Report Bank Charges successes and failures

[MSE Alana]

Please report your Bank Charges Reclaiming Successes/failures
since the Supreme Court decision in Nov 2009 here

REMEMEBER BY DOING THIS YOU ENCOURAGE OTHERS WHO MAY BE TOO SCARED TO RECLAIM

How to report your success/failure:

1. Click reply to enter you story.



2. Report your story in the following format:

• Bank name:
• Amount Reclaimed:
• Amount they paid:
• The story: (Just a few sentences, please include how far you went did you a. just write a letter, b. threaten to go to court or c. actually go to court)

***** Want to tell your story in a newspaper/on TV? *****

Hi all. If you've had a refund we need your help

Bank Charges is often in the news and we are frequently asked if we have any MoneySavers that are willing to tell their stories to the press.

If you'd like to help spread the news and encourage others, please e-mail casestudy@moneysavingexpert.com (sorry but we can't answer questions at this email address) with as much of the following info as you can:

* how much was your claim for
* how much did you get back
* who is your bank
* a daytime phone number - we often need to reach people at very short notice
* whether you are happy to appear in the papers,tv or both
* where you live

NOTE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS
ABOUT RECLAIMING BANK CHARGES
PLEASE FIRST READ THE GUIDE:
Bank Charges Reclaiming

[gingerUK]

Hi there.

I am kind of in shock at the moment. My story is I sent the first letter to Abbey using the template on this site for claiming under financial hardship on the 16/11/09. Never heard anything from them and when the test case reslut came through on the 25/11/09 I though I would get the standard letter say you will get nothing due to test case blah blah blah. Yesterday morning I got a letter from Abbey dated 03/12/09, saying that they have looked at my claim and taken into account my hardship and as a gesture of goodwill will be refunding unauthorised overdraft charges totaling £1270.00!!!!!!!! They are sending me out a cheque. I originally claimed £2125.00. What the heck? Hope Martin sees this and it helps his case, x

[annieredhead]

Originally Posted by annieredhead

I just thought I would post on here to tell everyone that my bank ( Natwest ) rang me last week ( just after the high court judgement ) to confirm my financial hardship and inform me that they are still refunding bank charges! I am now waiting for a letter making me an offer, I have been told by them that they go back 6 years, and this to me would be a considerable amount of money, I am so poor at the moment due to illness and waiting for ESA. so I am waiting eagerly for the offer, then maybe I can buy my daughter some Christmas presents!
I will post again when I hear from them.

Received two letters today, one offering me £3006 and one offering £249, for my two accounts: "Having reviewed your financial situation I am happy to make an exceptional offer"
I can hardly believe it and am still shaking! Needless to say I will accept and should have the money in my account next week.
I first applied in September, Grateful thanks to Martin, and Money Saving Expert for making this possible!

[bakerboy35]

Originally Posted by annieredhead

Received two letters today, one offering me £3006 and one offering £249, for my two accounts: "Having reviewed your financial situation I am happy to make an exceptional offer"
I can hardly believe it and am still shaking! Needless to say I will accept and should have the money in my account next week.
I first applied in September, Grateful thanks to Martin, and Money Saving Expert for making this possible!

Congratulations to you, gives other peeps some hope!!

[woodymeg]

Bank: Halifax
Amount Reclaimed: 5000.00
Amount they paid: 2400.00
How long did it take: since July 09
The story: They paid this amount into my bank account last night, since I've had my case looked at by the customer services they have been excellant in helping me, first phoned them at begining of Nov 09 thought that after court case they would not help anymore but nothing was mentioned about case at all they just continued as normal helping me.
The only thing was that they would only go back 6 years and my claim was from 2001, but i really thought it was all lost, but now can have a great xmas knowing there will be no-one knocking at my door (only santa)

[luckylynda]

Hi all,
Just wanted to post to tell people not to give up hope.
I have been going through reclaiming under financial hardship with HSBC for 25 weeks,it has been a real nightmare and many times my oh has wanted to give up as it has caused a great deal of stress.
Today we received £3200.00 from HSBC,since the court case they have been very helpful and we are just grateful that it has been sorted out,it was one hell of a fight.
So just wanted to say dont give up ,keep on to them let them know how desperate your situation is.I wish you all the best of luck.
Also thanks to Martin and all who post here.xx

[coled]

Bank: Natwest
Amount Reclaimed: 1800
Amount they paid: 1800
How long did it take: since Sept 09

Wrote a letter to Natwest claiming hardship, they quickly sent reply asking me to fill out financial form. Filled it in and returned, after 2 weeks they sent me a letter saying I had undervalued my income and they didnt think I fell under the hardship category, I then sent them a stern letter with more evidence of hardship and threatening to go to the Ombudsman.

