halifax bank charges (merged)

natalie1980_2

The woman asked if I had paid £10 through a website. Do you think I should write them a lteer reminding them that they only have 40 days from the date of the letter and that if they dont reply Im reporting them ??

bigmoodog

Well folks,

took the first step today, posted (recorded delivery of course) my request for the statements. Im guessing there is gonna be a minimum of 1k of charges but who knows. I will no doubt keep you all updated with events and follow with enthusiasm the progress of your claims.


good luck everyone

claire6hy

claire6hy wrote:

hi, i have just joined and am going to claim back charges... can anyone confirm the correct address to send the bank of scotland letters to? thanks.....

anyone??? i really want to have the address confirmed.....
einburgh lass???

xtrouble

xtrouble wrote:

Rang them today and asked if they wished to settle before I opened court proceedings. I suggested it would save them some money as I would be claiming costs and interest. The lady I spoke to said that my letter wasn't due to go out 'til the 20th March so I would have to wait 'til then.

I politely declined, MCOL case opened 1hr later !

A quick update just to make all those starting this journey feel better.

The above happened on the 6th. Today (8th) recieved a letter offering all charges (£774) back, I rang and asked for court costs of £80 back as well, and the very nice CS person agreed straight away.

She was really nice and we had a bit of a chat, apparently her job purely consists of sending out offer letters to people reclaiming bank charges !

Many thanks to Martin and all here, as I would never have done this if it wasn't for them.


:T :T

ITConsultant

Afternoon Everyone,

Halifax have agreed a full payout after an initial offer of 70%
Capital One are dealing with the claim, and I still have to chase the other firms involved.

ITConsultant wrote:

Evening All,

I just thought I'd post a diary of my progress reclaiming bank charges.

I am looking to the following financial institutions to repay the charges they have imposed:

Halifax Bank: £740 + Interest
Halifax Visa Credit Card
Capital One Credit Card
Clode Plc (Store Card Provider)
Clydesdale Financial Services (Store Card Provider)
Debenhams

All my other accounts I don't think I have any charges on.

Halifax

I went into the halifax branch this week, and requested they send me all charges imposed on my account for the past 6 years. They rang me on Friday saying the details were in branch and could I come and collect them.

What they had actually sent me was 6 years worth of investor account statements, and they said "Well we are not going to make it easy for you".

Luckily I have two very useful items at work - a networked scanner with feeder tray, and a document shredder.

So all 173 pages were scanned to a TIFF file (well 3 tiff files as I had to do it in 3 batches...) and then shredded (with the shredded paper being sent off to be recycled)

Halifax bank charges are noted on the investor account statements as a '94D' - so I fired up Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI), ran the OCR procedure over all 173 pages and started searching for all references to 94D.

I was quite shocked that I was only owed £740 to be honest - thought it would have been more. It was also quite interesting to analyse the timing of the charges which is one to note for the future in terms of having the current account prepared for the correct cashflow levels.

My letter to Halifax reads as follows:

"...

Thank you for providing me with the list of bank charges levied against my account in the form of my investors report for the past 6 years. I have now completed my analysis of these documents, and cross referenced it against the electronic letters you have stored against my account. To this end I write to request a refund of the fees you have applied to be account, which total £740.00, as well as the statutory interest I would be awarded in court, which amounts to £57.43, coming to a total refund of fees of £797.43.

I am sure you are now aware that this regime of 'fees' which you have applied to my account are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations, to this end I request this refund as a matter of urgency.

I would respectfully submit that if your organisation does not agree to immediately refund all unfair charges applied to my account, it will not meet the ‘fit and proper person’ test to hold a consumer credit licence under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In that eventuality, I will submit a 1974 Act complaint to the OFT.

Separately, I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable at common law. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This is also the position in English law: Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79.

UK banks have recently given evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee on how bank charges are calculated: "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges" (2nd report, 25 January 2005, paragraph 50 – online here: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtreasy/274/27405.htm ).

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of the bank’s loss in relation to my account. No-one has had to look at my account or telephone me. No one has had to collect anything. Your charges would appear to represent a device to recover global losses (for example, loan defaulters, bad debt write off, including commercial lending in, and out with, the UK).

In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove any default entry from the register caused in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or which was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.

Please refund all charges applied to my account within the next 7 days. I reserve the right to commence court proceedings without any further notice, and to seek an additional award for distress and inconvenience, together with legal expenses.

..."

Capital One have yet to respond to my request, and the other firms I will be writing to on monday.

I'll let you know how everything goes.

bigmoodog

bigmoodog wrote:

Well folks,

took the first step today, posted (recorded delivery of course) my request for the statements. Im guessing there is gonna be a minimum of 1k of charges but who knows. I will no doubt keep you all updated with events and follow with enthusiasm the progress of your claims.


good luck everyone

also, can someone let me know if i have to wait 40 days fors for my statements from the date of the cheque cashing or from when they receive the letter?

kind regards

marcellep

claire6hy wrote:

anyone??? i really want to have the address confirmed.....
edinburgh lass???

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=304064
have a look @ that thread that gives all the address's

Bank of Scotland aka HBOS

Date Protection Manager
Trinity Road
Halifax
West Yorkshire
HX1 2BR

Thats the address on that thread and thats the address I used.
Hope that helps

marcellep

bigmoodog wrote:

also, can someone let me know if i have to wait 40 days fors for my statements from the date of the cheque cashing or from when they receive the letter?

kind regards

40 Days from the date on your letter

brumfanatic

Spoke to the Halifax today. My court deadline expires tomorrow and said should I take it to court. They are sticking to there 4 – 8 week timescale. So I have decided to do the same MCOL is filled out, saved all I need to do is fill out my card details and off we go down the legal route.

SONIA79_2

my husband has spoken to the Halifax today as their court deadline was last friday,and still, we have heard nothing. MCOL is filled out ready to go. thing that annoys me is that when thet decide to charge us its done within a few days, so why is it taking them so long to refund our money that they have stolen from us?