Claim back any unfair bank charges! Article Discussion Area

bookworm1363

Benson wrote:

I am looking through my charges and they have the following:

£30 to pay an item when the account is overdrawn
and then charges..
an additional £28 unauthourised overdraft fee

Can I claim both of these back or just the £30?

Both. Have fun.

Reverend_Darkman

I filled in the moneycalim.org and paid my £120 yesterday - do I need o send the claim PDF to the bank? or does the court do that?

atomickarma

Ok sorry if this has been covered - I've done a search on the bank concerned but no luck.

basically, I've been with Abbey actively since 2001 at least - my request for 6 years of details been responded with 2 years of statements and a print out.

What sort of action should I be taking and how?

hot_kitten18

After extensive research into the topic, I have decided that I need to take charge of my own finances and will be writing to my bank tonight. All the useful tips and advice on here has been great. I do have a few issues I would like to clear up before I start the ball rolling (because once it starts, theres no going back!).
1. If I have all of my bank statements from the last 6 years, is there any need to write to them asking for a list of charges etc? Can I not just go through my statements with a highlighter and list the charges as they are shown on the statement? By the sounds of it, the list that the bank does eventually send to you is very complicated (probably delibrately to put you off!)

2. If I do not need to issue a DPA letter, can I start with the preliminary letter, as available on the bankaction group library?

3. Because I am at univeristy in Scotland, does that mean that I am only covered by scottish law (i.e. I can only claim back 5 years, and not 6). My bank is HSBC and Barclays, one of which the account was opened in Scotland, the other in England. I am assuming that the account I opened in Scotland is covered by Scottish law, and the account I opened in England is covered by English law, regardless of my current address? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!



Any advice would be most appreciated!
thanks
karen

boltonangel

i had a fixed rate deal with the abbey, and swapped lenders, so had to pay nearly £2k in penalties - is there any way that these can be claimed back, or is that different completely?

thanks


sorry - meant to say it's a mtge that i'm talking about.

sparklewing

I'll try to keep this as short as possible. Basically I have an account with the TSB with a £1500 overdraft on it which I am up to the limit on.

A couple of months ago they tried to make me pay back the whole overdraft which I was unable to do due to being off work sick etc so they agreed to accept a monthly payment of £20.

Anyway I've had this account for years and know for a fact that for 2 years of it was being charged £90 a month in charges for being continually over my overdraft. On top of this there has been loads of other months where I've been charged £75 or £90.

At a rough guesstimate(don't have my statements) I reckon over the past 6 years I've been charged at least 3000 probably more.

Should I try to claim them back? I'm scared they will refuse and then try to make me cough up the whole overdraft which I can't do.

I have an account with another bank which all my bills etc come out of so don't care if TSB shut my account just scared of the bailiffs coming or something.

JamesLB

Thanks for the great article Martin - just got a letter today from my bank, HSBC. I'd been charged £180 over two months for being overdrawn, and it was money I really couldnt afford to lose.

Initially I wrote two letters but the first got ignored and the second just received a very, very patronising reply saying it was my fault.

I sent the first letter from your article, and 16days later I have received a document to sign which will give me my £180 back, even though the bank say they have done nothing wrong and would win in court, but dont want to incur the charges.

Not a moral victory then, but I really need that money so I'm more than happy to take it.

Thanks again.

hostie

Thanks Bookworm for helping us all. I will definately donate a portion of my charges to the Consumer Action Group if I am successful and I hope that others here will to. What a useful site! Anyway as I am not able to post on it, I have another question here.

I am nearly at the stage where I have to take the bank to court. I was due to post the letter giving them two weeks on the 22nd June but they phoned and said that they would get back to me when they have the information on my account so I am holding off in case there is an amicable offer first.

My question is when I have to take them to court do I do it through the English court system or the Scottish one? I live in England but my branch is in Scotland (I am with the Royal Bank of Scotland).

Thanks a million for helping us all.

bookworm1363

Reverend_Darkman wrote:

I filled in the moneycalim.org and paid my £120 yesterday - do I need o send the claim PDF to the bank? or does the court do that?

The court.

bookworm1363

hot_kitten18 wrote:

1. If I have all of my bank statements from the last 6 years, is there any need to write to them asking for a list of charges etc? Can I not just go through my statements with a highlighter and list the charges as they are shown on the statement?
2. If I do not need to issue a DPA letter, can I start with the preliminary letter, as available on the bankaction group library?

3. Because I am at univeristy in Scotland, does that mean that I am only covered by scottish law (i.e. I can only claim back 5 years, and not 6). My bank is HSBC and Barclays, one of which the account was opened in Scotland, the other in England. I am assuming that the account I opened in Scotland is covered by Scottish law, and the account I opened in England is covered by English law, regardless of my current address? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

1 - You're quite right, you do not need to do a SAR.
2 - Yes.
3 - Sadly, yes. As a hearing would be at your local court, it will be a Sheriff's court, so Scottish law applies.