What should I do next?

[Tobster]

I have a student account.

HSBC charged me £100 for going over my overdraft limit when my student loan was late.

 

I haven't started any court case yet but have gone down the financial hardship route. I'm borderline-screwed until my next student loan installment in the new year unless I take out a £100 hardship loan from the Uni.

 

I've got a response to my second complaint letter telling me to fill in an income & expenditure form and ring them.

 

Would this achieve anything, or should I just write back again and demand it a final time before putting in a claim?

 

Letter history:

(header, names etc removed)

#1:

I am writing to request that you repay a recent charge that was applied to my undergraduate student account on the . I do not believe this charge reflects the true cost to HSBC.

 

The total charge was £100. I believe I have been unlawfully deprived of the money and therefore ask that you repay me the full amount.

Should you fail to comply, I intend to claim the full amount together with any applicable court fees through the county court.

This is based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, as I believe these default charges are unfair and not proportionate to your costs, and therefore the court will rule in my favour.

I look forward for a full response to this letter within 14 days.

Yours faithfully,

 

Response from them clairified current situation regarding FSA waiver etc.

 

#2:

I acknowledge receipt of your response to my complaint.

I am aware of the current situation regarding the legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading, however I should point out that the suspension of complaints authorised by the Financial Services Authority do not apply to cases of financial hardship, and the FSA expects firms to continue dealing with such cases during the waiver period.

I am a full time student and have recently returned to studies as well as private rented accommodation. Due to the nature of this situation, the default charge you applied to my account has led to financial hardship for me, as I now live with three other students who are mutually financially dependant on me to pay for general living and upkeep costs of the said rented accommodation.

Having been what I consider to be unlawfully deprived of £100, there is now a possibility that I will be unable to contribute towards said living costs without breaching my arranged overdraft limit with you, which would probably incur more charges, making the situation worse. Your actions have therefore potentially placed me and three other students in financial jeopardy. Any court of law will not look favourably upon this.

I look forward to a full refund of the £100 charge within the next 14 days, and thus will overlook the fact that this situation ever happened, and remain a loyal customer as I had been quite happy with the level of service received in the past until this situation occurred.

Should you not refund the charge, I will have no choice but to proceed with a claim through the county court for the full amount plus interest up to the time of judgement as well as any applicable court fees.

Because of my circumstances of financial hardship, the court will not grant your request of an order for the case to be suspended until the bank’s proceedings with the OFT have been resolved.

I should add in anticipation, that when I graduate from my course I will need a trustworthy, reliable & considerate bank to deal with accounts for my planned IT Consultancy business. I should also add that two of the students I am sharing accommodation with are also customers of yours, and await the outcome of this situation with eagerness.

Yours faithfully,

 

Response apologises about financial hardship circumstances, states that they will explore how they can assist (such as debt reschedules/alternative borrowing arrangements) but they emphasise that they will not solely focus on refunding charges.

 

Any advice anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated.

[freakyleaky]

Unfortunately the banks are not considering repaying charges while the test case is still ongoing.

 

The letters you have written are perfectly worded and if the banks considered these requests on an individual basis they may actually do the right thing from time to time. Instead they have a blanket response. NO!

 

Have you tried speaking to someone at the bank and asking for the charge to be reversed? They will often refund the money to your account if it has not been a regular request in the past.

It is worth a try.

Failing that then I suggest you get together all charges on your account over the last 6 years(or from the start of your account) and proceed with a claim through the courts.

 

You can find all the information to do this on this site and when you are ready just shout and you will get plenty of help and advice along the way.

 

 

.

[freakyleaky]

Just for information and the basics this may be useful

Guide To Reclaiming Bank Charges **##~~~~**##~~~~ Read This First !!

[Tobster]

I realise this was a VERY long time ago, and I'm now well and truly graduated and a few years into my career, but thought I should post the outcome of this for completeness. It may be utterly irrelevant now though.

 

I did go into my local branch and had the charges dropped; the reason was, the terms and conditions of the student account vaguely stated that fees weren't chargeable. The manageress I spoke to said (In response to me querying this) "these look to me like an overdraft renewal fee" (they clearly weren't) "And aren't chargeable on your account".

 

Thanks for your reply freakyleaky, if a bit late!