Report Bank Charges successes and failures

jally1975

Hi All,

I am trying to help out my new partner. As a driving instructor business is not good. He has spoken to his business manager on several occasions who has refused to help. His personal situation is that his wife left him over 2 1/2 years ago leaving him not only to pay the mortgage but also an awful lot of joint debt. The divorce is still yet to be finalised and as a consequence he has got himself into a bit of a pickle!!
I wrote to Natwest on the 4.05.11 requesting that they refund bank charges totalling £685.73 from his business account, claiming financial hardship. This is because he now has agreements with all his other lenders paying silly amounts each month THe charges on his business account have really come from only the last 6 months.
We received a reply today stating that having reviewed his case, and as a gestyre of goodwill, they would offer him just £75!! It states that they do not take financial hardship into consideration with business cases. However, if they paid back the total amount it would take his account back into the overdraft!!
My gut feeling is that we should not accept this offer but couldnt find much info on here regarding business accounts....so can anyone advise please!!!
THanks

LozBingley

Premier wrote: »

You posted your claims were thrown out on the basis they had no legal basis.

I think you need to get some legal advice as you fail to understand the basics of making a claim.

No one is suggesting you cannot make a new claim, although I don't know on what basis exactly; no one has yet won in court using the advice given in MSE guide to reclaiming bank charges (and banks will strenuously defend such claims as you have now found to your cost)

I'm afraid the ship left the port a very long time ago. I'm glad you managed to get yourself some refunds years ago before the ship sailed, but I would advise you don't waste any more money just now. If you have not already done so, I would urge you to read the MSE guide to reclaiming bank charges in court, in particular paying attention to the risks it highlights in doing so.

If I could afford legal advice I'd not be in here asking for others to advise me !!

I have, as I previously stated, already started down the court route several years ago, so there are no more future cost involved as the costs are paid up front.

As I also said, both the Judge and the Banks Solicitor knew that there was and is still a Legal Argument based on the Principle of the charge rather than the Excessive Value of the charges.

The Banks Solicitor argued that they were not excessive, as charges for services would find their own natural level in a free and open market where consumers had a free and open choice to choose their service provider and accept the providers charge rates. Unfortunately, Banks do not operate in a free and open market and you can't swap and change who provides your overdraft facility.

Until about 5 years ago, the only way you found out how much a bank robbed you for going overdrawn or bouncing a payment, was to go overdrawn or not have the correct funds in your account when your mortgage went out, then you found that the bank charged you at both ends (in your bank account and on your mortgage) as well as putting that little black mark on your credit file so you were stuck with that bank and no other bank would touch you or give you the service that they claim was available in their free and open market.

As you can see below my post, Abbey (now Santander) charged me £3,220 over the course of just one year, hitting my bank account with £650 of charges in just one month alone. There was no way to stop the charges or refusing to pay them as you might be able to do with say a gas bill or phone bill, as they have more rights to take your money than Inland Revenue !!

LozBingley

Just a quick note (after 2nd Bank Directions Hearing with Barclays)

Barclays argument is that under Section 6.2.b of the UTCCR (1999) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/regulation/6/made
That you can't challenge the price (charge) of the service provided.

After reading an article ... http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bank-charges
I was pointed in the direction of Section 15 of the Supply of Goods & Services Act 1982 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bank-charges

Unfortunately for me I did not amend my Claim within the Court

Hope this post and the links allows others to progress their claims further

Good Luck

alexbb_2

Hi I have quite a long story to tell I am hoping someone who may have had the same problems with this type of account to give me some advice. Here goes... When I was 16 I openened this account to have my wages paid in, I was told when I reach the age of 18 this account would be changed to a current account. When I did reach 18 I cant remember exactly what happened but I did get a letter explaining that my adapt account will be closed and I recieved a new current account card ect. Anyway I am now 20 and the account has still not been closed and I have over £300 in overdraft charges. :mad: Towards the end of last year 2010 I was in the bank to close the adapt account and to cancel my current account bank card as I lost it. The woman I spoke to said she will close my account and canceled my card I remember this day quite clearly the lady I spoke to didn't seem to know what she was doing she just sat there typing for atleast 5mins while I stood there then said all done, so after that I waited 2 weeks still no card. I then went into the portsmouth town branch to ask why I hadn't recieved my new card yet and the lady I spoke to was so shocked that the useless woman in the other bank didn't even bother to cancel the lost card nor order me a replacement also didnt do anything to cancel my account nor give me any advice as to what I should do which she should of told me that I need to put this in writing which I just read up on the terms and conditions on the natwest website . I really want to get this sorted Its making me feel sick I already have depression because of never having any money and being in debt I just don't know what to do If I had the money I would just pay these charges that I did not incur just to stop all these debt letters I am a single parent also a student there is no way of me getting this money in full so I would be so gratefull if someone could help me to write a letter to the bank as if I just sent this I would prob get ignored sorry for the rant

Phoebe-

Hey,

I sent a letter to Lloyds a few weeks ago with regards to a number of complaints.
Part of it was my overdraft charges. My overdraft was for about £300 which was fully used up, and then I kept getting charges on top of charges, so somehow my overdraft at the moment stands at £1650.

