Confusing letter from Barclays - how do I respond?

[Deleted User]

[SIZE=-1]Hello,

Around a month ago I sent two letters to Barclays:

- One was a letter seeking a reclaim of PPI I paid on my graduate loan
- The other was the standard template letter for bank charges refunds, but I claimed under the Financial Hardship rules and also attached the correct budget planner former as provided on these forums, in addition to Barclays' only budget planner sheet.

I've received a response - in fact, several - and I'm not sure what to do next: can you help?

Summary of their response:

Barclays sent me two letters back (both 5th August):

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• [SIZE=-1] One is a letter regarding charges incurred after 18th August 2008, refusing to refund charges relating to the 'personal reserve fee' (which I understand is not the subject of the FSA test case)[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=-1] The other is a letter stating that they believe the other charges are legal, fair and transparent, logging my complaint - and saying that I can expect to receive another letter (the first one above) about post 2008 charges.
  [/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]
However, they have said they won't process my complaint until the test case is complete - and they make no mention of the fact I am applying under the Financial Hardship criteria.

Then, however, another letter came two days later (in fact, three copies of the same letter came) in which the following paragraph is included:

"From our records we see you are already in discussions with our specialist team - Consumer Finance Debt Management department regarding your financial circumstances. I have therefore passed your financial difficulty claim to my colleage in this team to assess your claim, taking account of any information you may have already provided...this team will make every effort to deal with your claim as soon as possible, but depending on the complexity of the information to be looked at it may take up to ten working days".

This letter was sent on the 7th August. It is now 11 working days later.

What should I do and how should I respond?

I'm a little confused by Barclays sending me five letters in relating to my complaint about charges - and I still haven't heard anything about PPI yet.

Thanks![/SIZE]

Widelats

I think the first letter is a standard letter everyone gets, the others well if its been 11 days phone them or wait a bit longer, sometimes post is 5 days late.

caitchbee

Deleted_User wrote: »

[SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE]

• [SIZE=-1] One is a letter regarding charges incurred after 18th August 2008, refusing to refund charges relating to the 'personal reserve fee' (which I understand is not the subject of the FSA test case)[/SIZE]
• [SIZE=-1] The other is a letter stating that they believe the other charges are legal, fair and transparent, logging my complaint - and saying that I can expect to receive another letter (the first one above) about post 2008 charges.
  [/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]
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I'm a bit confused about the Reserve fees. Responses here seem to be very mixed as to whether they are claimable. I understand that they are not part of the original charges that people have been claiming and therefore not tested and obviously were devised by Barclays as a way of trying to get around having to pay back thousands in fees (while actually making more money). However as I understand it, grounds for reclaiming bank charges is at least in part because the charges are not proportional to the cost to the bank ie it doesn't cost them £38/£22 or whatever when someone goes over their overdraft limit. For this reason I can't see how the reserve fee can't be claimed back? Someone will no doubt be able to explain this but I can't see how these charges can be/are exempt. I understand that Barclays informed people that changes were happening to their accounts but that doesn't make them right or fair surely? Is it any different to overdraft fees being listed in banks T&C which obviously doesn't stop other charges being claimed?

Maybe I'm grasping at straws as I'm putting together a claim for Barclays now and nearly half of it is reserve fees - total is not a massive amount, only a few hundred pounds but it would be useful to get it back! Incidentally when they sent us the list of bank charges after we wrote to them, Reserve fees were included.

natweststaffmember

caitchbee wrote: »

I'm a bit confused about the Reserve fees. Responses here seem to be very mixed as to whether they are claimable. I understand that they are not part of the original charges that people have been claiming and therefore not tested and obviously were devised by Barclays as a way of trying to get around having to pay back thousands in fees (while actually making more money). However as I understand it, grounds for reclaiming bank charges is at least in part because the charges are not proportional to the cost to the bank ie it doesn't cost them £38/£22 or whatever when someone goes over their overdraft limit. For this reason I can't see how the reserve fee can't be claimed back? Someone will no doubt be able to explain this but I can't see how these charges can be/are exempt. I understand that Barclays informed people that changes were happening to their accounts but that doesn't make them right or fair surely? Is it any different to overdraft fees being listed in banks T&C which obviously doesn't stop other charges being claimed?

Maybe I'm grasping at straws as I'm putting together a claim for Barclays now and nearly half of it is reserve fees - total is not a massive amount, only a few hundred pounds but it would be useful to get it back! Incidentally when they sent us the list of bank charges after we wrote to them, Reserve fees were included.

The reserve useage fees can be reclaimed but not under financial hardship umbrella.
The fees have not been tested in court as yet.

EDIT: cancel the Personal reserve as well

[Deleted User]

Just to clarify: I didn't actually include any reference to 'personal reserve fees' in my claim for bank charges as I also believed they were 'exempt' - although, like you, I fail to see how they are different in practice from any other charge even though technically they may be a fee for a service rather than a penalty. I also hope Barclays get shafted on this one day: it would be like claiming that going over-overdrawn is a 'service' provided by the bank.

natweststaffmember

Deleted_User wrote: »

Just to clarify: I didn't actually include any reference to 'personal reserve fees' in my claim for bank charges as I also believed they were 'exempt' - although, like you, I fail to see how they are different in practice from any other charge even though technically they may be a fee for a service rather than a penalty. I also hope Barclays get shafted on this one day: it would be like claiming that going over-overdrawn is a 'service' provided by the bank.

Personally I would ADD them to the claim albeit not under financial hardship rules. No court has ruled on the fees as yet.

caitchbee

natweststaffmember wrote: »

The reserve useage fees can be reclaimed but not under financial hardship umbrella.
The fees have not been tested in court as yet.

EDIT: cancel the Personal reserve as well

Thank you. I'm sure I've seen people say here that you can't claim them back whether claiming under FH or not??

But yes, we have cancelled our reserve!

natweststaffmember

caitchbee wrote: »

Thank you. I'm sure I've seen people say here that you can't claim them back whether claiming under FH or not??

But yes, we have cancelled our reserve!

Under the FSA waiver they are outside of the waiver, yet the banking code states that it should treat customers who are suffering financial hardship with sympathy(see Banking Code 2009 part 14) so technically they can still look at them with regards to this element of the Banking Code.