I am worried about reclaiming my bank charges

JulieBarlow

I am worried about reclaiming my bank charges in case they close my accounts. I have been charged fees on my Tesco Mastercard, my Barclays Bank account and Barclaycard, my Mint Card and my Natwest card. All the charges have been made in the past year as before then I was surprisingly good with managing my accounts! I can't afford for them to shut the accounts/cards as I have substantial debts which using these accounts and cards is helping me to manage, plus I doubt if I would be able to get credit elsewhere at the moment. I am hoping to be debt free in 3 years so would it be better for me to wait until I have cleared my debts then reclaim all charges they made, or should I reclaim now in case they find a way of stoping these reclaims from happening? PLease advise as I don't know what to do!

omega27

As people have been able to go back upto 6 years, why don't you sort out your debt problems then ask for the charges back?

Plutos_2

I'm sort of in this situation - if Natwest ask for their overdraft back, I'll be screwed. I see that A&L have been closing accounts for people who reclaim their charges.

The answer is up to you. Personally, these charges have made a substantial contribution to me being so indebted in the first place (£841 out of £1600 total debt). I've decided to risk it and claim them back anyway - if they want to try and force me to close my account, I will hit every personal finance journalist I can find with my story of the poor student / low income earner who has been illegall impoverished by their charges, and then when I went back to correct their illegal behavior, they respond by destroying my financal life.

I doubt whether they'd like this, but I guess we'll see.

I'm fairly sure that we could haul them up on some aspects of the banking code as well.

If I were to get 'the letter', I'd immediatly write to all levels of Natwest explaining my reaction if they were to carry out their threat. At the end of the day, I'm too angry to let them get away with it. Utlimatly, though, they can give you 30 days notice. It's therefore up to you to decide whether you want to risk it.

I'm young, single and have no dependents, so I've decided that opening a parachute account and going after their asses is worth it.

Plutos

Scully's_Girl

Your concern is definately sound. I complained against A&L & they are closing my account on 7 August. It was inconvenient, but actually worked out much better for me since I moved to Nationwide which has alot of stuff that benefits me more (no ATM load overseas, a much higher interest rate when you deposit in excess of £1000/month, a branch literally round the corner from my office). Even though I was upset when I first got my closure letter it actually worked out better in the long run. I am sure you have checked out all your options, but have you considered consolidating them on one card for the time being? If you havent called them to see what charges they can drop for you "as a service", do that first. Then, make very detailed notes of the charges you have received. File them away with your paperwork and then reclaim the charges at a later date when you've settled all your debts.