Bank Charges - illegal?

gothicf0rm

it depends on your bank though as to when they will give you the money back. some banks kick and scream and spend hundreds of pounds trying to stop the customer and bore him into submission, other banks simply read the writing on the wall and refund quickly. if youre unlucky enough to have the halifax owe you money for example youll be waiting a while... 3 months and counting since i started this with them.

carlih1

gothicf0rm wrote:

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.

So when you spoke to the customer advisor, how exactly did they HELP you?

Carli

gothicf0rm

they didnt. i told her they owed me money, theyd broken numerous laws and anything she could say would be irrelevant as long as they failed to refund the money they had unlawfully taken. as soon as she found out i was suing the bank she hung up on me and said someone else would call me back later that evening, naturally no one did. thats customer service for you guys.

pinkypink411

Hi All,

I am very new to this "money saving" and as a result have paid countless bank charges for overdraft, unpaid bank Direct Debits etc.....

Just to clarify, what is my first action?? to compile a list of bank charges i have paid in the last 6 years?? I think i could hunt through and find most of my statements??? But i may be missing a few, can i call up and request statements and breakdowns for a fee??

Then how do i go about sending letters?? i saw the template on https://www.bankchargeshell.com do i really just need to send off a letter. I know i may be going over things alreasdy discussed, but i can't believe its true!! :T

gothicf0rm

request the statements from the last six years under the data protection act.

joannemc3

marymurdin wrote:

Hi Jo,

I rang HSBC on the normal customer services number and after being put on hold a few times managed to order 6 years of bank statements for 3 accounts for £10. They didn't quibble once I was through to someone sensible!! Try giving them a ring. There is a department that provides this service (with no aggro!)

mary

hi mary ,
many thanks , i have just rang customer services and they have confirmed that they DID recieve my letter , they say they are dealing with my request and will be in touch asap !!! we will see !!!!!! although they didnt mention anything about paying the £10 fee , which i have read about in previous posts !!! so i will prob get a letter requesting this !!!!

keep me informed of your progress


joanne

dixie_dean_2

Been trying to help a colleague out and this is the response we've had from Smile. It's only a £40 charge I think and they instantly gave back £25 of that when she complained in the first instance. What do you reckon DC? Is this person just an idiot with no idea or are they playing tough over £15? If they are playing tough is it worth/can we go ahead with legal proceedings? Advice would be appreciated - I was using this as a test case before going ahead with my own claim.


Hello Miss

Thank you for your feedback. Please let me explain why we're not able to refund the full charge.

The charges that have been applied to your account aren't illegal and we are within our right to charge you. When you opened the account you agreed that if you exceeded your limit (regardless of the amount) that you would be charged, we state this very clearly in the terms and conditions so that there are no disputes in the future.

I understand that you feel the charges are excessive however we agreed that we would load £600 overdraft onto your account, if your balance exceeds this limit, the system will automatically charge you as you have broken the agreement with us.

Smile need to be seen as acting fairly and without favouritism, it wouldn't be fair to refund the full charge on your account as there are lots of customers this month that have been charged due to similar errors and received no refund.

I'm sure if you checked with the Office of fair trading that they would agree with us, if you exceed your limit and use unauthorised borrowing (regardless of the amount) we are within our rights to charge you.

If you would like to escalate this complaint please write to,

FAO: customer care
smile
P.O Box 600
Delf house
Skelmersdale
Lancashire
WN8 6GF

Unfortunately I'm unable to refund the full charge as there is no bank error.

dchurch24

I would go to the moneyclaim site find out how much the court costs would be - probably about 30 quid - and write them a letter demanding that they pay it back within 7 days or you will start proceedings. If they refuse, or you don't hear from them, go ahead and start proceedings - they will acknowledge the claim and then pay up.

Incidently, the OFT DO think that these charges are not legal and that is why they are invsetigating the top 8 credit card companies in the UK - if they didn't think that, then why would they waste their time and money?

dixie_dean_2

I think its really silly you cant tell me the name of your group - I'm sure most others would agree. If I ask, can you say? Which site is the one where I can find out how much court costs would be?

dchurch24

The group is https://www.bankactiongroup.com.

The on-line money claim is https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

I have re-read the forum rules and it seems that I can post to a site I am associated with, providing that the site is not-for-profit - which it is.