Bank-smart now charging me!

dannorman

Two and a half years ago (Jan '07) I engaged a company called Bank-Smart to reclaim my bank charges.
I now know I could have done this myself but I find this sort of thing difficult and this company were doing it for 10% of the charges which is a lot less than some companies were charging at the time.

There were three accounts to claim amounts ranging from 300 to 800 pounds each from. Halifax, LloydsTSB and Co-operative.:rolleyes: Much correspondence and information providing has taken place, often in duplicate. Many many, letters of authority have been sent, etc. Pounds and pounds have been spent photocopying statements to back up claims of hardship.

About a year ago they started claiming that one of the accounts was classed as an unproductive account due to it being more than six years old and that because of this they required payment of £100 from me for their efforts. :eek:I replied that at the time of their engagement, this account was not six years old and was therefore valid and potentially very productive.
Since then I have had a succession of confusing updates from them via their website, some stating that the amount has now increased due to non payment and others stating that the charge has been dropped.
Since pointing this out I have now been locked out from their website and prevented from accessing my 'account' information.

I have also offered to pay the £100 fee when the account charges are returned to me as I do not actually have £100 spare to be able to give them.
I am a single parent with a six year old daughter and I work part time as a teaching assistant to pay my bills. I do not have any money 'left over' each month to give to these people. I am in financial difficulty, I am behind with my coiuncil tax, my credit card is on the limit, this is why I am trying to reclaim my bank charges.

They have now contacted me by telephone and are threatening legal proceedings if i do not pay. I received an email yesterday stating that the amount had that day increased by £150 and would carry on increasing until it reached the £750 threshold for bankruptcy, whereupon said action would commence.

Are they actually entitled to pursue me for this bogus amount when they have not really provided a service to me? Can they keep on adding to this amount as they wish until they cross the £750 line?
Am I entitled to claim my fees back myself even whilst they are supposedly engaged in the process?

Your thoughts please.

Daniel

natweststaffmember

When was the first charge on the account?

GMan83

Hi,

Ive just read your post and am having a similar experince as you although I have recently received a letter to from BAnk smart to say that their current commission and chargers stand at £1289. I have absolutely no idea how they have managed to arrive at this number....
They have been pursuing my claim for over two years and its largely something I've forgotten about. However, they continue to say me letters and ask me if I want to pursue a hardship claim as the FOS are still accepting these.
I am really concerned about this and do not know what to do....My claim for bank charges is on £700 so already I apparently owe bank smart nearly £600 above this...
Anyone else in same boat...what have you done???what should I do???needless to say I do not have £1200 pounds to pay them...I'm worried they will end up taking me to court now and that this number will get biiger and bigger...
anyone in a similar boat please get in touch as I need to sort this out and if we could get a few people together we may have more clout...
PLEASE HELP!!

Orford

Their T&C's are here (cant paste them):
http://www.bank-smart.co.uk/images/TermsAndConditions_X4.jpg

which as far as I can see says that their fees are payable once any refund has been received

About a year ago they started claiming that one of the accounts was classed as an unproductive account due to it being more than six years old and that because of this they required payment of £100 from me for their efforts

This is b**ox. FSA waiver covers that

Since then I have had a succession of confusing updates from them via their website, some stating that the amount has now increased due to non payment and others stating that the charge has been dropped.

Make sure you keep these letters

They have now contacted me by telephone and are threatening legal proceedings if i do not pay. I received an email yesterday stating that the amount had that day increased by £150 and would carry on increasing until it reached the £750 threshold for bankruptcy, whereupon said action would commence.

More bo**ox, This is 2.4 of the T&C's if they have to take legal action to recover their fees. Only trouble is no fees are due yet since there has been no refund. The bankruptcy rubbish is just scare tactics, it will cost them hundreds to issue proceedings


I would write back and ask them for a complete breakdown of their fees which they allege are payable and an explanation of why any fees are payable when they have singularly failed to secure one penny in refund

esmerellda

Please don't let these people get to you. You don't owe them a penny yet.

Send a subject access request to them to get all the information they hold on you, and if you could post (or pm) the email they sent you yesterday it would be very helpful. Also do as orford suggested above ask for a written explanation of the fee breakdown and where its stated in the T&Cs.

you should also enter a complaint to the Ministry of justice (info@claimsregulation.gov.uk) to make them aware of bank-smarts parctises.

