Claim back any unfair bank charges! Article Discussion Area

beatbeat

I have just received £100 back from Smile for unfair charges. It only took 1 letter which I copied from consumeractiongroup. American Express are more difficult; they admit they are in the wrong but won't repay so I have just lodged a claim with moneyclaim online. It's definitely worth the hassle.

JulianPeterson

I have an Airmiles Mastercard from Natwest. A couple of months ago the due date was a Saturday (ie not a banking day - why do they do this so often?). I paid into a Natwest using the credit card bill slip on the Thursday morning before and they sneaked a 20 charge onto my statement the following month. I wrote asking for a refund because a) it was not late and b) the charge was unfair because of the recent OFT ruling that a charge of 12 including letter was more appropriate. No reply to my letter. Followed with a 14 notice of action and request that they be less rude. Also ignored. Issued Claim Form through https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk which was Acknowledged the same day! Anyway, they neglected to enter a Defence and they now owe me 50.25. Warrant of Execution (Bailiffs) to follow if needed.

Worst of all, the Natwest staff member I spoke to before writing, told me that "cash takes 3 days to clear" even when paid in at a Natwest branch using a pre-printed giro and that their Terms & Conditions stood even though the Office of Fair Trading had pronounced on the matter. A disgrace.

Let me know if you need letter before action text.

jifjaf

Hi all

Can any one advise as to my next step?
I had started court proceedings against a company Clydesdale financial services which is part of barcleys
I have had a credit agreement with them since 2002 and on checking my statements found that I had charges of over £400 for late payment charges. The charges are £22.50 for the first computer generated letter and then 14 days later a further £22.50 for c g letter this amounts to £45 monthly

I duly paid my court fees after unsuccessfully trying to communicate with the company
I had a date set by the court to hear the case 22 august
But today I received a letter from the court stating that:
Quote

Before district judge ******* sitting at Gloucester county court

Upon the courts own motion. The court has made this order of its own initiative without a hearing. If you object to the order, you must make an application to have it set aside or stayed within 7 days of receiving it
IT IS ORDERED THAT
The hearing on the 22nd August 2006 be vacated and the allocation to small claims track cancelled
The action be stayed until further order on the basis that there is likely to be a test case before a Higher
Court before the end of the year the result is likely to reduce the need and/or amount of litigation in these types of cases
Liberty to apply to remove stay
....

Do these mean that I have now lost me court fee as well?

zeddy_2

Hi

Have just noticed a charge on my account this morning for 'debit commission' it's #30!

Is this Barclays doing their usual thing of finding another name for some charge or is it something legitimate?

I went #10 over my overdraft limit yesterday, but as soon as I was paid this morning they've removed the #30.

Fattummum

I have some questions relating to unfair bank charges.
Firstly, if I go £50 over my agreed overdraft is it lawful for them to charge me the same in charges next month? Bit confused over that one.
Secondly, I have requested the charges I have incurred over the past 6 years to be supplied to me by HSBC. They have written back and said that they are unable to tell me what charges I incurred in that period and why they were incurred ( overdrawn, returned direct debit etc). They say that the only way I can have the information is for them to supply me with 6 years of copy statements. Having just spoken to the call centre in India!! thay have told me that the statements are chargable to me, £1 for each month.So it will cost me £72. I did point out that this was very underhand, not to point this out to me in the recent letter they sent me. The guy agreed that it was but said that it was still chargable and as soon as I receive the statement thay will debit the £72 from my account!!
Are the bank being deliberatly obstructive?
What else can I do?
Im sooooo angry with them and this is making me more determined to find out if I can claim anything back from them.:mad:
Any thoughts please( and loads of advice)
Im hoping that I will receive enough cash to purchase hair dye to cover all the grey that the bank has given me over the years!

boltonangel

hi

i may be completely and utterly wrong, as i've only just started looking into this myself, but under data protection laws you can request to see any information that banks hold on you, this information only costs £10 and will show every dealing they've had with you for the past 6 years. i think you'll need to write to the address that your bank has registered.

spurious_2

This is true - any big company will have a 'Data Protection Officer' and you will need to find out the address, but by sending a £10 cheque, the bank will have 40 days (I think) to send you EVERYTHING they have on you. That includes notes, memos (internal and external), emails, faxes, recorded conversations, opinions and anything else.

