Hi Flaminscott here. I posted a thread on here last year regarding hardship claims. 1 made a claim to HBOS regarding charges. this now on hold. 2 made a second claim claiming hardship. this was processed and as this took so long for HBOS customer complaints team to deal with I made a formal complaint to FOS. 3 an offer was made on the grounds of gesture of good will but not accepiting responsability. 3 (a) The offer was made with the folowing strings atached that out of the offer made the HBOS would take out what they claimed I owed them. But what was interesting that they would not tell me what they claimed I owed them UNTILL THEY HAD RECEIVED MY SIGNED ACCEPTANCE FORM. 4 I then went back to FOS and said that I did not agree to accept under these conditions. Then there was a period of no further communication from the Bank. 5 I chased this up( I had two acounts two commplaints and two offers) while all this was going on the HBOS had put a default notice on my credit file trying to sort that out today...... 6 I finally accepted the two offers on the terms that my claim was still on hold and this was a gesture of good will..........HA.HA.....I fail to see any good will as HBOS closed my account and further default notice added. The first offer was accepted and they payed money back into my account that they had allready closed............yawn.......more phone calls..... 7 finally after several calls to FOS I did eventully get a cheque for part payment of my origonal claim.......the battle now continues to get them to lift the default notice as I now have as a "..gesture of good will..." from HBOS a zero rated credit score. This means that I now cant get a basic account with HSBC.... My personal expierence from this is it would have been better to go the small claims route and hope would settle before further court action was taken but as we all now this would have been stayed by the court... but in the end I did get some money back..... Hope this helps.... Flaminscott.....

Hi all on dforum, Victory.....Halifax cave in with out a shot being fired. I think that is with the help of the Ombudsman. Got a letter from Halifax with first offer of £689 not admiting liability but saying does not affect any further action after court case. I am not sure if this because I followed up my formal complaint through the Ombudsman or if It has just taken them a long time to sort out after in sent them my compleated incom/out going that shows just what kind of hardship they have put me through!!!!!! So any way now got to look for a template letter acepting this first offer as part payment of my full claim as only the full amount is going to be acepted. A big thank you to all of you on this first class service. will be making a donation when payment has been settled ....thanks one again Flaminscott..... To all those out there in the middle keep fighting as it is worth all the efort in the end:):)

Clarky1. Hi C1 thanks for your reply sorry did not get back to you sooner but only have limited time on friends PC due to the real hardship I am now thanks to HBoS I could not pay for my BT phone and now have been cut off. rang The FOS today and are going to send me yet another complaint form to fill in so wil be doing all that again and seeing how it goes from there. Seeuselataaaaa! Flaminscott

Hi all you out there in forum land, Latest info regarding "hardship case" as HBoS have not given a final letter and now gone past the last day to respond I have now passed this over to FOS, got letter back from same(FOS), saying that they have now got my formal complaint and due to the high number of complaints they are dealing with, could take some time. Not a peep from shabyfax... so now waiting to see if FOS actually have any teath or will shissssssh you know who, be allowed to wrigle of the hook once again. Flaiminscott.

Hi all on dforum, rang FOS today, and was advised to write back to Halifax demanding their final responce in writing. If the do not respond by 19 July (end of 8 week time limit) to my satisfaction then FOS will take on my claim and the "60" rule that is they must agree to deal with my complaint with in sixty days while the FOS cary out their own investigation. I was also advised to write back to the Halifax reminding them that this a "hardship" case that takes priority over any stayed court legal action and waiting for the final court hearing is not an excuse for the Halifax to hide behind send letter recorded dilivery as well in case "it gets lost in the post wink wink know what I mean Gov)... more to follow... Flaminscott ... any one else out there going this route can you help with more advice?

Hellooooooo, ahhhhhh if only I admetrustytinovamberthroatcharmer.....psssst ah thats better...ulp....ulp ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.hic cough.....cough.....gigle....hoi keepyerhandstoyerselmissus....and no peeken at whatyou cantaford... Flaminscott. ...got message in me mail box from brassed off cant find anything here will keep looking thoughxxxxxxxx

Hello you guys, I have started my own thread under "hardship" Yes I got the letter too what is interesting to me is what it does not say! It does not say that you can make a claim and fast track it BEFOR GOING TO COURT via the FOS!!!!!!! I am going to send mine to the FOS and see what they have to say about it. I feel that the bank is witholding iformation on your rights and how to make a claim. Contact the FOS and they will tell you how to make a claim under "hardship" and this claim is suposed to be fast tracked by the bank despite the waiver etc.....any one else out there who can help? Flaminscott....

