BOS Hardship Claim **"Awaiting offer letter"**

[Gram1]

Hi

 

I have submitted a hardship claim to BOS. The owe me £8k+ not including interest. I have included my income/expense form showing my outgoings are higher than my income each month.

What have people's experiences been with BOS/Halifax for hardship claims, and am i likely to get a favourable response?

 

Thanks

[flaminscott]

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.....

[Gram1]

Update on my hardship application - Case WON!

 

• I originally wrote to ask for my bank charges back in July 2007. It has been on hold since then.
  
• At start of March 2009 i wrote again applying for immediate settlement due to my financial hardship - i attached my own version of income/expenditure form.
  
• The replied with 5 days with a long standard letter saying the case was still on hold etc and that they didn't think i had a valid financial hardship claim. It just looked liek a standard reply and i didnt believe they had actually looked into the specifics of my hardship claim. They did however attach their own income/expenditure form for me to complete.
  
• Form sent in together with copies of recent unpaid bills and long letter of explanation as to how i believed i was a valid hardship case. (usuing the FOS or OFT -whoever it was- guidlines)
  
• Gave it a week then phoned to chase up.
  
• Was informed there was loads of cases to look at so it would be weeks. I pleaded for my case to be looked at urgently due to my financial postion (council tax bill overdue amongst other things)
  
• They said over the phone they would get their manager ot look at mine and try to look at it quickly as an urgent case.
  
• Gave it 1 week then phoned them again. Was put through to the person who was now looking at my case. (the pleading had worked and my case had been bumped to the top of the queue it seemed). This person informed me over the phone they were going to refund all 6 years worth of charges. approx £6k. He was working on the final figures but confirmed a letter with the detail would be going out to me within the week.
  
• He said there were conditions attached (as i expected there would be) 1) They will use 2K to pay off my overdraft - fine by me, delighted to get rid of it! 2) they will pay £2500 to pay off my credit card with them - ditto! 3) they will send a cheque directly to the council tax for the amount overdue - even better! 4) the remainder will be credited directly to my account - result!
  
• i was delighted and astounded by this.
  
• I chanced it a bit further and asked if he had gone back 6 years from now to calc the charges to be returned. He said yes. I said, should you not have gone back 6 years from my original request letter (Jully 2007), and refund all the charges from then till present. He said, ok i'll do that and recalc the extra amount for that period and credit your account with that too no problem at all. The guy was extremely nice and helpful and couldn't have been more accomodating.
  
• When the letter comes in confirming the above (due in next 2 days) all i need to do is send back the signed acceptance and it will be done straight away.
  

For me this is a major success and hopefully offers others in similar position incentive to push on. And i should also add i have at no point sent a SAR and asked for copies of my charges over the period. At the time of my original letter in 2007 i calcd the charges from my previous 6 months of statements and estimated the rest based on this and it doesn't seem to have mattered. Their figure of £6k and my estimated one are fairly close so i'm happy they have done their calcs accurately.

 

Anyway thats all, just thought i'd post and let you know. I'll confirm in the next couple of days when the confirmation letter comes in.

 

cheers!

Edited April 2, 2009 by Gram1

[rachebabe1971]

Thats great im still waiting for my hardship case to be dealt with i contacted halifax in december regarding my hardship case as our circumstances had changed my husband had now lost his job and now our house is getting repossessed i was told we werent under hardship i then wrote again and received a phone call asking if i had had an eviction notice yet and if i had to send it in to them and they would look at it again he was sympathetic and said i might get some good news soon that was 8 days ago im now going to write again as i originally asked for a reply within 7 days hopefully ill get some good news as we are going to be homeless from 28th april if that isnt hardship i dont know what is fingers crossed.

Regards

Rachel

p.s i told man on phone if i got no luck i would take court action he said you cant afford it i told him i would borrow money if i had to as charges amount ot over £4000.

[yourbank]

Update on my hardship application - Case WON!

 

• I originally wrote to ask for my bank charges back in July 2007. It has been on hold since then.
  
• At start of March 2009 i wrote again applying for immediate settlement due to my financial hardship - i attached my own version of income/expenditure form.
  
• The replied with 5 days with a long standard letter saying the case was still on hold etc and that they didn't think i had a valid financial hardship claim. It just looked liek a standard reply and i didnt believe they had actually looked into the specifics of my hardship claim. They did however attach their own income/expenditure form for me to complete.
  
• Form sent in together with copies of recent unpaid bills and long letter of explanation as to how i believed i was a valid hardship case. (usuing the FOS or OFT -whoever it was- guidlines)
  
• Gave it a week then phoned to chase up.
  
• Was informed there was loads of cases to look at so it would be weeks. I pleaded for my case to be looked at urgently due to my financial postion (council tax bill overdue amongst other things)
  
• They said over the phone they would get their manager ot look at mine and try to look at it quickly as an urgent case.
  
• Gave it 1 week then phoned them again. Was put through to the person who was now looking at my case. (the pleading had worked and my case had been bumped to the top of the queue it seemed). This person informed me over the phone they were going to refund all 6 years worth of charges. approx £6k. He was working on the final figures but confirmed a letter with the detail would be going out to me within the week.
  
• He said there were conditions attached (as i expected there would be) 1) They will use 2K to pay off my overdraft - fine by me, delighted to get rid of it! 2) they will pay £2500 to pay off my credit card with them - ditto! 3) they will send a cheque directly to the council tax for the amount overdue - even better! 4) the remainder will be credited directly to my account - result!
  
• i was delighted and astounded by this.
  
