this dispute will be resolved ( 3700+ £ as per today).
2. Stoping bank charges to be added to my accocunt because that affect my finansial situation and pushing me into bigger finansial hardship. I drawed Your attention to this problem in my letter dated 25th august 2015.
3. Hsbc Bank Plc is in a breach of the Banking Conduct Of Business ( BCOBS) and his staturatory duty under Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FMSA)
because of their approach to my problems, not providing positive solution, treating customer unfairly, acting against customer interest when making decisions.
When my transaction ( or request to pay) was presented for payment you had two options. In the first instance, you were entitled to treat it as a request for an informal overdraft and to refuse my request, or you were entiteled to treat my request as an request for informal overdraft , and to accede to that request.
In the event, you chose to do the latter. However, I say that it was entirely irresponsible of you to do so. There had been no money on this account at the time. In some occasions the account was barely in credit and in other occasions was already overdrawn. The proper course of action would have been to decline my request and levy your £5 unpaid item fee in case of transaction refusal or in case cash withwdrawall refuse 0£ fee.
I would point out to you that under BCOBS you have a statutory duty to treat me fairly and have regard to my interests.
It is clear that by deciding to pursue the course of action which you did you acted completely against my interests and completely in your own interests, in order to maximise your opportunity to apply unfair charges against me, in order to maximise your revenue stream.
This is an illegal act because it is contrary to your statutory duty under the Financial Service and Markets Act 2000.
Again i like to point to you that on many occasions i did requested overdraft line ( small) and each my request has been refused but in same time your bank allowed me to go overdrawn to apply unfair charges.
Each time i did pointed to you i am experiencing finansial difficulties and im in finansial hardship. On two occasions because of that you cancelled ( waved) fees, howewer on other occasions fees has been applied.
This means that this is a violation of your statutory obligation under BCOBS, which require you to treat your customers fairly and to have regard to their interests (BCOBS rule 5.1.1). Clearly you have not done so here.
Since January 2010 you have sought to impose a series of charges upon me for a full sum of 3768 pounds as per todays date. There is no explanation on my statement as to why these charges have been applied except information thats "informal overdraft fee".
I have examined the terms and conditions of my contract with you and the only possible explanation is that you have imposed the charges by way of ‘maintenance’ charges to maintenean my account to be overdrawn.
In your letter dated 4th September 2015 you mentioned fact of "legal procedings between us ( with several other banks)started on 27th july 2007" and outcome from those procedings. You stated that "...the Court confirming that the bank charges are not capable of amounting to penalties at common law and their level cannot be assesed for fairness under Unfair Terms in CXonsumer Contract Regulations"
Although the recent test case did hold that un-arranged overdraft fees did not fall to be assessed for fairness by the OFT - and this is all that the test case held - there was no reference at all made by the Supreme Court to maintenance charges, which one can only be taken to mean charges which have been levied to maintain the cost of keeping an individuals account in the red. Clearly, a maintenance charge has nothing whatsoever to do with a fee for a service, and is intended to exceed actual costs so as to provide a revenue stream for the purpose of cross subsidising so-called ’free banking’ for other customers.I understand very well the effects of the test case which was decided by the Supreme Court in November 2009. However, you should be aware that the test case decision applied only to historical charges.

On the 1^{st of November 2009 the}^{Banking Code}^{of Practice was replaced by BCOBS which require you to treat your customers fairly and to have regard to their interests.

In case you have not fully understood, BCOBS is a binding duty upon all institutions which are regulated by the FSA, and they have seen fit to levy very heavy fines upon institution which act in breach of their regulations.}
I am astonished that you should claim that the test case in the Supreme Court, in which HSBC was an appellant, came to a decision that supports your position that your charges are fair. I am sure that you are aware that the Supreme Court did not make any pronouncement as to whether charges were unfair. The court merely said that for the purposes of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulation 1999 the fairness or otherwise of charges was not relevant. Specifically, in the Press summary that accompanied the Supreme Court judgement, Lord Phillips stated the following:
The Supreme Court had to decide not whether the banks’ charges for unauthorised overdrafts were fair but whether the OFT could launch an investigation into whether they were fair. Furthermore, I would also draw your attention to the following quotation, also from Lord Phillips, as part of the judgement itself:
80. It may be open to question whether it is fair to subsidise some customers by levies on others who experience contingencies that they did not foresee when entering into their contracts.

