Report Bank Charges successes and failures

Bowes100

I sent a letter to Lloyds TSB last September (2012) I first asked for my statements and they replied saying I had to pay for the pleasure. I sent the cheque raided through the statements and had a grand total of approx £2300 going back 6years. I explained my situation at the time of an ex partner emptying my bank account etc etc.

By the November I recieved a letter from Lloyds TSB offering my a total of £750. I accepted the offer at it was enough to put me back into the black and be overdraft free.:beer:

I'm just wondering if I should now challenge Alliance and Leicester for my bank chrages back too. Anyone had any luck with them?

dear-prudence_2

Smile Bank
I asked them to waive a £12 fee for exceeding my credit limit on my credit card. They agreed!
I keep my limit low to avoid damage in case of fraudulent use (this is the card I use online - I have another for face-to-face transactions). In error, I went over the limit. As soon as I realised, I credited money to the card and wrote them a message, pointing out that I always pay in full, never go overdrawn on my current acc, etc.
Job done! :-)

The_Pink_Wafer

Very happy girl this Christmas!

I had a Barclays Additions account, which my account was changed to in branch in 2004. I went in to inquire about a small overdraft facility and was led to believe that the Additions account was the only one which would give me the option and so I need to change my account to this. I agreed.

Fast forward a few years and I have never used any of the extras on the accounts. I'm also 8 months pregnant and unwell which has forced me into an early maternity leave and I'm still waiting for HMRC to process my claim for SMA as I am self-employed. I got into a bit of a pickle with the overdraft and the subsequent reserve fees so I telephoned the bank to try to come to some sort of agreement to pay off the OD without getting hit with another £22 every week - basically I was just accumulating more debt despite trying to pay it off. We came up with a sensible payment plan and the lady on the phone asked if I had ever actually used any of the benefits, to which I said no. She said ok, you're paying for an account you don't need and subsequently changed my account to a bog standard current account with an overdraft.

It got me thinking then that there must have been another account suitable for my needs without the monthly fee. Unfortunately, I don't have the statements going back to 2004, but I had most of them going back to the end of 2005 so worked out why I was owed with interest from the date I had and then wrote to Barclays requesting that they refund everything from when the account was opened and explained I believed I thought I had been mis-sold due to the fact that there was another account suited for my needs and certainly at the time, all the benefits did not apply to me.

I had a phone call this morning and they are reimbursing all the account fees, plus interest and £50 compensation as they said that they agreed that I was mis-sold the account. Checked my bank account and all been paid in already. Overdraft is now cleared with enough left over to pay my tax bill (which means the money earmarked for my tax bill can stay in the savings account, hooray!) and buy a pram for baby.

Breakdown as follows:

Refunded fees: £1331
Interest: £391.30
Compensation: £50
Total: £1772.30

dunstonh

Very happy girl this Christmas!

Very good news for you. Well done.

However, I would just say that this is a refund of product charges (based on a mis-sale complaint) not a refund of bank charges that this thread is referring to.

The_Pink_Wafer

dunstonh wrote: »

Very good news for you. Well done.

However, I would just say that this is a refund of product charges (based on a mis-sale complaint) not a refund of bank charges that this thread is referring to.

Hi, I actually realised that as soon as I hit send! Hopefully a mod can move it to the right place.

Kittyfantastico

:hello

Slightly apprehensive about starting the process. I've worked out that I've paid out about £2000 in fees over the past 6 years. During that time I've contacted my bank regarding my financial difficulties but now can't remember when.

Any tips welcome!

twitar

My bank Santander charged me few times £25 charge for debit card payments which have been authorized by bank and had enough fund available at the time of debit card transactions.
Can they do it? My bank called me and said sometimes the bank does not check available funds in account and authorized the payment regardless and end up paying £25 charge for less than £10 transaction. I check my account before using debit card. I am thinking to take this matter to FSO. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.:mad:

dunstonh

My bank Santander charged me few times £25 charge for debit card payments which have been authorized by bank and had enough fund available at the time of debit card transactions.

You assume they authorised them. That may not be the case. They may have been below floor limit for checking.

Can they do it?

Yes they can.

My bank called me and said sometimes the bank does not check available funds in account and authorized the payment regardless and end up paying £25 charge for less than £10 transaction.

That is correct.

I check my account before using debit card.

Being blunt but it doesnt look like you do. If you did, you would not incur charges. You need to keep a reconciled running value. Transactions can take upto 6 months (very rare cases longer) to arrive on your account. Usually its a couple of days but could be a week. You need to know not only the balance but also what still has to go through the account that hasnt actually been presented for payment yet.

I am thinking to take this matter to FSO.

Why? You havent indicated any wrongdoing and the FOS no longer considers complaints about unfair bank charges.

Pobbie68

:eek: I have been humming/harr-ing whether I should post or not but have decided to do it today.3 years ago I calculated that Nationwide had taken at least £900 pounds over a 7 year period in charges/interest which caused hardship and at the time of claiming I was unemployed so the money would have helped. I had a 'no way Jose' reply from Nationwide - which I expected. So I contacted FSA to get some further sensible assistance but it was decided that my bank had acted correctly and that in their opinion I was not experiencing hardship...2 people living on £400 a month - all in?!!!? Not experiencing hardship?? These people clearly do not live in the real world. At the time of hearing from the FSA (due to the time of processing admin) I had then secured a job so bank/FSA made the decision not to process my claim because they deduced there was no hardship/charges were fair. This was strange as the bank themselves had dropped the charge amount from £30 to £15; I felt this whole thing was UNFAIR and biased in bank's favour. I feel totally let down by the system.

Sideburno

Hi guys,

I followed Martin's template and explained all my problems including not being able to pay bills due to bank charges, my marriage being hard due to this and it making me end up in a cycle.

I didn't hear anything at all so a letter wanted PERSONALLY handed into a bank, this time again nothing so I called. I was told a reply letter was sent stating that the reclaim was rejected and waived as TSB are following the lending code etc.

I wasn't ever contacted and I didn't receive a letter, what now? I'm no longer in financial hardship as I have completed overhauled my finances but this really put me in a difficult situation and I'm still struggling to buy my first home due to not having much savings so it's affected me long term.

May I also add that I'm really not happy with TSB's phone service, I had to call multiple times because my account was "unable to be accessed as I provided incorrect security answers" although the questions asked were, what is the last 4 digits on the card, the card was in front of me so I doubt I got that wrong 3 times. The phone call is also charged for so more money to pay out for TSB.

I feel like they are thinking who cares, we're bigger than him, why should we do anything, he's got no power.