Bank charges

andydixon

:mad: Having just sucessfully received a bank charge refund from the Alliance and Leicester after serving a county court summons on them I have received a letter yesterday (9May) advising me that they are withdrawing Bank services from me as from 12 June because they state I do not accept their terms and conditions. (I have advised them I am prepared to pay fair charges). I believe that their use of the terms and conditions to withdraw the service is contrary to the Unfair terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 and have written to the Banks Legal Dept and said so. I will probably issue another summons to fight my corner. However beware! taking on your bank may have unforseen consequences as I have discovered. Has anyone else had this happenand if so how did you deal with it?

looby75

I haven't actually gone through this process myself, but I am helping my friend claim back her bank charges. She was advised that her bank (Halifax) might close down her account so she was told to get a back up account somewhere else ready jic.

andydixon

A good place to download forms free to serve on your Bank is the Govan Law Centre at govanlc.com. The forms give relevant case law. Apologies if this info has been posted before - Andy

webmasterpolo

Do you really want to bank with them if they treat you like this?

If the terms says we can impose whatever charges we like, then I guess technically you don't accept the terms, but good luck trying to fight them.

I would personally tell them where to stick their account and open an account with someone more reasonable.

-Web

andydixon

Thanks for that. No you are quite correct their behaviour is quite shabby. However it doen't alter the fact that in giving me a short time to rearrange my affairs I could be financially disadvantaged eg Direct Debits. Secondly why should they believe they can just bully people because they are a large entity? Sometimes people have to stand up to them rather than walk away. - Andy

moonrakerz

I recovered a four figure sum on behalf of my son from A & L. We had a letter (with their cheque) saying they would be in touch to discuss "the future operation of your account". I wrote back and said that I assumed that this would be to discuss the application of "lawful" charges to the account. Haven't heard back yet.
Interesting legal point - they close your account because you have pointed out to them that they are operating unlawfully - wonder how that would look in court - if they let it go that far ?!?!?

andydixon

I will keep the site updated. Thanks for your response.

IvanOpinion

Why did you open an account with them if you were not willing to accept their terms and conditions? Just find another bank that has T&C you do agree with but read them first and don't sign a form saying you agree with them if you don't ... no big deal.

Ivan

moonrakerz

IvanOpinion wrote:

Why did you open an account with them if you were not willing to accept their terms and conditions? Just find another bank that has T&C you do agree with but read them first and don't sign a form saying you agree with them if you don't ... no big deal.

Ivan

What a glib response !

All the banks are giving the same T & Cs, if you want a bank account you have no choice than to "accept" their T & Cs - that doesn't make them fair in Contract Law.
Credit Suisse estimate that the UK banks make over £1 Billion in profit from "penalty" charges - these charges are UNLAWFUL, anyone who has been charged by their bank for a wide range of things is entitled to claim their money back - AND the banks are paying it back !!!!
The sooner the banks are forced to defend their actions in open court the better.
I am old (and wise) enough to remember when you had to pay your bank a monthly or quarterly charge to operate your account for you. With the advent of plasic, Direct Debits etc, etc, you now get "free" banking. If you believe that, I've got fairies at the bottom of my garden!

What other type of business can have profit margins like the banks ?. They pay next to nothing (0% to 4%) for the money you put with them and re-lend it at up to 30%. Then they still have to resort to dubious practices such as £35 for a failed Direct Debit and have the audacity to claim that this "OK" because you signed up to their T & Cs.

If IvanOpinion wishes to carry on being fleeced by the banks, please carry on . He wouldn't allow M & S, Tesco or anyone else to do it on such a scale !

PS: before I get the standard answer back - I have never paid any "penalty" charges in my life !!! I operate my life and business lawfully - I would just like the banks to extend that courtesy to their dealings with all and sundry.

IvanOpinion

moonrakerz wrote:

All the banks are giving the same T & Cs, if you want a bank account you have no choice than to "accept" their T & Cs - that doesn't make them fair in Contract Law.
Credit Suisse estimate that the UK banks make over £1 Billion in profit from "penalty" charges - these charges are UNLAWFUL, anyone who has been charged by their bank for a wide range of things is entitled to claim their money back - AND the banks are paying it back !!!!
The sooner the banks are forced to defend their actions in open court the better.
I am old (and wise) enough to remember when you had to pay your bank a monthly or quarterly charge to operate your account for you. With the advent of plasic, Direct Debits etc, etc, you now get "free" banking. If you believe that, I've got fairies at the bottom of my garden!

What other type of business can have profit margins like the banks ?. They pay next to nothing (0% to 4%) for the money you put with them and re-lend it at up to 30%. Then they still have to resort to dubious practices such as £35 for a failed Direct Debit and have the audacity to claim that this "OK" because you signed up to their T & Cs.

If IvanOpinion wishes to carry on being fleeced by the banks, please carry on . He wouldn't allow M & S, Tesco or anyone else to do it on such a scale !

PS: before I get the standard answer back - I have never paid any "penalty" charges in my life !!! I operate my life and business lawfully - I would just like the banks to extend that courtesy to their dealings with all and sundry.

The only people who get fleeced are those that break the T&C THEY agreed to. I have paid penalty charges a couple of times and the amazing and common factor was that I broke the contract.

Personally I don't care what charges they put on as long as they pay a reasonable rate of interest (which they don't) and my mortgage rate is kept low (which isn't too bad) . I am quite happy to have (and do have) an account with high penalty charges if I go overdrawn but better conditions when I stay in credit .. if it was the other way around I would look for an account with lower penalty charges when overdrawn but expect lesser benefits when in credit.

There are changes afoot but the interesting thing is, and you can quote me on it, the one group who will not lose out is the banks .. when they are forced to reduce their charges (which they will - because we have spineless government that panders to the whingeing masses that are too lazy take repsonsibility) you can be pretty much guaranteed that savings rates will reduce further, mortgage rates will increase and we will all be worse off because some people sign forms without reading them or have no interest in adhering to their side of the contract ... and all those 'gestures of goodwill' will disappear (the ones offered when a tiny mistake causes someone to throw a real hissy fit because it has destroyed their lives and they have gone into a major depression or had a stroke).

A typical example is that it used to be free to change your mortgage now we see 'admin charges' of between £200 and £800 to change ... its amazing how many people do not take this into consideration when renewing their mortgage .. they stupidly stick on the blinkers and just look at the interest rate ... or worse still they get it added onto the mortgage .. duh! This is nothing more than a method of reducing the visible interest but actually gain more money through hidden fees and triple paying interest (and I can assure you that we are about to see a lot more 'deals' like this coming up) ... but yet everybody seems to be happier

If you don't like a bank then move .. it is simple .. the problem is people are either too lazy or too set in their ways to do so. There are good deals available for different kinds of people but YOU have to be responsible with how YOU handle YOUR account and understand the T&C YOU agree and sign your name to.

As I was told many years back .. credit is a privilege, NOT a right!

Ivan

Catch_A_Fire

I think I've seen something posted on here before about banks closing accounts after you reclaim penalty charges. I believe it was stated that this would be a breach of the Banking Code, to which I assume A+L subscribe.