Bank Charges - illegal?

dixie_dean_2

I have £40 of charges in the last 6 years with Lloyds but about £400 from about 9 years ago. What do you (anyone) think is the best cause of action?

More importantly, can this thread be put in as a weekly tip (Big M, moderator, whoever reads this stuff?)as presumably a lot of people on here will have been done by charges. Maybe El Dchurcherino can get £50 out of it?

dchurch24

I'm finding it difficult to find ways around the statute of limitations - I think to challenge for more than 6 years would be dodgey to say the least.

you can still go for the 40 quid though, plus 8% APR - better getting some money back than none.

dixie_dean_2

Cheers mate. I like a person prepared to stand up and be counted - even more so when it means I can get extra money off an industry with no morals who keep recording record profit after record profit. Can one also argue that the levels of interest they charge on unauthorised ODs are punitive? I mean, they clearly are and are clearly unfair. If they can give you £2000 free surely charging an extra £11 at 26% is unreasonable, no?

gothicf0rm

well dixie... to explain about the overdraft interest it works like this -
they are charging you interest on the charges at the unauthorised rate so you can get that back too. to make it even better, say you get a charge for 30 pounds, then next time you get overdrawn by less than 30 pounds you get another charge plus youre charged interest. the interest then is caused by the original charge, if you were not charged it you would have never gone overdrawn so you can claim the difference back between authorised and unauthorised rates. from the point your bank charges are more than your overdraft (with me it was january 2004) you would NEVER have been overdrawn but for the charges so you can claim back ALL interest from that point on best of all, you can charge 8% apr on their interest!
it's important though that you can link the interest charges to the penalty charges and show the interest is a direct result of the penalties youve faced.
if you have something like a credit card then obviously if you got a charge 3 years ago and they charge 30% apr they actually owe you more like double without you adding the 8% apr on top. i wiped out a friends debt completely this way, she had three credit cards, the most had only 1000 on it but she'd run up a lot of charges. she was unable to pay the min amount on all three so was getting three sets of two charges every month and had been for the past 18 months - the charges were about 135 a month alone. anyway... citibank were charging her 29% interest too turning a 55 quid charge into 71.50 over the course of a year. we then turned that into 77.22 debt they owed to her for a single month of charges from 12 months ago. given her charges went back 3 years and theyd charged interest on them all the time they owed her thousands. get the picture now?

joannemc3

hello all , just stumbled across this site , how informative !!!! , anyway to cut to the chase , i too have received god knows how many charges from the hsbc in the past but more so in the last 6 months , averaging a £100 a month charges , to cut a long story short i have been off work since begin of sept due to a threatened misscarriage , thankfully baby is doin fine ( im 7 months now ) but even though i still get paid from work it is only my basic contracted hours i am receiving , i always did a lot of overtime !! so obvioulsy i am not recieving the same wages , yes i know this is my fault but you know what , i am sick of paying £100 a month just for going over my limit especially when they can not even explain how much per item i am being charged , i just dont get it !!!! i could have a loan goin for that amount !!!! can i take any action against them ??? i just cant seem to get my overdraft down at all ...............................please help !!!!!!!!!!!!

dchurch24

You most certainly can take action against them.

Visit the aforementioned sites (the page before this one) and post your story - there is a lot of help there.

suffolkb

Thanks dchurch.I have just written to Fiat finances mentioning this site/thread,and given them 14 days to send me a cheque or i will commence court procedings.Marks and Spencers next - they were quick enough to try to get a charge on my flat.
One more question though.I foolishly took out a secured loan with Paragon.Are these covered by the same act?
While typing this i got a call from Fiat saying that the only charges they made were "legal charges" that they are allowed to make as they were in the terms and conditions.Guess i`ll be filling in the court forms then.

devilgirls1

Hello everyone..

After readiing this thread i looked over all my statement with lloydstsb and in total incurred about £200 of these charges for which i will claim for, but i once had a HSBC account where i also had a loan with them i was working at the time but left work 3 months in to the loan and incurred loads of charges and lots of emotional stree on top of which my dad got diagnosed with renal failure and was in and out of hospital for 3 years. I finally managed to get the loan under control and last january paid the whole amount off. Am i entitled to get back these charges.

joannemc3

hi D church ,
i have today sent a letter to my branch ,stating that under the data protection act i require a full schedule of the charges made to my account in the last 6 years , is this right ?? , its just im not sure exactly how much they have charged me over the last 12 months as , or even possibly the last 6 years !!! i dread to think , like a fool i havnt kept my statements !!! , is this the right thing to do before sending them the letter i have read about ,as obviously i cant be sure of the full amount in charges !!!
many regards
jo

hitman_uk

I have been charged approx 500 quid in the last 5 months. They charge me 25 pound every time i use my card over my OD limit to a maximum of 125 pound. I recieve no letters they simply take the money. I have been on the phone and they are not interested..any help what to do next please? This is HSBC aswell