Hardship - partial offer, what to do??

[karennol]

Hi Guys,

 

I have been offered £230 in full and final settlement of my hardship claim , the offer has been made without acceptance of liability. They have agreed to refund my fees between june and september 09 for 1 of my accounts but the claims go back 4 years and I have 2 accounts with them?

 

What shall I do? They have given me 14 days to accept?

 

Thanks

 

Karen

ps I HATE THE HALIFAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fedup74]

Another Halifax hater woo hoo:D How much roughly do they actually owe you- don't give an exact figure. My charges equated to about £3900 with interest. They offered to pay £2300 I politely declined and re-iterated the unfairness of the amount of charges and asked them for a breakdown of how it costs them £35/£39 to pay/not pay DD. Then they offered to pay £3300 the amount of the charges minus interest. I tried my luck again saying I wanted the interest too but they wouldn't pay it and told me if I didn't accept I could await the court case outcome. I sent a letter back saying it wasn't in a full and final acceptance- I still wanted interest but was prepared to wait for the court outcome.

Is this the first offer they have given you? I would defo push for more if it was me, I found that they do roll over eventually although it does take them some time.

GOOD LUCK:)

[BankFodder]

This is a grossly unfair way of making their offer. In order to make this offer they have clearly acknowledged that you are in hardship. It is not acceptable for them to say that they will not recognise any further hardship on your part.

 

If you can do without the money for the moment, I would suggest that you write to them and tell them that you ill not accept any conditions on their offer and either they pay you the money or you want the matter brought before the Ombudsman immedately as the offer is oppresive, unfair, contrary to the FSA waiver terms and contrary to the Banking code.

 

Which bank is this anyway?

[BankFodder]

Oh, I see, it is the Halifax.

 

The offer is lacking in morality.

Have other people received similarly expressed offers from the Halifax?

[karennol]

they owe me about £4000 without interest....and yes I am a halifax hater!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Are they allowed to apply hardship to just onme of my accounts...they form I filled out included my partners income and the other is a joint account with him. Should I get him to sign the next letter too?

 

How long do you think it will take? they seem to be dragging their heels!

 

Thanks for such a quick response!!

[fedup74]

Cheeky beggars!! As far as I know if you are in hardship you will be on both accounts not just one (I could be wrong!). Write back and tell them you will not be accepting their offer, tell them what your charges equate to and add the interest too. I think I waited about 2 weeks for them to offer the amount without interest. If they do offer you the amount minus interest, make it clear that this is not a full and final acceptance, that you will be claiming the interest at a later date. Mention in your letter that you will refer it to the FOS and FSA as bankfodder has mentioned above. You could say that you are perfectly entitled to commence court proceedings too as hardship is not affected by the test case.

Good luck:)

[yourbank]

Hi Guys,

 

I have been offered £230 in full and final settlement of my hardship claim , the offer has been made without acceptance of liability. They have agreed to refund my fees between june and september 09 for 1 of my accounts but the claims go back 4 years and I have 2 accounts with them?

 

What shall I do? They have given me 14 days to accept?

 

Thanks

 

Karen

ps I HATE THE HALIFAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Lots of misinformation on the thread so I will stick to the basics really. Which account did your priority debts(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities) come out of?

Can I ask what caused the charges? What I mean by this is that charges are caused by a lack of funds to cover payments going out so, reduction in hours, maternity leave, loss of overtime would all be factors.

Did you send in copies of priority debt arrears?

Are any of the arrears being repaid either with additional payments or paying more per month?

 

I would never reject an interim payment but I would argue that an event caused the reduction in income leading to you missing priority debts and therefore those charges ate into your budget for the following month. If that event was earlier than June then I think you need to ask Halifax for a final response while negotiating a higher amount on the account where those bills are taken out of.

Hope that helps and no doubt at some point I will return to the thread with further help if required.

[yourbank]

Oh, I see, it is the Halifax.

 

The offer is lacking in morality.

Have other people received similarly expressed offers from the Halifax?

To answer your question re offers, the answer is yes.

My personal opinion is to argue for more based on priority debts and the event that caused a reduction in income. Simply going to the FOS and saying "It's not enough" is not really an argument that is going to make any offer increase.

Furthermore, I think the obvious question to many people claiming hardship is whether there are credit card/store card/catalogue charges that can be reclaimed since there is no hold/stay on those claims and they have more chance of gaining hundreds if not thousands of pounds back which in itself may help reduce overall financial hardship by taking out non priority debt payments(ie credit card payments and subsequently interest) and putting it back in the pot for priority debts that can lead to the loss of home, liberty and essential utilities.

[karennol]

Hiya,

 

Thanks for helping!!

 

My partner was out of work between 01/07 and 04/08 so we just had my income, then I went on mat leave and got paid statuatory pay from August to January when I returned to work part time until July, I have not been working since the end of July. My partner is also on the edge of being made redundant. So we have had a catalogue of financial misfortune for the last 2 years almost.

 

We are paying a bit more off the mortgage arrears each month and we are stealing from peter to pay paul with all of our other bills, we owe eon about £800!!. The charges were caused by lack of funds....sometimes because charges had been taken out and sometimes because I am not very organised.