• I chanced it a bit further and asked if he had gone back 6 years from now to calc the charges to be returned. He said yes. I said, should you not have gone back 6 years from my original request letter (Jully 2007), and refund all the charges from then till present. He said, ok i'll do that and recalc the extra amount for that period and credit your account with that too no problem at all. The guy was extremely nice and helpful and couldn't have been more accomodating.
  
• When the letter comes in confirming the above (due in next 2 days) all i need to do is send back the signed acceptance and it will be done straight away.
  

For me this is a major success and hopefully offers others in similar position incentive to push on. And i should also add i have at no point sent a SAR and asked for copies of my charges over the period. At the time of my original letter in 2007 i calcd the charges from my previous 6 months of statements and estimated the rest based on this and it doesn't seem to have mattered. Their figure of £6k and my estimated one are fairly close so i'm happy they have done their calcs accurately.

 

Anyway thats all, just thought i'd post and let you know. I'll confirm in the next couple of days when the confirmation letter comes in.

 

cheers!

 

I read through your post and ticked every single box that should be done to get a hardship success. I am overjoyed that you have had your claim dealt with. I am delighted that for you that this will alleviate your hardship. Once you have confirmation then post again. Perhaps the thread title should be change by site team to "Awaiting offer letter". Fantastic news

[Mr lex]

Hi Gram1,

 

Well, I'll be blowed.

 

Well done you, as soon as you receive confirmation it would be my great pleasure to give you a *Won* badge.

 

I think all the other banks could take a lesson from HBOS in how to deal with a hardship case.

 

Well done you

 

Lex

[rachebabe1971]

just an update my husbands claim for jobseekers has been turned down as not enough ni contrubutions paid in 2007/2008 even though he worked full time for a company his boss hasnt paid all of it he cant get any other benefits as i get maternity allowance of £117 per week they say this is enough for a family of 3 to live on so i was that mad i got on phone to halifax regarding claim they said it has been passed through to ecceptional cases and somebody has looked at it today i asked if it could be sorted urgently due to my eviction they said this was not possible just have to wait any advice please.

Thanks

Rachel

[yourbank]

just an update my husbands claim for jobseekers has been turned down as not enough ni contrubutions paid in 2007/2008 even though he worked full time for a company his boss hasnt paid all of it he cant get any other benefits as i get maternity allowance of £117 per week they say this is enough for a family of 3 to live on so i was that mad i got on phone to halifax regarding claim they said it has been passed through to ecceptional cases and somebody has looked at it today i asked if it could be sorted urgently due to my eviction they said this was not possible just have to wait any advice please.

Thanks

Rachel

Rachel, get back to them on Monday and hassle them because end of next week is bank holiday either side of Easter and you need that money sent to clears arrears to avoid losing your home. Emphasize the eviction bit.

[Mr lex]

Any news rachel ??

[rachebabe1971]

No not as yet i phoned and they told me they cant prioritise my claim as there are many others in my situation just told me i should hear before 28th my eviction day.

[yourbank]

No not as yet i phoned and they told me they cant prioritise my claim as there are many others in my situation just told me i should hear before 28th my eviction day.

I don't think that is good enough. I think you need to stress the urgency of it and that you are being evicted on the 28th so urgency is required TODAY not next week, not the eviction date but TODAY.

[nigel1804]

Rachel ...Hi I think you would of done better taking them to court . if you can proove hardship to the court there is an ex160 form, if yop fill this in accuratley and it shows hardship then they agree to pay your fees,.... regards nigel....see my thread

[yourbank]

Rachel ...Hi I think you would of done better taking them to court . if you can proove hardship to the court there is an ex160 form, if yop fill this in accuratley and it shows hardship then they agree to pay your fees,.... regards nigel....see my thread

 

If rachel is in genuine financial hardship then the court will stay the claim.....will take a look at your thread as well Nigel but court doesn't stop the Eviction or speed up a hardship claim. Rachel, hassle them and have no guilt in doing so.

[tjharrop]

Gram1 that's really good news.

 

I'm with Halifax too, have been considering going down the hardship route for a while now but have decided enough is enough since I ended up with £70 charges for a DD they failed twice in 2 days that was only actually for £72 - I had to pay the DD which I already didn't have the money for AND the charges...nice!

 

I'm not sure if this makes much difference but I'm currently living with the parents, rent free, as I can't afford rent - I hope that doesnt make a difference to "them" and I'm also self employed - I've earned very little for a few months now but my income is about to go up, I don't really want them to say "oh well you've got money now" when the principal still stands that when I didn't they did nothing to help.

 

Gram1 did you use standard letters? I'm not really au fait with these sheets you speak of

 

Oh...and "hello" (new to the forum and that)

[rachebabe1971]

Hi the gent that phoned from halifax a few weeks ago was really nice and i did tell him that if this was not sorted i would take them to court and he said you cant afford to do that and i told him i would find the money to do it we have given up now with the eviction and we are leaving but the refund of charges would help us set up again so i do need them urgently.

[yourbank]

Have you called them today?

[nigel1804]

What sort of idiots do the Halifax employ... if he knew his stuff then he would of known that court fees are paid if it is deemed that you can't afford to pay them Clever arrogant git. regards Nigel

[rachebabe1971]

Hi update on my situation my mortgage company want full arrears which bank charges wont cover, they wont accept part payment halifax have just got back to me to say they are willing to pay £3217 directly to mortgage company ive told them that is no good as they want full arrears if they would have done this in december eviction could have been stopped but they have took 4 months for my hardship case to be dealt with i have told them i need the money to pay for storage, van hire and to find somewhere to live but they are refusing me i have stressed situation, we will be living in the car with a 5 month old baby but thay just dont want to know i have told them i will take court action am waiting for another call back from halifax as the gent said he was going back to the forum again to tell them our situation its like talking to a brick wall talking to the halifax.