Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

natweststaffmember

markdsmith wrote: »

Should I not go the FOS route first?

On financial hardship grounds, I do not currently see them saying yes but as your subsequent post mentions a complaint to the CEO then I guess we should await their outcome firstly

pool-hustler

i don't get it??

Do we send new templates or not? Whats going on?

markdsmith_2

markdsmith wrote: »

Please help.

Last year I was claiming against Nationwide for bank charges. These totalled £3,175 with interest. Nationwide wrote back stating that because of the court case they wouldn't be paying me out.

I therefore wrote back stating that I was claiming under hardship as I was struggling to pay the debts I had and the recurring charges were making things worse. In fact, the charges always seemed to come out just before my DDs were due, so I ended up paying more charges as these took me over the limit again. If the charges hadn't have been imposed, then the DDs would have gone through with no problems at all.

Again they wrote back stating that they wouldn't pay out as they believed my income was sufficient to cover my payments and would leave me £400 per month to feed and clothe myself, my wife and my three teenagers (do they have kids?). This contradicted my statement that showed if I paid the full amount on my debts I would in fact have less than £100 a month for this. At this point I opened another account just in case of them closing mine due to the complaints.

I transferred all my DDs to the new account and have not suffered since. When the account was transferred, I had an overdraft with Nationwide which I could not afford to pay off all in one go. I therefore wrote to them stating that as they would not repay my bank charges, that I would be unable to settle the overdraft facility in full and requested they offer me a solution to the problem upon which we could both agree. I never heard anything from them until this week when I received a demand from a debt collection agency for the whole amount of the overdraft (which was about £1500 but is now over £1800!!).

I have written back to the Nationwide reiterating my hardship case stating that I can in no way pay back that amount in one go so I am again reclaiming the charges. This is after the 8 week period from their last letter stating they would close the file if I did not respond, albeit I did send the letter about not being able to pay the OD if they didn't pay out.

I suspect I will once again get the "no we will not pay you" letter. What will my options be then (if any)?

8th Feb 2010 UPDATE - I wrote to the Chief Executive via his email address last night and got this reply this morning:

"Thank you for your email, addressed to Graham Beale, our Chief
Executive.

Mr Beale was sorry to learn of your concerns and has therefore asked us
to arrange for the matter to be investigated. You should receive a
response very shortly, although this will be by telephone and/or letter
rather than email to ensure confidentiality."

I wonder what the outcome will be? Has anyone else tried this route?

Had a call today from Nationwide. Guess what? They don't think I have a case for hardship!! Suprise suprise. I pointed out that were it not for the charges which came out the day before my DDs then my DDs would have passsed without a hitch. however as the charges DID go through then I incurred further charges, etc etc. They then said I had an income of £4800 per month!!!! I wish!! I asked her to clarify how she came up with this figure and she said she has averaged out my income over hte last two years to come up with that. Challenged this and now she is going away to look at things again and will reply to me by the end of the week in writing. A dear John letter no doubt.

If this happens I'm definately going to the FOS.

fizz1987

Can anyone help
I got a letter from my bank saying i cannot reclaim my bank charges due to what happened in court .. But i have since found out that if you was claiming child?family tax credits that they are not allowed to take it from my benefits... a lady at the local dss said that it is unlawful to take money and gave me a letter... will this be accepted by the bank or am i wasting my time....help

Premier_2

fizz1987 wrote: »

Can anyone help
I got a letter from my bank saying i cannot reclaim my bank charges due to what happened in court .. But i have since found out that if you was claiming child?family tax credits that they are not allowed to take it from my benefits... a lady at the local dss said that it is unlawful to take money and gave me a letter... will this be accepted by the bank or am i wasting my time....help

Has the bank attempted to take the debt direct from your benefits?

natweststaffmember

fizz1987 wrote: »

Can anyone help
I got a letter from my bank saying i cannot reclaim my bank charges due to what happened in court .. But i have since found out that if you was claiming child?family tax credits that they are not allowed to take it from my benefits... a lady at the local dss said that it is unlawful to take money and gave me a letter... will this be accepted by the bank or am i wasting my time....help

Gobsmacked Premier didn't get down to the nitty gritty since unfortunately it is not unlawful to take money from benefits and she is wrong(they are rubbish on this one).
I hope she gave you a first right of appropriation letter cos if she gave you one quoting the Social Security Administration Act 1992 then that is incorrect since charges are not related to bank charges.

zelig

I just recieved a letter from Alliance and Leicester in response to a written query regarding bank charges I sent them almost 3 months ago?

They say (quote) We are satisfied that the bank charges you seek to reclaim were properly charged and the outcome of the legal proceedings confirms our position. We are therefore not upholding your complaint and we will not be refunding the bank charges you have complained about (unquote)

Any ideas where to go next?

kellymcd wrote: »

Hi
I had same letter from Lloyds Tsb stating they will close my file after 8 wks. I simply replied stating I wasn't happy they wanted to close my case & would be talking to the Ombudsman. I then called the Ombudsman they gave me a case reference number which I then forwarded on to Lloyds Tsb. Just waiting now to see what happens. You should try the same, it will cost you a phone call & a few stamps but could be worth it in the end............

Good luck

akastuntfish

i also had pretty much the same letter, in fact 2 identical letters on the same day! from TSB in January the only difference being that there was no mention of closing my complaint in 8 weeks but that i have 6 months from the date on the letters to contact FOS, but then i live in Scotland and the laws are different here...still not happy though as i unfortunately lost my job 2 1/2 years ago and have a mortgage to pay which has decimated my savings. i will definitely be lookin into the new way to claim...heres hoping (again)

tatiana

The letter was from the bank. So do I write to them or not?

tatiana

Thanks Premier, letter was from the bank although papers had been lodged with the court