Bank charge woes, please help!

rubytuesday87

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster.

I am currently laid up with swine flu, and got such a lovely surprise when I logged onto my Alliance and Leicester online banking this evening.

Here is my tale, sorry it is a bit long! For the last few months due to various things, I have been living payday to payday, with no room for manouevre on the money front and using my full overdraft every month. Due to a holiday not properly saved for (my own fault but we all make mistakes), I spent too much in July, and this made August the month from hell. £160 overdraft was all gone before mid month, and I had to scrape by on a few pounds from ebay sales, cash from friends etc. My direct debits spread across the month - A+L 'allowed' a couple once I was over my o/d limit, charging me £25 a pop, then denied the rest, again £25 per failed direct debit. Lovely T Mobile tried to take my phone bill twice, so double the charge! Anyhow, ended up with £125 worth of these charges.

Sadly, A+L also charge £5 per day of being over the limit. Since I heard nothing about this, I sort of forgot about it/assumed it wasn't always applied...yeah probably burying my head in the sand! So luckily, my boyfriend moved in at the start of Sept, his rent and bills payment that he gave me got me back into the land of the living overdraft wise and paid my double T Mobile bill. Things still tight this month due to this but from October it will be much better.

BUT just logged on, and 'charges due to be applied' are £85...argh! A+L haven't put a date next to when the charges are going to be applied, but if it is September, the same thing as last month is going to happen. So here I am stressed out my mind, really not feeling well enough to work this all out. I do intend to write a letter to reclaim the charges, but this is more urgent. Is it likely that a phone call could get this sorted out, if I try and get some sympathy maybe? I am not well enough to go into a branch, though I harbour a desire to give whoever sets the charges a dose of flu...;)

I switched to A+L in May for the £100 incentive (which was nice) but I almost wish I hadn't, their internet banking is rubbish compared to HSBC and the charges are extortionate. Help!!

rubytuesday87

Just an update - checked internet banking and charges due to be applied 24th Sept, so before payday...so my problems still stand! Anxiously await any advice

natweststaffmember

I would start the process of reclaiming.

paulthedude34

hi can any 1 plz advise me to how long the fos take to come to there judgement i called last week and wos told my hardship case wos in the hands of the adjudicator and wen is the test case judgement due thanks Paul

ExNicotineQueen

paulthedude34 wrote: »

hi can any 1 plz advise me to how long the fos take to come to there judgement i called last week and wos told my hardship case wos in the hands of the adjudicator and wen is the test case judgement due thanks Paul

Q. “Where are we in the bank charges process?”

A. The high court and court have appeal have said fairness laws do apply to bank charges, the banks are currently appealing that in the House of Lords. A result is expected in mid-October.Assuming the Lords upholds that decision, the next stage is for the Office of Fair Trading to decide whether it thinks the charges actually are unfair. It has provisionally said it does.

Yet the bank could then launch a legal challenge to the OFT’s decision, which could see the whole court process restarted. Sadly, it wouldn’t be too good an idea to bet against this as the banks have already shown a strong tendancy to try and drag this out.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1915763