Hardship and account closure

[landy_alert]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are in the process of claiming back charges from Lloyds.

 

We have a large O/D on our current account and have not been making any payments in since OH had to give up work due to ill health.

 

We have asked Lloyds to consider our claim on the grounds of financial hardship but

so far Lloyds have ignored our request and have now stated their intention to pass our accounts to Consumer Debt Recovery and state that CDR has been set up to - ''assist customers who are experiencing long term financial difficulties''.

 

So basically they are admitting we have long term financial difficulties - so why are they ignoring our claim for consideration under financial hardship grounds?

 

I know that Lloyds TSB are renowned for being the worst bank for dealing with hardship cases, but I am tempted to write again (we are at the position where we are about to file our claim at court) to Lloyds and ask them how they can admit we are in hardship on the one hand whilst ignoring our claim on the other.

 

If only they could see that if this ends up going to court our counter claim will be more than their claim by the time interest is added:eek:

 

Any advice would be most appreciated as always!

 

Thank you,

 

Landy x

Edited May 17, 2009 by landy_alert

[landy_alert]

Still no reply to our SARs although we returned the forms as requested by the bank at the end of March. Assuming they re-started counting the 40 days from the receipt of this form with ours sigs, their time is nearly up.

 

What worries me is that two weeks after they received our forms, they sent out another (delaying tactic) letter asking us which dates we wanted telephone logs from and I'm rather concerned that they didn't start counting the 40 days till they received our response to this letter:eek:

[andie_303]

The 40 days starts from the time the verified you request with the signature thing - Lloyds are buggers for the you are in hardship and we will get our hardship department to stratergise for you but we won't consider any hardship claim.

 

I recently got a full offer of PPI rebate from Lloyds + interest on the condition I pay it off my loan.

 

I said no pay to me and pay me compensation as the court or FOS would so thats with them at the moment.

 

Lloyds took 3 months to offer the refund so I'm sure it'll be another 3 months before I get a letter back about that.

[landy_alert]

Well still no response to our SARs - the signed Lloyds forms were returned at the end of March, but unfortunately despite being sent recorded it's another one of those cases where RM track and trace never showed them as having been delivered:(

 

We know they DID receive them, however, as they referred to them in a letter they sent us about two weeks later, but of course this means we cannot prove what date they arrived.

 

Nonetheless I honestly cannot believe it has taken them so long to gather all our stuff together, bearing in my we sent our original (unsigned) requests back in Jan/Feb.

 

So I guess a non-compliance letter is the order of the day..........

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone,

 

I have posted about this in the Lloyds forum but thought I might get additional advice here. Apologies in advance for the long post!

 

We have a joint account with Lloyds with a large overdraft. We sent off for SARs and started the claim for charges a few months ago as we discovered that our charges far outweighed the overdraft - several thousand in total. Then we read about some people having success under the financial hardship criteria and thought we might stand a chance as our circumstances were pretty dire. Unfortunately I didn't realise the necessity to draw the bank's attention to priority debts specifically and we only sent in an income & expenditure sheet with accompanying letter. After a couple of letters back and forth the bank said no to our claim and instead threatened to close our account.

 

I now know that -

 

a) We have priority debts with arrears which they should take into account.

 

b) The FSA guidelines state that a bank should not threaten to close your account as a result of a claim for charges.

 

However, if, as in our case, your account has been in trouble for some time I believe the bank can close your account - which indeed they have now done.

 

I am now wondering whether it's worth approaching the bank again highlighting our priority debts?

 

Any advice on this would be great please!

 

Many thanks,

 

Landy x

Edited May 17, 2009 by landy_alert

[car2403]

2 threads merged and moved to this forum - hopefully this bump will get you some help, or I can pop in again when I have more available time so keep bumping your thread if you don't get any responses

[landy_alert]

Many thanks - have now edited posts to get rid of duplicated info:D

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone,

 

I have posted about this in the Lloyds forum but thought I might get additional advice here. Apologies in advance for the long post!

 

We have a joint account with Lloyds with a large overdraft. We sent off for SARs and started the claim for charges a few months ago as we discovered that our charges far outweighed the overdraft - several thousand in total. Then we read about some people having success under the financial hardship criteria and thought we might stand a chance as our circumstances were pretty dire. Unfortunately I didn't realise the necessity to draw the bank's attention to priority debts specifically and we only sent in an income & expenditure sheet with accompanying letter. After a couple of letters back and forth the bank said no to our claim and instead threatened to close our account.

