What Angle To Take?

fiisch

I've finally deciphered the Da Vinci Code Halifax sent regarding a friend's accounts and have calculated the following charges.

Credit Card Charges: £500 (Overlimit and Late Fees)
Total Bank Charges: £5405*
Interest on Current Account: £278.35

*This amount varies depending on whether I add up monthly totals or individual charges.

My friend (it is a friend - honest!) has been very reckless, with stupid spending and there is evidence of gambling on his account (although in the last six years he has been diagnosed as having a problem with gambling). He is in my opinion a hardship case with various debts spiralling wildly out of control and is still living with his mum at nearly 30, and moving out is unforeseeable. However, whilst his spending has been reckless, the bank's treatment seems highly unfair - they should never have even offered him a credit card for starters!! My questions are:

1). What angle should I take to reclaim? Should I reclaim as a bulk, or target one particular charge?
2). On the credit card, there are debits for Repayment Protection - does this fall under PPI and in theory could this be claimed?
3). If I go down the route of reclaiming something, if that is settled/rejected, does that close the door on other avenues?
4). As the amount varies for current account charges, I presume I should opt for the lower amount? When I trawl through the individual statements, I reach £5405, however, when I add up the bank's calculated totals for each month I arrive at £4444.

I have read through the reclaiming guide a few times, and downloaded the template letter to send. I'm trying to personalise the letter as much as possible, and think I'm going to focus on the human argument. After all, I can sympathise with the bank as some of the situation is his fault. However, in some instances the bank have been very unfair - charging him several times in one day for going just a few pounds over his limit i.e.: for the sake of spending £15 in a day, he's had to fork out £105 in bank charges.

It's very difficult to give people an accurate picture on here and still maintain interest, but any other information just ask.

Thanks for your help.



**EDIT: Realised that the discrepancy is due to some month's not having "summary pages". Have gone through with an even finer toothcombe and have settled on the figure of £5,364. I now have a headache!

natweststaffmember

fiisch wrote: »

= My questions are:

1). What angle should I take to reclaim?
I don't understand the question so no idea.
Should I reclaim as a bulk, or target one particular charge?
I don't understand the "target one particular charges" bit. You reclaim the bank charges.
2). On the credit card, there are debits for Repayment Protection - does this fall under PPI and in theory could this be claimed?
You need to ask this bit on the PPI part of the forum but it will depend on his circumstances at the time the credit card was taken out.
3). If I go down the route of reclaiming something, if that is settled/rejected, does that close the door on other avenues?
What do you mean?
4). As the amount varies for current account charges, I presume I should opt for the lower amount?
Example cos I don't understand what you are talking about.
When I trawl through the individual statements, I reach £5405, however, when I add up the bank's calculated totals for each month I arrive at £4444.

Keep Bank charges claim, credit card charges, PPI claim if you go down that route separate. If you can explain the rest I might be able to advise.

fiisch

You've sort of answered my question re.: keeping the claims separate. In a previous thread you stated that reclaiming credit card charges was easier, so I was thinking of targeting those charges first. However, the bulk of the charges rest on his current account so there really the ones I'm after. However, despite being in financial hardship, there is gambling on his account so I'm a little pessimistic. He has, however, sought help on his gambling addiction.

In terms of the angle, I was referring to the information on the site, stating that you can take the legal argument or humanistic side. It's a bizarre situation, as I can sympathise with the bank, but the extent to what they have charged him for how much he has spent (e.g.: £30 in a day resulted in £105 bank charges on several occasions) seems massively unfair.

It's a difficult situation, as his account is a complete mess. There is right and wrong on both sides, but currently the bank is shafting him. I can see the need for charges, but it is wrong for a bank to make such a profit on someone who is clearly useless with money. Without wanting to start a moral argument, I think it is seriously immoral for a bank to make such money out of people who clearly have none. Any other business operates on people having money to spend, whilst banks seem to profit from the poor!!

From what I've read, I'm leaning towards trying for the current account charges. IF I was successful, then I think I would leave it at that. It is so depressing reading through the statements - I've never paid a bank charge in my life and cannot believe somebody would be so stupid to let themselves get into such a mess! Grrr!

P.S.: You're presence on these forums is fantastic - you've been enormously helpful in the scores of threads I've read through so thankyou! I'm not necessarily expecting to be successful, but believe it is worth a bloody good go simply due to the rediculous amount of charges he's paid!

davidgmmafan

Credit card charges, as far as I'm aware are a slam dunk. Which makes the banks victory on bank charges all the more irritating. From the brief info you've posted above it seems it would be worth a shot going through the FOS as I get the impression from reading the last post that your friends is in a situation where, even if they try really hard, the charges will continue to snowball.

I don't see what you have to lose by trying the FOS, it'll take a while but this allows for the dust to settle with regard to new legal arguments.

fiisch

So if credit card charges are a slam dunk, would I be best to claim those back first? Especially seeing as they date back to August '04, so best get cracking!

natweststaffmember

I have to be honest and say I haven't really read the human argument. I know about the financial hardship stuff and unfortunately, MSE seems to have lost their hardship guide which I think is disappointing, personally. Credit card charges first then we'll sort out the bank charges.