balu v yorkshire bank hi

[balu]

Hi every one just saying hi as this is my first post:)

I sent my prelim letter yesterday to the yorkshire bank along with my schedule of charges i made using your templates stating financial hardship and listing my circumstances...cue the violins:rolleyes:

Anyway will keep you all updated as to how i get on thanks in advance for any help as im sure il need it:oops:

[Mr lex]

Hi Balu,

 

Welcome to the Consumer Action Group

 

Looking forward to your updates, any problems just shout !!

Plenty of people here have been were your at now, lots of help is just a post away!!

 

Lex

[balu]

Thanks Mr lex didn't expect such a fast reply sent everything 1st class recorded delivery as recommended by the site.Going to read up on how to put a court bundle together in the mean time as i like to get everything in order and know what im doing;)

just a quick question in the next letter " letter before action" do i send the same schedule of charges or include the 8% interest or do i include that on the one i file to the court:confused: cheers

[Mr lex]

Hi Balu

 

I am afraid you can't include the 8% until you file at court. So send the same SOC that you sent with your prelim.

 

Don't worry, it is more than likely you will get your 8% in the end

 

Lex

[balu]

thank Mr lex will let you know how i get on... and make a donation "when" i win

[Mr lex]

And win you will !!

 

Of course donation's are always welcome, with the 'stays' and eveything, a lot of money is coming out of the owners pockets, etc.

 

Lets remember that, it was a nice thought !!

 

Lex

[balu2]

sorry but i need a bit of advice( i am balu had to make a new account as i kept getting a message saying i dont have privilege to access these pages:???:so cant postas balu:confused:.....anyway got a letter today from yorkshire bank thanking me for my letter"prelim" and as i had stated financial hardship could i fill in a form telling them how much i earn and how much and to who i owe money, and how much i pay out and to who or what companies a month....should i fill this in or not. any advice will be a great help:)

cheers balu

[maroondevo52]

Hi, Balu.

 

Don't think you'll get much further if you don't fill it in.

 

I would fill it in, return it to the Bank and post their responce on here.

 

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[balu]

Thanks maronndevo52 have filled it in an posted it .Will let you know there responce. cheers balu:)

[balu]

Ok things i have do so far:-

sent prelim letter, bank received it on 23rd may.

Bank sent back forms to fill in stating my hardship case, filled them in and posted.Bank received them on the 4th june.

 

Now do i still send the LBA letter as they are dealing with the request but the haven't made an offer of repayment within the 14 day period stated in the prelim letter, or do i give them an additional 14 days from the time they received the forms they sent me......cheers thanks balu:)

[Mr lex]

Hi Balu,

 

You should send your L.B.A. now, they are working to your time table now !!.

 

They will delay and delay if you let them, they just hope you'll get fed up and go away, but you won't will you !!

 

Not too many people win on hardship, so you need to keep your claim up-to date.

 

You are doing well

 

Lex

[Bigmac versus]

Hi Balu

 

When you register your complaint through HARDSHIP the waiver does not protect them from ignoring your complaint. They must be sympathetic to your circumstances but this dosent mean you will get a refund.

Other people have as Mr Lex said not been successfull through this route but a few have had full refunds and one I know has been offered a partial refund so when the bank look at the income/expenditure form you sent them they will then respond.

 

They have 8 weeks to respond to your complaint as per the FSA, if they do not respond to you within that timescale then proceed to the FOS.

 

Good luck

[balu]

Thanks Bigmac & lex will let you know there response:)

[balu]

well received a letter from them on the 19th stating the usual Dear MR....sorry about your financial problems but even though you are in hardship all claims have been stayed until the out come of the court case and appeal..bla..bla ...bla:mad:

I wasn't having non of that so i replied the same day by next day recorded delivery.I stated that i knew about the court case and that cases had been stayed,but that i maintained that my case was a genuine one of "financial hardship" and asked them to kindly look at my case again as they are still expected to deal with these cases.I also stated that i would proceed to the courts if they didn't reply in 14 days and that i would apply to the court to have any stay on my case lifted on "financial hardship"grounds.

 

Then got home from work today to find a letter stating that they are now investigating my claim and will advise me in due course.

 

Any advice on what they'll do next?

[Mr lex]

What they will do now is delay,delay and delay some more

 

You should now send your LBA and then get your claim to court. You should carry on with your claim. Only the courts can stay your claim (and properly will) There are two main reasons for continuing,

 

1st. There may be a danger of some older charges falling victim of the six year limitation, we do not know until the test case is over how that will work. once you claim at court, those charges are safe.

 

2nd. You will be in the front of the queue :grin:

 

Lex

[balu]

Thanks Mr lex i sent the L.B.A the same day as my follow up letter.

that's why i stated the 14days to reply in the letter as well.They said in there letter to phone them if i need any assistance, Should i phone them regularly to ask how there investigation into my case is going.......not to **** them off you understand, just to show im not going away:D

[Bigmac versus]

They have tried to brush aside your claim until you rightfully reminded them that they must deal with hardship cases so now they are playing ball. The interesting thing is without information from you how can they consider if you are indeed suffering hardship.

 

There is no criteria for meeting hardship and TBH its really down to the banks, i would call them as they have said and ask them how they can investigate without knowing your financial situation. They should give you a income and expenditure form which would assist them on deciding which way to deal with you.

[Mr lex]

OK Balu, well done sending your LBA.

 

This site recommends that you now claim at court. You can still keep trying to get the hardship case going at the same time.

 

I would recommend you use the N1 form at your local county court.