About 2 weeks later the supreme court ruling occured, thought that was it to be honest but I got a letter last week saying they are offering me the full amount :O)

Great Xmas present, thanks to all the guys on the forum especially Martin.

Hope this gives hope to other people to pursue it, you have nothing to lose.

[sunlion]

The Bank: RBS
Amount claimed: £2036.75
Amount offered: £1676.00

The Story: Made redundant in May and still unemployed, I began my claim 28th August 2009, using Martin's excellent guide and template letter, describing my hardship situation...heard nothing for several weeks so wrote again...the bank sent me a form to fill in about my hardship situation, but several weeks after i returned it i got a letter from them to say they hadn't received it and couldn't consider my case without it, but they didn't include another form- I copy every document I get though, and was able to fire back a copy immediately and by recorded delivery this time...:rolleyes: That was nearly 2 months ago to the day, and the court ruling in the banks favour in the meantime sort of led me to think I'd missed the boat, so I was pretty surprised to open my mail today!!!

It's not the full amount I asked for, but it's a tidy bit of surprise cash and I've accepted. Not going to hold out for any more...I can clear my most pressing Visa debt (good bye card forever!) and even have a wee bit left over, not bad after Christmas!!

THANKS MARTIN Have a merry christmas everyone, and the very best of luck to all those still in the process...

ps: Always scan or photocopy EVERYTHING, and post by recorded delivery, it helps you dodge any stalling tactics by any officialdom you're interacting with!

[Lon]

Bank: Halifax
Amount Reclaimed: £797.56 (inc. 8% Interest)
Amount they paid: £500
The story:

Sent original letter requesting £797.56(Nov 09), got a reply offering £192, which was the difference between the old £25 charges and new £12. Nearly accepted but read some more posts on here and got inspired! Wrote back(22 Dec 09), saying that i was not happy with the offer and hinted at the court action route using fragments from Martins court threatening letter. I said i would drop the complaint if they paid me £500 within 14 days. Received letter yesterday saying they have credited £500 to my account, checked it on-line and cannot beleive it!

Cannot thank you enough Martin, you are a genius! I bow down!!
What you are doing is great for consumer rights and the public.

Power to the people!

[Sappoo21]

charges of £7000 with Nationwide under the hardship route they paid me back £330 I found fos pretty crap and Nationwide clawed back about £150 of charges from this but did get back £73 with citi when only had about £110 of charges so they were more considerate. Am I able to still try to claim back more from Nationwide if they have paid some and taken some of it back?
help much appreciated

[natweststaffmember]

Yes you can sappo. You need to read thoroughly the lending code section 9(link on my signature).

[njhsmiler]

BANK: NATWEST
AMOUNT RECLAIMED: 12000
AMOUNT BEING REFUNDED: 9602
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE: OCT 2009


Very happy with the offer they offered us....

It has come at the right time as our house was flooded by sewage in Nov 09 and we can pay our debts off now and maybe treat the kids as they have had a tough time...

Many Thanks

[esmerellda]

Brilliant news ! Well done.

[Needamiracle]

Bank: RBS
Amount Claimed £1870
Offered: £1870
Accepted: Too Right!

I claimed back in September 2009. Although there were one or two hiccups, I have just received my goodwill offer. I am so grateful to this site for all the template letters etc. I am also very grateful to you all who have supported and given me the will to keep on! It is very easy to be disheartened and give up! DON'T GIVE UP! Thanks also to RBS who have now given me a chance to get myself out of a mess. I've learned alot and I'm not getting myself into this mess again!

