Claim back any unfair bank charges! Article Discussion Area

xanderd

Pursue the full amount - you are entitled to it. They are obviusly scared of paying you the full amount and trying to persuade you for less.

emmaBZ

i sent DPA on 24 june for 2 accs with halifax i recieved a letter reguarding 1 of accs saying standard stuff "you responsibility" ect with a piece of paper that only had e.g DATE; 23/05/03 £29.00DR it listed a few like this and totaled to £333 there was a offer of £78 "in full & final settlement" i have not recieved any info on other acc. do i seend them a letter asking for all £333 to be refunded or wait till 3/8 (end of 40 days) and if they sent info for other acc do a letter for both accs at same time ? (im sure they're doing this to confuse me ! )

groovychick69

Hi new to this so hope you experienced money savers can help me out. I am reclaiming bank charges on behalf of my boyfriend. He has been charged lot's of overdraft interest but it is hard to tell wether it is interest because he was already over drawn or not. Shall i just settle for claiming back the overdraft excesscharge rather than worry about the interest?

MortgageMamma

hi hope someone can help

I have sent a subject data access request, calculated how much Halifax owe me, sent a letter requesting payment, and received a long waffley letter from them to the effect of "we were well within our rights to make those charges, we comply with the banking code, we will close your account if its not conducted property, have £95 instead of the £800+ that we owe you and shut up".

Whats the best thing to do now, go on to the letter before action or handle it some other way?

MM

jibby1

Hi,

This is my first post in the forums, although I have been lurking for quite a while.

Following the advice I read here and on other sites, I sent the letter below to my local branch of HSBC. I obtained the letter from http://www.penaltycharges.co.uk. I sent the letter off on July 19th by Special Delivery and received a letter informing me they were sending my copies of statements for the past six years. I rang HSBC to confirm the charge for this and was informed that as my complaint was specifically against bank charges, they would not make a charge for these statements.

This maybe worth doing to save the £10 DPA Subject Access Request Fee.

My question is, now they have sent me the statements, do I have to write to them requesting a specific refund and restart the 14 day limit or is my original request stating "I require you to refund my entire bank charges for the past 6 years" still valid?

Good luck to everybody else in obtaining their statements for free and I will keep this board updated as to the outcome of my claim.

---

Dear Sirs

Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I am now aware that you, HSBC have been charging me, charges, that are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) of the said regulations gives a non-complete list of terms, which may be regarded as unfair, such as a term that requires me as a consumer who fails in his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation.

I believe that your charges are disproportionately high and therefore they are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963 It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss.

Furthermore if you fail to comply with this letter, I request without further notice a breakdown and proof of all costs involved, in regards to your actual or liquidated losses involved in any breach of contract to which these charges relate with yourselves, and that these charges reflect your true costs In relation to the said charges, and are proportionate to the charges levied on my account as defined in Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e)
I also hereby request a detailed report of which clause in your terms and conditions each charge has been applied against.

Your charges appear to be nothing more than a profit-making scheme. Therefore, I require you to refund my entire bank charges for the past 6 years. Along with evidence that you have refunded all the charges. I hereby give you 14 days notice to refund the charges back on to my account. If this is not done within 14 days, I will be forced to start legal proceedings, you will receive no further warnings

sassi

Hi we had all our statements and knew amount to claim, so sent off prelim letter last week...

recieved what i assume to be a standard reply yesterday, saying ...

dear.......

i am just writing to let you know we have recieved your complaint - and to say how sorry i am to learn that you're unhappy with us.

You have my assurance that we will investigate the concerns you have raised with us - this may take a little time but i would expect our enquiries to be complete within the coming 2 weeks. We will then be able to respond in full to your complaint and at that stage, i hope, resolve matters between us.

In case you haven't recieved a copy of our leaflet called ' how to voice your concerns' i've enclosed one with my letter. This tells you all you need to know about resolving your complaint with us.

Yours sincerely

Ms Musarat Siddique
Customer Service Officer

what do we do next?
wait?
or send Letter before action??

confused!
be gentle with me...i've been reading everyones posts with interest for a while, and then decided to thake the plunge myself. Could not see this response letter anywhere?

Davemac

Thanks Bookworm.

I'll bear it in mind. In fact, I will probably ditch HSBC and continue with Nationwide, whose Flexaccount incidentally, allows you to withdraw cash abroad for free. A great saving method for those who venture overseas on a regular basis. Most banks charge up to £1.50 per withdrawal.

Jonni2bad

Sassi - wait for 14 days from the date they would have received your letter and then send the Letter Before Action.

You need to show a court that you have given ample opportunity to settle.

Jonni2bad

MortgageMamma wrote:

Whats the best thing to do now, go on to the letter before action or handle it some other way?

MM

If the timescale for sending the LBA is just about here, then deal with that offer as part of the LBA. Just add a small paragraph along the lines of 'with reference to your letter dated XXXXX I will only accept your offer as a partial settlement against my whole claim'.

melpomene

Can I make a claim for penalty charges involving credit cards? I've just finished my exams & am about to launch my claim against FD for the current account (overdraft & refused DD etc etc) charges they hit me with when i got into trouble 3 years ago. I also had a FD Visa card on which I had a couple of charges, & I'm wondering if i can claim, &, if so, whether I should include everything in one summary, or approach the different 'departments' separately.

what about Am Ex? around the same time, a single month's bill snowballed to 3xtimes very rapidly indeed (i'm sure it was over a couple of months only!). i did a 'deal' with them & ended up paying just over 2xtimes. can i claim any of that excess back?


many thanks people,
Mel