Bank charge claim, my banks response (advice)

silkyuk9

Ive written to my bank HSBC and this is the reply they gave me.

'We assume you have asked for this information in order to make a claim for the refund of bank charges and as a result we wish to make you aware of our current policy on handling complaints from customers about bank charges. We do not agree that our charges are in any way unfair or unenforceable. However, the bank (along with a numbe rof other banks) has now become involved in legal proceedings with other Office of Fair Trading ('OFT') in relation to bank charges which we believe will resolve the legal issues regarding the fairness and legality of your bank charges. It would be our normal approach to resolve any complaints you may have through our internal complaints process as quickly as possible. However, until the determination of the legal issues in the above proceedings, we have asked the FSA to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints, and the FSA has agreed to this request subject to conditions the protect you rights.

We can aurre you that, if you make a complaint, this will be registered and stored. Please retain your bank records, as this will make it easier for you to support your complaint on resolution of the test case. Once legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish we will resolve complaints as quickly as possible. Please let us know if you wish to register a complaint at this stage.

Finally, if you decide to register a complaint with us, we will write to you to advise you of the current position and will keep you up to date appropriately about proceedings with the OFT.'

Ok, from 2001 we have had a total of 45 fees taken from our account, some are for £27.50 overdraft fee, some are £54, £18, £80, £72, £100, £125, £50. The toal comes to £2059.

I have a debt of £1800 with the bank as a year ago we were nearly £2000 overdrawn and this was put into a seperate account and we are paying £70 per month to pay this off.

Now, i would like to negociate with the bank to see if they are willing to waive this £1800, rather than us wait to see how the legal things go and receive a lump sum of fees back.

is this appropriate to ask??

advise please.

how would i write to them if this is a reasonable request to ask for.

natweststaffmember

where are your priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?

silkyuk9

natweststaffmember wrote: »

where are your priority debt arrears(mortgage/rent, council tax, utilities)?

sorry not sure what you mean

silkyuk9

I was thinking of writing to them on these lines.



Thank you for your reply and breakdown of overdraft fees that I requested from you. I was quite shocked actually with the amount of charges we have received due to going over our overdraft limit on occasions.
The total breakdown came to £2059.50 and I do believe this is a very unfair charge over the years we have banked with the HSBC, and would like to request a full refund of these charges. I appreciate there are ongoing legal activities at the present time regarding overdraft charges, however, due to our circumstances at the moment and I’m sure if you look at our account details we are founding it very difficult at the moment paying our overdraft.
We have a separate account, ‘Flexiloan’ with a £1588 amount that has occurred from a period of time being overdrawn, and are paying this off at £70 per month. If you would like to come to some arrangement with paying this off rather than lodge a complaint about bank charges, and wait for a outcome with the OFT and court proceedings I am willing to accept some sort of offer. If however you do not wish to take this route, then I obviously will take other action that is available to me.
I would like to hear from you regarding this and await a reply. Thank you for your time.

natweststaffmember

silkyuk9 wrote: »

sorry not sure what you mean

do you have any?

silkyuk9

natweststaffmember wrote: »

do you have any?

if you mean arrears in mortgage, then no, after we have paid our monthly bills etc we tend to run into our overdraft a week or 2 before the next pay day.

natweststaffmember

silkyuk9 wrote: »

if you mean arrears in mortgage, then no, after we have paid our monthly bills etc we tend to run into our overdraft a week or 2 before the next pay day.

Ok, then you don't have a hardship claim but the charges case is logged. What you were suggesting in post one is a non starter.

silkyuk9

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Ok, then you don't have a hardship claim but the charges case is logged. What you were suggesting in post one is a non starter.

so do i just log a claim then and forget the settlement letter??

natweststaffmember

silkyuk9 wrote: »

so do i just log a claim then and forget the settlement letter??

If you want to post it you can but the bank will reject any such idea.

silkyuk9

natweststaffmember wrote: »

If you want to post it you can but the bank will reject any such idea.

why do you think they will reject it rather than negociate?

natweststaffmember

silkyuk9 wrote: »

why do you think they will reject it rather than negociate?

Because they don't have to pay out or negotiate while the OFT test case issues are still ongoing.