Score! Fighting RBoS with their own tactics

amosworks

Hi Bizzy Lizzy,

From what I've been researching, I believe the reason you can only back date by 6 years is because it's stipulated in the Statutes of Limitations Act 1982 (I think) that you can only claim on something that happened within 6 years for this type of offence (the offence being the unlawful charges). Your complete bank history will exist for many, many years even after the account is closed for other compliance reasons (it will move from the mainframe to archived storage at some point I would imagine, but it will still be available for some time.)

If you don't have all your statements like I did, don't worry. You can write to your bank and request under the Data Protection Act that they give you the information within 40 days. They may legally charge you for this (somewhere in the order of £10), but they can't deny your request. A judge ruled that personal financial information that can be related to an individual does indeed fall under the remit of the DPA so if they fail to comply, you can report them to the Information Commisioner (I think that's what he/it's called - there are more details on the https://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk website) and probably other regulatory bodies relating to upholding the banking code etc.

For more information, go to the BAG website and you must click on the Forum. You have to register on the forum there but when you do, read the FAQ section then head over to The Library for template documents etc. to send to people. They've done a lot of the hard work for you

I delivered the letter to my bank who insisted on opening it before they gave me a note saying they had received it. The lady who opened it looked strangely at it for a few seconds and gave me the a receipt. I think she thought I had a screw loose but in my opinion, they're the ones with the screw loose by blatantly breaking the law and expecting to get away with it.

Here's the letter I gave them. It's slightly more official looking and beefed up, and contains more legalese than the template version on the BAG website. It's also different as I've had 3 accounts with RBoS over the 6 year period and the template only caters for a single account.

I hope it's of some use!

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to request a full and immediate refund of all charges applied to all of my accounts held with you within the last six years.

As you are undoubtedly aware, penalty clauses in contracts in English and Scottish law for breach of contract are not legal if the penalty exceeds the actual cost of the breach of either party. Under the 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act, the sheer fact that all banks make these charges makes this a breach of the Act. This is also a breach of the 1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) and possibly the Sales of Goods Act 1979 and Supply of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1982.

Such charges levied against my account include, but are not limited to, direct debit refusals, standing order refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and others. I am reclaiming these charges on all of the accounts that are or have been operational with you for six years in to the past from the date of this letter, as stipulated by the statutes of Limitation Act 1980.

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contracts which you agreed to at the time that I opened my accounts. It is an implied term of the contracts that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law. The charges applied to my account are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer Regulations.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

I have calculated that from account nnnnnnnn you have taken £n,nnn.00 in charges, from account nnnnnnnn you have taken £nnn.00 in charges and from account nnnnnnnn you have taken £nnn.00 in charges. Therefore I have calculated that in total on all my accounts in the last six years that you have taken £n,nnn.00 in charges.

I hope that you will enter in to a sincere dialogue with me in an attempt to resolve this matter satisfactorily as quickly and efficiently as possible. I am giving you 14 days to contact me in writing, unconditionally accepting my request in principal and I expect the total payment to be received before the end of this period.

If you do not respond, or do not respond positively, within this time period, I will begin commencement of a claim at the expiry of the deadline. At this point I shall also be additionally claiming to recover interest and expenses incurred.

Yours faithfully,


[Name]

amosworks

Sorry I also forgot to mention that if, in the seemingly unlikely event, that this does go to court - everything is also on your side, and not only can you claim some expenses but also 8% APR INTEREST ON ALL DEBTS, CALCULATED DAILY!!! They owe me £2,011 and with the added interest, it pumps it up to around £2,700!

mich_city

Out of interest I've just checked online my last 6 months statements on my RBoS account.. I've been charged £547.18 in charges (bounced DD's, overdraft etc) This is in 6 months alone!! God knows what it is overall.. (don't have old statements)

I've been getting deeper and deeper in debt for the last 3-4 yrs, am now up to my eyes and have to take my head out of the sand and face up to it seriously.. Its hard getting your head around all these posts and knowing exactly where to start first?

amosworks

Well I think the journey of getting out of debt and becoming affluent is different for each and every one of us. Yes, there are many things in common, but everybody has unique circumstances too. I think the first step must simply be to make a complete and detailed list of absolutely everything you owe everyone.

Obviously cutting back your expenditure, maximising your income and find other ways to beat "the system" (like reclaiming bank charges) are springboards along the way for additional cash which you should pump straight in to paying off your debts.

In all fairness mich_city, you don't initially have anything to lose by taking an evening out tonight and going through all your statements and working out your total charges for the last 6 years. Use the standard letter on https://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk forum "The Library" section (you need to register, free) and see what happens.

