Thread: Bank Charges

Has anyone read in today Sunday Post regarding MP Mohammad Sarwar who represents Glasgow Govan it attempting to cat the amount banks can claim from penalty fees and default charges. He is recommening 2.5 per cent is a fair payment and he has drafted a bill to be put before the House of Commons which, if passed the bill will limited the charges to 2.5% which is a fairer charge. So keep an eye out for this bit of news as it could be in our favour.

More here GLC calls for proportionate consumer contract charges | 2009

That's interesting, Rory!

HI, I am in the middle of reclaiming my bank charges under financial hardship as I no longer have the same funds I had when I first joined Lloyds TSB. I am now on long term Incapacity Benefit and a part time wage instead of full time work and Tax Credits. I received the normal letter saying I will have to wait till the outcome of the test case. I decided I would get in touch with the FSO who have written to LLoyds TSB regarding my complaint and I now have received the paperwork from FSO to fill in and complete. Fingers crossed the bank will now look at my complaint seriously instead of just glancing through it. Will let you know what the outcome is.

Can anyone tell me if the banks are allowed to take bank charges from benefits, my income is made up of 2/3 incapacity benefit and 1/3 part time wage. I recently had a direct debit payment refused for being 1.63 over drawn which I would have cleared the same day by internet banking, yet they were quite happy to make me 18.67 overdrawn for 20.00 bank charges.

I had the same problem a while ago and don't expect the banks to listen basically, particularly if you have a mixed income to your bank such as wages/benefits. From my limited exposure to matters like this, it would appear that they are NOT allowed to take money from benefits as this has been deemed the minimum amount of money you can live on by the welfare system although the confusion often comes in when you have more than 1 income to your bank account and they could simply turn round and argue this case if they wanted to, not that they would because they are more likely to simply tell you that the bank charges are part of your contract and will, without a doubt, shy away from any discussion regarding benefits, etc as was the case with me to the point where I was almost pulling the bank apart around them but at the end of the day it did no good and I simply added that charge onto the amount they already owe me. If possible, have 2 accounts, 1 for your benefits and another for anything else, this way you have a stronger argument against the banks if they apply charges to the account that your benefits are going into.
Cheers
Marko

Hi, just wanted to update you regarding my case with the fos which I am claiming under the hardship rules. My case is now with an adjudicator who is dealing with me and Lloyds TSB, fingers crossed it will be sorted out soon. Will update you when I hear back from the FOS.

Hi,

Good luck with that.

Regards.

Scott.

HI Scott

Received a letter today from the fos and they have decided that because I dont owe Lloyds TSB any money using an overdraft facility they are not going ahead with me case unless I can argue that I am in real financial hardship so will have to wait till the test case is over.

Hi,

I'll move this thread to the Hardship Forum.

Regards.

Scott.

Originally Posted by cp1949

HI Scott

Received a letter today from the fos and they have decided that because I dont owe LLoyds TSB any money using an overdraft facility they are not going ahead with me case unless I can argue that I am in real financial hardship so will have to wait till the test case is over.

Can you ask the FOS to provide you with the lloydstsb Financial closure letter since I am assuming they did not provide this to you?

Ok Scott will email her tomorrow. If I can get an email address from you I can email the letter I received from the fos, maybe you can advise on what you read from it.

That was Yourbank who asked

sorry maroondevo53 my who asked what exactly, im now confused

Hi Scott

Phoned the lady who was dealing with my case at the fos and it appears what they are saying as I dont owe the bank any money then I'm not in financial hardship so they wont refund any money till the test case has finished.

Originally Posted by cp1949

Hi Scott

Phoned the lady who was dealing with my case at the fos and it appears what they are saying as I dont owe the bank any money then I'm not in financial hardship so they wont refund any money till the test case has finished.

Can you ask the FOS to send you the financial hardship closure letter that they provided to them so you can view their reasoning?
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are any of the arrears being paid back?

Sorry this is not a reply to your dilemma, but I do not know how to start out with a letter of my own.
I sent the Lloyds a letter & a subject access letter & £10 postal order for my statements as I wish to apply for my charges back under the hardship heading. I received a letter from them 12 days later with no mention of the subject access or the £10, just a letter saying they are going to look into it & let me know, with a complaint reference No.
Please help as I do not know where to go from here.

Originally Posted by carnation

Sorry this is not a reply to your dilemma, but I do not know how to start out with a letter of my own.
I sent the Lloyds a letter & a subject access letter & £10 postal order for my statements as I wish to apply for my charges back under the hardship heading. I received a letter from them 12 days later with no mention of the subject access or the £10, just a letter saying they are going to look into it & let me know, with a complaint reference No.
Please help as I do not know where to go from here.

Did you send them the SAR letter or the hardship letter?

Originally Posted by carnation

Sorry this is not a reply to your dilemma, but I do not know how to start out with a letter of my own.
I sent the Lloyds a letter & a subject access letter & £10 postal order for my statements as I wish to apply for my charges back under the hardship heading. I received a letter from them 12 days later with no mention of the subject access or the £10, just a letter saying they are going to look into it & let me know, with a complaint reference No.
Please help as I do not know where to go from here.

Carnation, is this issue different to your other Lloyds thread?

If not, let me know and I can move these posts to that thread for you - it's better if they are all kept together, otherwise it will get confusing and you may get contradicting advice.

If it is different, you may want to start a new thread in our hardship forum, as your posts will get lost in here;

Hardship applications - The Consumer Forums

There's a beginners guide in my signature that shows you how to start a new thread, if you don't know how

Originally Posted by yourbank

Can you ask the fos to send you the financial hardship closure letter that they provided to them so you can view their reasoning?
Do you have priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?
Are any of the arrears being paid back?

Hi the only priority debt I have is owing to the Scottish Hydro Board for my electric, I now have a prepayment meter with my debt being paid off at 5.00 per week through my meter so as from now I am putting 45.00 a week into my meter.

Fos said there was no financial hardship closure letter only she has decided because I dont owe the bank any money then I have to wait till the test case has finished even though TSB Lloyds agree with that decision as I had a credit balance of 73p in my cash account which pays my direct debits from and 50.00 in my savings account which I use for putting my direct debits into till as such time they are due and then I transfer the money over. I do that because I get my Incapacity Benefit paid every 2 weeks.