It is very clear that the Supreme Court had grave doubts as to the fairness of overdraft charges.

In stating that the Supreme Court decision supports the fairness of your charges, you have misled me, which is a clear breach of the OFT’s ^{debt collection}^{guidance, which states the following:

False representation of authority and/or legal position

2.3 Those contacting debtors must not be deceitful by misrepresenting their authority and/or the correct legal position.}
As I have already pointed out to you, on the 1st of November 2009 you became statutorily bound to treat your customers fairly in all matters and this includes in the matter of overdraft charges. It is clear, and furthermore it was acknowledged by your own representative, before the Supreme Court, that your charges bear no relation to the actual costs incurred by going overdrawn, but in fact merely produce a revenue stream so that those in financial difficulty end up paying for the ‘free’ banking enjoyed by those of your customers in rather better financial shape. This is very much in line with the scheme outlined by Lord Phillips in the statement which I have quoted above. Because of this your charges are unfair, and therefore you are operating this charging scheme in breach of your statutory duty.
Reagrding your staturatory duty to treat your customers fairly and have regard to their interest (BCOBS) i like to point You fact that in my leter dated ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,i did requested to stop any further charges to be added to my acocunt to stop my finansial situation becoming even worst.
Your respond to that by adding another ,,,,,£ unfair charges to my account on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
You were aware of my possition regarding bank charges , you were aware about my situation and finansial hardship im experiencing and you decided to add another charges to my account. Again by dooing so you are in a breach your staturatory bound to treat your customers fairly in all matters (BCOBS).

In order to resolve this matter, you must remove your charges from my account by crediting them back. Failing to do that, will result the case to be refer to the Finansial Ombudsman Servce.
I trust this clarifies my position.

Under the FCA guidelines, HSBC BANK PLC has 8 weeks to resolve my complaint. I trust that you will deal with my case within this period.
I look forward to receiving a full response to this letter within 14 days
I trust this clarifies my position.
Yours faithfully

**Debt Camel** · 25th September 2015, 21:54:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

I think in these cases it's often best to go easy on the "violation of your statutory obligations" sort of line. You are not a lawyer and you not trying to persuade a judge, you are making a reasoned case why the charges that have been added are unfair. "Drawing their attention" to a remark a judge made about cross-subsidisation just muddies the waters.

You have a genuine case that you should never have had an overdraft on this account and that their adding large charges year after year was simply inappropriate. This point at the moment is obscured by various repetitive / peculiar / irrelevant / over-egged / overly aggressive remarks.

BCOBS is a voluntary code of practice - not a statutory obligation at all. The FCA has various TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) obligations, but these are through the CONC rules in the FCA Handbook, not because of BCOBS.

BCOBS cant possibly be binding on all institutions which are regulated by the FCA as the FCA regulates many non-banks for whom BCOBS is completely irrelevent.

There is one set of points that you could usefully add, and that is that HSBC is a signatory to the Lending Code ( http://www.lendingstandardsboard.org...endingcode.pdf ) and it does not appear to have complied with Section 9 of the code where para 182 requires the lender to
- offer the customer appropriate and timely options where possible to help reduce the risk of deterioration in thecustomer’s financial well- being
- provide signposts to sources of free, independent money advice.

Can I suggest you rewrite your letter so that:

- para 1 sets out the timeline of events - when you first started incurring charges, how far overdrawn you were at this point, what happened , when you spoke to them, the total of charges that have been added etc
- para 2 points out they appear to be in breach of the lending Code as you informed them you were in financial difficulty
- para 3 points out that adding increasing charges and not providing an alternative affordable solution cannot be described as treating customers fairly
- para 4 asks them to review charges that they have added in the light of these points and remove or significantly reduce them
- para 5 says you intend to take your case to the Ombudsman and put in a complaint to the FCA if no agreement is reached.

**cookie1976** · 26th September 2015, 19:29:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by Debt Camel View Post

I think in these cases it's often best to go easy on the "violation of your statutory obligations" sort of line. You are not a lawyer and you not trying to persuade a judge, you are making a reasoned case why the charges that have been added are unfair. "Drawing their attention" to a remark a judge made about cross-subsidisation just muddies the waters.

You have a genuine case that you should never have had an overdraft on this account and that their adding large charges year after year was simply inappropriate. This point at the moment is obscured by various repetitive / peculiar / irrelevant / over-egged / overly aggressive remarks.

