Claim back any unfair bank charges! Article Discussion Area

kit

hollis wrote:

Hello,

Many thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you please tell me if I could reclaim charges from A building Society such as the Nationwide.

Your advice would be appreciated.

PJ

Yes - any bank, building society, credit card etc.

VeryTrying_2

melpomene wrote:

thanks you two. i wasn't claiming the 8% interest, but the interest on the unlawful charges. to which (unlawful charges + interest on them!) 8% would be added if we went to court.

nobody seeems to know what i mean ....

I do. You are quite right, you can reclaim the charges and also the interest which you have already paid on those charges. Then, as you say, when you go to court you can add 8% to the lot!

At the moment, you are not actually charging them interest, you are only reclaiming the interest which has been paid.

VeryTrying_2

Sarahsaver wrote:

They basically said 'go on then, take us tp court!' What now? Anyone else got to this point?

Be a good girl and do as they say! I got to the same point as you, and then past it. NW have never failed to pay up yet. If you go over to https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/ you will see what to do and what to expect from NatWest. They do the same to everybody, but always pay up in the end. Give it a go!

melpomene

VeryTrying wrote:

I do. You are quite right, you can reclaim the charges and also the interest which you have already paid on those charges. Then, as you say, when you go to court you can add 8% to the lot!

At the moment, you are not actually charging them interest, you are only reclaiming the interest which has been paid.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply - I was cracking up then, & geting all flustered! Will write back today, revising my LBA to grudgingly accept the £30 worth of 'service' charges, & adjusting the interest accordingly.

By theway their letter gives me a little lecture about how interest accrues daily & is applied monthly - yikes!

Mel

tonyem

Hi took my DPA letter into the bank on 11th August and got the following reply (apologies if this question has been asked before but i haven't time to scroll through 70 odd pages, did see a similar question in the wrong area but not a suitable answer).

Letter from Barclays:-

We refer to your letter of 11th August, which was passed to this department for comment due to your request for certain information, relating to bank charges, under the terms of the Data Protection Act ("DPA")

Please be aware that the bank is not under an obligation to present information according to any particular format. Therefore, your request to assemble a schedule of charges is turned aside. You may of course obtain this data from copy statements and these will be supplied to you within the next few weeks without charge on this occasion. As the bank is providing the copy statements on a complimentary basis your payment is returned herewith. Please be aware however that some statement information arising from the period prior to and possibly during 1999-2000 is stored in the form of microfiche and does not fall within the data subject access provisions of the DPA.

As regards your mention of "manual interventions", the DPA does not oblige the bank to comment about internal policies and procedures. Furthermore, in the context of managing day to day transaction arising from out of order accounts, the bank does not hold the information you have requested in a form that would be covered by the DPA. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not constitute "personal data" under the DPA and therefore would not be covered by a s.7 DPA subject access request. For the avoidance of doubt, the fact that we do not generally record information in a way that is caught by the provisions of the DPA, is in no way an admission that there was no such manual intervention.

Stikes me that the period when my bank account was probably at it's worst is when they are saying the info I need is on microfiche. I suppose I just have to wait and see what statements they send me but has anybody received a letter like this and if so what is the way forward.

I hate it when banks get WE ARE BIGGER THAN YOU, just makes more determined not only for myself but to continue to spread the word about this site and this procedure. Congrats to everyone who has already been successful on reclaiming their charges.

Tony

Andylad

Hi,

I am about to take my bank to Court via the "Money claim online site". I'm wondering what to basically write as the "statement" (how to word it exactly) I've tried to look for examples but am really struggling. Please could someone point me in the right direction. I would be most grateful

Thanks very much,

Andy

StockportGerbil

tonyem wrote:

Hi took my DPA letter into the bank on 11th August and got the following reply
<snip>

Letter from Barclays:-

We refer to your letter of 11th August, which was passed to this department for comment due to your request for certain information, relating to bank charges, under the terms of the Data Protection Act ("DPA")

<snip>

Hi!
Yep I got one of those. I read it as Barclays trying to claim they were exempt from the Data Protection act. Hmmm.... Anyway I got copies of six years statements sent a week and a half later.
Good luck :-)
Kevin

VeryTrying_2

Andylad wrote:

I am about to take my bank to Court via the "Money claim online site". I'm wondering what to basically write as the "statement" (how to word it exactly) I've tried to look for examples but am really struggling. Please could someone point me in the right direction.

Andy, I suggest you go to post no 1404, and then find your own bank's thread. Also make sure you've sent the right two letters to your bank before taking them to court. In the templates area, you will also find some useful spreadsheets for working out what you should claim for.

As regards the statement, I've used the following:

Claimant has an account number XXXXXXXXX,
sort code XX-XX-XX with Defendant
conducted on their standard terms
and conditions. Claimant is claiming the
return of £100.00 taken by Defendant in
charges since June 2002. The Defendant's
charges are a disproportionate penalty and
therefore unenforceable as they are contrary
to common law. They are also invalid under
the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977 s.4 and
under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts
Regulations 1999.Para.8 and sch.2.1.e. In
the event that the charges are not a penalty
they are unreasonable within the meaning of
the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982
s.15. Defendant has declined justification of
charges despite written requests. The
claimant claims interest under Section 69 of
the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8%
a year from 18 June 2002 to 21 August 2006
of £10.00 and also interest at the same rate
up to the date of judgment or earlier payment
at a daily rate of £0.02p.

tenuissent

I wrote to A&L recently, explaining that a brief dip (6 days while I was away from home) into overdraft was caused by coincidence - a cheque going out just before a paycheque came in - and asked for the fees of £75 to be returned as a gesture of goodwill.

They have replied with a pompous letter ending with the decision to pay me back £0.25. That's 25 pence.

I'm not sure if this is better or worse than an outright refusal.

tenuissent

I have read the FAQs but still have a question. Two of the £25 charges were for the "service" of honouring cheques that I had written before going into the 6 day overdraft, which turned up during it. Is this a service I should expect to pay for and can't claim back?