reclaiming bank charges after the judgement

pinkcowface1

I tried to claim my bank charges back from my ex-bank - I am with another one now. Although the claims were on hold I tried to claim because of financial hardship. But the bank kept saying no. I reported the bank to the Financial Ombudsman, not just for the bank charges but for their general behaviour towards me as well. However, the Ombudsman decided that the bank had acted properly towards me. Therefore they weren't going to take any further action. Although prior to my receiving the Ombudsman's letter someone from the Ombudsman phoned me and said that I wouldn't get my charges back but the bank might give me a few pounds compensation. I received nothing. What I would like to know is now that the OFT lost the case can I start asking the bank to refund my charges. Can I still do that or because the case was lost and also I have a letter from the Ombudsman saying that the bank acted properly towards me, is there nothing else I can do. Because I am minded to write to the bank again about this. However, my debt with the bank - overdraft and credit card is now in the hands of debt collectors, and I have a repayment plan with them. Should I approach the debt collectors instead to ask about refunding bank charges? I'm sure they would not be interested as they are only interested in my outstanding debt not the charges! Or should I contact the Ombudsman again about this. Any help would be appreciated. The charges amount to about £900.

natweststaffmember

You can do that but I would wait for the new reclaims guide currently being prepared. At the moment you are unlikely to be able to challenge the level of the charges but there still lies the issue of fairness.

pinkcowface1

Thanks for this - I didn't know about the new guidelines - when do you think they will be published?

natweststaffmember

pinkcowface1 wrote: »

Thanks for this - I didn't know about the new guidelines - when do you think they will be published?

We await for site team to post up a new guide so I would hope they would do this before the 8 week timeframe for complaints ends which would appear to be the end of February at the earliest.