 

The account they have offered to pay me £238 for is not my priority account but has had an unarranged overdraft for about 4 months.

 

I think I am due about £100 back from Egg from my credit cards but we have accrued about £4000 in charges over both my halifax accounts.

[karennol]

sorry...i forgot to mention that the unarranged overdraft was caused by charges!

 

Thanks

 

Karen

[yourbank]

Hiya,

 

Thanks for helping!!

 

My partner was out of work between 01/07 and 04/08 so we just had my income, then I went on mat leave and got paid statuatory pay from August to January when I returned to work part time until July, I have not been working since the end of July. My partner is also on the edge of being made redundant. So we have had a catalogue of financial misfortune for the last 2 years almost.

 

We are paying a bit more off the mortgage arrears each month and we are stealing from peter to pay paul with all of our other bills, we owe eon about £800!!. The charges were caused by lack of funds....sometimes because charges had been taken out and sometimes because I am not very organised.

 

The account they have offered to pay me £238 for is not my priority account but has had an unarranged overdraft for about 4 months.

 

I think I am due about £100 back from Egg from my credit cards but we have accrued about £4000 in charges over both my halifax accounts.

 

I think you need to argue the case from July 2007 and explain how this happened and what happened to the account due to the lack of income and explain how you robbed peter to pay paul with dates. Furthermore, explain the situation now(unfortunately future events are not hardship until they happen). If you can argue that a downward spiral happened and continued to go down up to today then you might be able to ask them to reconsider on that basis alone and I would argue on the joint account or where the priority debts come out of.

I would ask them to send you a final response letter and on that basis take it to the FOS arguing against their letter in doing so.

I hope that makes sense and that you are prepared to make the financial hardship part of the claim as individual to you and your partner's circumstances are because you might be able to negotiate higher amounts.

[yourbank]

sorry...i forgot to mention that the unarranged overdraft was caused by charges!

 

Thanks

 

Karen

Charges are the consequence of a lowering of income so the cause was the lifestyle change leading to the consequence of an excess of the agreed overdraft facility.

[fedup74]

Lots of misinformation on the thread so I will stick to the basics really.

 

Sorry yourbank if I have misunderstood your quote about misinformation. I was advising what I had done with the Halifax. The Halifax sent a laughable offer and I rejected it and this is what I was telling the OP. If they aren't happy with the offer (and why would they be?) they are well within their rights to reject it.

There is only myself and bankfodder who have replied so I assume you think it is me giving mis-information? As I said apologies if I have misunderstood.

[karennol]

sorry for being thick?? Why july 07? Not Jan 07?

[yourbank]

Lots of misinformation on the thread so I will stick to the basics really.

 

Sorry yourbank if I have misunderstood your quote about misinformation. I was advising what I had done with the Halifax. The Halifax sent a laughable offer and I rejected it and this is what I was telling the OP. If they aren't happy with the offer (and why would they be?) they are well within their rights to reject it.

There is only myself and bankfodder who have replied so I assume you think it is me giving mis-information? As I said apologies if I have misunderstood.

 

Fedup, I disagree with BF and not yourself. I have no time for soundbites but apologies if you thought it was aimed at you since it wasn't.

The advice I would have is never to reject offers but to negotiate based on your circumstances.

 

To answer Karennol, I misinterpreted 01/07 as being 1st of july rather than Jan 07.

[karennol]

Hi guys,

 

Went back to Halifax and explained that I wouldn't be accepting their offer as it was far too low and for the past 2 years (since hardship started) they have applied about £2500 in charges.

 

They said that they accept that I am in hardship but its best they will do! and told me to go direct to the ombundsman. Is this normal....I expected a bit more "haggling" than that!!!

 

Thanks

 

Karen

[Screwedup81]

I actually think you got quite a lot as they only offered me £175 for £2300 worth of bank charges for two accounts. I was on the phone almost daily explaining my financial circumstances but it finally occurred that I was dealing with some kind of stone headed people and gave up. I did sent them statements of rent with arrears, gas bills showing that I was in arrears but this didnt work and they still kept on standing on the offer and finally referred me to the ombudsman. After reading inside out and doing some google searches I gave up as I realised that the FSA rules are not as straightforward on hardship refunds and they do not necessarily have to refund. As for me I will now wait until the court case ends but will keep an eye here also to see how others are progressing

[maybelline]

This is a grossly unfair way of making their offer. In order to make this offer they have clearly acknowledged that you are in hardship. It is not acceptable for them to say that they will not recognise any further hardship on your part.

 

If you can do without the money for the moment, I would suggest that you write to them and tell them that you ill not accept any conditions on their offer and either they pay you the money or you want the matter brought before the Ombudsman immedately as the offer is oppresive, unfair, contrary to the FSA waiver terms and contrary to the Banking code.

 

Which bank is this anyway?

 

halifax did this to me - acknowledged the hardship by offering me £35 and then went on to not pay it but add two more charges to my account!! ps can I get me 8% on the charges I claimed two years ago, did not sign a full and final settlement document and stupdily accepted charges only, now they have gone on to behave outrageously and still have unlawful PPI to claim back, I dont see why they should get away with it!! very annoyed.