Reclaiming - advice please :o)

slummymummyof2

Hi there.

I wondered if anyone could advise me...

We looked at reclaiming my husband's bank charges some time ago but failed to get around to it because of house moves etc.... To be quite honest it'd totally slipped my mind since until today when I saw about it on the MSE email. I'm sure he has a LOT of charges to reclaim as he was in a pretty poor situation with banks before I met him and got him to contact the CCCS about repaying his loans etc... and getting him out of the red each month.

Anyway...... in the end, with the help of the CCCS, First Direct transferred his loan (of which there is about £2.5k left to pay at £50 a month) to an overdraft so he only pays 1% interest instead of about 13.5% - that was good of First Direct to do I though..... but, before the CCCS helped us to do this, First Direct were slamming him with all sorts of charges every month which pushed him further and further into the red every time and , for want of a better word, cancelled out any payments that he made to them.

So, to my question... As he is now paying it off (albeit slowly) with their agreement as an overdraft rather than the loan, would it be silly of him to try and reclaim his charges? Could they close his account and send debt collectors to reclaim the outstanding £2.5k? Could they demand the £2.5k to be paid back immediately? Obviously our hope is that if we could reclaim that money then we'd be able to clear that £2.5k.

Also.......... can you claim from accounts that have been closed for years? He had charges with Barclays & HSBC too before we closed those accounts down and stuck to one very basic account with Natwest.

Thank you in anticipation of your help.

Jeni x

natweststaffmember

There is nothing to stop you putting in a back charges claim. As it stands today you can go back to July 2001 on bank charges. If the account was closed before this date, then you won't be able to reclaim.
They won't shut his account either.

Clark80

Use the templates on here with some subtle tweaking and see where it takes you. Worth a shot imo.

slummymummyof2

Thank you so much for your reply

Hopefully then we should be able to reclaim for his Barclays, HSBC, First Direct charges - which I am sure will all add up quite substantially and could help us to get rid of our last bit of debt so we can start saving once more (and maybe take the plunge and take the kids on the Thomas The Tank Engine day out!!!)

I'm sure all the answers are on here somewhere but I'm typing between breastfeeding & making a 3 year olds trains a track so don't have much time to sort through the vast amount of info.... can we claim on his old credit cards too?

The other problem we have is that we don't have any statements - everything got water damaged in our house move a while back (and I set some on fire when I had post-natal depression and couldn't cope with the debt building up - the plank in me thought if I couldn't see it then it wasn't really happening ). How do we find out what to claim?

I'm sorry to ask so many questions but I'm really not that good at deciphering all the info & translating it into easyread!!

Jx

natweststaffmember

On credit cards it is 6 years claiming. To get the charges you need to send a SAR to the bank.

slummymummyof2

natweststaffmember wrote: »

There is nothing to stop you putting in a back charges claim. As it stands today you can go back to July 2001 on bank charges. If the account was closed before this date, then you won't be able to reclaim.
They won't shut his account either.

You're sure about that? Sorry, It's just thinking about it.... I think I remember accounts being closed because banks said it was a breakdown of trust or breakdown of relationship between them and their customer. :huh:

slummymummyof2

Out of curiosity - can you claim if you've been declared bankrupt or is that just cheeky? :cool:

natweststaffmember

slummymummyof2 wrote: »

Out of curiosity - can you claim if you've been declared bankrupt or is that just cheeky? :cool:

the answer is no to bankruptcy.........and banks closing accounts of people who claimed was prior to the commencement of the OFT test case.

BigNige

slummymummyof2 wrote: »

You're sure about that? Sorry, It's just thinking about it.... I think I remember accounts being closed because banks said it was a breakdown of trust or breakdown of relationship between them and their customer. :huh:

It is now frowned upon by FSA/FoS (cant remember which) for a bank to do so simply because someone claims back unfair charges

The advice is however, open up another account just in case (and not in the same group). Better to be safe than sorry

slummymummyof2

BigNige wrote: »

It is now frowned upon by FSA/FoS (cant remember which) for a bank to do so simply because someone claims back unfair charges

The advice is however, open up another account just in case (and not in the same group). Better to be safe than sorry

Thanks BigNige Husband does have an account with Natwest so should be OK if he's reclaiming from First Direct, Barclays, HSBC shouldn't he? But, he's really concerned that they may say "Right, b*gger off and while you're at it repay us the £2.5k you owe us". That would really screw us. What would you suggest?

di3004

Hi there

Sorry to barge in on your post, I note you state you are with CCCS, me too, just over the last month with token payments only at this time, I wish you luck on your reclaiming, this should help with your debts once successful.;)

I would also like to point out that if any loans/credit cards, store cards and so on as added with insurance such as PPI, thought I would mention this because not everyone are aware this is optional, I know this is not the thread for it, but thought I would mention this, because if you were mis sold PPI for any particular reason, you can also try to reclaim on this as well, many have been out of pocket due to this, which does not help in regards of debt, and may not be eligible to make a successful claim, where this still has to be paid for with the loan or credit card and so on.

If you were to be successful in any of the above in reclaiming, it should all help in regards of debt.

If you want to know more on PPI mis selling check out the link here of Martin's:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance

And if you require any help, here's the link here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=169

Cheers.;)