You can threaten them with court, and it's up to you whether you progress that far or not. At the end of the day, it's mind games with them. They will deny it, make it seem like your fault and do everything they can to avoid paying it, but they KNOW they are going to lose in court so would rather pay up.

Think of it as stress relief making your bank squirm, and not additional stress. If, after a few letters, you get a couple of grand out of them then WOOP WOOP! Put it straight in to clearing your debts and don't blow it. Easy come, easy go. But you will feed a gazillion times better when you do that.

All it will take is an evening and a few letters in all likelihood. Say < 8 hours work in total. For something like £2k like I'm claiming back, that's an hourly rate of £250 Most worth it!

All you have to lose is a few postage stamps and an evening watching the brainwash box. Your call matey

j03

I completely agree with Amosworks there, the first step is sorting out who you owe what and then paying it back. Don;t get more loans to pay off loans, thats the worst thing you can do. Also dont use anyone like Eurodebt or Baines and Earnst, they feed off the poor and are scum of the earth in my opinion. Consider calling the cccs and getting them to help you if it's all too much for you.

Then go ahead and try and claim the charges back....as you well know the banks wouldnt hesitate to take the money from you and you are in hard times while they earn billions in profits each year!!

Also like to say a big thank you to Amosworks for the details on how to claim the charges back, that BAG site is a bit too much to take in at a glance!

amosworks

Thanks for that, you're welcome. The BAG site is a bit too much to take in during one go but if you stick with it (and keep the coffee coming) you get there eventually

I've just agreed with Dave @ BAG to finish programming the survey part of the site (it's under development) that will show you which banks "cave in" at which points along the way, and allow people to register the bank they were with and at which point they had success (ie, first letter, second letter, start of claim etc.). I'll try and get it done in a few days because there's lots of info there but it's all chaotic and I think what they are doing is fantastic work and could help so many!

You may have noticed that the site got so popular every now and again it has errors because of the immense amount of traffic! I sense something really big happening here

mich_city

Thanks for the reply..

I'm useless with facts & figures, APR's etc.. hence the resulting mess I'm in now!.. The RBoS haven't helped in my situation, offering loan top-ups also upping my overdraft + CC limit, cancelling DD's (without my knowledge)

Of course its my problem at the end of the day, so really do need to sit down and work it all out properly.. So much info to take in

I've cut back drastically on most outgoings already (budget shopping) don't go out, drink or smoke.. Practically all of my wage goes on paying off debt and DD's. I think I need to read up on the possibility of cancelling PPI's on CC's or loans also.. (which I felt forced into taking, despite saying I didn't want it)

Off work for 4 days now, so a perfect opportunity to sit down and work out where I stand exactly.. *GULP*

If that makes sense of course.. sitting down to work out where I stand?!? :rotfl:

Chortle_2

I am also in the process of claiming back over £2k of bank charges from my bank.

As amosworks says, you've got nothing to lose, and [STRIKE]if[/STRIKE] when (;)) they pay up, it'll be another £2k off of my debts, and bring my debt free date ever closer :beer:

amosworks

Good luck with your claim Chortle!

mich_city: 4 days should be more than you need. Get a spreadsheet open and just start adding to it, don't spend 3 days making it then rest on the fourth day heh. When you've done it I'd be interested to see if you feel like posting the results. Good luck!

Tabs_2

amosworks wrote:

If you don't have all your statements like I did, don't worry. You can write to your bank and request under the Data Protection Act that they give you the information within 40 days. They may legally charge you for this (somewhere in the order of £10), but they can't deny your request. A judge ruled that personal financial information that can be related to an individual does indeed fall under the remit of the DPA so if they fail to comply, you can report them to the Information Commisioner (I think that's what he/it's called - there are more details on the https://www.bankactiongroup.co.uk website) and probably other regulatory bodies relating to upholding the banking code etc.

Just to add to this ....

Whilst the banks are legally obliged to respond to your Data Subject Access Request (i.e the procedure you have mentioned above) they do not have to actually provide copies of the statements.

They can provide you with a breakdown of the charges in the form of a list or even perhaps a screen printout from their computer systems.

We have successfully claimed back charges from MBNA and we have now proceeded to make a claim against the Yorkshire Bank via the Small Claims Court as they refuse to even supply us with a breakdown of charges :mad: However, we have reported them to the Information Commissioner so we're not letting them get away with anything :beer:

Good luck to everyone claiming back charges (although you won't need it :rotfl: )