The links are here :-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/681-4-particulars-claim-n1.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/844-n1-claims-form-pdf.html

 

If you think they are failing you as far as the hardship case goes, you can complain to the FOS

 

Lex

[weazledeasel]

I would not recommend this. The bank has eight weeks to look into your complaint and they are well within this timeframe. How is going to court going to help? Just wait and see what they offer and then make a decision. Rushing into anything will not speed the process up. Why not ring up to check the progress? Noone ever said that the hardship process would be easy. You should be prepared for only a partial offer of refund as i am yet to hear of YB settle in full for hardship.

 

If you complain to Fos about the banks handling of hardship, all they will do is ask YB what they have done. They will explain that they have asked for your income/expenditure and they are now looking into it. Going all guns blazin is a bit counter-productive at this stage.

[Mr lex]

Going to court will help in a number of ways.

 

1st. The claim is lodged with the court so you can gain the 8% judicial interest. It does not stop you pursuing your hardship case. you can always accept a lower offer if one is made, but of course no one recommends that.

 

2nd. I have only heard of maybe 6 case's where a hardship claim has been won, so you will save 6-8 weeks.

 

3rd. As Balu so rightly says, if you do nothing, the bank will do nothing. It does show you mean business and won't go away.

 

4th. When the stays are finally lifted, you will be first in the queue to get paid

 

Lex

[Mr lex]

On another point. While the banks are protected by the stays, we the consumer, have no such protection and charges continue to mount up.

For some people this may mean going into default. If it is clear that the default was made in respect of charges and that it was lodged after a charges claim was begun then these users have a really excellent chance of having it removed.

 

Lex

[Mr lex]

Hi Balu,

 

I feel it is really important that you disregard some of the 'soft' advice you have received.

If you wait for the bank to do something, you just know they will do nothing. The 8 weeks is some cozy industry agreement which has nothing to do with consumers. But it is often represented as being binding. Of course the poor consumer believes this and patiently waits the time. Meanwhile, he is incurring more charges, defaults, difficulties and at the end of the 8 weeks he invariably gets a fob off. It is disheartening - and it is intended to be disheartening and it is intended to diminish complaints and to dissipate the anger which drives complaints on.

 

The reason why this site has had such a dramatic success over bank charges is because we disregarded the bank's complaint schedules and instead we asserted our own time scale before court action.

 

Lex

Edited June 26, 2008 by Mr lex

[balu]

Thanks Mr lex well got some good news ....

Got a letter today with a cheque for £810 ....claim is for £3200:rolleyes:

But the best bit is that they say in the letter that it is NOT in full and final settlement and will not affect me claiming the difference between the amounts when the court case is over stays are lifted:D

 

will make a donation when the cheque clears and a bigger one when i get rest after the test case;)

[weazledeasel]

..

Hi Balu,

 

I feel it is really important that you disregard some of the 'soft' advice you have received.

 

Its not soft advice, its just sensible. Why go in guns blazing at this early stage? It does not make sense.

 

If you wait for the bank to do something, you just know they will do nothing.

 

As we can see, the bank have made an offer so they have not done nothing and they have responded relatively swiftly.

 

The 8 weeks is some cozy industry agreement which has nothing to do with consumers. But it is often represented as being binding. Of course the poor consumer believes this and patiently waits the time. Meanwhile, he is incurring more charges, defaults, difficulties and at the end of the 8 weeks he invariably gets a fob off.

 

I am not denying that this is sometimes the case but this is certainly not the case here. the bank has received notification of hardship, swiftly sent an income/expenditure, investigated the account activity and made an offer. I think the bank have treated balu fairly and I am glad he did not listen to your advice to start court proceedings. He now has recieved a part payment and can wait for the stay to be lifted. It is very unlikely that court action would have had a different outcome - No Yorkshire bank or Clydesdale Bank customer is yet to claim through court on the grounds of hardship.

 

It is disheartening - and it is intended to be disheartening and it is intended to diminish complaints and to dissipate the anger which drives complaints on.

 

Again this may be the case but it is not here. They have responded in a reasonable time. The bank has to be able to prove genuine hardship so that they can be sure they are only paying out in genuine cases. This is only fair and it is inevitable that it may take longer than the 14 days.

 

The reason why this site has had such a dramatic success over bank charges is because we disregarded the bank's complaint schedules and instead we asserted our own time scale before court action.

 

Yes, before the test case!

 

Lex

[pt2537]

Im afraid i disagree with your stance Weazeldeasel

 

Its not soft advice, its just sensible. Why go in guns blazing at this early stage? It does not make sense.

Why not? its going in all guns blazing that has made the reclaiming process so successful

 

how many times have we heard the banks say " sorry youre not satisfied , if you give us the next ten years we will look at your complaint at some point" all the time thought they are still levying charges!!!!! if you sat back and let them do their thing you'd never get your money back would you

 

As we can see, the bank have made an offer so they have not done nothing and they have responded relatively swiftly

 

yeah but they haven't offered him a full refund have they? so swift is pretty much irrelevant IMHO

 

 

I am not denying that this is sometimes the case but this is certainly not the case here. the bank has received notification of hardship, swiftly sent an income/expenditure, investigated the account activity and made an offer. I think the bank have treated balu fairly and I am glad he did not listen to your advice to start court proceedings. He now has recieved a part payment and can wait for the stay to be lifted. It is very unlikely that court action would have had a different outcome - No Yorkshire bank or Clydesdale Bank customer is yet to claim through court on the grounds of hardship.

Do you work for as bank? Treated balu fairly? oh please, im afraid its a shame that balu didnt start a claim, for starters via the FOS you do not get any interest, which you are legally entitled to under S69 County Courts Act 1984 and there is no guarantee that balu will ever recover the full amount where as using the Courts route he would get both so it is likely that contrary to your suggestion that the court action would provide a different outcome

 

In my humble opinion,the best route remains through the courts

Edited June 27, 2008 by pt2537