HBOS Charges reclaiming - 5 Accounts over the years.

[dazzaboy2]

Annie,

 

In my case, I got judgement by default as they failed to submit a defence. HBOS are denying ever having recieved the judgement so the High Court Enforcement Officers are payting them a visit very shortly.........

[sowerby17]

that sounds like good payback for them. teach them they can be beaten

[gemspan]

Hi there

 

Got a letter from BOS today apologising for taking so long to respond to my complaint. This letter didnt have my account number on it so I phoned them to let them know that actually I have a complaint now in Court. It would appear that they have a department handling purely charges claims and there seems to be a long backlog. The lady (if you could call her that!) ended up hanging the phone up on me and I promptly phoned back and complained about it.

 

Basically she said to me that the claim would be dealt with in date order and I could take them to court if I wanted. When I advised them that perhaps they should be employing more staff because this is surely going to affect shareholders dividends, she said they had employed more staff but they still couldnt get through the backlog.

 

I advised her that as soon as the court case I have is settled I will be taking further action with the other claims I have.

 

THey really are incompetent. They would prefer you to complain to the Ombudsman etc., than deal with your complaint promptly. Also, she said I had no right to give them a timescale by which to reply as they have 8 weeks by law under the FSA guidelines. I told her they maybe had that length of time by law but I was free to stipulate what timescale I wanted to stipulate and I think that 28 days is long enough.

 

HOnestly, it beggars belief. Anyway, I await confirmation of my court claim.

 

Annie

[sowerby17]

annie take no notice of them they will pay before court but how much i do not know.Not worth while arguing with someone who is just doing their job.They must get really hacked off with us lot.Not that when they are asking us for the money is it.Dont bother ringing anymore we are just a number to them and so are the people ont the other end of the phone.

I know it is hard but have patience.

[gemspan]

Hi there

 

Got a call yesterday offering me £1700. Said no. They offered me £3000 today but I have still held out as total is now £3391 and the extra will pay my mortgage for 3 weeks.

 

Watch this space. What do you think will happen now?

 

Annie

[sowerby17]

think i would havetaken it.But hey you will get it all

[gemspan]

An update on the situation.

 

I got a letter from BOS yesterday offering me £1325 on my other claim of £1646. I called them and advised that I wanted full amount or would take it to court. They said that their sysem showed that total charges were £1545. Asked if they would settle at that and they said yes. One down 5 more to go!!!!

 

Not heard anything further about the £3500 claim and their time runs out on Monday!!!! We'll have to wait and see what happens there.

 

Credit card got in touch and offered me £270 on a £583 claim. Said no and they offered me £470. They said I wasnt allowed to apply interest unless I had a court order. Advised them that as they had applied interest I was doing the same; only difference was I was applying "simple" interest and not "compounded" interest like they do. If they wanted to go to court I would be applying compounded interest. They have settled at £583!!! However, that will just go into my credit card to reduce the balance and I'm happy with that!!!

 

I'll update everyone on the final outcome next week.

 

Annie

[gemspan]

Hi there

 

Just wanted to update you. BOS paid £3373 into my account. One third of that was taken up by the overdraft incurred through unlawful charges and the rest has to go to mortgage arrears etc., All the money has been spoken for but it has really got me out of a bad situation and I feel I can now start living again.

 

I have made a donation to the site. I have donated £50 and would like to have donated more but unfortunately I dont have excess funds to do so.

 

I'd like to take the time to thank everyone for their support and wish everyone well in their quest for unlawful bank charges to be refunded.

 

Kind regards

Gemspan

[Cragdoo]

good for you , glad hear it all came 'good' in the end

 

Banks !?!? Get it up ye !!

[pepper491]

Oh wow, sent the money claim on line today to BOS at their Birmingham address for £7864.02. I was suprised that I could go above 5k??. Fantastic to read this thread , gives me hope that I may see a cheque one day and my £250 court fee was well spent. Read a lot of stuff about Scottish courts and head offices but just decided to stick it to em in Birmingham??

PHIL. (with crossed fingers for 14 days!!)

[sowerby17]

annie i am so chuffed for you. good to get some debt out of the way.you must feel so relieved.

[skintscot]

Yipeeeeeee!