BCOBS is a voluntary code of practice - not a statutory obligation at all. The FCA has various TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) obligations, but these are through the CONC rules in the FCA Handbook, not because of BCOBS.

BCOBS cant possibly be binding on all institutions which are regulated by the FCA as the FCA regulates many non-banks for whom BCOBS is completely irrelevent.

There is one set of points that you could usefully add, and that is that HSBC is a signatory to the Lending Code ( http://www.lendingstandardsboard.org...endingcode.pdf ) and it does not appear to have complied with Section 9 of the code where para 182 requires the lender to
- offer the customer appropriate and timely options where possible to help reduce the risk of deterioration in thecustomer’s financial well- being
- provide signposts to sources of free, independent money advice.

Can I suggest you rewrite your letter so that:

- para 1 sets out the timeline of events - when you first started incurring charges, how far overdrawn you were at this point, what happened , when you spoke to them, the total of charges that have been added etc
- para 2 points out they appear to be in breach of the lending Code as you informed them you were in financial difficulty
- para 3 points out that adding increasing charges and not providing an alternative affordable solution cannot be described as treating customers fairly
- para 4 asks them to review charges that they have added in the light of these points and remove or significantly reduce them
- para 5 says you intend to take your case to the Ombudsman and put in a complaint to the FCA if no agreement is reached.

Thanks for fast reply.
just to make it clear those charges are for overdrawing account on monthly bases. i asked hsbd on many occasions what we can do about those charges and if we can set up small overdraft facility or free fee limit just in case account will go overdrawn. they refused each time. they told me because of my previous finansial problems they cant offer me overdraft and they cant stop charges for informal overdrawn. so i cant have 100pounds limit but i canuse informal overdraft and get huge chargé.
most of the Times i did not had other option and i had to go that route for example to buy fuel to go to work or buy food or basic things like this.
from 2009 each month i was charged for overdrawing account from 5 to 150 pounds fees that ended with final 3700 pounds paid charges. so its not ongoing charges on one occasion account has been overdrawn but multiple occasions.

I dont know if that makes any different
thanks

**Debt Camel** · 26th September 2015, 21:12:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Well it weakens your case. Still worth a try though.

**leclerc** · 28th September 2015, 20:22:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by cookie1976 View Post

this is letter i posted to bank

Dear Sir/Madam,

SORT : ...................ACCOUN T NUMBER : ......................... ........
REQUEST FOR CONSIDERATION AS A CASE IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTY ( HARDSHIP)

I am writing to reclaim all bank charges on my account from............................
I am unhappy that these charges have been applied to my account and in this letter I am registering my complaint. I refer to the Lending Code guidelines to which you subscribe, issued in ............... I request that you stop adding interest and charges to the above account. The interest and charges serve only to add to the Financial Difficulties I am currently experiencing. In this connection, I draw your attention to paragraphs 224 - 227 in Section 9 of the Lending Code.
I need you consider my case as a matter of urgency as I because I am in financial hardship. This is because since we came in to United Kingdom most of the time we ( my family) where living on one salary. Because lots of problem at that time and Court case in ............. between my wife and her previous husband regarding their daughter there was lots of expenses strictly connected to that situation and that pushed us to extremely bad financial situation. Our debt was growing from year to year and we ended up asking citizens advice bureau for help with they done. Our situation was going to be better and then in ..................... my dad killed himself ad I had to go back to ............... to assist and arrange funeral

. Again because of our financial hardship I had to borrow money from family, I had not paid some bills to arrange all that. Since then we do have ongoing financial problem from witch one we did not recovered till now. Unfortunately I do have 12 defaulted credit accounts because I was unable to repay because of financial hardship and all problem around. From that time ................. I’m unable to meet priority financial commitments including, but not limited to, council tax, food and utility bill. I do not repay any creditors because I don’t have any money I can offer. Since.................... we do receiving support from government e.g. working tax credits, child benefit and housing benefit due to fact I’m the only person working in our family ( me , my wife, and two daughters). Since I remember we always had problems with reaching basic financial commitments. Over those yeas that effected with multiple accounts defaulted, utility accounts with balance around -5000 pounds, delays on council tax bill (arrears of about 800 pounds) and further complications ( attachment to earnings because non-payment o council tax). Within time due to changes in legislation our situation becomes even worst due to constant decrease of applied amounts we were entitled to. All that lead me to problems with stress, difficult in controlling my own emotions and depression. At the moment I’m fighting for my marriage

