Charges refunded. But they now want them back.

LordLee

To cut a long story short I was overdrawn with A&L due to charges taking me overdrawn (approx £180). I started the reclaiming process claiming Financial Hardship. I received a letter telling me all was 'on hold' till test case blah blah. But they would look into the financial hardship aspect (i filled in all appropriate forms).

To my surprise i received a letter and a cheque from A&L refunding all my charges since i had been with them. Beyond what i had initially claimed for.

The letter informed me this would be the end of the matter and all was now deemed to be settled.

Now since the supreme court made it's decision, i receive a letter from A&L collections telling me my account is now £300+ overdrawn and i need to pay it back as all charges were deemed fair.

What the..........????? :eek:

Any advice?

esmerellda

When you received the cheque what did you do with the money?

LordLee

I paid off my girlfriends credit card... why?

If my account was overdrawn then the way they worded the letter to me with the cheque sounded like they'd cleared the overdraft and given me what was left. If they hadn't cleared the overdraft then that's a bit daft isn't it? I was only overdrawn due to charges. Why not clear those then pay what is left?

They had suspended the account so i had no way of checking anything. They told me the cheque was the end of the matter?!

esmerellda

Okay do you have a copy of the original offer letter ?

How much charges were you claiming, how much was the actual offer and how much was the actual overdraft at that point ?

LordLee

Oooo crikey um... i can find out actual figures given time. Thing is i don't have the letter that came with the cheque anymore. I never throw anything out... but this time it got wet and i thought it was all over. Sigh.

Off the top of my head i was claiming just over £300 and they sent a cheque for just under £700. The actual overdaft was about £180 at the time of claiming. But should have been frozen... so if it wasn't paid off goodness knows where they've got their new figure of £300+ from?

esmerellda

They would have continued adding charges and interest to it. You need to send them a Subject Access Request to find out what happened to the account - or just ask them informally for statements from the last year to show how they have come to the £300 figure.

LordLee

right... so the likelyhood is.... that they did not clear off the overdraft with the refund. instead they sent me the money and i was expected to then put it back into the suspended account.

have to say this is a real pain. they gave the impression all was sorted and the money was a goodwill gesture for all charges under my financial hardship claim.

so... in short... i owe them the money. grrrrrrrrrreat.

esmerellda

You do need to get a statement for the account since the GOGw payment to see where it has come from and argue your case - yes the £180 will need to be repaid the rest you can argue.

davidgmmafan

Two similar cases with the same bank, at best they appear incompetant, but then we already knew that.

Expect to pay the whole sum but angle for some reduction based on the above incompetence.

esmerellda

For info: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/247456-charges-refunded-but-they.html#post2770838

davidgmmafan

"right... so the likelyhood is.... that they did not clear off the overdraft with the refund. instead they sent me the money and i was expected to then put it back into the suspended account."

I would agree, but I am unable to understand why they would adopt such a stupid practice. If you claimed somebody owed you money and you'd settle the matter as a goodwill gesture, why in blazes would you send it out in the form of a cheque? Dreadful risk management if you ask me, but that's a problem with bank charges generally IMO. They can and should limit the amount of debt people can build up but they don't.