Been reading this thread with keen interest so well done you!!!

[gemspan]

Thanks everyone. All I can say is keep going and dont lose the faith. I was tempted to take their offer of £3000 but decided to stick it out. All I have to do now once I have the money is to get in touch with them to remove any defaults they have applied to my accounts. Probably never get another account with HBOS again but cant say that bothers me.

 

Keep the faith

Annie

[sowerby17]

well annie there are otherbanks so who cares as long as you got what wasyours

[pepper491]

Hi GEMSPAN,

was yours a business account with BOS? and if so did you edit your particulars of claim to suit??

Phil

[gemspan]

Hi there

 

Having just received more than £5000 in unlawful charges I took the time to look back at my statements only to discover that the sole reason for my financial difficulties over the last couple of years has been BOS placing charges on my accounts. This meant that I had to find in excess of £5000. I managed to find almost £4000 and closed one account; a business account (which I am still to claim for!) and my personal account was sitting with an overdraft of £1015. Now, all my standing orders and direct debits came from this account and it meant that, to get to this state, all my standing orders etc., had been bounced which set off a spiral of events on my other accounts ie charges etc., etc., Eventually, I was left with a situation where I had to borrow money from HSBC to pay off BOS business account overdraft (with £1000 charges!), and various other accounts that had charges on them. In addition, it had a serious effect on my health and consequently my business which then started to fail because I was ill with worry. I have a doctor who will confirm that I was suffering from severe depression and IBS!!!

 

Now I am in a better position, have a new job, feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel, I have requested a copy of my credit file and am astounded to find that BOS have listed all these defaults against me - and they are all for charges. Now, bearing in mind I had to take a loan against my house at a very high interest rate to try and clear my feet (unsuccessfully!) and my health suffered because of their treatment of me, I wondered where I now stand as regards to taking them to court for damages due to their mismanagement of my accounts.

 

I have sent them a letter today advising them that I want them to remove all defaults against me because they have singularly been caused by them levying charges on my account and I would like a meeting with a senior customer relations manager at my branch, to discuss all the other accounts that went into arrears etc., because of this.

 

I would be grateful if somebody with a legal background could help me out with this. I regard this as very serious as they have effectively ruined my credit status, my health and my life because my business suffered.

 

I am in Scotland and would appreciate any help that I can get. I want to know the law when I go in to see them.

 

Thank you so much in advance.

 

Kind regards

Annie

[gemspan]

bump!!!!

 

Can anybody help here please

 

Thanks

Annie

[dazzaboy2]

Hi Annie,

 

I don't know for sure, but claiming damages is very difficult as far as I know.........I don;t think anyone has ever done it successfully yet.

 

However, getting defaults removed is possible! There are loads of threads on the forum about it.......have a look around.

[kevcam]

Hello,

 

You may be entitled to claim damages for financial loss as a result of the Default Notice. In addition you can also claim compensation for distress.

 

You would need to argue that the Default Notice was placed on your account at a time when the banks records showed that you owed them *** but in actual fact the bank owed you ***. The Default Notice was then placed on your account in breach of Section 13 of the Data Protection Act.

 

The claim for compensation would be made under the provisions of Section 14 of the Data Protection Act which allows a court to award compensation.

 

You would need strong evidence of your financial loss. Perhaps you had to borrow money at a high rate than usual. The claim for distress would also need evidence. Perhaps you have been suffering from stress etc.

[gemspan]

HI there

 

Thank you for your advice. I do have evidence that because the bank effectively mismanaged my accounts they put me into severe financial difficulty. The fact that I have already claimed back £5000, which would have effectively paid my bills for quite a few months (if not more than a year!) I think shows that what they did has put me into financial difficulty.

 

Anybody who has experienced exorbitant charges will know how easily it is to spiral ie you get a charge and you pay in money to cover the outstanding balance but the charge is added 7 days later and then you are charged on the charge etc., etc., This meant that SOs and DDs were being bounced and I was then having to pay charges to those companies. Eventually I had to borrow which meant I had to take more debt to cover their charges and all the other charges, together with gas, electricity etc.,; which then put me into more debt which was harder to pay and things just became desperate.

