Help with bank please...

JoeSmith_2

Hi All

We've got a ridiculous situation going on with our ex-bank (Lloyds TSB). They double charged us for a business account we had for a little company we ran and they are now just ignoring us. It only amounts to £15 but there's a principle here.

We paid £5 a month for the account and when we closed it they charged us £15 as they thought we had to pay for the quarter just gone.

It took us forever to get them to close the account in the first place as they couldn't find who managed it or what branch it was at. I phoned them about 4 times and was passed around via a total of nine people and explained the situation to everyone I spoke to. Eventually they told us to send a fax which they then ignored so we chased it and got a letter saying that we had to pay for the quarter just gone. This was really frustrating because it had taken so long to get that far and all they could do was get it wrong. I wrote to them in mid December to explain this and have heard nothing since.

We're now at the point where calling them, writing to them and faxing them has cost us more than the charges we're claiming. (We live in France so their freephone number doesn't apply) If you factor in our time, we're massively out of pocket. I'm not going to let this go because why the hell should a bank take our money and then just ignore us and not give it back.

Does anyone know how can I get them to refund these charges, compensate us for our costs chasing this and then apologise? They don't have anyone who's any use on the phone, faxes and letters go unanswered and when they do eventually answer, they get it wrong? :mad:

Sorry this turned into a rant.

Joe

Premier_2

JoeSmith wrote: »

...We're now at the point where calling them, writing to them and faxing them has cost us more than the charges we're claiming. (We live in France so their freephone number doesn't apply) ...

You need to decide for yourself why you are wanting to reclaim the charges.

Is it to recover the £15 you think you are owed or is it to prove a principle? Unfortunately, proving a principle can itself prove very expensive.

Ultimately, if you and the bank can't agree a resolution, your only chance to recover the costs would be to raise a claim in court, and assuming the bank defends the claim, you will have to attend court.
Even if you then win the claim, it's unlikely a court would award you the travelling costs associated with attending the court from France, which is likely to be well in excess of £15.

Think carefully about the reason you are wanting to claim, and if it's only a case of recovering the money you think you are owed, you need to decide at what point it becomes more expensive to recover the money than the amount you are ever likely to succeed in recovering.

Of course, if it's about proving a point, you would not be alone; the courts are full of many claimants who have decided to hell with the cost in their endeavours to prove they are right.