Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

Premier_2

Maisie82 wrote: »

Hi,

Please can someone help me.

I've received a letter from a bank i previously used to bank with (i havent used them for over a year) threatening legal action unless i pay £677.

What is the £677 for that they claim you owe?

Maisie82 wrote: »

But i didnt have an overdraft!

If it's for money owed (including charges they may have applied in line with their terms & conditions) for using the account which you didn't have cleared funds to settle, then that's an overdraft.

Maisie82 wrote: »

here was a reserve on this account

That sounds like a type of overdraft Barclays is it? It's what they term one of their types of overdraft.

Maisie82 wrote: »

Do you think that i have a case against not paying them the money?

No, not unless and until they agree to waive the amount due.
As they are now threatening legal action, it does appear that this has been going on some time, so I don't know how successful you will be claiming financial hardship.
The best you could hope for is stalling whilst you claim the amount is in dispute ... but I'm not sure it is in dispute if you are claiming for the fees to be waived due to financial hardship.
Anyway, even if they accept your claim for financial hardship, they are not obligated to refund even 1p of charges ... and it's not even clear if the amount claimed is all made up of charges anyway.

Maisie82

Hi Premier,

The £677 is entirely charges, i think the account may have gone £10 into the reserve and the £677 is charges for that not being paid back.

It was Barclays yes, i dont understand how they can refuse me an overdraft and then do this??

Unfortunately it must have been going on for about a year, only i didnt know about it as i didnt receive any letters having moved out of the address i was at when i used the account. That said my ex has said i didnt really receive any post so im not sure whether they sent letters or not.
How can they justify adding £25-£30 a week onto this when i was in my overdraft thats not reallly and overdraft by £10?!

I am disputing the fact that i owe this money at all as i cant see how they are allowed to do it and how they justify it but one of the reasons that i couldnt pay it back anyway is due to financial hardship.

I dont want any of the charges i have already paid refunded i just cant afford to pay what they are asking me and dont think its fair that i should. They havent done anything for that money just adding more on each week in overdraft charges to an overdraft i didnt have!
Thanks for replying to my post by the way

Premier_2

Maisie82 wrote: »

Hi Premier,

The £677 is entirely charges, i think the account may have gone £10 into the reserve and the £677 is charges for that not being paid back.

It was Barclays yes, i dont understand how they can refuse me an overdraft and then do ...

Do some research into how banks operate, particularly about unauthorised overdrafts.

When you authorise a transaction that you don't have cleared funds to settle, that involves extra work for the bank which will almost inevitably result in fees being charged - refer to the terms and conditions.

You will get charged whether the bank pays the amount you don't have or even when it refuses. Obviously refusal could cause you more distress and possible charges from the party you had hoped to pay.

anaylorefc

Maisie82, you helped me! Thanks. I'm with barclays and they call it a reserve charge! Going off what premier has said I assume this is just essenitally a regular overdraft, just slyly re-termed, and I can claim back any charges I've had?

That's where my confusion lies, the re-wording of overdraft to reserve.

perryhogan

Hey I was hoping for ppls opinions. I am banking with Natwest and over the last few years have managed to rack up £3500 in charges. I have an overdraft of £2000 and due to work slowly dying down I was getting charge after charge after charge. Anyway I now have arrears on my morgatage equating to £3700. So i decided to see if I could claim back some charges on the financial hardship route.

I contacted Natwest and they replied with a form for me to fill out on my finances which I sent back.

I recieved my reply just after christmas stating that due to my income being far less then my out goings they are not willing to help me. I have contacted the FOS and await thier reply. What do people think of my chances?

zppp

perryhogan, I would say that you have nothing to lose by going to FOS, however, they will not force a firm to refund any charges, even if they decide you are in financial hardship. So this is very much touch and go.

Premier_2

perryhogan wrote: »

...I recieved my reply just after christmas stating that due to my income being far less then my out goings they are not willing to help me. I have contacted the FOS and await thier reply. What do people think of my chances?

What they are saying is, irrespective of bank charges, you are spending beyond your means so repaying of any charges will not give you a breather to break the cycle of debt.

Post over on the Debt Free Wannabe board if you want to get your finances under control.

perryhogan

Thankyou both for your replys.

I can see what they are saying but surely by not helping me at all will not help the situation. Least If I did recieve some of my charges I can get rid of some of this debt.

millynmile

hi can anyone help. i have just received a letter from santander that they have recently wrote to the court to request that it considers making a unless order in respect of my claim. they wrote to the court on 17th dec sent out the letter 24th dec was date stamped 29th dec and i received it on the 31st dec they are giving me 6wks from the the court request to respond. has anyone else had one of these letters and if so can you understand it

podperson

I believe quite a few banks at the moment are putting into the courts to have stayed claims for bank charges (from before the court case) put out since the argument being used against them has been 'proved' to be invalid. If you feel you have an argument against this or you wish to change the particulars of your claim to reflect a different reason for reclaiming you need to send this into the court.