 

I now know that -

 

a) We have priority debts with arrears which they should take into account.

 

b) The FSA guidelines state that a bank should not threaten to close your account as a result of a claim for charges.

 

However, if, as in our case, your account has been in trouble for some time I believe the bank can close your account - which indeed they have now done.

 

I am now wondering whether it's worth approaching the bank again highlighting our priority debts?

 

Any advice on this would be great please!

 

Many thanks,

 

Landy x

 

Can anyone offer any advice on this issue please?

 

Many thanks,

 

Landy x

[maroondevo52]

Hi,

 

Have you thought about going through FOS.

[yourbank]

Hi everyone,

 

I have posted about this in the Lloyds forum but thought I might get additional advice here. Apologies in advance for the long post!

Apologies for not answering sooner.

We have a joint account with Lloyds with a large overdraft. We sent off for SARs and started the claim for charges a few months ago as we discovered that our charges far outweighed the overdraft - several thousand in total. Then we read about some people having success under the financial hardship criteria and thought we might stand a chance as our circumstances were pretty dire. Unfortunately I didn't realise the necessity to draw the bank's attention to priority debts specifically and we only sent in an income & expenditure sheet with accompanying letter. After a couple of letters back and forth the bank said no to our claim and instead threatened to close our account.

 

I now know that -

 

a) We have priority debts with arrears which they should take into account.

Absolutely

b) The FSA guidelines state that a bank should not threaten to close your account as a result of a claim for charges.

"(18 )

the firm must not close accounts or threaten closure of accounts of customers when it might reasonably appear that this is for the purpose (or with the intent) of penalising customers that have complained about unauthorised overdraft charges for having complained, or deterring future complaints from these customers or others. For the avoidance of doubt, the firm may close accounts or threaten to close accounts where there is good justification for doing so based on the circumstances of the particular case;"

However, if, as in our case, your account has been in trouble for some time I believe the bank can close your account - which indeed they have now done.

They should still try and identify cases where there is financial hardship.

In the guidance section in the waiver it does say this:

 

"16.

Before closing a personal current account of a customer in financial difficulty, the firm might offer the customer a basic bank account, if this is a facility that the bank offers."

I suspect that they haven't done this.

I am now wondering whether it's worth approaching the bank again highlighting our priority debts?

100% yes

Any advice on this would be great please!

 

Many thanks,

 

Landy x

 

Landy I would redo the spreedsheet, which should look similar to this one:

Money Advice Trust - The CFS budget forms and preparing a financial statement

And include photocopies of any priority debt arrears. I think I would be tempted to complain to the FSA with regards to a possible breach of the FSA Waiver on bank charges re the above points.

Possibly a complaint to the FSA Waivers Team.

[landy_alert]

Hi Scott and Yourbank,

 

Thank you both very much for your advice:)

 

Scott - if necessary that will be probably be our next but one step after a last letter to Lloyds.

 

Yourbank - I really appreciate your opinion as you above anyone has a good idea of how the banks' minds work and no need to apologise - your advice is welcome at any time! I am definitely going to have one last ditch attempt at getting them to reconsider and will put in a new I&E plus photocopies of the priority debt arrears. Will redo the spreadsheet as you have suggested and will remind them of the points you have highlighted regarding closing accounts under these circumstances....and no, they didn't offer us a basic account, although I'm sure they do have one. Once I have put a suitable letter together I will also look at making a complaint to the FSA waivers team as you recommend.

 

Thanks again to you both.

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone,

 

Just updating this thread..........

 

Sent another letter to Lloyds at Andover re: hardship, including copies of everything - priority debt arrears, I&E, proof of income etc - a whole mountain of supporting evidence. Received a letter back - the usual 'we are looking into your concerns' drivel, from Andover. We then received a similar letter from Hove, followed by another, also from Hove (we've never sent a letter there) stating that they cannot refund our charges whilst the OFT test case is ongoing and that collection activities will continue.

 

Now, is it that one department doesn't know what the other is doing?

 

Is it that Hove now gets the final say?

 

Both these departments are entitled Customer Service Recovery and both seem to be responding to our letters, although we have only ever written to Andover.

 

Trouble is, half of Lloyds letters don't have a reference number and they never say which of your letters they are referring to as they are just standard templates which get tweaked a bit.

 

In approximately 3 months we've received SEVENTEEN similar letters from the various departments all relating to this matter!

