Reclaimed Bank Charges SUCCESS stories

CODEBREAKER

Hi everyone who is hoping to claim charges back,

i am over the moon to tell you all i started processing my claim with Natwest Bank in november 2006,

i did ask for £367 + £54 intrest = £421.

the bank agreed to pay me back £367,

i received a letter on 3rd jan 2007,for me to sign if i was to accept the offer, i returned it the same day by post accepting the offer.

and have been credited the money back into my account yesterday dated 4/1/07

i am now one happy banker and encourage everyone who has paid charges no matter how big or small to ASK for them back...

carolineiam

Why on earth do you send two different letters giving 14 days each before court action. They will just drag it.


One sharp letter giving them 14 days before court action, stating that you will go to court as you have the expertise and the court fees at hand should do !

Rex_Mundi

carolineiam wrote:

Why on earth do you send two different letters giving 14 days each before court action. They will just drag it.


One sharp letter giving them 14 days before court action, stating that you will go to court as you have the expertise and the court fees at hand should do !

When you issue a court claim. You must be able to show the court that you have made an effort to settle the claim before you went to court. If you head straight to court, or with too little notice, there is a chance that a judge would strike out your claim or delay the case because you didn't try to settle beforehand. This is covered in the rules governing small claims track cases............

Part 1.3 of the Civil Procedure Rules governing claims in the Small Claims Track states "the parties are required to help the court to further the overriding objective". (Thank you chuckles)

Most of the advice given for reclaiming charges is to send two letters with 14 days notice on each letter. By giving the bank 28 days to settle before you go to court, you can show you have made a reasonable effort to settle without issuing a court claim.

The advice given in Martins article and other sites covering bank charges has been researched to give the best possible chance for people to make a successful claim. If anyone chooses to ignore, or skip parts of the advice without understanding fully what they are doing, they do so at their own peril. They could ultimately damage their own chances of being successful.

Lally17

Bank: First Direct
Amount Reclaimed: £410
Amount they paid: £410
The story: sent first letter week before Xmas 06, with copies of statements. had a letter this morning to say that they would be paying it all, and not admitting any guilt, juts that the cost of court fees would be too much! ha!!

thank you thank you thank you again!!!
Lally
(having a VERY happy new year!!now just need to close the account before i get charged the new monthly fee!)

wondabrasjg

Sorry to repost this, need some advice though, can someone help me out, just need to know whether or not i should just file my claim now. Thankyou all for your time. :-)

Hey there,

Bit of advice please. I sent the first letter asking for charges to be repaid, Natwest ignored the letter. Sent a second letter, the 7 days i gave them to respond is up tomorrow, so i was all set for filing my claim. Today i got what i think is a stalling letter, which basically says that they are sorry that i believe they have fallen below what is expected of them, and that they have passed the complaint to their Customer relations Unit (0800 015 4212). The letter said they would ring me in 2 days.

I rang them, and after getting cut off three times, spoke to a girl, who in turn rang Customer relations for me while she kept me on hold (as i'd been passed to the wrong dept) who said that the 2 days stated within the letter was a typing error, in fact, they will contact me within TEN days!

She went on to say that even ten days is optimistic, as due to the media coverage re bank charges, they are still dealing with claims from last October!

I have two questions if you wouldnt mind? Firstly, im off to Thailand for five weeks on Thursday, so any more letters that are sent i wont recieve. Plus, they HAVE responded, but is it just a stalling tactic? Do i just submit my claim now with the small claims court?

Kind regards, & happy new year

Edinburghlass_2

Sorry but how are you going to respond to the bank or the court if you are away for five weeks?

blkice06

Bank: FIRST DIRECT - HSBC
Amount Reclaimed: 135
Amount they paid: 118

The story: FIRST DIRECT WERE FANTASTIC. THey sent me 6 years statements by courier - Free of Charge. I used the xmas break to go through the statements. I have never bounced a cheque so I claimed small interest charges that add up for using my APPROVED overdraft facility! a collection of transactions under £1!..they added up to £137.

I did an annual spreadsheet, printed it on A4 and sent with the second letter on this website on the 27th Dec. I got a letter today 6th Jan offering me £117refund. Account still active too..so lovely. THANKS TO MONEYSAVING EXPERT!:beer:

Rex_Mundi

wondabrasjg wrote:

I have two questions if you wouldnt mind? Firstly, im off to Thailand for five weeks on Thursday, so any more letters that are sent i wont recieve. Plus, they HAVE responded, but is it just a stalling tactic? Do i just submit my claim now with the small claims court?

Kind regards, & happy new year

Not a good idea to issue your court claim before you go away. You need to be around to deal with your claim. If you receive your allocation questionnaire while you are away, you won't be around to fill it in and return it to the court (this form has a date that you must reply by). This could lead to your claim being struck out.

I would leave it at the moment, and issue a court claim when you get back. The alternative is to nominate someone to act as a third party for you, so they can continue your claim while you are away. You would need to give them written permission for this and make the bank, and the court aware of this.

Old_Bag!!!

HI its Old Bag!!! here!

just to keep you updated

applied to Nationwide for £1249.77 send both letters nothing yet!!

Capital One £682.00 got offer for half after 1st letter, send 2nd saying thanks but no thanks, waiting for reply!

Yorkshire £2150 - thought this was going to be the hard one, send 1st letter got letter back saying no way, send 2nd letter just got letter with cheque offering me half (they closed my account for £1500) so havnt a clue why they are sending me money (going to write saying no, but dont know whether to return cheque or keep it here til they settle.!!)

thanks

Rosehip_01

Bank: Alliance & Leicester
Amount Reclaimed: £640.15
Amount they paid: £640.15 (including court fees)
The story:
Followed Martin's step by step instructions, got A&L's 'standard' responses trying to fob me off so filed a claim online. A&L had until 6th Jan to reply and this very morning, 6th Jan, I received a letter from their solicitors and a FULL REFUND! I'm overjoyed! :j

Thanks Martin!