Bank Charges - illegal?

dchurch24

Bloody hell - it must have gone up! The swine!! It's academic in any case - it is my belief that you will get all the charges back plus interest and the court costs ;-)

dchurch24

Caped_Avenger wrote:

One of the bedrock principles of economics is that one should anticipate debits, but should not anticipate credits. I.e. until you see your salary cleared in your account, do not attempt to use it.

I didn't anticipate the credit, the bank did - the direct debit didn't wait until the money was in there, and it takes at least 10 days to change a DD.

Turning_into_scrooge

Are the charges the same be it a current account or a credit card account? My son has missed a payment on his Halifax credit card due to not receiving the statement in December. He has made the payment now and always pays 3x the minimun amount. He has not received a letter informing him that he is late with his payment so how can they charge £25 for basically doing nothing? Halifax are saying they do not refund chages but have offered 50% as a goodwill gesture. So does it stand that the charges for credit cards are a penalty chage the same as a bounced DD or not?
Thanks in advance

gothicf0rm

for those preaching financial responsibility my girlfriend got some charges last week.
when her current account runs dry our feeder account is supposed to automatically transfer money in. at the time it was doing this a direct debit to pay her credit card off came out of it, there wasnt enough so she was charged 39 quid for this although the bank in question, lloyds tsb is supposed to automatically transfer money into the current account when her balance reaches a certain level. because of their failure to do this she then got a credit card charge for late payment of 25 quid... five minutes later the funds were in the account but thats neither here nor there after she found out and called up to move them manually.
lloyds tsb refuse to refund her the money (shes never got a charge before). the guy at the branch was sympathetic but said they couldnt do it there but said theyd probably refund the charge and her 25 quid credit card charge, just she needed to phone someone. she got through to a very asian sounding call centre where the person knew nothing and basically lectured her on financial responsibility and said it was her fault, probably because they were reading off a script or looking at a computer screen rather than applying something called common sense! it astonishes me that people in this thread can lecture on financial responsibility, all it takes is to be overdrawn by 1 pence for 1 minute and you get charged. its a system thats stupid, moronic and above all financially corrupt and unlawful.
i have to say out of all the posts tim_Ls on the previous page says it best, banks cannot have the best of both worlds. they need to cut people some slack. my bank though, the halifax, actually claim that their costs have nothing to do with the amount of debt that someone runs up so if you get 10,000 overdrawn they claim it costs as much to them as 1 pence! mad but very true. i even have a letter from their lawyer claiming that.
the whole point is that financial responsibility has nothing to do with it, the entire clearing cycle is rigged to delay credits as much as possible whilst prioritising debits causing situations like my girlfriend's to happen and the bank to make money and when the customer complains about the blatantly unlawful behaviour the bank twists and turns and tries as desparately as possible to keep its ill-gotten gains in the purse.

gothicf0rm

credit card charges ARE a penalty too. you can get them back

inmypocketnottheirs

Just to keep you all updated:

On 9/01/06 I wrote to the Co-op saying that as they had not responded to my request of 16/12/05, this was a Final Demanf Before Action concerning the charges applied to my account over a six year period (see my earlier post).

Anyway, yesterday, Monday 16th was the expiry of the 7 days, and lo and behold a fax arrived.

Contents of the fax:


'Dear Mr Xxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your facsimile of 9 January 2006.

I note your understanding from my letter of 14 Decmber that our aim was to reply to you within 21 days, and not 21 working days as stated, and I am sorry for any confusion.

I have reviewed your statements for the period involved and have requested that my calculations in respect of charges are independently checked.

Whilst I am away from the office tomorrow, my aim is to return to you by the end of the week and I am sorry for the delay.

Yours sincerely ............'

Looks to me as if I have them on the trot!!

Will keep you all posted.

tw0906blue

Wow, I have spent hours reading - my eyes hurt! But thanks to all. It has been interesting and informative.
Yes, like everyone else - well most of you, We are in need of sorting out finances and yes since November have incurred charges. I am on the case now though, and although a little tentative and maybe a little scared, I will grasp the nettle and sort this mess out.
They will not succeed.
DChurch24, thanks a million, and some supportive squeakings would be very gratefully received.

pink_fairy_5

dchurh24 - it looks like youve had some dealings with abbey. I am involved in a lengthy complaint with them and dont know how to procee. its all charges related ive been to the financial ombudsman and they say its not up to them. please can you advise on my next step? many thanks

HGLTsuperstar

Pink fairy, go to your small claims court and file a claim against them. You need to pay court fees now, but you'll get them back. Ombudsman = waste of time, they're on the side of the banks

joyte

This is all fascinating I agree. I have received one charge after another recently, my bank dropped ONE of them as a 'goodwill gesture' (as if they would know what that is), but it seems I am in the endless cycle. I felt angry but hopeless until I saw this thread, at last I can get my own back!!! Just wondering if I should snatch all the money thats left in my account before they can charge me again.....surely they can't do anything about that can they???