Bank Statement Charges - Urgent help

spiller5

My girlfriend wants to switch bank accounts from Barclays to HSBC as Barclays have been a shocking bank for her to be with, however HSBC say that they need her last 6 statements.
My Girlfriend being poor with money no longer has these to hand and Barclays say they will charge her £5 for each statement which is £30 that neither her nor I have. Can anyone advise on the legality of this for what is just a bunch of papers. What can they really charge (if anything?) Please help.

johnmoney05

Your GF should tell HSBC that she will find another bank which doesn't need last 6 months statements (Normally last month statement is enough for openning account). TBH don't like HSBC at all. I just closed my account with them.

Sillychuckie

Make a freedom of info request to barclays requesting as many statements as you like.
This will cost no more than £10.
See the 'reclaiming bank charges' posts to confirm this.

Basically, write a letter and enclose a cheque for £10. Mention that you are making an FOI request and would like the last X statements (they should have up to 6 years worth available).
They are only legally required to act if you include the money, so be sure to do so.
If they don't play nicely, mention that you'll report them to the I.C.
They cannot legally charge you any more than the £10 fee.

gt94sss2

Sillychuckie wrote:

Make a freedom of info request to barclays requesting as many statements as you like.
This will cost no more than £10.

Its actually a request under the Data Protection Act - not the FOI

Is it possible to get copies of Barclay's statements via their online banking service and print them out?

HSBC's internet banking system keeps 6 years of statements online, which you can access at any time and print out etc..

Regards
Suni

dunstonh

Back in my banking days I used to hate it when someone came in for old statements. It was a slow manual process that would take ages. The fee was in place not so much to make money from it but to act as a deterent.

I doubt you wont get the bank to budge much on this. It's not as if there is any goodwill required as you are taking your business away from them. Its a published service charge for an additional service. It doesnt come under the same area as unauthorised borrowing charges.

Voyager2002

OP, why doesn't she try one of the banks that seem to satisfy most of their customers -- Smile or First Direct? I doubt if both of these will also want six months worth of statements.

C_Ronaldo

try nationwide, they only asked for one months statement no less than 3 months old,

C_Ronaldo

spiller5 wrote:

My girlfriend wants to switch bank accounts from Barclays to HSBC as Barclays have been a shocking bank for her to be with, however HSBC say that they need her last 6 statements.
My Girlfriend being poor with money no longer has these to hand and Barclays say they will charge her £5 for each statement which is £30 that neither her nor I have. Can anyone advise on the legality of this for what is just a bunch of papers. What can they really charge (if anything?) Please help.

why is your gf poor,

Noz

Sillychuckie wrote:

Make a freedom of info request to barclays requesting as many statements as you like.
This will cost no more than £10.
See the 'reclaiming bank charges' posts to confirm this.

Basically, write a letter and enclose a cheque for £10. Mention that you are making an FOI request and would like the last X statements (they should have up to 6 years worth available).
They are only legally required to act if you include the money, so be sure to do so.
If they don't play nicely, mention that you'll report them to the I.C.
They cannot legally charge you any more than the £10 fee.

I run the risk of split hairs, but they are under no obligation to provide statements under this type of request.

The request would release personal information that is held about you from the bank (the details of which maybe sufficient for the new bank) but it isn't necessarily a way to obtain actual bank statements