because is on the edge of brake down and my 8 year old daughter suffering from stress because difficult situation between me and my partner. Today I had to call council tax recovery section to ask them if I can delay payment of 75 pounds because I don’t have money to cover my food and fuel to work as I got 170 pounds left on my account till next salary in .................... 2015. My wife does not work because she have back problems since she had car accident back in October 2011 and she was recovering from accident over fallowing next two years.
Please not I did contacted bank on multiple occasion over phone with request of cancelling bank charges because of financial hardship on some occasions You agreed to cancel it ( 2 occasions) over those years, but most of the time it was refused based on fact as I was told that you can cancel in your good faith once over 6 months period. I tried twice to ask bank for help with charges by setting up something or by stopping charges to be applied to my account I was not provided with any help or advice from your bank. Thru all those years my situation went from bad to extremely bad.
I do please You to concider all the facts I had provided to You all of them can be confirmed by my credit file, confirmation of case my wife had against her previous husband in Poland, my wife accident documents, my father death certificate, my financial statements, current utility bills, ctax bills, housing benefit award, child tax credit award etc.
Furthermore I enclose a schedule of charges which have been added to my account during this period of Financial Difficulty.
I therefore request that you repay all my default charges since January 2010 which total 3688 pounds.

Under the FCA guidelines, HSBC BANK PLC has 8 weeks to resolve my complaint. I trust that you will deal with my case within this period. If not, I will refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman

.

I look forward to receiving a full response to this letter within 14 days
Yours faithfully,

You've taken a letter from ConsumerActionGroup(CAG). I would not ever use a template letter and in point of fact, one of their heralded wins was from a letter that was personal to them.
You have a letter that is way too generalised ie since we came to this country we have been living on one wage. My simple answer to that is: so what? Have you simply taken on too much burden without the necessary funds to pay them?
You need for financial hardship to specifically concentrate on a specific time of financial hardship where you could not repay money to priority debts. Those debts are Council Tax, Rent/mortgage, water and utilities. They exclude credit cards/loans and they exclude personal financial arrangements with family.
At some point in your life you could pay the essential bills but there came a time when you were unable to pay them because of something that happened in your life that was unforeseen ie wife died, father died in this instance, loss of job, etc etc . The fact that only one person could work from the beginning is NOT a case of financial hardship in my opinion. If the charges during that period when you found yourself in financial hardship made the situation worse then you can prove that, ie bounced payments for rent/mortgage, utilities, council tax and/or even higher purchase on a car you use for work.

The bank DOES NOT have to refund 1p of charges under the Lending Code and the very fact that they have assessed your case can be shown that the bank have acted fairly with you. The bank can simply temporarily extend your overdraft to allow you to improve your financial situation and they have complied with your request.

OK, my next question is simple: have you read the Financial Ombudsman Service notes on financial hardship because the letter you have written suggests that this is not the case: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...le-lending.htm

I would suggest that you write to HSBC and state that you have not received an income and expenditure form. CAG might suggest you don't fill anything in but then again, that plays into the hands of the bank on financial hardship.

Look, I might come across as quite harsh but ultimately, I want you to have a cast iron case and at the moment, I'm not sure you have enough for the bank to even consider any refund of charges. I might add that I don't think you will get £3688 in any case at the moment via the ombudsman for the reasons I have set out above.

**cookie1976** · 4th October 2015, 00:51:AM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Originally posted by leclerc View Post

You've taken a letter from ConsumerActionGroup(CAG). I would not ever use a template letter and in point of fact, one of their heralded wins was from a letter that was personal to them.
You have a letter that is way too generalised ie since we came to this country we have been living on one wage. My simple answer to that is: so what? Have you simply taken on too much burden without the necessary funds to pay them?
You need for financial hardship to specifically concentrate on a specific time of financial hardship where you could not repay money to priority debts. Those debts are Council Tax, Rent/mortgage, water and utilities. They exclude credit cards/loans and they exclude personal financial arrangements with family.
At some point in your life you could pay the essential bills but there came a time when you were unable to pay them because of something that happened in your life that was unforeseen ie wife died, father died in this instance, loss of job, etc etc . The fact that only one person could work from the beginning is NOT a case of financial hardship in my opinion. If the charges during that period when you found yourself in financial hardship made the situation worse then you can prove that, ie bounced payments for rent/mortgage, utilities, council tax and/or even higher purchase on a car you use for work.

