Bank Charges - illegal?

YorkshireBoy

gmc wrote:

Hi, great thread, great website too (https://www.bankchargeshell.co.uk).

Are there differences between Scottish and English bank customers (I know us scots have tighter purse strings) when it comes to making a claim?

Thanks

The answer to your question can be found on the homepage of the website you have provided the link to. (Tip: bottom right. )

May

ok everyone, I spoke to the Halifax this morning. I told them that I had put my application in to the courts because i felt that their charges were disproportiante to the loss that theu had suffered.

They informed me that because i signed the terms and conditions agreeing to their charges, that I am legally bound to pay these.

Is this correct?

dchurch24

Nope. Unfair terms in contracts cannot be enforced.

Also, punitive measures in contracts are not enforcable.

They are wrong, simple as that, and the court will decide the same. There are lots and lots of cases of breaches of contracts where the court has decided that punitive measures for a breach will not be upheld. There has never been a case (since 1895 to my knowledge) where a judge has ruled that a punitve charge can be upheld.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that because you asked for the charges not to be enforced, that they are legally bound to give them back.

They informed me that because i signed the terms and conditions agreeing to their charges, that I am legally bound to pay these.

It's not for them to decide that now - it's in the courts hands. I wish they'd said that to me, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from telling the arrogant so-and-so's how wrong they are!!

EDIT: You will also need to get a copy of your Terms and Conditions and make sure that it is indeed a breach of contract - it will be so don't worry, but you will need to show the court (if they let it get that far, and they'd be quite silly to do so) that a breach of contract did indeed occur. Easy - you show them the date(s) that you didn't pay a dd through lack of funds etc... and then refer to the T&C's where it says that it's your responsibility to ensure sufficient funds.

There's your breach of contract! In fact, they have admitted as such in your phone call - pity you don't have a recording :-)

HGLTsuperstar

May, you've finally stopped the suspense: I was sure you were going to say it was Abbey! Good luck

dchurch24

How is your claim with Abbey going? Have they paid up yet?

cmr_3

The website you mention is fantastic, you will have to pay a fee of £30.00 to the court but this can be reclaimed with the costs! If you are on low income, you may be entitled to an exemption from the court costs.

You can apply for a refund of these charges for the past 6 years. My advice is to go ahead, I am in the process of sending papers to the court due to charges for Lloystsb.

Russe11

Hi all, just found this site what a relief its given me

anyway i'm about to go down the getting my charges back route have contacted bankchargeshell.co.uk, are these the best people to help me ?

thanks

FieryBlondeScot

after being charged £256 in unpaid direct debit fees over two months
by alliance and leicester i decided to send them the pro forma
letter stating that if the fees were not refunded i would start
court proceedings against them.

i recieved a letter back about 12 days later saying they were
looking into it. fine i thought.

in the meantime on 28th december i was charged a further £136 in
unpaid direct debit fees. this is because my chaps payment i set up
for the friday did not go through until the 28th the same day as the
bills are due out as it was a long bank holiday. there cant have
been no more than a few hours between my money going in the bank and
the bills coming out.

i phoned them today and they said a letter was on its way to me
saying as a gesture of goodwill they were refunding £50 in overdraft
fees (their charges made me go over my limit the last month) and
that is all.

so now i have another set of bank charges, total now £392 minus the
£50 refund. do i just incorporate all these charges into a county
court claim online? not sure how to go about the next part dont want
it to all backfire on me!.

dchurch24

Are you in Scotland or England - it matters as the amount that can be claimed through the 'small claim track' changes. It's much smaller in Scotland.

If you (or the bank in Question are English or in England) then I suggest starting a claim on-line for the money back including costs and interest (at 0.0002% per day).

I would have another bank account lined up, I have always done this in the past when suing a bank, just in case they get shirty (and I suppose you can hardly expect them to welcome you with open arms :-).

It's a really easy and cost effective way of getting your charges back - it's worked every time for me.

In fact, I am about to start suing FD for charges - cheques were cleared even though they were post dated - I was not aware at the time that the dates on cheques are note checked for amounts less than 5k - and my partner is suing Abbey as we speak (as I have in the past).
The more people that sue, the stronger the case is for the OFT when they investigate these charges later this year.

---lee---

dchurch24 wrote:

I was not aware at the time that the dates on cheques are note checked for amounts less than 5k...

Neither was I. I was aware that cheques could be postdated but have never done it myself. Interesting post on it from Martin here (you may already be aware of it, but I found it interesting):

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=46254