Thread: What now?

I made a claim for repayment of bank charges and interest from the Nationwide Building Society in April, and advised them that I am currently suffering from financial hardship. Having written to request repayment on the basis of hardship using a template from Money Expert, NBS sent me an income and expenditure form, asking for evidence.

The basis of the claim for early settlement is that my business (of whom I am the owner-manager) has been severely hit by the recession, and our turnover for 2008/09 has been cut by a substantial percentage to £26,000 with an overall loss of £9,000 for the year. In addition, my husband had been advised verbally that he was to be made redundant, and that therefore I would not be able to pay the £250.00 per month to clear my overdraft which has been demanded by NBS, and to which I had no choice but to comply.

Clearly, to provide evidence, I needed to wait for my husband’s written Notice of redundancy, but before it had been issued, NBS wrote back to say that as I had not returned the evidence they were cancelling the claim. Following an assertive telephone call from me, they backed down, and as soon as the written proof was available, I sent it off. In addition to the Notice of Redundancy, I enclosed a letter from the firm which undertakes our financial accounting, to confirm the downturn in the company’s profitability.

This morning, I have received a letter from NBS, refuting my claim because: “Having closely reviewed your FlexAccount and the information you provided we believe you receive sufficient income to cover your essential monthly expenditure. Therefore in our view the charges were incurred as a result of the way that you managed the account rather than genuine hardship.”

My husband finishes work next week, and only having worked for his employer for less than four years, is not entitled to a generous payout. We will not be able to continue to repay the overdraft as NBS demand. What can I do now?