Reclaimed Bank Charges SUCCESS stories

lucyjune

in the past year the cooperative bank have taken £690 in charges from my account, i sent the template letter i got from this forem to them on 28th september. I have recently recieved a letter 7th october saying they recieved my letter and are treating it as a matter of urgency and goes on to say they will contact me in the next week by letter or email. do i just accept this or is there something else i should do? I am a student and the money they have taken out of my account is coming out of my loan i just dont have enough money for me to ignore or be patient with this

help pls

a stress student

165721

Hi lucyjune,

Did you state the time limit on your first letter to them? The 14 days standard limit?

Jack

signedupwithemail

Just doing my online claim form, Under Particulars of claim* what should i put in the form field box??

Edinburghlass_2

lucyjune wrote:

in the past year the cooperative bank have taken £690 in charges from my account, i sent the template letter i got from this forem to them on 28th september. I have recently recieved a letter 7th october saying they recieved my letter and are treating it as a matter of urgency and goes on to say they will contact me in the next week by letter or email. do i just accept this or is there something else i should do? I am a student and the money they have taken out of my account is coming out of my loan i just dont have enough money for me to ignore or be patient with this

help pls

a stress student

Follow the steps in Martin's article here and check out the links in the article.

Don't just accept the first offer unless its very close to what you have paid out in charges as they may well offer a desirsory amount in the hope you will accept in full and final settlement. Try to be patient as it will be worth your while in the long run and if they contact you by email make sure you save it.

cathy1_2

Hi

I incurred interest and overlimit charges from Barclays over a number of months under 6 years ago. I had no agreed overdraft limit with the bank. I wrote a number of letters recently asking for a list of the charges and also refunds for the charges and interest but was ignored. After another letter from myself threatening court I recieved a response refusing to refund anything. I started proceedings on moneyclaim and have recieved a questionnaire from the County Court and also a defence from Barclays.

Obviously this is not the response I want. Do I continue and go to court? Will I incurr court costs if I loose? The amount I'm claiming for is just over £800.

Thanks

Edinburghlass_2

Have a read of Martin's article, from step 6 ...

However in the rare event it does enter a defence, just do nothing. The next thing that will happen is that you will receive a Court Allocation Questionnaire - fill this in (very simple and very quick) and return it to the court (you must do so within 7 days of receiving it). Pay any additional fees at this point. Send a photocopy of the questionnaire to the bank - it is debatable whether you need to do this or not, but it's better to be safe than sorry over the price of a stamp.

The court will now set a date (if the bank hasn't already given your money back by this point - and most will have done). Some (actually only one has ever got this far) might actually attempt to win in court - they may claim that the charges are for an extra service and therefore not a penalty, and thus legally enforceable. If this happens, come to the forum - we have this angle covered, it's slightly more complicated but worth it in the long run.

Step 7...

For you to be 'safe' from paying the banks legal costs should it get this far and you lose (extremely unlikely that they would win - remember only one bank has ever taken this to court and there is a lot of evidence that has been gathered since proving these charges as punitive in nature now), don’t claim for more than £5,000 - that way it would be heard in the Small Claim Track, where no-one is eligible for the legal costs of the other.

Also, it pays to open another account somewhere else in case they turn nasty and close your accounts and/or demand overdrafts be paid pack immediately - some have been known to do this on occasion - although most don't. If you have the choice, stay with the same bank - next time they charge you for going 8 pence over your limit, they know that your threat is real.

Above all, stand your ground - this money is legally yours. Good luck.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/

cathy1_2

Thanks. I am in the process of filling in the questionnaire now. Barclays defence is that the charges are legal. Hopefully they will back down!!!!

Edinburghlass_2

I'm sure they will, good luck

gtonge

HELP!! Hi I have been looking at so many different websites and forums I am totally confused. I have sent the second preliminary approach letter from the forum - what concerns me is the reference to charges and I quote from the letter
What I require...
I calculate that you have taken £……..plus £………. which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £…….. I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter"[/I I have enclosed the shecdule from the basic excel spreadsheet which details the offence, amount, date incurred, days since offence and interest 8%APR - its this bit that confuses me as I have entered into the letter this figure as the figure for overdraft interest charged - is this correct as I am now thinking its not and have totally messed things up and am not likely to receive any sort of refund! any advice please????

keithkeith

Come on everyone, this thread is meant to be about success stories, there's another thread for advice, it's at the top of the list so it's easy to find! By posting in the wrong thread you're less likely to get the advice you need, and people who want to read the success stories, to judge whether or not they should go for it will get ?!$$£) off reading through stuff that they don't want to read.