 

I have been attending my doctor now for almost 2 years with severe stomach pains caused by stress. My doctor advised me that it was due to financial worries etc., I eventually had to give up my business because my health meant that I couldnt work at it effectively for 2 years!!!! Since I found this site and realised what they have done to me, I have managed to claim back these charges but realistically that is only a small part of my situation. Effectively they ruined my life. I had just moved house when all this started and had to find money from nowhere to pay the charges.

 

I now have a debt secured to my house; a managed loan with HSBC and this is all to do with the fact that what they did to me made me ill with worry.

 

I initially spoke to my MP about this and he became involved almost 2 years ago. He dealt with the head office and the chief executive. Things kind of got sorted while he was dealing with it but went back to the same old as soon as his office passed it to the other departments who are supposedly dealing with these situations day in and day out.

 

I now find myself with heaps of debt that I didnt have before and a string of defaults because of all the charges that were piled on to that. I am in the process of claiming back charges but this takes ages and also trying to get the defaults removed.

 

Does anybody know of solicitors that may be willing to fight my case for me should I have to take them to court?

 

Thanks a lot

Annie

[kevcam]

Hi,

 

I think you would probably be best representing yourself using advice from fellow members of CAG as legal representation would be very expensive.

 

Don't be afraid of going to court as it really isn't as bad as you might think.

 

I would advise that your claim for damages not be for the charges but because of the Default Notices.

[gemspan]

Hi Kevcam

 

Yes that's exactly what I was thinking. However, it was the charges that started the defaults if you see what I mean. BOS have really mismanaged my accounts. How would I start a claim and what sort of information would I need to put in it.

 

Are there any other threads that I can refer to?

 

Kind regards

Annie

[kevcam]

Hi Annie,

 

I'll send you a PM with my Particulars of Claim. These have been viewed by a judge on a few occasions and have been updated on recommendation of the judge so should be pretty good now.

 

I see that you have been refunded some of your charges. Have the charges already been refunded in full for the accounts in which you recieved the Defaults?

 

It shouldn't matter, but if the charges are still outstanding it would be best to do in one claim.

[gemspan]

HI Kevcam

 

Two of the accounts have had charges refunded - the personal account which held all my SOs and DDs has had £3373 refunded only last week. The budget account has been settled but I am yet to receive the amount of £1545. They have refunded £583 to my credit card. There is still the personal loan (of whch I am still waiting to get a payment history from Blair Oliver & Scott, the credit card original agreement from them too!) and my business account which has over £1000 in charges to be refunded.

 

They have issued defaults on the personal account, the personal loan and the credit card. I also have defaults on my A&L credit card (waiting for copy of CCA agreement and they have now defaulted), my co-op credit card which has balance of £1000 and charges without interest of £600.

 

I had to take out a loan with Black Horse and one with HSBC to cover the overdraft on my business account and to pay off outstanding bills at that time because I was then ill with worry. The following year I had to take money from my equity in the house to pay my living expenses because of this ongoing saga and the worry it had caused me. I now stand with a loan to HSBC of £20,000 and one to Black Horse of £15,000. The HSBC is a managed loan, Black Horse is an interest rate of 13% and it is secured to my house. I have had to let my business go and prior to BOS starting all of this it was running along quite nicely and growing. When I became ill I couldnt work so had to find the money to live from somewhere else hence the HSBC and Black Horse loans.

 

I hope this makes sense. Effectively, because of my ill health over the past 2 years I have had to take loans to live and now I have problems.

 

Prior to the charges etc., my credit record was exemplary and this is shown on my credit file. It all started to go wrong when BOS started lumping on the charges when they merged with Halifax.

 

Thanks for your info. I will await BOS reply to my letter and at least I can go in now with the law on my side.

 

Thanks again

Annie

[andrew1]

These are just a few threads where you might find some similar and useful information. It takes some reading because some are guite long threads, but the information you require will need to be thorough and you'll find this here.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legalities/24736-default-removal-katenandpete-hsbc.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/40729-i-got-compensation-abbey.html - Robert is a Moderator in Scotland and may be a useful contact to PM

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/26925-business-account-over-19-a.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/legalities/20118-default-hell.html

 

That should keep you out of mischief for a day or two.

 

Good luck