The bank DOES NOT have to refund 1p of charges under the Lending Code and the very fact that they have assessed your case can be shown that the bank have acted fairly with you. The bank can simply temporarily extend your overdraft to allow you to improve your financial situation and they have complied with your request.

OK, my next question is simple: have you read the Financial Ombudsman Service notes on financial hardship because the letter you have written suggests that this is not the case: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...le-lending.htm

I would suggest that you write to HSBC and state that you have not received an income and expenditure form. CAG might suggest you don't fill anything in but then again, that plays into the hands of the bank on financial hardship.

Look, I might come across as quite harsh but ultimately, I want you to have a cast iron case and at the moment, I'm not sure you have enough for the bank to even consider any refund of charges. I might add that I don't think you will get £3688 in any case at the moment via the ombudsman for the reasons I have set out above.

thank you. dont blame me i dont know how to do it.
hardship - i was raised in culture where you need to get on with things.
cant keep up life will press you down.
but true is when i came to live in this country it was not my intention to go into finansial problems but to make life better i think thats obvious.
in that time my wife had case in court with her previous husband regarding right to decide about their daughter.
because of that sha had to go several Times to poland to court and that ruined us.
our finansial problem started in Lloyds when i used money from my two credit cards and overdraft limit to catch up on rent. soon because of money problems my account was overdrawn and credit cards became canceled due to non payment. by one of the bank advisors (Lloyds) i was advice to change bank to stop Lloyds deducting money from my bank account. and so i did. my problems started before hsbc. with hsbc - i can say i informed tchem about my problems asking for cancellingmonthly charges because i couldnt aford it. of couple occasions they done it. also i asked tchem ifwe can do anything to stop charges beeing aded to my account i been told no we cant.
this question i asked again and again. some time in this year one of hsbc employees told me that i should ask for some kind of account that cost 10 pounds and informal overdrafts are not allowed. no one told me that ove those years - just sorry we cant do nothing about.
i dont want to write story of my life because its nothing impressive. i came herto ask for help. i have no knowledge related to legislations and things like that. so yes it was slightly adjusted letter from one of the forums - just because i was asking on quite few forums for help and unfortunately i didnt received it so had to deal with it me self.

my understaning was - if i can borrow you money then ill do it if i cant i wont
and i cant understand how bank can say - you cant have o/d because of your finansial history but you can have informal o/d and we rip you off on charges.
i cant understand how bank that should be acting in good interest of his customer didnt even mentioned about paid optionto have bank accocunt where informal o/d are not allowed. im not saying i would go for it because its another 10 pounds a day but there was an option.
if you can help me please do. i wil post letter to hsbc to inform i have note received finansial statementto fill out.
but then i dont know what to do.
regarding paying for main bills i give u example.
i told bank that i cant afford charges, so they charged me again 80 pounds, another 80 pounds. because of this i couldnt pay for car insurance, and tv licence - normaly paid by dd from my account all total of 74 pounds. so again this overdrawn my acocunt and anoter charger are beeing added to my account next month - so next 80 pounds. i dont have any money to paycasch into bank account i got 1,70 left next money child tax credit about 35 pounds - 9th september. next salary 26th october.
does it sound like finansial hardship ...?

i do understand contekst of your leter and i do understand that sometimes true is painfull but it does save more on the end.
once again if any one can help please.
any advice much app.
thank you , thank you all ;-)

**leclerc** · 5th October 2015, 17:08:PM

Re: HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

Was your rent paid from your account and was any payments returned unpaid? Was utility bills returned unpaid on the account? The TV licence is one thing that might give the bank an indication of financial hardship but further to that if rent and utility bills were also returned in the same period then that might be a line you look at.
Do you have the date that you told the bank that you could not afford the payments because that might potentially be an avenue for the bank not doing enough to help you when you need to(that would be the lending code part which they may have failed to have followed leading to misadministration of the account)?

Hmmmm, what did the bank say to you when you told them that you could not afford the charges? That timeline does interest me quite a lot.....did you speak with any of the people that you owed money to?

HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

HSBC Bank charges reclaiming

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