[JSAisnofun]

I used Martins advice and calculator to determine Barclays owed my £2,000 in unfair charges.
I wrote to them 2 years ago, then followed Martins advice as the cat and mouse game began. To cut a long story short I took them to court, because I am not afraid of the court system in the slightest.
Then in the Summer 2008 (I think) the "Big" court case in the High court put my action on hold.
Well last December I read Martins tips on Hardship, and boy did I qualify. So I wrote to the court, who agreed and re-opened my case. They Set a court date for January 09 and that's when Barclays solicitor started calling making offers to settle.... I simply told her that I would settle for the total of my claim and nothing less. And thats what they did.
Now in view of the final finding of the High Court and the big4 banks I feel quite priviledged that I got the bank to settle in full without going to court. I was lucky.
But not so lucky as my Creditors took every penny of the "refund" and I never saw a penny of it. !!!!!!!!!!

[tiggsy]

Barclays

claimed £2981.40

they have paid me £1832.25 as a gesture of goodwill

started claim April 2007

paid January 2009

[pool-hustler]

Nat West
About £700 claimed under hardship.
They sent a hardship form to fill in outgoings etc. They said I didn't fill the criteria for hardship. I sent another back adjusting spending and other costs which showed me in the red every month. I received no reply.
I complained to the ombudsmen regarding the hardship factor they sided with the bank.
I was on channel 5 news the day the OFT lost. The example loser.
I am now going back to the ombudsmen to claim the charges pro the court decision. I won't give up!

[soulcurls]

Well I have reached the end of my reclaiming fight.

Although I am in extreme hardship at the moment with 0 income and am staying afloat only through the tremendous kindness of family and friends paying my mortgage and essential outgoings; Abbey have only paid me £500 (as a good will gesture) of the in excess of £2000 in charges I have claimed.
I complained to the ombudsman, not that Abbey had refused to refund my charges, but that Abbey had rejected my claim of hardship due to the fact that I am not in mortgage arrears, my point being that these are not the criteria set-out by the FSA; incredibly however the Ombudsman ruled in Abbey’s favour, stating that Abbey are only obliged to treat me ‘fairly’ and within the law.

I cannot see what is fair about being told that I am not a hardship case despite being penniless and up to my proverbial in debt, because I am fighting by the skin of my teeth not to incur more charges…apparently if I were still incurring charges they would consider me a hardship case, or if I had let myself get into rent arrears or mortgage arrears…Abbey have made up their own set of guidelines for judging hardship and the Ombudsman (at least the one who looked at my case) is fine with this.

Considering my financial difficulties were so greatly exacerbated by Abbey’s £2000 worth of ridiculous charges in the first place, one would have thought that they might see fit to reward my struggle to keep from incurring more charges, but apparently my mistake has been allowing family and friends to keep my head above water…I should have just stopped struggling and let myself sink…

I am incredibly lucky that (so far) my family and friends have put their own finances at risk to help me and I feel extreme guilt and gratitude hourly…I was also very grateful for the £500 from Abbey that helped take the strain for a couple of weeks, but considering how hard I am trying to play by their rules I do feel a little cheated when I read about all of the many success stories…pleased for others but cheated never-the-less.

:cry :

[Value4Money]

Bank: NATWest
Amount Claimed: £58.00
Amount Refunded: £58.00

24 April 2008 I returned from holiday. On-line bank account showed that a Direct Debit had been paid that day and run my account into "overdraft". I made an immediate transfer into that account i.e. the same day.
NATWest charged a total of £58.00 for the privelege.
Queries revealed that the DD went out of my account at around 3.00 pm whilst my deposit went in at around 8.00 pm.
I complained that the high charge seemed unreasonable and was fobbed off with High Court case. Later, after the Court case, I received a "Dear John" since which I have argued the situation up the chain within NATWest and eventually been advised that "the bank had not made a mistake .... but on this occassion .... they would refund".
MAJOR POINT: One reason given me for the charges was that the bank was "Closed" when I did the evening deposit - electronic, on-line banking closes, does it?
Anyway, give them their due, I did get a refund in the end but not without effort on my part and a number of letters. Hey-ho!

[blackhawk69]

HALIFAX
£1286.67
9TH JULY 2007
Rejected 13th January 2010 and my case will be closed 8 weeks after that.

HELP !