Trying To Get Blood Out Of A Stone

kalfy1

Hi MS Experts.

I decided last week to go down the route of trying to claw back some money from my previous bank...HSBC.

I joined the bankaction group forum and used their letter templates to write to HSBC to get them to refund my Unfair charges for the past 6 years. These amounted to approx £155 with recent unfair interest of approx £196.

Today I had an email back, which was within 5 days, let alone 14 days given to them! I was really dissapointed. It stated the following:

Dear Mrs xxxxxxxx

Thank you for your e-message dated 9 March 2006.

I do acknowledge your comments on this matter. However, please note that the charges have been applied correctly in line with the Bank's published tariff. As such, a refund is not applicable on this occasion.

Our scale of charges can benefit all personal customers but each time an account has an overdraft which hasn't been agreed in advance or operates outside of the above criteria, we incur costs in reviewing and agreeing any additional borrowing. In these circumstances we believe that applying Overdraft Review Fees is both fair and appropriate and we won't refund charges that have been applied correctly.

We won't, however, charge more than five fees in any one charging month, and charges applied to an account will never exceed either the maximum overdrawn balance or the amount of any borrowing which is over an agreed limit. This is part of our wider commitment to fair banking.

I have forwarded you our leaflet ' cards and travel prices ' which provides further details on our charges.

If you still wish to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact us on 08457 404 404. Alternatively please call in to your local HSBC branch.

I trust this clarifies matters.

Yours sincerely


Mr M Bowden
Manager Customer Credit Services

Please note the above paragraph:
We won't, however, charge more than five fees in any one charging month, and charges applied to an account will never exceed either the maximum overdrawn balance or the amount of any borrowing which is over an agreed limit. This is part of our wider commitment to fair banking.

ALL MY CHARGES WERE FOR THE ABOVE REASON: THEM MAKING ME GO OVER MY MAXIMUM AGREED LIMIT. Hence why I have written a short sharp email back asking for a gesture of goodwill due to their UNFAIR BANKING RULES.!!!
So I shall wait and see, otherwise I don't know whether it's worth taking it any further for the relatively small amount involved. Considering others have got back £1,000's.

I also like the paragraph which says that their scale of charges can benefit all customers???? DUUH how can charges benefit anyone other than the bank???!!!

lynzpower

Go back to the bank action group website with this. You have to take them to court. Chances are they wont turn up and the court will tell them to cough. Lloysds tsb manchester have got the bailiffs going in this week!

the experts are over at the BAG though. Good luck, its a hassle but i reckon well worth it. Dont fold now, or you wont get anything!

tigerlily

Well I chased Barclays for £30...and got it!! Good luck.

moozie_2

I am sorry to see that the response from your bank was not as forthcoming as some of the others I have seen here and on the bank action group site.

I agree with lynzpower, you need to go back to the bank action group site but, most importantly, you need to decide how far you are prepared to go with your claim.

Best of luck

uberzoldat

I wouldn't worry. That seems to be the same "template-response" they come out with.

My brother and OH have received very similar letters. The one my brother got from Barclays he sent a letter back stating that their charges were punitive, basically reiterating what he said initially, then the next letter they sent offered him half the charges.

His next step now is to file the court proceedings as they then retracted their offer.

Don't panic - the law is on your side.

amosworks

I would go directly to moneyclaim and file a claim now, they've made their position more than clear so why wait any more?

Plus of course, you can now claim back expenses and 8% interest calculated daily, which will bump up what they owe you quite nicely

Good luck!

klare_2

lynzpower wrote:

Go back to the bank action group website with this. You have to take them to court. Chances are they wont turn up and the court will tell them to cough. Lloysds tsb manchester have got the bailiffs going in this week!

the experts are over at the BAG though. Good luck, its a hassle but i reckon well worth it. Dont fold now, or you wont get anything!

why are the baliffs going into a bank this week .. im going through this process with lloyds tsb so was just a bit curious
thanks :rolleyes:

lynzpower

i read it on the bank action group website. Have a look there but as I remember it, someone asked for thier charges back from LTSB went through the court process, lloyds never turhned up, the court gives the bank 14 days to pay as they havent turned up, entering no defence (for whatever reason) lloyds havent and the court has instructed a bailiff to go in on clients bahalf to seize the money. this claims only for a couple of hundred quid i think, and the press will be there!

MrsTinks

interesting enough I recently hired someone who worked for a bank (in their complaints department no less!) and we had a bit of a chat about this The banks believe they are entirely within their rights to charge for you carelessly going over your overdraft and usually fold only because the amounts aren't worth a legal battle. Each bank is different and it can even vary as to which complaints manager is on duty as to how your claim is handled. She also pointed out that by no means all people who tries to claim this back get their money.
If your over draft charge is due to a mistake on the banks part though then you can call the complaints department (don't bother with their standard call centre, look up your banks complaints department number on their website) and get them to investigate the problem and they have the authority to refund any charges and so on

Just worth knowing I guess

Personally I am still going to try and get money back from Lloyds! HEEHEE

lynzpower

tine wrote:

interesting enough I recently hired someone who worked for a bank (in their complaints department no less!) and we had a bit of a chat about this The banks believe they are entirely within their rights to charge for you carelessly going over your overdraft and usually fold only because the amounts aren't worth a legal battle. Each bank is different and it can even vary as to which complaints manager is on duty as to how your claim is handled. She also pointed out that by no means all people who tries to claim this back get their money.
If your over draft charge is due to a mistake on the banks part though then you can call the complaints department (don't bother with their standard call centre, look up your banks complaints department number on their website) and get them to investigate the problem and they have the authority to refund any charges and so on

Just worth knowing I guess

Personally I am still going to try and get money back from Lloyds! HEEHEE

Not so according to the BAG. They say that the bank charges for going over your overdraft is the cost that it costs them to administer the debt ( ie sending out a printed letter all by computer) Banking head honchos have stated that these charges are a deterrent for mismanging money, and not for the real charge that going OD for example costs them .ie going 50p over your OD, incurrs a £35 charge, even if Im getting paid the next day. Everyone gets charged ( thru lloyds in any case) the same figure regardless of thier circumstances and the BAG believe that this is illegal.

BAG, and i agree with them say that the reason they wont bother to turn up to court, is because they cannot legally defend thier charges. If they turned up to court TO defend, and they were found to have no legal bases for these charges, then the floodgates would open and they'd not be able to charge in the same way again. thats why they dont turn up. theres people on the BAG site whove got back thousands. I certainly dont think its costs that makes the banks choose not to turn up ( they have to pay *our* costs anyway when they turn up and dont defend. PLus 8% interest.

Im getting mine back, if it kills me.

sportbeth

Don't give up fighting!! I got £821 from the woolwich on my second letter before going to court. They did dig their heels in and so did I. You can only gain, there is nothing to lose