General question on bank charge claim and financial hardship re A&L

[JK36]

I have a charges claim to do against A&L which will be substantial, several £'00 at least.

This is my main bank account, because of my other claims going through and not paying due to their not complying with CCAs I cannot open another account as my credit rating isn't good at the moment

What I need to know please is will A&L penalise me if I put in financial hardship claim to get the charges processed now rather than wait until the test case goes through the courts?

I know some banks will close the account automatically if you so much as mention CCCS.

Does anybody know?

[yourbank]

Originally Posted by JK36

I have a charges claim to do against A&L which will be substantial, several £'00 at least.

This is my main bank account, because of my other claims going through and not paying due to their not complying with CCAs I cannot open another account as my credit rating isn't good at the moment

What I need to know please is will A&L penalise me if I put in financial hardship claim to get the charges processed now rather than wait until the test case goes through the courts?

I know some banks will close the account automatically if you so much as mention CCCS.

Does anybody know?

Under the fsa waiver on hardship they are not allowed to close your account.

"(1
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;"

Can you clarify the CCCS bit though?

[JK36]

I had another bank tell me as soon as you mention CCCS they will automatically close the account (First Direct), that was their reasoning for closing a connected account, they haven;t actually closed my main account because it stil ahs an overdraft on it (charges)

I have had a discussion with CCCS so I have a reference number, which is sometimes handy to quote, but am not on any payment plan with them or anything. I do have a letter from them to send to the bank re charges but have resisted because I cannot afford to have this account closed as its the only one I have for my personal stuff and it also has some business stuff going through it.

Basically my main personal account I am not using for 2 reasons,
1. they did the old bang a load of charges on for a miniscule error and
2. I have a disputed credit card with the same company and they threatened to take moey form the current account to pay the card so I dare not risk it until the card is settled.

So I moved all my personal stuff to the A&L account and now have no other back up accoutn to go to if they get funny.

Also I know they are not "allowed" to take action, that doesnt; always seems to stop them, hence my question.

My charges will exceed £1,000. I have over £700 to early October, the rest still to add up but the recent ones are the biggest chunk. My guess at least the same again.