archieL, yes they do the FSA and the FOS and the banks are suposed to FAST TRACK cases were the account holder makes a claim for hardship. 1. contact your bank make a complaint based on hardship. 2, make a complaint to the FOS. the bank then has 8 weeks to respond to your complaint. 4 the Halifax contacted me with in the week! 5 they then sent me a assesment form to fill in as they could see no reason for my claim but I may have outside evidence with other banks card etc that does not show on my account history(?) ...cough...gough....cow dung! 5 the FOS will only act when the bank gives a final responce in writing! 6. If you are not happy with the final responce then go back to FOS and they will do their own independant search on your behalf. 7. FOS can only function as a go-between arbitrater providing you have NOT started any legal action against the bank. My last letter from the BoS included a flyer going about the court case etc but it does not say anything about your rights to make a complaint based on hardship or how to make that complaint to the FOS! they claim that the FOS has agreed to allow the bank to stay any court action you are going to take so my opinion is that the bank are trying to muddy up the water start a paper chase and hope that you will give up and go away .....not ****dy likely! when i have talked to the FOS i will let you all know how I get on Flaminscott...

Hi all on the forum, as promised here is latest news hot off the press from shabyslaxBank O`jockland. As not a word from shhhhhhhhyouknow who, I thought I would give them a call to see how my claim is going on and surprise surprise a letter in the post of todays date. After bending over backwards burning the candel at both ends and leaving no stone unturned etc etc Halifax can find no grounds for any hardship.....cough cough!!!! so called FOS and was told that they still have till 19th July 2008 to answer my complaint and if the letter goes on to usual no action to result of court case etc ect then this is a fob of letter and should indicate that this is the Halifaxs final response if it does not inform me of my legal rights and how to contact the ombundsmans and the six month rule then the Ombundsman will formaly carry out their own independant search into how the Halifax has been operating my account and they will then deal directly with the bank on my behalf.....they are not very impressed so far so sounds like things are going to start happening..... Flaminscott......

Hi paddy, I will keeping an eye on how you get on "When you have a bull by the balls it helps if you have a long pair of arms and warm hands!!" Flaminscott..

You make some very intersting points there Mr Indeptstudent! I dont now how this charity system works but I think most of it is by volintiers. I was suprised to find out that even as a charity you are asked to take out an insurance scheeme to cover your debt as they say that when they start working on your pay back plan they say that the credit card banks will not even speak to them with out this one of dd underwriten by an insurance cover! But at least your are given the option and they dont hide it like some of the covers that are taken out with out your conscent! All seems very smoke and mirrors to me. I have a cover scheme with my MBNA card that I did not sign for and their answer is that insurance is set up when you start with bank and it is down to you to stop it, but if you did not know it was there in the first place how can you stop it? I think the whole comission based banking system needs to be looked at in more detail! Flaminscott...

Hi Tilly, No problem you go on with all your expertease. The response back from the Halifax took less than a week even though they were granted eight weeks to contact me. I was put intouch with "Pay Plan" via the MBNA as I was behind on my loan and card payments thanks to crapyfax! Pay Plan is a non profit charitable organisation they take over and manage your creditors for you and get them off your back. Thay are proving to be very helpfull and undersatnding They will call you back and if you suply them with your outgoings they then work out what you can afford to pay back, you set up a new bank account and a one off DD and then they share out what you can afford to pay back each month they really are very good!

Hi indebtstudent, Thanks for your suport. I have drafted a letter of complaint to go to the Halifax. When I can transfer it to this PC as I am not at home I will be glad of any help and guidence you can give! Flaminscott

Hi indebtstudent, YES to everything you have said so far. 1, The Halifax has taken so much mony from my account in penalty charges that now I can not pay off my monthly credit card bills and so I am in areas and my two card coys are charging me fees for going over limit fees, and late payment charges driving me further and further into debt. 2. I am now with a charity called PayPlan who are sorting things out for me. 3. The ombudsman has taken my complaint on and are now asking the Halifax to look at my complaint. The Halifax has been given 8 weeks to respond and have contacted me by letter saying they are going to look into my complaint.... thats all the story so far. 4. what has caused my cash flow problem is that my employers have not been paying my full pay at iregular intervals, I have tried explaining this to The Halifax but the charges keep coming one after the other. 5, The last charge that tipped me over the edge was for using my card at Sainsbury`s. I used my card to pay for twenty two pounds worth of goods thinking that there was enough money in my account, and the card was cleared at the till....two days later I got my forth charge for yet another £35 saying that I had gone over my limit. Halifax answer to this was tough **** you should not be a naughty boy etc etc. I am looking for people who are in a similar situation and all mail will be answered has soon as I have read them.... Flaminscott..

Hi sea-side lady, The letter I got back was just the standard we are sorry to hear you are unhappy etc and that they will now be looking into my complaint. so I am now in the process of writing back with full detais of my complaint! Flaminscott.