Report Bank Charges successes and failures

parish77

So, after briefly flitting through some of the information on this website I wanted know if:

a) I can claim credit card charges on cards closed before 2006?
b) I can claim credit card charges only if I went over my credit limit?
c) I can claim credit card charges on any current cards if the charge is more than £12?
d) And if I can claim any bank charges and under what circumstances?

Yes/no answers to these questions would help me a lot to understand my options.

Thanks
Mark (in advance and hope)

N9eav

N9eav wrote: »

Wrote a letter to Lloyds for my daughter who was charged £86 for a few times overdrawn. She delivered the letter to the bank who read it there and then. They immediately cancelled any future charges and now 1 week later refunded her the £86! She is delighted! They refunded the charges even though she is leaving them for the Halifax. It pays to write the letters folks!!!!

Just done another to help my son, who was made redundant a while back and although found another job a few weeks later, got caught up with a small overdraft. While they had a right to charge for this, the charges were plain stupid. No sooner he sorted himself out and they land him with an accumulated load of charges putting him back into debt. So it went on. One letter, and a few days later he got an apology phone call £140 refunded and all future charges cancelled....

money_maker_mummy

Hi ive been looking at the forums and got really excited when i found out i can claim back my charges,

But kept looking and ive found somewhere that the banks won in court (or something) so we cant get refunds anymore - only if your in financial hardship right now and only for about 6 months of charge! Plus only for your current bank account

Is this true? I wanted to claim on accounts we closed due to these charges. I was in severe financial hardship at the time

annypzt

Received two letters today, one offering me £3006 and one offering £249, for my two accounts: "Having reviewed your financial situation I am happy to make an exceptional offer"
I can hardly believe it and am still shaking! Needless to say I will accept and should have the money in my account next week.
I first applied in September, Grateful thanks to Martin, and Money Saving Expert for making this possible!

money_maker_mummy

annypzt wrote: »

Received two letters today, one offering me £3006 and one offering £249, for my two accounts:

Does this mean we can still get a payout? I read somewhere that the banks won in court so they won't pay out no more - only in the last 6 months?

annypzt wrote: »

"Having reviewed your financial situation I am happy to make an exceptional offer"

If you don't mind me asking... have you got the money back based on financial hardship and is the refund just solely based on the last 6 months of charges or longer? And how much did you cliam for? Did you get your full amount?

Reason I'm asking is because we had two accounts:
1 - the charges are from between 2008 and 2012 (This was mine, at the time I was classed as a lone parent claiming income support. I as also in homeless accommodation and went through a real bad time and each time I got paid I would only end up with a bit from the charges. I closed this account due to this.

2 - Charges from 2007 - 2009 (My partners account. He was working and had an arranged overdraft and using it. They changed the t+c so they started charging £1 per day. This sent him into an unauthorised overdraft charging £5 per day. He was made redundant around this time aswell so could not pay it off and he still owes it but now ti a debt company)

We have only just got on our feet- Partner started work one month ago so financial situation improving - but it was right bad at the time. We still owe lots of debts

Have we got a chance?

Btw - CONGRATULATIONS :T I'm glad someone is getting somewhere with them :j

ChellyD86

Would Just like to say a huge thank you to this website.

I wrote to bank of scotland using the template letters on here to reclaim bank charges I had been charged over the last 6 years. Some recently totalling over £100 a month, just couldn't get out of cycling of falling into unarranged overdraft due to fees always being added. Sent letter as well as statements recorded delivery about 3-4 weeks ago and spoke with girl at bank today to say they would be refunding me last 6 months which totalled £570 plus an extra £25 compensation for a letter that should have never been sent to me in the first place.

I am over the moon as I honestly wasnt expecting a thing! So pleased and feeling so much better now. If it wasn't for this website I would never have thought of doing it, now my overdraft is cleared!

Sarros

Not sure if this is relevant nut thought I would post it anyway. Over the last 6 months we have been incurring charges due to my OH self employed status, usually after being paid late by a customer which had a knock on effect on our bank account. January was the killer where we had £130 worth of charges. We have been trying to work this back since and now we are just paying the overdraft fee of £20 per month. I spoke to my local branch of Santander, I just went in to pay a cheque in and thought what have I got to lose I will ask about fefund of these charges. The young man I spoke to could not have been more helpful, he searched our account to confirm January was indeed the month with the higher charges and refunded them straight away. I am delighted with this outcome so if anyone out there who doesn't often have charges it is worth asking in branch.

torncurtain

I was recently told, though I don't know how correct it is, that if you pursue the refund through to the Ombudsman the bank can and does close your account once they've paid you up to £0. Or the full amount, but then ask you to leave. Therefore making it really difficult to open an account with another bank.

It would be good to know. Or have some clarification on this from you MSE team!

SpikeW

torncurtain wrote: »

I was recently told, though I don't know how correct it is, that if you pursue the refund through to the Ombudsman the bank can and does close your account once they've paid you up to £0. Or the full amount, but then ask you to leave. Therefore making it really difficult to open an account with another bank.

It would be good to know. Or have some clarification on this from you MSE team!

They can do pretty much whatever they want, especially if your account is in the negative. I've had one bank close my account when I sent in a repayment request (though closure had been coming for a long time, so it was no surprise).

You can get a basic account with one of the "bad credit" options, such as the Co-Operative's basic account (Cashminder) or Barclays' Cashcard account. You don't get all the bells and whistles but they work fine, come with a debit card and are just as good as most normal accounts.

I've been using the Co-Op since I had problems with Scumbank (oops, I mean Lloyds TSB) and, apart from a lack of online balance updates over the weekend, they're brilliant.

Hope it helps.

Wywth

torncurtain wrote: »

I was recently told, though I don't know how correct it is, that if you pursue the refund through to the Ombudsman the bank can and does close your account once they've paid you up to £0. Or the full amount, but then ask you to leave. Therefore making it really difficult to open an account with another bank.

It would be good to know. Or have some clarification on this from you MSE team!

Welcome to MSE, torncurtain.

Before deciding to create a new user ID and post in this sticky thread, may I ask if you actually read the OP and/or the link given in it?

While in the early days banks closed the accounts of some reclaimers, the Ombudsman has ruled against that and the practice has largely stopped. The FCA also says: “A firm must not close accounts or threaten closure when it might reasonably appear that this is for the purpose of penalising customers that have complained about unauthorised overdraft charges.”