Business Account - reclaiming bank charges

IZZY01

Seaxwyn wrote: »

My OH has a business account with HSBC - he is a self-employed person trading in his own name. This account was very expensive with all sorts of fees for normal transactions. He also accrued lots of over-limit fees. Can he reclaim the latter back? He says that as it was a business account the fees were part of the deal.

I'd be grateful for any advice people can give.

He can't claim normal transaction fees, however he can claim overlimit fees and returned item fees. I am in the process of claiming mine back through the Ombudsman, as the bank declined to settle.

Leeblades05

Hey everyone, Can you also claim charges on a business account the same way as you can with a personal account or is this a different process all together ?? was going to claim the charges back for a friends business account at NATWEST !!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated people !!

Cheers Lee

shrektime1

Hi all, this is my first post so apologies for jumping straight in with a question. Can charges be reclaimed if the account is a business account? Also as a side note I've been wondering about the VAT aspect of bank charges ie. on a letter recently recieved from LTSB it sated the £35.00 charge was to cover their costs, which I believe to be untrue and suspect profit making. So, as a VAT registered company should a VAT reciept be sent out to me so I could claim back the 17.5% at least? Or am I missing something? Colin

IZZY01

shrektime1 wrote: »

Hi all, this is my first post so apologies for jumping straight in with a question. Can charges be reclaimed if the account is a business account? Also as a side note I've been wondering about the VAT aspect of bank charges ie. on a letter recently recieved from LTSB it sated the £35.00 charge was to cover their costs, which I believe to be untrue and suspect profit making. So, as a VAT registered company should a VAT reciept be sent out to me so I could claim back the 17.5% at least? Or am I missing something? Colin

Yes charges can be claimed back on a business acc. Not sure about the VAT querie though
Izzy

shrektime1

Thanks for the prompt reply Izzy. Are they claimed the same way as personal account charges? Sorry, questions, questions, questions. Not sure where I'm heading with that VAT question, but if banks are profit making from the charges, I wouldv'e thought somewhere along the line VAT should be paid. Providing of course banks need to be VAT registered, which I'm not sure if they do or not. Colin

techspec

Leeblades05 wrote: »

Hey everyone, Can you also claim charges on a business account the same way as you can with a personal account or is this a different process all together ?? was going to claim the charges back for a friends business account at NATWEST !!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated people !!

Cheers Lee

I wrote to Natwest asking for my bank charges back for my business account, and they refunded them without arguement.

Took just one letter.

IZZY01

shrektime1 wrote: »

Thanks for the prompt reply Izzy. Are they claimed the same way as personal account charges? Sorry, questions, questions, questions. Not sure where I'm heading with that VAT question, but if banks are profit making from the charges, I wouldv'e thought somewhere along the line VAT should be paid. Providing of course banks need to be VAT registered, which I'm not sure if they do or not. Colin

Hi Colin,
The procedure is excactly the same as for personal accounts, however I think there may be a wee bit different wording in the T/C. When I asked for a refund, I just stated that the amount they charged was not proportionate to their costs, the same as my personal acc. I have been declined on both accounts by the Bank of Scotland and my claim is with the FOS.
The BOS told me that they had decided not to pay out on business accounts so I mentioned this to the FOS when I phoned. I could have sworn I heard the man laughing on the other end of the phone!!!:rotfl: Anyway, they advised me that it was irrelevent if it was a business acc. or personal acc. so go for it and I'll let you know how I go,
Regards, Izzy

moneymakers

Hi All,I'm new here and it may be that the question been asked already, although if it has I cant find it - So here goes..I've been screwed on both my personal and business accounts over many years by the bank. Can I claim charges on my business account? - its not limited just a small sole trader account.Regards - Jim.

lolalarue

My dad has a business account with Lloyds and has been charged:

• Every time he desposits cash, or a cheque he is charged 70p
• Every time he arranges an overdraft (annually) he is charged £50

He is keen to claim back but isn't sure if he is entitled to these charges, although I don't think setting up an overdraft for £50 is proportional to the bank's actual expense.

Please give me some advice as my dad wants to know if it's worth going through his millions of statements for nothing - and I can't see any tips on these charges in the what you can and cant claim thread.

Thanks in advance, Lola xxx

karenvnut

I can only suggest you negotiate a better rate with your business banking manager. May be check out what other banks would charge and then use this info to get your bank to reduce their charges. Normally they are very helpfull and manage to sort things out.

I know what you mean though they do take a lot of money from business accounts.

We left the HSBC because they wouldnt alter their charging method which was a Percentage of the money paid out of our account. This meant one large cheque to a supplier cost us £500.00 in charges.
we switched banks and got the first year charge free. Since then we have negotiated with the banking manager and got our cheques paid in charges down to 0.59p.

The HSBC contacted us this year and have apologised and paid us the money back ( without court action) but we wont be changing back.
Hope this is of some help