I would also fully expect MSE to receive unjustified libel action threats over your post and i have therefore copied it over to another site where we are looking into a lot of these claims management companies.

If you would like a hand with subject Access request letter or complaint to the moj, give me a shout. Don't let them intimidate you, they have lost in court once already that we know of over their fees.

esmerellda

GMan83 wrote: »

Hi,

Ive just read your post and am having a similar experince as you although I have recently received a letter to from BAnk smart to say that their current commission and chargers stand at £1289. I have absolutely no idea how they have managed to arrive at this number....
They have been pursuing my claim for over two years and its largely something I've forgotten about. However, they continue to say me letters and ask me if I want to pursue a hardship claim as the FOS are still accepting these.
I am really concerned about this and do not know what to do....My claim for bank charges is on £700 so already I apparently owe bank smart nearly £600 above this...
Anyone else in same boat...what have you done???what should I do???needless to say I do not have £1200 pounds to pay them...I'm worried they will end up taking me to court now and that this number will get biiger and bigger...
anyone in a similar boat please get in touch as I need to sort this out and if we could get a few people together we may have more clout...
PLEASE HELP!!

Again if you have a copy of this letter it would be very interesting to see.

Your bank charges claim is only £700 ? they havent received anything yet they say you owe them £1200 ?

They try taking you to court you can defend this.

esmerellda

heres the case they lost in court - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=19797637&highlight=#post19797637

esmerellda

Re the first poster.

Re the £100 increasing to £750 and them making you bankrupt.

according to their T&Cs they can charge you 4% above base rate a month compounded quarterly plus a fee of £150 + vat for collection. would take a while to hit £750. they cant charge the 4% on the collection fee.

Need to see the email they sent you really.

The £100 is their minimum charge for handling an account - cant see anything about 6 years tho so I think they are just trying that on and trying to charge their minimum fee.

you can take it over yourself - you can claim back to 27 July 2001 under the FSA waiver or 6 years back from when you notified the bank of your complaint if you started the claim before july 07. or you can argue the limitations act.

esmerellda

Re the other poster - £700 charges and banksmart asking for £1200 odd.

Bank smart charge you £100 for doing the claim, then 10% of the claim total refund, and 8% simple interest on the charges. If you do the spreadsheet with your charges on you'll probaly find the £1200 is £100, plus 10% of the total claim (charges plus 8% stat interest) and then all the 8% stat interest added on. So basically all you would end up with on £700 charges is £530 ish where if you had taken it to court yourself and got the £700 charges plus stat interest back you;d be getting nearly £2k.

You wont have to find the money it will come from the refund.

Basically they claim your charges, and you forfeit the stat interest to them, plus 10% of total claim (not 100% on whether the £100 is on top of that or a minium included in that)

GMan83

Thanks Esmerallda.

I am happy to scan the letter into here whenI'm back at work tomorrow. Essentially what the letter says is the...
Your claim for the return of £842 in charges has been recalculated, including interest,Bank-Smart's commision and incurred costs to date excluding legal fee as:
£1,189.29
Which actually fits in with your number. I take it they reclaim their charges, interest etc from the Bank?
Although to be honest I dont really trust these people and I'm very dubious about their practices.For my own piece of mind I would prob like to get out of contract with them. If this mean I need to pay them £200 or something to this tune maybe I should just do that?
Thanks again

esmerellda

recalculated will, i assume, be them updating the stat interest spreadsheet.

Yes if the bank sends the refund, eventually, direct to them, they will extract the interest, costs and 10% from it before sending you the balance.

You should ask them to send you a copy of the up to date spreadsheet really to check this is all correct.

To get out of the contract with them they will charge you £100+VAT plus costs for work done so far - many companies have an hourly rate type fee, but bank smart do state this may be the full fee depending on the work done. And basically all the work on your case has been done and its just sitting waiting for the nod from the OFT/FSA. So I think you are pretty much stuck with it unless you can negotiate. bit gawling isnt it, but we learn by experience, and I hope if you have any other claims you will do them yourself ?