Report Bank Charges successes and failures

billybungle

Bank: Santander
Reclaimed: £182.77
They paid: £177.91

At the end of repaying an overdraft, my account moved into credit by £4.86 on Aug 16 - as it transpires, the account should have been brought into credit in July but a cheque had confused matters. On 7 Oct, I received a letter claiming I was overdrawn by £177.91. Upon inspection, I had been charged £182.77 in Interest/Charges. I phoned their Collections department this morning and was initially asked how I would like to pay. Following a bit of resistance I was then offered a £50 reduction (without reason) which then transformed into an offer to return the balance to £0. I would have persisted to get back the £4.86 that was originally in my account but the tone of the conversation was going downhill. This is the second such problem I have had with Santander, I will not be using them again.

eirelav1962

can i ask how you go aout claiming bankcharges any advice would be great thanks

melgray21

Bank name: Santander
Amount Reclaimed: £90
Amount they paid: £140
The story: Basically, I thought the account had been closed when I transferred to another bank, after 3 months of having no money in it they decided to charge me £5 under funding fee and then £5 per day on top of that for being overdrawn. I only discovered this when I received a statement some weeks later, amounting to £85 in charges. I went in to my local branch to try to sort it out and was met with a very unhelpful assistant who said there was nothing they could do. So I came home fuming and looking on the moneysaving expert for advice. I used a mixture of Martin's template complaint letter and my own personal circumstances. I am happy to report that I have received a very nice letter back explaining that all my charges have been waived, the account closed and a £50 cheque for my inconvenience. I know this isn't a big money claim but it's a lot of money to me and shows that it is worth writing a quick letter if you're not happy! Good luck to everyone in a similar situation!!

melgray21

eirelav1962: have a look on the reclaiming bank charges page, it's all on there, including a template letter you can adapt and send to your bank, it worked for me!

twinkle82

Hiya all

I've been reading through for about 2 months now,as I've meant to put a claim in to my bank for some time now but just needed to see that other people were able to still claim back some money.

Bank : Halifax.
Reclaimed : £1962 plus interest.

I put my claim in 8 days ago,a few days ago I noticed I had an extra £100 in my account but couldn't find where it came from.Anyway,this morning I received a letter from Halifax saying that they don't feel they unfairly charged me,however,they are refunding £200 and scrapping £70 fees due to be taken at the end of this month as a goodwill gesture.

I know this isn't anywhere near what I've asked for and I am writing to the ombudsman,but I would say that that's a really good start,so good luck to all who are going to reclaim theirs as well

The £100 came from the bank,so obviously I'm still waiting for another £100.

devilsice1

Hiya I sent the letter claiming hardship from Halifax and they have offered me £55 charges back even though they want to take another £77 off me this month! I've been out of work three times in the last three years. Managed to claim JSA the first two times and Had to borrow money from my Dad to pay credit card bills and my hubbie as well. I have a 2000 overdraft with Halifax and I have been unemployed for three months and have only recently in August started a job with Next working part time.

I was unable the last time I was unemployed I was unable to claim JSA because I did not have enough contributions from my last temping job. My question is can I go back to Halifax again and ask for more money from them? or just accept the 50 that they have offered me.

anaylorefc

devilsice1 wrote: »

Hiya I sent the letter claiming hardship from Halifax and they have offered me £55 charges back even though they want to take another £77 off me this month! I've been out of work three times in the last three years. Managed to claim JSA the first two times and Had to borrow money from my Dad to pay credit card bills and my hubbie as well. I have a 2000 overdraft with Halifax and I have been unemployed for three months and have only recently in August started a job with Next working part time.

I was unable the last time I was unemployed I was unable to claim JSA because I did not have enough contributions from my last temping job. My question is can I go back to Halifax again and ask for more money from them? or just accept the 50 that they have offered me.

I'nm quite new to this myself so don't take my advice as gospel. But read this very carefully: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

Then I would suggest writing a new letter informing them that their offer is unsatisfactory. Perhaps mentioning if they don't re-assesss you will contact the FOS. It certainly sounds like you have good claim, but from what I understand ANY offer is merely goodwill on the banks part, feel free to correct me here anyone. I hope this helps somewhat.

olly1978

re: my credit card charges - halifax

I got a phone call saying the £12 charges are fair and I wont be getting anything back, I explain my financial situation and she was a nice lady, its around £300 I'm technically owed, I'd dearly love to get this money back, so whats my next step then please? court? thanks all in advance

Ghedebrav

Hello all,

Just begun this process, and have received a list of charges back from HSBC (they also returned by £10 FOI cheque). I've been charged nearly £4k in the last six years, with some serious month-on-month charges. Add another £900 in the back interest to that as well and it really brings home how outrageously disproportionate these charges are. From a moral point of view, it's little better than legalised gangsterism. And for them to have the nerve to claim some sort of high ground? Suffice to say I'll be stopping banking with them in due course; I've already opened a new account with Smile and will be using that from now on. At least if they charge me, they won't be investing the money in dodgy military or biotech firms.

Anyway, that's my high-horse rant out of the way!

I have a couple of questions about hardship, and hopefully some of you incredibly experienced and knowledgeable people may be able to help out.

Firstly, most of the charges occurred month-on-month, the 'snowballing' thing. At the time, particularly between 2008-2010 I was in a low-paid job and really stuck in a cycle of debt - I was stright into my overdraft every payday, and after rent, bills and - crucially - charges had been applied, I was basically forced to go straight over my overdraft limit simply to live day-to-day, thus incurring further charges. Without wishing to welcome you into my own personal hell, it's fair to say I went through some pretty dark times over these years. I believe I squarely fulfilled the criteria for hardship.

However... I currently have a better paid job, and now that I live with my fiancee (who could see the man behind the bank statements, thankfully!) our pooled income has taken me out of the hardship zone. What I'm not sure of is whether I can claim for this historic hardship. I'm still dealing with the legacy of it, and frankly am still being charged from month to month as well as servicing a sizeable loan (given at a very profitable interest rate by HSBC) taken to pay off overdraft and credit card.

Also, I'm likely to lose my job just before Christmas (fixed-term contract no longer being renewed, so no redundancy payoff): am I better off waiting to pursue the claim until I'm unemployed as I think I would legitimately be in 'hardship' again at this point, particularly as I have a big payment going out each month to service the aforementioned loan, not to mention the usual bills, mortgage payments etc?

Advice would be extremely welcome!

olliecp77

Got the standard decline for my bank charges refund from HSBC - off to the FOS I go with my complaint. Grrr