I requested these charges back under the financial hardship criteria as I'm struggling to pay basic bills because due to an illness my wage flucuates etc and to try and keep on top of rent/council/tax/all the major bills I have had to take out payday loans consequtivley for the last 9 months. =/ (After I pay this months back though, I won't be paying again as we've moved into my in-laws old house and they're not charging rent this month).

So I got a response a few days ago saying that they've 'reviewed my account for the time that I was on a repayment plan due to my difficulties at the time. Some of the charges were refunded shortly after they were charged, I will refund the remainder of the overdraft charges, though the intrest will stand. This is done without admission of liability as the charges are valid and not caused by an error.

To put things right I have agreed to pay you £430.
This is made up of £330, £215 being debit 3rd august 2009,and £115 debited 2nd november 2009.
A payment for inconvenience of £100 in respect to the level of customer service and phone issues you've had.

Now I'm continung onto the fos with regards to the rest of my complaint. (As they took 5 months to change my address, and as a result have now passed one of my accounts to an external debt collectors, despite me paying them the agreed amount every month).

Is it worth trying to claim more for the bank charges? He says that some were refunded shortly after they were charged, but the reason they were refunded was because i set up an arrangement to pay £50 per month towards the overdraft, and whilst they waited 28 days for that to set up, they charged me during that period. The same thing happened when the plan came to an end. So I should never have been charged those anyway if that makes sense? So when I quiered them, they were refunded straight away over the phone.

I just think considering my overdraft was only £300, that being in £1650's worth of debt is unfair. I was just getting charged charges on top of charges and in the end closing down the bank account was the only thing to do so I actually had some of my wages left to pay my rent. I know I have to pay back what I owe + interest, but all these charges are killing me! I'm actually off work today due to the stress as it triggers my illness to get bad again.

I just don't know what to do next. I mean, if they are truelyyyyy in the right, why bother offering me anything at all?

coolblonde

Hi

Thought I would just post this message in the hope that someone may give me some advice :-).

I am in extreme financial hardship at the moment and am trying to keep things positive by trying to fight my way out of this situation by selling possessions, taking on a second job, reclaim charges ect. Just recently I wrote to my local Santander branch using the template letter from this site including reasons for why I am in financial hardship. The letter asked for 4k in bank charges back.

Today I recieved a letter informing me that they have reviewed my claim and can see that I am stuck in a cycle of charges. As a result to help me break the cycle they have refunded a total of £150 of charges back into my account. Also they have cancelled £100 of future charges being made to my account for this month and will cancel any unauthorised bank charges up until mid June.

They did also include in the letter about the decision made in the supreme courts on 25th November 2009 that the level of banks unarranged overdraft charges could not be assessed for fairness. The closing paragraph of the letter said that If I feel their decision is incorrect I could refer my complaint to the financial ombudsman service.

I am pleased that the bank have offered me some help in my situation but feel that this will only be a short term solution to my situation. Has anybody else been in a similar situation? Did you take it further to the FSO? Now that they have issued me with a small refund will this effect my chances of getting the amount back?

I live on my own and don’t want to burden my friends or family with my worrying situation. If anybody has any advice I would greatly appreciate it :-)
Thank you

loganakajon

Just a BIG BIG thank you to all on this site.

I sent a letter to Lloyds on the 14th complaining about all my overdraft and unplanned overdraft fees, I included in my letter that i am in financial hardship and struggling with the cycle of charges upon charges. I received a phone call today from a Lloyds customer care manager, she said she was sorry to hear about my hardship and after a review of my circumstances Lloyds are willing to pay back £1100 in to my account in the next 3 days, also they will clear my overdraft of £250 and send me information through the post on "how to manage your money". That`s a total refund of £1350 of bank charges WHOOO HOOO :beer:
I did work out through my statements that the total figure i was expecting was £3200 but as banks are not paying out as much as they were i thought this is a great result. :T

Once again a BIG thank you to all on this site.:money:

dizco

Bank : NatWest
Reclaimed: 1,500gbp
Amount Paid: 0

Story: I first put a claim in in June 2007. I sent 6 years worth of bank statements to them and claimed 1,500 for those 6 years. I was a student for 4 of them, and regularly incurred charges for being overdrawn etc.

At the time of claiming, I was ringing regularly and was told I would hear soon. Then everything froze and the test case started. I didn't receive a response, rejection, or any correspondence concerning my claim.

My question is, can I ask the bank to re-open this case? I was in financial hardship during this period, and feel that I may not have taken out as much in loans, if the charges were not levied?

Many Thanks, Chris

jimblenimble

I have a 3000 pound overdraft with barclays. In 2009 i lost my job and was out of work for over 14 months. The bank gave me the runaround and no help whatsoever. To cut a long story short, they added approx 1600 pounds of charges and interest to my account,during this period . I have followed the correct procedure and the case was taken up with f/0. To my utter disgust the f/o have ruled in the banks favour , stating they are quite within their rights to add on these charges, even though i was unemployed, and i sent proof of jobseekers to the bank, to show i was living on 16 pounds a week. I am not arguing over the overdraft ,but the charges iam, however i have wrote back to the f/o stating they have not taken into consideration any of the facts i gave them ,when i lost my job.i dont know what else i can do, any advice please

Sarah2100

I heared the high court ruled in the banks favour, therefore you couldnt reclaim charges. the banks seem to do what they feel like !!!