 

The last letter from Hove states that if we have any further information which we feel may lead them to reconsider their decision to let them know - have they not seen the last lot of supporting evidence we sent? I actually think that whatever you send Lloyds to support your claim for hardship they will do what they always do - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

 

Time to move on to the next stage, methinks.

 

Apologies for the rant!

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[landy_alert]

Just bumping this gently in the hope that someone can offer some help on my next move;)

 

Thank you,

 

Landy x

[yourbank]

Landy, I think the next stage is probably what you might want to do. You have given substantial information to them and they seem to be messing around.

[landy_alert]

Thank you yourbank:)

 

I was intending to get the N1 filed for this claim, but having read BankFodder's thread on o/d interest I amended the spreadsheets and sent Lloyds an updated claim. As a result I understand that I will now have to send a new LBA, which will be going in the post tomorrow.

 

I have also realised that despite receiving a letter warning of Lloyds intention to close the account, no DN or TN were received.

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone:)

 

Just updating this thread -

 

Sent LBA to LTSB - have received yet another 'we're looking into your complaint' letter from Andover and another similar one from Hove (total letters received in response from various depts now over 20!!!).

 

Also sent complaint to FSA Waivers Team as suggested by yourbank.

 

Decided to call Andover (as recommended by a successful LTSB hardship claimant on MSE).

 

Rung Andover number given by MSE member - they completely denied having anything to do with hardship claims at Andover and said Brighton was the place to call. Was put through to Brighton - no-one available who could deal with my complaint - someone will call back............guess what? No call back received:evil:

 

So back to another dead end!

 

I've had a rethink and will probably take yourbank's advice and approach the FOS - I have all my evidence ready to go and just need to write a covering letter based upon yourbank's recommendations.

 

If LTSB think they have beaten me - they'd better think again!

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[maroondevo52]

Keep at them Landy, let us know how you get on.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[landy_alert]

Keep at them Landy, let us know how you get on.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

 

Thank you Scott - will do:D

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone:)

 

Another update -

 

Have today received a response to my letter to the FSA Waivers Team.

 

They thank me for taking the time to prepare and send my concerns. They say that as I am aware, 'firms must deal with hardship cases as a normal complaint, and cannot put these on hold until the test case has been heard.' Something LTSB do not seem to be aware of!

 

They say they have passed a copy of my letter to the department responsible for granting waivers and monitoring firms' compliance with the waiver and associated conditions for its consideration, however, they point out that 'the information will be considered from a regulatory point of view only, and not with any view to resolve' my complaint as only the FOS can do this. Well, I have sent off copies of all letters to and from LTSB on this matter to the FOS, and will now have to await their response!

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[hoohizzel]

Hi Landy, am following your thread with great interest as in a similar situation to you although i haven't worked as hard as you as yet, just had 1 letter from Lloyds refusing to look into our financial hardship situation, i also have amended charges to incorporate overdraft lnt, and will send back further LBA, have you filled at court yet?

Sorry to be of no help & thankyou for helping me read about your case!

 

Good Luck

[landy_alert]

Hi Landy, am following your thread with great interest as in a similar situation to you although i haven't worked as hard as you as yet, just had 1 letter from Lloyds refusing to look into our financial hardship situation, i also have amended charges to incorporate overdraft lnt, and will send back further LBA, have you filled at court yet?

Sorry to be of no help & thankyou for helping me read about your case!

 

Good Luck

 

Hi hoohizzel:)

 

Thank you for your post - it's good to know that even though I don't appear to be getting anywhere with LTSB my story so far hasn't put you off!

 

I will have a read of your thread tomorrow (well today now, as it's gone 2am:eek:) and see if I can offer any advice.

 

We haven't filed at court yet, because I decided to try the FOS route first in the hope that this might give a faster result - it's worth a try anyway, because at least if that fails we can still proceed to court.

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone:)

 

Just quickly updating this thread -

 

Have now passed all correspondence to the FOS - there was a huge amount, over 40 letters in all, plus all other supporting evidence - and will now just have to wait for their response! Will update as and when we hear anything.

 

Regards,

 

Landy x

[maroondevo52]

Good luck, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed

[landy_alert]

Thanks Scott - me too;)

[landy_alert]

Hi everyone:)

 

FOS have today acknowledged receipt of my large bundle of documentation - now the long wait begins!

 

Regards,

 

Landy x