Report Bank Charges successes and failures

m-s-m_2

Bank name: Alliance & Leicester
Amount Reclaimed: £120
Amount they paid: £0
The story: I was charged £14 for buying foreign currency in the UK (in GBP) on my debit card. That put me £12 over my limit for the 3 weeks I was away on holiday.

A&L charged me £5 a day (£120 total, over 10,000% APR!!). I received a rejection after the high court case and followed it up. I've just received another rejection (telling me to check my statements to avoid fees). Rang the FOS and they refused to help because I'm not in hardship. Not much more I can do. Good luck to the rest of you!

Diffy

I did exactly what Martin said. Contacted the bank (Ulster Bank) and waited patiently...

Got a letter, getting a good will gesture of £3,284 :j:j:j:j
my charges were in total for £3700 so im a happy girl :T:T

BELIEVE ME DO IT AND U CAN GET THE MONEY BACK!!!

Thanks a million Martin ur a lifesaver

a1tone

Tried to claim £1523 from A&L. Claim was put on hold following the court case.

After the court case, my claim was, as expected rejected. Contacted the FOS, as most charges were debited because I was £1-£10 overdrawn and then had charges added on charges.

Received a letter saying that, unable to help as the courts have already made a ruling. So basically they have decided that they will follow the courts line and not help.

Can't afford the court option, so looks like a no go for me.

Good luck everyone else.

Former_MSE_Wendy

a1tone wrote: »

Received a letter saying that, unable to help as the courts have already made a ruling. So basically they have decided that they will follow the courts line and not help.

If the letter was from your bank a1tone, try again. The FOS should be able to help if a judge has not decided on your case. Here's some info from our guide:

If your complaint is currently suspended
Many claims will be on hold for several months so there may be opportunity for the Ombudsman to investigate before you need to update the court about your intentions.
Keep your court claim open and you can go back if the Ombudsman doesn’t decide in your favour, but as soon as there’s been a decision from the court the Ombudsman won’t be able to help.
In the event you get a payout from the Ombudsman you will need to discontinue the court claim as you can only have one successful claim.

If your court deadline is soon – you could discontinue the court process
If the timings are tight you may need to discontinue from the court process entirely as the Ombudsman doesn’t look at complaints which have already been considered by a court – this will mean you lose any fee you’ve already paid the court.
If the Ombudsman doesn’t decide in your favour you could still try the court route again later (you’d need to start from the beginning), if things had changed by arguing it’s a new claim on new grounds. Yet if you go back to court it will mean having to pay more fees.

a1tone

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

If the letter was from your bank a1tone, try again. The FOS should be able to help if a judge has not decided on your case. Here's some info from our guide:

I received a letter from my bank, so filled in a Claim Form with the FOS. The FOS sent me a letter yesterday, stating there had been a court ruling and were unable to help.

natweststaffmember

a1tone wrote: »

I received a letter from my bank, so filled in a Claim Form with the FOS. The FOS sent me a letter yesterday, stating there had been a court ruling and were unable to help.

What argument were you using with the FOS?
What reason did you ask that they overturn the banks' decision?

pcangdon

I submitted a claim back in June 2007 for a refund of £444 bank charges plus interest. Following the court ruling I got a letter from First Trust to say that they were rejecting my claim. I tried again with a followup letter in February 2010 using the new MSE template for claiming bank charges and have today after less than 8 weeks received a letter offering me a refund as gesture of goodwill of £444. The bank still dispute the reasons for my claim but I'm happy to have got my money back. Thanks to MSE:j

kazza1000

sartre wrote: »

Fantastic...used the template regarding my financial hardship to both Halifax and Abbey to reclaim bank charges. With Halifax they couged up straight away no quibbles - gave back the £1200 claimed. However, Abbey were more difficult, I had to write a further letter after flat refusal on my first letter. I originally claimed for £1600, but they just deposited back into my account today £740. But, I am delighted and really want to say to all in the same situation PLEASE don't give up - keep on at them and they will repay you. Why shoud we be in a worse situation because of these fat cats taking our money!! I am emigrating to NZ end of year and sooo happy that I managed to get some money back..good luck and keep going using the templates on this site..Thank you Martin and everyone on the site x

Hi. I'm so pleased for you. However, I have gone down the hardship route with Halifax. They agree that my family is in financial hardship and has been since my husband died in 2003. I have charges of £3,300 which I have tried to claim back.
Halifax agree that we are in financial hardship but have refused to refund any money and have only agreed to not make any futher charges for a period of 3 months.
There just does not seem to be any consistency within their decisions!

Ideas anyone?

the_black_cat

I have posted the following on the Natwest thread but though it also deserved an airing here, if anyone can give any further advice or help please oblige.

I too have received a letter from NW that totally ignored my claim on the new grounds set out in MSE's latest claims by law template letter whereby NW just sent me the forms to fill out a customer financial statement. I did not ask them for this as fortunately I am no longer in financial difficulty - this is clearly an attempted delay tactic by them, they appear to show such arrogance that they do not even read the claim for new grounds. It's lead me to beleive this is their response to everyone?

I complained again stating if they had even bothered to read my claim on the new grounds they would have had no need to send a customer financial statement.

Today I received another letter as follows :-

Following the judgement of the Supreme Court on 25 September 2009, the test case process is now complete and the judgement of the Supreme Court means that the level of the unarranged overdraft charges you have complained about cannot be assesed for fairness under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracs Regulations 1999 or challenged under the common law penalty doctine. As stated in our previous letter we do not beleive that there is any other legal basis on which the level of these charges can be challenged.

We are satisfied that the charges you seek to reclaim were properly charged and the outcome of the legal proceedings confirms our position. We are therefore not upholding your complaint and will not be refunding the unarranged overdraft charges you have complained about. You may consider this to be the banks final response.

Should you remain dissatisfied you have the right to refer your complaint to the Finacial Ombudsman Service and can do so for six months from the date of this letter. I enclose a copy of their leaflet for your convenience. Before you decide whether or not to take your complaint to the Ombudsman Service, you may find it helpful to consider the information about this subject on the Service's website at:
Ombudsman link here.
Please be assured thet the bank wil co-operate fully with any review they may choose to undertake.

Firstly does this mean that the new template letters are incorrect as set out in the first paragraph by NW and MSE's new template letters are incorrect and a waste of time? If so why? If not is there anything else I can do?

Secondly they have stated "You may consider this to be the Bank's final response" so do I to presume they will have no further dealings direct from me and only via the Ombudsman?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

juice0022

Halifax Building Society

I have been charged around £3000 over the past couple of years due to becoming a single parent and losing a full time job in 2008, yet still having to pay mortgage etc. The Halifax did not see my case as financial hardship and so closed my claim!!! I only now work part time and still rely heavily on my overdraft to help pay bills. Since the case was closed my local newspaper ran a story on me and I also contacted my local MP and have since received a reply advising me to contact the Financial Ombudsman, which I have done today.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get some of my money back and soon be able to just about keep my head above water with my finances.