Hi guys, Just a quick note to thank you all so much for your help! I managed to claw back £8400 from RBS from charges of £9400 and they have released the full amount to me with an agreement to pay back overdraft and mortgage arrears on the monthly basis. All the help and advice I got on here really helped and now I can afford to clear some othe debts and have some left over for my soon to be born baby. Many thanks - its onto the credit cards now!

Thanks Ida I might try that. At least that way they will have to say that they intend to do something else with the remaining money other than give me it back. Have you had any success with this approach?

Thanks for coming back yourbank. I have been offered back £8400 in charges from a claim of £9400. I'm happy with that as I could do with the money. There is £4000 overdraft arrears to pay off and again I don't really mind doing this although I already have an agreement in place to pay it off over 5 years. The big problem is that I have a CC debt of £10,000 with RBS which I have already been down the CCA route with and which they only have a totally unenforceable application form for. I have no reason to believe that they can take money out of my account to pay this while it is in dispute but I wouldn't put it past them, and if they do then basically I get no cash back in my pocket. The problem is that my account is frozen so I have no access to it to see when they make the repayment or to stop them from taking out money and paying it to the CC people. Just wondered if this is something they can do or are likely to do? Thanks!

Yes that's fine to merge it. At least people will see it is possible to get your money back even if it is not completely on your own terms. Thanks for having a look. I'll try to whip it out the account before the credit card section get their paws on it!

Thanks Scott, In all honesty I could take the initial hit of the overdraft being paid off but the credit card debt is totally unenforceable and I need the other cash for my baby which is due in about 3 weeks! Last thing I want is the whole refund being swallowed! I'd like to think I could trust RBS not to be sly but my whole experience with them and the way they caved in so quickly to my claim makes me very wary. Any help much appreciated.

Hi, I have been posting on another thread in the Scotland part of the forum but I hoped to get a quick answer here to a problem I have with RBS. I put in a hardship claim for nearly £10,000 and have been offered £8,400 which came as big surprise and which I am delighted to accept. The problem is that RBS are insisting that they pay it into the existing account. Now the issue I have with this is that there are overdraft arrears on that account of about £4000 and this would instantly swallow half the refund. I already have an agreement in place to pay this off over 4 years at around £80 a month and I want to continue with this. Also I have an RBS credit card debt and I am worried that they might use the refund of charges (to an account which is frozen and totally under their control) to pay the rest towards that debt leaving me with nothing. My question really is do I have to accept payment to this account as they say or can I demand a cheque? I don't really want to push my luck too far! Thanks!

Bump! Any idea how I can get them to pay the refund into a different account or will I just have to lose half of it paying off the overdraft? Thanks!

They have made me a very good offer (about 4/5 of what I was claiming) that I am going to accept. The only issue I have is that they are insisting on paying it into the original account (which they have frozen and which I can only access by going into the bank personally). Is there any reason why they have to pay it into this account. They seem adamant that is all they will do. The account also has a large overdraft arrears on it meaning a fair chunk of the money will be swallowed up which I would rather didn't happen. Cheers!

Sorry so to be clear they wouldn't have added charges to the mortgage account? Yes I do have priority debt arrears on my mortgage, council tax, gas and electricity. There is a plan in place to pay the council tax, I am on reduced mortgage payments but these are not actually paying the arrears just maintaining the current payments. The gas was threatened yesterday to be cut off and the electricity will be the same shortly. I also have a ton of other debt although I don't know how seriously they take that when assessing hardship.

Without going into detail I hit pretty much every criteria for hardship that the FOS lays down. If RBS don't pay out then they are at it frankly. I'm just making it clear to them that they better treat it seriously or I will take it further. On another note when I originally requested the statements back in June, I also did so for my mortgage account. Despite dealing with the requests for my two current accounts they have not sent me anything for the mortgage account. I just phoned them to chase it up as it is well past the 40 day maximum and was told that no charges would have been applied to this account and that I can't claim anything back anyway so they didn't send me anything. My question is simply are they telling the truth?

Monty I had your BTO thread stickied as I have an ongoing battle with Amex very similar to your own but now when I click the link thread is specified as invalid. Just wondered how you were getting on? Was hoping to get some tips. Thanks!

Hello! No I didn't oppose a sist. I sent them the first letter telling them not to even bother with their sist chat ( I paraphrase) because I was claiming hardship. I have filled in their income and expenditure form and await a reply. I'm pretty confident of getting something back but we shall see. I've already indicated to them that I won't hesitate to take it to the FOS if they don't refund my money. I'll keep you posted.

They did exactly the same with me. They told me I had made an arrangement with them and made a payment. Total nonsense - which is exactly what I told them. I'm on my third request for a valid CCA. BOS as much as admitted they had nothing.

Thanks very much I will fill it in and send it back. Like I say I never like to provide them with anything now unless I check they are not at it!

Hi all, I am trying to reclaim bank charges via the hardship route and have had a reply to my initial letter asking me to fill in a customer financial statement and provide documentary proof of arrears etc. Is there any reason why I shouldn't comply with this request? I don't really trust RBS with anything now and I don't want to send them loads of personal financial information which they might then somehow use against me! If I shouldn't send it back then please let me know what I should do to progress the claim. The amount I am asking for is nearly £10,000. Thanks!