Report Bank Charges successes and failures

shawd04

I wrote and sent an online complaint to Natwest regarding charges totalling around 700 pounds, dating back from 2006-2008. I got a definite no on both counts, and told there was nothing they could do.

Should I continue to contact them, or is it time to go down another route?

I already withdrew my ISA from them to another bank, and i'm contemplating closing my current account and Credit Card soon if they don't want to help me.

Thanks in advance.:T

dpage18

Hey guys ,

I hope this is the right thread.

First of all

wohoo santader sent a letter saying they will give us £25 for december and Wave any O/F up to the 18th/1/014

I orognaly asked for "£3,867 over the 4 years. We have been traped in a a over draft cycle for the past 3 years and since sept13 i have been unemployed.

I would like to claim aleast £600 to clear the Payday loan i took out to make my mortage payments. The account is only used for bills and there no other expsense on there apart from the cost of living .

Should i be happy with the current offer or go down the onbudsmen route ?

Thank for every one help getting me this far

jpd1984

I wrote a letter to the
Customer Relations
Lloyds TSB
3RD Floor
Two Brindleyplace
Birmingham
B12AB
TNT 05

Dear Sir/Madam:
Due to a recent financial situation and having to look over my Banking Account for the past several years it has come to my attention the various overdraft charges that have been applied to my account.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my feeling regarding these charges.
I think these charges are unfair and have caused me more financial hardship than necessary and I believe the fact that I have been incurring bank charges goes contrary to the aims of the Lending Code (Section 9) and Banking Conduct of Business Sourcebook (section 5.1.4 ‘in particular, a firm should deal fairly with a banking customer whom it has reason to believe is in financial difficulty’). My personal situation has been affected by the charges leaving me in financial hardship and I am writing to request that you take the following grounds into consideration:
• I often get returned Direct Debits on the account because of insufficient funds, this leads to the cancellation of a policy of which leads to a debt letter asking for payment in full.
• I am constantly living in the overdraft.
• I feel the charges don’t help this situation, I personally don’t want an overdraft but with monthly charges I see no way out.

Taking the above into consideration I would like to request that the charges on my account for the past 6 (Six) Years all relating to direct debits and unauthorised overdrafts be reviewed with immediate effect and be refunded to my account.
I am available to discuss these charges over the telephone or email should you wish to contact me.
Sincerely,


I received a reply stating

thank you for letting us know about your concerns. i understand from your letter dated ??? you would like a refund of the fees applied to your account in the past 6 years.

we appreciate how this situation has made you feel, however, our review shows no mistake was made. having reviewed your account, you can be confident the fees have been applied correctly. for your piece of mind i have enclosed an up to date 'banking charges' booklet.
Lloyds tsb and many other major uk banks have been in legal proceedings with the OFT about the level. fairness or unlawfulness of these fees.
bla bla bla

basically goes on to say the decision means that the unarranges overdraft fees you have mentioned are not penalties or under the UTCCR's the level of fees is not unfair.

Please help me i am trying to claim back £6708.82 for unplanned od fees and usage fees and interest also returned dd.
i seemed to get into that famous snow ball effect and saw no way out. this effected my mortgage and was close to losing my home luckily i managed to get on top before it was to late.

James

dunstonh

Please help me i am trying to claim back £6708.82 for unplanned od fees and usage fees and interest also returned dd.

On what basis do you think the bank should refund them. They have already told you that they were applied correctly.

I think these charges are unfair

And that is where you failed. You must not refer to charges as being unfair, unlawful or similar wording. The banks won that case.

I believe the fact that I have been incurring bank charges goes contrary to the aims of the Lending Code (Section 9) and Banking Conduct of Business Sourcebook (section 5.1.4 ‘in particular, a firm should deal fairly with a banking customer whom it has reason to believe is in financial difficulty’).

The banks are only required to consider cases of CURRENT financial hardship fairly. Are you in CURRENT financial hardship?

DANESPRINCE

Hi all. Sorry but I am a newbie to this site and cant quite find the answer to a question I have.


I applied to reclaim bank charges with a company back in 2007-2008 and was happy to receive some charges back from several banks however Barclays didn't reply at first and then point blank refused to pay any charges back. I got back in touch with the company who was dealing with it for me and they re-contacted Barclays who then stated due to the on going court process at the time all the complaints re charges were being put on hold. in 2009 I received a letter from them stating they believed that they had effectively won at the high court and that my complaint would be kept on file but they would not be paying me out.


my query is, if I re-contacted Barclays would I be able to still claim for the charges from that period even though the account was closed down shortly after. I reckoned that I was owed approx. £1200-1500 at that time. ever since then I have buried my head in the sand and struggled to keep up payments up on other accounts and continuously used credit to survive. Unfortunately I no longer have my bank account details or the bank charges ref no....


any help would be greatly appreciated....


:-)

[Deleted User]

DANESPRINCE wrote: »

I applied to reclaim bank charges with a company back in 2007-2008

...

in 2009 I received a letter from them stating they believed that they had effectively won at the high court and that my complaint would be kept on file but they would not be paying me out.

...

my query is, if I re-contacted Barclays would I be able to still claim for the charges...

any help would be greatly appreciated....

I think you are beyond the help anyone here can offer you :cool:

Bex83

Hello

I have written to my bank this week to ask for all of my unfair charges to be paid back to me as I'm in financial hardship!!
I'm owed well over £5000 for the last 6 yrs!
I have just had a phone call from the bank saying as a good Will gesture they will pay me £500 back!
Do I accept this or shall I try fighting for more?

Thanks

wishmeluck1

Bex83 wrote: »

Do I accept this or shall I try fighting for more?

I'm not an expert on this, but I am going through the same thing, though I haven't heard back from my bank at all yet!

What I have done, is set myself the lowest amount that I would be willing to accept back. For example, I believe I am due over £1800 for the past 2 years, however if my bank offers me a grand I'll take it. £500 is only 10% of what you believe you are owed. If I was you, I would fight for more. What's the worst that could happen? The fact that they are offering you anything proves that they are willing to give it.

Aquamania

wishmeluck1 wrote: »

...What's the worst that could happen? ...

As the bank are not obligated to refund any bank charges applied in accordance with their terms & conditions, they could withdraw their goodwill gesture of £500

Bex83 should also refer to the responses received to their duplicated post here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2248345

dunstonh

Bex83 wrote: »

Hello

I have written to my bank this week to ask for all of my unfair charges to be paid back to me as I'm in financial hardship!!
I'm owed well over £5000 for the last 6 yrs!
I have just had a phone call from the bank saying as a good Will gesture they will pay me £500 back!
Do I accept this or shall I try fighting for more?

Thanks

You are not owed anything. So, you need to change that mindset. You are relying on the banks goodwill and your persuasion of how bad CURRENT financial affairs are.

You can push for more but you are also entering a poker game scenario as goodwill offers can be withdrawn (doesnt happen often but if they are paying £500 to avoid the FOS fee, then if you go to the FOS, they may withdraw it as they are no longer avoiding it).

How bad if your current financial hardship?
What arrears are you in?
Is your balance getting progressively worse each month?
Does you statement show any luxury items (sky tv, takeaways, mobile phone, high street shopping etc)?