Claim back any unfair bank charges! Article Discussion Area

LJ2111

Hi. I have finally received my statements back from Bank of Scotland after nearly reaching the 40 days deadline. I notice on the statements that as well as overdraft charges I have also got numerous MAINTENANCE charges? of up to £15 to £30 a go!!!! Are these legal? Can I claim these back too and how do I put them on the spreadsheet which is my next step.
I would greatly appreciate your help. Thanks, Lorna

BettyB_3

A quick call to the bank to ask them to explain would be a good idea. They don't always make themselves clear.

Richiefitz3007

In the process of claiming back my money from Lloyds, awaiting the data i requested on myself regarding the charges they have taken off me. Roughly worked it out to be £2350 and thats only going back as far as 2002(online statements only let you go back to 02) but hope to have more with the two extra years. Barclaycard have taken £360 since October 2003. Wrote off to them and they now have 7 days left to reply or put money back onto my credit card. Halifax are also sorting my data request out, but do not know how much they have taken off me. Keep you posted!!!

All hail the god that is Mr M Lewis!!!

Edinburghlass_2

LJ2111 wrote:

Hi. I have finally received my statements back from Bank of Scotland after nearly reaching the 40 days deadline. I notice on the statements that as well as overdraft charges I have also got numerous MAINTENANCE charges? of up to £15 to £30 a go!!!! Are these legal? Can I claim these back too and how do I put them on the spreadsheet which is my next step.
I would greatly appreciate your help. Thanks, Lorna

Check out the Scottish Procedure on the CAG Forums here as it is slightly different in that you can only go back five years and the court system is a bit different.

cralslat

i thought my payments for mobile phone bill was going to be taken out on the 28th, but instead it was taken out on the 11th and i didnt know to have the money in the bank ready, i was sent a text from my mobile phone company being told it had been failed to take it out of my bank account, within half an hour i went to the bank and payed the money into the account, asked the lady behind the counter how much i had in my bank, and was told i had £40, £10 more than my bill, i then phoned the mobile phone company to pay my bill

I then bought some trainers off ebay the next week, put the money in my account first, and thn payed for them successfully, still not being told about the charges that were about to come....

i then later received a letter from my bank saying that i was to be charged £39.00 for the failed payment of the £30 which seems excessive...

i always know how much i have in my bank and so never open statements from bank as i rarely use them so dont need to, just put money intime for direct debits, so i also didnt read the next two letters, one for the week after the failed payment saying i was into my overdraft limit and was to be charged £28, then one at the start of this month saying i was in my overdraft and had to pay the next for 30th december, i have no arranged overdraft facilitity with the bank so i have no idea how i can go into this overdraft, or why the lady at the bank didnt tell me i was to be charged for a failed payment the first or second time

is there anything i can do to stop myself from having to make these payments, i know its not much in comparison to some of the costs people are reclaiming, but its alot of money to me that i cant afford to lose. Will see the bank tommorow any help will be greatly appreciated

lean&mean

Under the direct debit guarantee that all DD originating organisations have to give, the bank should either refund incorrectly made DDs or stand charges that should not be applied. If you can prove to the bank that the DD was made earlier than you were given to believe, I should think the bank would be willing to refund the bank charges just on that basis.

If not, try getting the charges reduced anyway.
Good luck

lean&mean

Just to give you inspiration/hope, I called our bank, Intelligent Finance, to ask (nicely) for them to refund the £28 they charged for my exceeding my overdraft limit, by £140. At first they pointed out that I had signed their terms and conditions approving the charges. I said what a good customer I was and so on, but this didn't seem to budge them. However, I said that I still felt strongly that the charge was not a reasonable amount and that I would be writing to them. They said that their decision would still be to hold firm on the charges, so I explained that I would only be writing because this would have to be the first step before taking them to the small claims court. At this the girl asked me to hold while she talked to her supervisor. After a long wait she came to me to tell me that they would remove the charge only on the understanding that they wouldn't do it again, that I should keep my account in order etc etc.

If it happens again...well, I'd be a fool not to ask for them to waive it again!

Worth a phone call, especially if the charge is a large amount. And if they still say no, you can always write!

cralslat

lean&mean wrote:

Under the direct debit guarantee that all DD originating organisations have to give, the bank should either refund incorrectly made DDs or stand charges that should not be applied. If you can prove to the bank that the DD was made earlier than you were given to believe, I should think the bank would be willing to refund the bank charges just on that basis.

If not, try getting the charges reduced anyway.
Good luck

no i dont have proof thought the DD's were meant to be taken earlier, i just thought that they were meant to be, i just wondered if it was possible for me to get the £40 charge for a £30 DD failing to be payed lowered or totally cleared? and if that happens, then i wouldnt have been overdrawn so would they then not charge me these? even if these charges are halfed from £100 to £50 id be happy

tinks72

Hi there all, love the article on bank charges, however seems a bit of a long traul doesn't it, for us lazy people out there found a great site that will do it for you, check it out... http://www.saynotocharges.com They are working for me at the moment and in touch all the time, very proffesional and personal at the same time, had no problems at all..
Good luck to all getting their charges back, it is about time that we stood up for ourselves with these banks...
Tinks xxxx

Edinburghlass_2

Now why would anyone from MSE use a company that will take a percentage of any charges reclaimed when the advice is all freely given on MSE helped by the CAG Forums, PenaltyCharges and the MSE users themselves

From the website "Once we are successful we will deduct our fees, which will never exceed 30% of your total claim less court fees. Consider that this was money that you thought you would never see again and you realise that in fact, it has cost you nothing at all.

These people are known as "ambulance chasers" and I certainly wouldn't advise any MSE user to go down this route.