CONCERN: Reclaim Bank Charges

andwan0

Q1. I have sent my first letter (14-day letter) dated 30-Dec-2008 to my bank. It includes charges going back to 31-Dec-2002. Will this bank charge be elligible for the 6 year time limit of reclaiming bank charges?

Q2. If I take my bank to court and they determine the 6 year cut-off date is a bit later (eg. 14-Jan-2003), can they automatically recalculate the costs or do I have to do it? I don't really want to go through the whole process again, especially applying to court twice

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Q3. I received my first reply from Bank of Scotland. It's so technical jargon that I do not understand it. Please can someone tell me what it is trying to tell me.

Thank you for your communication, we acknowledge receipt of your complaint about unarranged overdraft bank fees. We believe that your complaint concerns the level, fairness or lawfulness of the fees. If it concerns something else, such as an administrative error, please let us know.

We believe the fees are fair, transparent and lawful. Please be advised the bank (along with a number of other banks) has now become involved in legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in relation to unarranged overdraft bank fees which we believe will resolve the legal issues regarding the fairness and legality of your unarranged overdraft bank fees.

It would be our normal approach to resolve your complaint through our internal complaints process as quickly as possible. However, until the determination of the legal issues in the above proceedings, we have asked the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with unarranged overdraft bank fee complaints, and the FSA has agree to this request subject to conditions that protect your rights.

We can assure you we have registered and stored your complaint. Please retain your bank records, as this will make it easier for you to support your complaint on resolution of the test case.

Once the legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish, we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible.

We are sorry that we have not been able to respond in full to your complaint now, but we (together with the FSA and the OFT) think that it is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how we should respond to your complaint.

Obviously exactly what will happen next will depend on the courts. We do not know how long the case will take - we have promised to proceed as quickly as possible but inevitably given the importance of the issues being considered this may take many months to finally resolve. But we can assure you that once the legal proceedings are completed we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. If at that stage you do not agree with our conclusions you will of course be able to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) (or to the courts).

Given this court case we have asked the FOS not to proceed with any other case they are hearing until the test case is resolved. FOS has indicated that as a general proposition it will indeed not proceed with cases which rely on the legal issues being considered in the test case.

The FSA requires us to ensure that your complaint will not be adversely affected by the delay in dealing with it. Customers for whom Scotland is the most likely jurisdiction should be particularly aware of the following:

You may choose to take your complaint or claim against us to either the FOS or the courts in Scotland.

Your right to refer your complaint to the FOS will not be affected. The FOS provides a convenient alternative to the courts, and is free for consumers. However, as already explained, you should be aware that the FOS has, at our request, decided not to determine these complaints for the time being until the test case is resolved.

However, if you nonetheless wish to take your clai to the courts in Scotland, you should be aware that the timing of when you raise a claim against us may be important. As such, you may wish to seek independent advice on making a claim now to protect your rights (although you will have to pay a court fee). If you do this, you should be aware that the bank will immediately apply to the court to put your action on hold until the resolution of the bank's legal proceedings with the OFT.

You have stated you are concerned that the charges have been deducted from your Social Security Benefits. We do not believe the Social Security Administration Act 1992 prevents a bank from applying charges to customers account when they have insufficient funds to cover a payment they have asked us to make.

We will keep you updated appropriately about the proceedings with the OFT. You can also check the latest position on our websites at www.halifax.co.uk or www.bankofscotland.co.uk

Thank you for your patience.

PS: I sent the letter to the Scotland head office... but am going to apply to an England court.

slim1982

the letter is saying that your case is on hold till after the test case the only way you can ask them to look at it sooner is if you believe your in financial hardship

andwan0

slim1982 wrote: »

the letter is saying that your case is on hold till after the test case the only way you can ask them to look at it sooner is if you believe your in financial hardship

That's interesting... I used moneysavingexpert.com's bc_letter1_noint.rtf and amended it to say:

I request that you deal with my case now rather than once the test case has ended as I rely on means tested benefits for my income and this has been set by the government as the minimum amount of money someone needs to live on.

I've already sent the 2nd letter template.. but that didn't reinforce the financial hardship.

Also, when does this test case end?

I think I should've used the BBC templates... since my friend used theirs and got his money straight away!

slim1982

try telephoning them and ask why its on hold because your claiming under hardship the test case is on going who knows when its gonna end could be ages yet plently of people on here have had pay outs but its not easy you have to keep fighting it
good luck let us know how you get on

natweststaffmember

Furthermore, I would say that the fact that they have acknowledged the claim is where the 6 years kicks off. That means that even if the OFT test case ends in say 2010 then you will have a case for bank charges from 2003 or the point that have acknowledged it, so if that was 2008 then its 2002 until the conclusion.

andwan0

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Furthermore, I would say that the fact that they have acknowledged the claim is where the 6 years kicks off. That means that even if the OFT test case ends in say 2010 then you will have a case for bank charges from 2003 or the point that have acknowledged it, so if that was 2008 then its 2002 until the conclusion.

I hope to God you are absolutely right!!!!

natweststaffmember

andwan0 wrote: »

I hope to God you are absolutely right!!!!

Have a red of the FSA Waiver on Bank charges on my signature.....its there...
(1) Time is to be treated as not running in relation to relevant charges complaints for the duration of this direction. However, if the firm nonetheless attempts to resolve a relevant charges complaint after the date of this direction, time starts to run in relation to that complaint from the date the complaint was received and the rules shall apply to the complaint in the usual way.
This one is on page 4.

zarah_2

Hi Andywan.

I received the exact same letter, word for word I now dont know what to do.. do I take it to court where I have to claim through hardship which I presume i will have to prove.. or do i sit and wait ? I sent my letter to head office in leeds although I live in scotland.

good luck and let me know how you get on

Zarah