needing help to reclaim bank charges

butterfly_wings832000 · 19 October 2016 at 4:05PM

Hi, I was just wondering if someone could help me please. I have been with my bank for a long time and have found out that I have been paying a monthly fee that I had no knowledge about. I do not know how long I have been paying it and I also think my account has been upgraded without my consent. Does anyone know how I go about finding this out please before I start to make a claim for my fees back? Thanking you Katie.

-taff · 19 October 2016 at 4:24PM

Find out when you had it, decide whether or not it was sold as an adjunct to having some other product, like a loan or an overdraft. Online bank accounts can show you up to ten years of statements, but you will have to search for it.

If your account has been upgraded without you knowing, and it has happened, then phone and complain.

But, you should have ben checking your staements to see what you were spending, having been paying this for years, you really should have noticed sooner, so go through your staements again and find out what else you've been paying for you didnt know about.

What bank was it?

Nasqueron · 19 October 2016 at 4:53PM

butterfly_wings832000 wrote: »

Hi, I was just wondering if someone could help me please. I have been with my bank for a long time and have found out that I have been paying a monthly fee that I had no knowledge about. I do not know how long I have been paying it and I also think my account has been upgraded without my consent. Does anyone know how I go about finding this out please before I start to make a claim for my fees back? Thanking you Katie.

Just to be clear, you need to complain to them, you don't claim anything.

I'd tidy up your complaint first though:

I have been paying a monthly fee that I had no knowledge about.
That simply means you have never read a single statement from the bank, it's not a complaint reason

I do not know how long I have been paying it
You don't need to, if the bank agrees it was miss-sold they will know and will refund it all

I also think my account has been upgraded without my consent
A hearsay complaint but also a serious one as you are making an allegation of fraud against the bank

If the bank has evidence they sent you details of the account and what you were paying for they can counter your allegations anyway and it might be possible to time bar the complaint.

See the guide here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-packaged-bank-accounts

butterfly_wings832000 · 19 October 2016 at 5:41PM

Thank you very much for your help, I shall take your advice on board. BTW it is with barclays.

GemsT · 19 October 2016 at 10:43PM

Hi everyone!

This is probably a huge long shot but..... I opened up a bank account at 16 and was told which account I had to have etc etc. I was being charged £10 a month for the privilege of having an Advantage Gold account which I want aware of!
I was wondering if there was a way of obtaining these statements from NatWest to see how many years they were charging me £10 a month! Bearing in mind I am now 33 and closed my NatWest account around 7 years ago.

Any help would be appreciated

Gemst

McKneff · 19 October 2016 at 10:54PM

Was told...... you have to have something in writing.

You would have had a charge of the ten pounds on each monthly statement so I cant see why you werent aware of it.

Not really sure if the age ie .... 16 as apposed to 18 has any earing on this.

Ring them first and see what they say

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2016 at 10:55PM

GemsT wrote: »

I was wondering if there was a way of obtaining these statements from NatWest to see how many years they were charging me £10 a month! Bearing in mind I am now 33 and closed my NatWest account around 7 years ago.

If you closed the account so long ago, the Bank is very unlikely to have kept anything other than the most basic records (and perhaps not even that) . You could send them a Subject Access Request (SAR) letter, but this won't net you full statements on a closed account. In addition, it would cost you £10; so a gamble.

Finally, you do realise that saying you didn't know you were paying this charge is just admitting that you didn't check statements? It's not a valid complaint reason.

[Deleted User] · 19 October 2016 at 10:58PM

McKneff wrote: »

Not really sure if the age ie .... 16 as apposed to 18 has any earing(sic) on this.

16 year olds can have bank accounts. It won't have then been a fee-paying account, of course.

Mersey_2 · 19 October 2016 at 11:40PM

butterfly_wings832000 wrote: »

Hi, I was just wondering if someone could help me please. I have been with my bank for a long time and have found out that I have been paying a monthly fee that I had no knowledge about. I do not know how long I have been paying it and I also think my account has been upgraded without my consent. Does anyone know how I go about finding this out please before I start to make a claim for my fees back? Thanking you Katie.

Yes, not being informed there would be a fee when you were upgraded is a valid complaint reason. This is what happened to me almost a decade ago and I successfully reclaimed the monthly fees plus the bank paid the statutory 8% pa interest as well as a small further amount in compensation for their failure to send out the packaged account pack (which would have detailed the charges).

Just state what happened when you email them. It's your lay evidence - it is not hearsay.

Nasqueron · 20 October 2016 at 9:22AM

Mersey wrote: »

Yes, not being informed there would be a fee when you were upgraded is a valid complaint reason.

This is a valid complaint if you immediately complain when you get the first charge

Mersey wrote: »

Just state what happened when you email them. It's your lay evidence - it is not hearsay.

This user stated

"I opened up a bank account at 16 and was told which account I had to have etc etc."

This is hearsay as per the literal definition

"the report of another person's words by a witness, which is usually disallowed as evidence in a court of law."

Stating you were told you needed an account is by definition hearsay unless the conversation was recorded or some documentation exists where the bank staff state in writing which account they recommend.

An account closed 7 years ago is outside the 2 key time bar rules - more that 3 years since they could reasonably be aware of the reason for complaint and more than 6 years since it was taken out. The bank can easily dismiss this (though not to say they will).

[Deleted User] · 20 October 2016 at 12:55PM

Nasqueron wrote: »

An account closed 7 years ago

Do note that there are now two OPs on this thread, "Butterfly_wings832000" is not the poster who said her account was closed seven years ago.

butterfly_wings832000 wrote: »

I have been with my bank for a long time

Wise not to mix them up, I think.

needing help to reclaim bank charges

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