Hardship application and a £2k overdraft!

[poormanofherts]

I need a bit of advice.

I am thinking of claiming back my charges from Abbey. I have been on contributions based jobseekers since December (which stops this week and I will not get anything at all!) and have incurred more than my fair share of charges as I have had loads of direct debits fail etc.

My questions are:

Am i in 'hardship' if my wife works (she now pays the mortgage, council tax, gas etc)?

Will the Abbey close my account?

If they do and I have an overdraft of £2K, how do they expect to get that money back?

I appreciate any advice/comments.

[BankFodder]

They will very likley say that you are not in harship but try it if you want. I can do very little harm - except that it will delay your full claim in the courts.

Even if you get smoe money from them, it won't be everything.

By far your best bet will be to start a court claim as soon as possible and add your 8%. This is a very high rate interest at the moment and you may as well get your money earning as quicly as possible.

[poormanofherts]

Thanks for that.

[yourbank]

I need a bit of advice.

I am thinking of claiming back my charges from Abbey. I have been on contributions based jobseekers since December (which stops this week and I will not get anything at all!) and have incurred more than my fair share of charges as I have had loads of direct debits fail etc.

My questions are:

Am i in 'hardship' if my wife works (she now pays the mortgage, council tax, gas etc)? If you have priority debts(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities) then you might be considered in financial hardship albeit household income should be assessed as part of the process.

Will the Abbey close my account? Abbey won't close your account because you are claiming.

If they do and I have an overdraft of £2K, how do they expect to get that money back? They won't

I appreciate any advice/comments.

 

Hope that helps

[landy_alert]

Hi poormanofherts:)

 

We are in a similar situation but with LTSB - we have an o/d of £4000+ and charges owed amounting to more than double that amount.

 

Although banks are not supposed to close accounts as a result of a charges claim (and on the whole I believe they don't), they did close ours (we are quite pleased actually as we no longer use it and had intended to close it anyway once all this is over).

 

We have reported them to the FSA, although apparently they cannot deal with individual cases.

 

As a precaution, it would be wise to open a parachute account at an unconnected bank and change all your payments in and direct debits etc to the new account.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

 

Landy x