An excellent template to request info can be found here

clayts

Fattummum wrote:

I have some questions relating to unfair bank charges.
Firstly, if I go £50 over my agreed overdraft is it lawful for them to charge me the same in charges next month? Bit confused over that one.

It is unlawful - claim away

Secondly, I have requested the charges I have incurred over the past 6 years to be supplied to me by HSBC. They have written back and said that they are unable to tell me what charges I incurred in that period and why they were incurred ( overdrawn, returned direct debit etc). They say that the only way I can have the information is for them to supply me with 6 years of copy statements. Having just spoken to the call centre in India!! thay have told me that the statements are chargable to me, £1 for each month.So it will cost me £72. I did point out that this was very underhand, not to point this out to me in the recent letter they sent me. The guy agreed that it was but said that it was still chargable and as soon as I receive the statement thay will debit the £72 from my account!!
Are the bank being deliberatly obstructive?
What else can I do?

You need to seek a subject access request under the Data Protection Act, not request duplicate statements - the most which can be charged by law is £10 for the whole lot.

Folks, I cannot stress enough the helpfulness of the https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk website - you register at their forum for free and then you have access to all the info and letters you need - there is one message board for each of the main banks/credit cards there and you can interact with 100s of people in the same boat as yourselves

thomp1983

ok hoping for some sound advice here, firstly the facts,

account 1, halifax current account, closed, after going through old statements total charges add up to around £640, sent template letter from here first, they wrote back saying they'd only refund £80, refused this, rang them they've now offered £250 but say they can't offer anymore and if i want the rest go to financial ombundsman, is this correct or are they hoping ill accept the £250 and forego the hassle? shoud i know write to the financial ombundsman or just file on moneyclaim?

account 2, halifax credit card, closed, total charges come to around £400, sent same letter, they refuse refund as they are aware of OFT ruling but insist it only says charges are unfair not unlawful? they say go to financial ombundsman but they'll win as charges are a result of me running the account poorly, again i think there just fobbing me off so as above write to FO or just file with moneyclaim?

account 3, barclays current account, closed, this one annoys me, they owe around £400, have written them first letter, no response in 3 weeks, rang them they claim to have sent to letters acknowledging receipt of letter and a further one saying there looking into it furthur, have received neither letter and it's at same address since account opened, but magically i still get advertising stuff from them. ring them again they just pass me around departments. do i still pursue them, write to FO or go with moneyclaim?

account 3, firstdirect current account, wrote to them with letter requesting refund, they did this, became unemployed missed a cheque payment got another charge, requested refund they granted this but closed my account which is a shame as i liked the account. are they entitled to do this over my enforcing of my rights as they were quite pushy about me reclaiming charges and threatened to close it after claiming first charges if i went od again.

account 4, capital one credit card, wrote letter requesting refund of £160, they wrote back and refunded £40, wrote back saying not acceptable so they refunded another £40, but now refuse to do anymore saying write to FO ombundsman for other £80, again do i write to FO or go with moneyclaim?

account 5, lloyds tsb current account (girlfriends student account). wrote letter requesting refund of about £100, they refused as she agreed to contract, wrote back saying they agreed to conduct it in lawful manner they haven'tetc. they still refused and said go to FO, again go to them or go with moneyclaim? issue here is girlfriend has large overdraft so doesn't want to end up in similer situation as my firstdirect account

sorry for the long post but i could do with some advice on each of these accounts to get some results

cheers
chris

Fattummum

Thanks to all of you for the good advice. The bank sent through 42 statements this morning ( some are my husbands too). Now waiting to take them on over the charges for these that they didn't inform me of prior to sending them out!
I think they know exactly what I am up to. I didn't ask for copy statements, however they told me the only way they hold the infromation I require was to send me all the statements! Do thay ever stop trying to con us????