Alliance and Leicester are trying to ruin my xmas!!

K9cuddles · 23 December 2005 at 1:45PM

Okay got my statment dated 19th so not recieved until 21st that I had gone £3.95 over my over draft (due to there deduction of 5.29 interest) and will incur 2x £25 (1 for interest and 1 for monthy OD fee).. so went and paid it on 30th Nov.

Just got my statment this month and because I didn't PAY it the SAME DAY the last statement was issued iv'e got another 2x£25!! So I've gotta pay £100 in bank charges for £3.95!!!!

I hate A&L with vengence and don't use this account much hence I didn't realise I'd gone over my OD! So.. what shall I do?

I tried writing to them before, but they are very mean on waiving any bank charges, so do I just close the account... i dont' think I should be loyal to them!!! I had just set up some standing orders from the account but I figure I can apply else where... but would that benefit me?

Thanks for reading!

Sara

file_wizzard · 23 December 2005 at 2:10PM

Sara,

try the attached; it will normally work, and in this case they have little ground to uphold the charges, prob best just to close the account once they have refunded them

Name

Sort Number
Account number

Date

Dear ( bank / credit card company)

I write with reference to Charges that were applied to my account on the (insert date)

It is my belief that these charges are unfair ( insert the details as cited on the forum)

0n 26 July 2005 the OFT stated that 'a charge is likely to be disproportionately high if it is more than a court would be likely to award if the lender sued the cardholder for breach of contract'. Because your charges in this instance are £XXX I am unable comprehend how this can be a true pre estimate of loss for the dispatch of one computer generated letter, I would therefore suggest that they do not reflect actual loss, and are therefore irrecoverable as an unfair term in contract as your charges require me to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation for being overdrawn without mutual agreement.

I would therefore request that as a gesture of good will that you consider refunding these charges in full to my account within the next 7 days, or I will have no further option but to consider civil recover procedures for the amount of the charges and my associated reasonable costs for correspondence on this matter.

Yours truly

Sign name

K9cuddles · 23 December 2005 at 2:53PM

Oooooo.. I'll give it a go! Thx!

---lee--- · 23 December 2005 at 3:16PM

Hi Sara,

Assuming you get your money back, I figure it's better to leave a small amount of money in your a/c (say a £1) and leave it open. Ask them to cancel the overdraft facility. That way it should have no bearing on your credit rating. Leaving it like this will cost them money to operate your a/c (sending out statements etc).

I did this with egg when they peed me off with their charges a few years ago. I did not know about MSE then and that you could get the charges waived. I get 3 statements from them a month all for my £1 balance savings accounts. Admittedly a waste of paper, but it does bring a rye smile to my face and I figure that I got the last laugh. A little childish I know, but it does bring me a small amount of pleasure

No doubt I will recover the fees from them many times over the lifetime of either egg or me, whoever goes first.

Good luck with the charges. They sound grossly unfair to me.

:xmassign:

MrMaN_3 · 23 December 2005 at 3:20PM

Ah yes, Alliance and Leicester. They ended up giving me a default through no fault of my own. They let a direct debit go through which had cancelled which resulted in me knocking up £150 of fee's in 2weeks. As I was unemployed and the fee's would keep pileing up I had no choice but to get a default and close they account. They did absolutly nothing to help me.

K9cuddles · 23 December 2005 at 3:35PM

Yes.. I think your right.. get rid of the OD (I don't want it or need it) and leaving my payment of £20 a month going in.. with £10 standing order coming out.

Thanks everyone!

FieryBlondeScot · 23 December 2005 at 11:42PM

A&L charged me over £200 in bank charges in 2 months and it really got me down. in the end i came across the 'unfair bank charges' thread and was inspired by people who challenged their chrges and got a refund. i got so angry at the thought that rather than lying down and accepting it as my fault and just let them take the money out my account all the time i wrote them the pro-forma letter from bankchargeshell.com. i have just today received a reply from them stating that they are looking at my case and will be in touch. now if i DO get a refund then i will be mad for the stress i suffered before i opened my eyes and fought my corner!!!! will keep you posted anyway as to the outcome

Glitterari · 24 December 2005 at 12:14AM

Hi everyone...

I found MSE a few weeks ago and found the threads about getting refunds from bank charges last week. Went and looked at website stated but too wussy to try it and see where I get...

I have been a customer of HSBC since 1998 and I would say that since I started my student days (graduated 2 years ago) I have sustained bank charges - which are apparently unfair - every single month.

The most recent bank charge was £30 for 'card misuse' according to online banking. They haven't even sent me a letter to tell me this. But now I have the template (THANKS!) I am going to try it out...

Just a question - should I just go for say the last 2 months of bank charges to be 'refunded' (or whatever it's called) you know start small and all that or list every single unfair charge from the past 6 years? (you can apparently request refunds for up to 6 years ago)...any advice anyone. If this works out for me with going back 6 years, I can also help my Mum to do this and this would sort out so much for us...I get my spending/debting ways from my Mum! Not an excuse by any means, she just wasn't the most penny pinching role model...but I love her!

Any advice greatly appreciated and I shall keep you informed...ohhh it makes me so angry they can do this and it's not even 'legal'!

love Carly xx

---lee--- · 24 December 2005 at 10:17AM

Hi Glitterari,

In Sara's case, the she got charged for going beyond her overdraft limit due to interest charges. At least, that's my understanding of her situation. Clearly it’s unreasonable for the bank to make huge charges for going pennies beyond the o/d limit – especially when it’s account running charges which have caused this.

From your post, I get the impression that you are consistently operating your account outside it’s terms. If that’s the case, I can’t see the bank being terribly sympathetic or helpful.

That said, I do wish you luck and would suggest that you start small first trying to get more recent charges overturned. I (and I’m sure many others) would be interested to hear of your progress.

BTW, what is card misuse?

:xmassign:

dooglebugg · 24 December 2005 at 11:23AM

I wish I had known about this and other similar threads before I just accepted unfair bank fines. In November all in all I got stung for £250 worth of charges from various establishments. To summarise I had got the money but it was in a seperate account and tied up in cheques that hadn't cleared and foolishly I have all my direct debits set up to come out on the same day. By this time the money hadn't moved across and therefore everyone was slamming fines on me left right and centre for all my unpaid direct debits.

I could not pay £39 for my phone bill but A&L still took £34 out of my account for not paying the direct debit which infuriated me. I then got charged 2 x £25 for being over my overdraft. The sick thing is the money was there but in the wrong place! I also was working a second job that month and everything I earnt went on those fines grrrrr!

K9cuddles · 24 December 2005 at 11:27AM

Exactly.. I've been doing 40-50 hours over timer a month (and I work full time anyways!) to get some extra cash to pay these bills of quicker... and I was horrified so see they had ripped me off!!!

Alliance and Leicester are trying to ruin my xmas!!

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