A couple of questions before I send my claim...

ChabbyAlonso

Am I allowed to claim if I have paid off my charges, even though it's been just over a year since my last charge?

Other than the date the charge was triggered and how much it amounted to, do I need to detail anything else on my record of charges?

Can I hand in my envelope containing the letter and list of charges at my bank or do I have to post it?

To summarise, I've opted for the ombudsman route, claiming a bit from each of the three criteria (financial difficulty/disproportionate charges/snowballing). All my charges were because of unauthorised overdraft limits.

Help appreciated.

Premier_2

Yes, you can attempt to reclaim historical bank charges
(in fact they are the only ones you can attempt to reclaim since you obviously can't reclaim future ones that's you've not yet incurred! )

However, I'm not sure about your chances of success on proving financial hardship since you, by your own admission, were keeping up with non-priority debt (overdraft, bank charges). Did you actually have any priority debts at this time that you were falling into arrears on whilst you were settling in full non-priority debts?
Remember, even if you prove any of the 'human argument', that doesn't entitle you to any refund of charges. Perhaps if you were using money to settle non-priorty debts whilst falling behind with priority debts, they would provide you some help & education on better financial management?

Don't just hand in a letter to a branch, post it (preferably using recorded delivery so you have proof they got it and on what date). Post it to the appropriate address to send such complaints, not a local branch.

ChabbyAlonso

I didn't have any other debts other than the overdraft misuse charges. I deposited money into my account to pay off the charges, as well as getting the balance back into the agreed overdraft limits whenever I realised I had exceeded the limit, paying off the debt within a week of the charge being triggered every time this happened. Then I'd get charges the month after, even though a couple of weeks would have passed after I cleared the debt. But I was told at the time that the time the charge was triggered ran into the following months statement, or words to that effect. The financial hardship angle of my claim centres around not having any money at all for several of the charges, which resulted in a snowballing effect.

As for the sending the letter, I was planning on mailing it to my local Natwest branch if the handing it in at my local branch route was a no go, but after reading your advice, I best reconsider! I have no idea where the address for their claims department is, so I'd appreciate a point in the right direction, forum

Premier_2

I would strongly suggest that you read the links to the online resources on financial hardship. In covers in a lot more detail what the MSE article mentions (as the MSE article is primarily about how to reclaim the charges, not hopingto define in full what consititutes financial hardship)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2428497

e.g. the lending code term 138 says:

Personal customers should be considered to be in financial difficulty when income is insufficient to cover reasonable living expenses and meet financial commitments as they become due. ...

You appear to have been keeping up repayments on your financial commitments.

It also goes on to say

This may result from a change in lifestyle, often accompanied by a fall in disposable income and/or increased expenditure, ...

You haven't mentioned any form of fall in income or increase in expenditure (incurring bank charges is not in itself considered a cause of increase in expenditure)

Subsequent terms go into details of how a person in true financial difficulty would probably have one or more other difficulties meeting the listed types of debts. You seem to be saying you didn't have any other debts in difficulty.

As the MSE article suggests, the snowballing effect tends to go hand in hand with financial hardship. I think you will have difficulty pinning your hopes just on the snaowballing effect without the financial hardship part too ... and in your OP, you said you were claiming partly financial hardship too. If you are hoping to prove financil hardship because of the snowballing effect, I think you will fail.

The snowballing effect starts with the first charge. The qestion will be why didn't you pay it off if you weren't in financial difficulty at that time.

ChabbyAlonso

I'll probably go ahead with the claim and hope for the best. I searched google and couldn't find the Natwest address I should send be my claim to. I'll probably just post it to my local branch. Anyways, thanks for the advice, Premier :beer:

natweststaffmember

ChabbyAlonso wrote: »

I'll probably go ahead with the claim and hope for the best. I searched google and couldn't find the Natwest address I should send be my claim to. I'll probably just post it to my local branch. Anyways, thanks for the advice, Premier :beer:

Try reading the stickie at the top of the forum which is about online links. I have stickied a thread from Legal Beagles which has the address for natWest

ChabbyAlonso

There are two addresses listed. The first is the one to send statement requests to, and the second, the one where you send your court claim, which is irrelevant to me as I've opted for the ombudsman route.

natweststaffmember

ChabbyAlonso wrote: »

There are two addresses listed. The first is the one to send statement requests to, and the second, the one where you send your court claim, which is irrelevant to me as I've opted for the ombudsman route.

Have you looked at all the links? The thread on legal beagles is very precise and is nothing to do with the court claim route so I think you haven't gone down to post 6 on the MSE thread so here is the link and post 1 is the one you want: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/showpost.php?p=123350&postcount=1