Bank Charges - illegal?

grace

I have been really interested in this thread, in December just gone my bank charged by for non payment of a DD, when I received my Bank Statement this month it clearly showed the DD had been paid, when I questioned this and asked for an explanation as to why they had charged for a returned DD when it had clearly been paid, they sent me a letter requesting me to close my account withing 30 days....

fagun

grace wrote:

I have been really interested in this thread, in December just gone my bank charged by for non payment of a DD, when I received my Bank Statement this month it clearly showed the DD had been paid, when I questioned this and asked for an explanation as to why they had charged for a returned DD when it had clearly been paid, they sent me a letter requesting me to close my account withing 30 days....

I'm assuming that there aren't any other material facts that you've left out.

The firm has an obligation to "Treat Customers Fairly". Requiring you to close your account because you have complained is not consistent with that.

Your request for an explanation sounds like a 'complaint'. They have set time frames to reply to the complaint (which they haven't done). They are also required to send you details of their complaints procedure, and to tell you that you have recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

I would write to them (with COMPLAINT in the heading). Tell them that you feel that they have breached Principle 6 of the FSA's Principles for Business as they have asked you to close your account solely because you have complained. Inform them that they have breached the Banking Code by:
- not responding to your original complaint within the timeframes set out in the code
- not informing you of their complaints procedures, including recourse to the FOS

tw0906blue

Wrote off to Barclays as per this thread. Have had the standard reply, "paid referral fees are part of our standard tariff and it represents an 'at the time' charge which is automatically generated when an account goes overdrawn or exceeds an agreed overdraft limit by £5, which is the current buffer" blah, blah, blah. Except here in black and white is a confession that the £50 charge was automatically applied for a very small incurrsion of the "limit".

My main query is now that "as a goodwill gesture" they have credited our account with half the fees (£50) which have been applied. I know this is a small amount compared with others - but every penny is being accounted for now so we can stop the slide!

Should I write back asking for the rest? Go to small claims court? Is it worth it? £50 is still a huge penelty charge for being over the agreed limitn for approx 10 days!

Help!

studentindebt

I have recieved a reply through post -
_________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with us, regarding the charges on your account.

i am pleased to tell you that as valued member the sum of £110 has been cancelled and £80 has been refunded. Whilst these charges have been cancelled we cannot guarentee that future requests will be granted.

The majority of our members do not pay any charges on their flexaccount. However, we do apply a fee for a transaction that causes unauthorised overdraft. This could include returning an item because of unsufficient cleared funds or paying a cheque which would be returned if not backed by a guarentee card. As the cost of providing these services is high, by making a charge in this way, members only pay for the services they use. There is no specific breakdown of the fees, but the amounts compare with those of other financial organisations. There is a standard fee for each unpaid item because our costs are the same regardless of the value of the item being returned.

It is your responsibility to ensure you have sufficient funds available to meet the payments you have authorised as they become due.

If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me on xxxxxxxxxxx between 9.00am and 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.

Your Sincerely

Emma Kershaw
Customer Services Administrator
Branch Services Centre

______________________________________________________

What should my next action be? I am grateful and accept what they have offered but not as a settlement as the sum was £577.

westernpromise

There is no specific breakdown of the fees, but the amounts compare with those of other financial organisations.

I reckon this admission is an expoitable flaw in their case. They seem IMHO to have as good as admitted that their charges are based on what everyone charges, and not on any analysis of their actual cost. If all banks take this view then no bank anywhere has an accurate costing. Presumably if the other banks decided to start charging 70 quid a time, they'd then charge 70 quid too?

They've offered you 190 of a 577 claim...for the extra 400 squid I'd write back and say the amount is insufficient and unless you get the whole lot back it's county court time.

If it was 40 quid I'd have to say the game wasn't worth the candle, but this is 10 times more.

comicmankev

After 3 letters, the last one giving 7 days notice before court action to Abbey, they finally replied. It was a letter from the manager of my local branch that said that he personally would request a copy of all my old statements and look through himself and get back to me. He would also pass my letters to their legal department.

Should I wait for a reply or just fill in the court stuff? They have responded within 7 days, but not with any sort of real response.

comicmankev

by the way, their 7 days is up 2moro, so I would wait til after the weekend anyway

studentindebt

westernpromise wrote:

There is no specific breakdown of the fees, but the amounts compare with those of other financial organisations.

I reckon this admission is an expoitable flaw in their case. They seem IMHO to have as good as admitted that their charges are based on what everyone charges, and not on any analysis of their actual cost. If all banks take this view then no bank anywhere has an accurate costing. Presumably if the other banks decided to start charging 70 quid a time, they'd then charge 70 quid too?

They've offered you 190 of a 577 claim...for the extra 400 squid I'd write back and say the amount is insufficient and unless you get the whole lot back it's county court time.

If it was 40 quid I'd have to say the game wasn't worth the candle, but this is 10 times more.

Yeah I thought they seemed to admit they don't have a basis for the charges.

They actually refunded me £80 out of the £577 and stopped £110 of further charges tahtw ould be applied this month. So a very small amount of refund really.

Should I or do I need to give thema nother 7 days? can they take back the refund?

gothicf0rm

on the 30th the halifax acknowleged my summons against them with the intent to defend. yesterday after approaching 2 months of my letters having been ignored i got a call from their customer complaints department wanting to help me. think there was a link between the two? what sort of bank leaves it 7 weeks before deciding to contact a customer about a complaint. looking at this thread is it seems everyone is jumping ont he "sue the bank" bandwagon. must put the fear of god into them.
if youve sent them a letter before action why wait? just file a claim. they are a big organisation and should be able to deal with you within a prompt amount of time.

sportbeth

studentindebt wrote:

Yeah I thought they seemed to admit they don't have a basis for the charges.

They actually refunded me £80 out of the £577 and stopped £110 of further charges tahtw ould be applied this month. So a very small amount of refund really.

Should I or do I need to give thema nother 7 days? can they take back the refund?

They can't take back the refund. What they are doing is giving you the very bear minimum to appease you and keep you quiet. This offering is clearly a reason for you to push further.

My bank gave me back my full claim of £821 but still denied it was their fault. I don't care if they admitted it or not, £821 of my money was something I didn't want them to have, or anyone else for that matter. They could have blamed it on me for all I care!

Push for what you are legally entitled to. They are just trying to push you for what they can get away with in return and they know it. You wouldn't give £577 to a man in the street for no reason so why should you give it to the bank for no reason?