Charging a bank for their mistake?

scoobster_2

I have a personal loan with Sainsbury Bank which has been run absolutely perfectly, payments always on time etc. I decided a month or so ago to top this loan up which involved taking out a new loan to clear the first, then using the additional funds to buy a car.

I was approved, however I decided not to proceed, cancelled the change and am continuing with the original agreement. The odd thing was that several days later I received a refund on a "supposed" overpayment which I had made on my original loan and a letter thanking me for signing up to pay my new loan by DD. I rang them and infomed them of their mistake and was assured all was well.

Last Saturday however I received a letter telling me that my original loan was in arrears (oddly enough by one refunded payment) and that an admin charge of £25 had been added to my account. After a 25 minute wait on the phone I managed to speak to someone, paid the arrears by debit card, asked for the charges to be cancelled and any negative info taken off my battered credit rating.

At this point, as it was their mistake would I be in my rights to invoice them a fee for my time to rectify this? My rationale behind this is that should it be the case that I made an error, my credit rating would be damaged and I would have a punitive charge to pay.

Any thoughts and if so how much should I charge them, my feeling is that as my process is totally manual and their is automated I should charge them additional?

the_annoyed_customer

Defently ask for the £25 back and say £25 on top so ask for £50:D As it was in the end a HBOS error and not yours, but it depends how generous HBOS are feeling

Lokolo

Theres guidelines somewhere.... I think Milarky had them...

They will only give you what you deserve. If they don't feel you deserve anything extra, you won't get it.

Ok I can't find it !!!!!!.

Anyway, credit report can be fixed by the bank and you can claim back telephone charges at some sort of cost (which this post by X has got on it!!!), any extra you might be lucky to get but don't be sad if they don't give you anything else.

Extant

You have no right to invoice the bank - they entered in to no agreement to allow you to do that, where as you entered in to a contract allowing them to charge you on the loan.

Having worked in complaints, I'd (at a minimum) reverse the charge and give you a written apology. I might give you £5 for your 25 minutes of time and another £5 as goodwill to cover any phone charges. That would be at my discretion though, not at your "invoice."

If I recall correctly, the FOS recommends compensation of £10 per hour, but I may be out of date.