Bank Charges Nerds Required

xxdiddiexx

Sweetrevenge wrote:

I agree with you about encouraging people to reclaim any interest which would in all likelihood be paid before the court door opened in any case, and there have been examples of people getting back their charges PLUS the proportion of the interest charged by the bank each month on charges applied that month PLUS simple or compounded CONTRACTUAL interest at either the authorised or unauthorised rate applied by the bank to the account. This CAN be asked for at the intitial states, unlike the statutory interest, and has been successful in cases I've seen so far - sometimes at 29% ish :T .

I may be missing a trick here, perhaps what you are saying is "claim some interest, there's no bank gonna risk going into the court to keep it from you?" In which case please feel free to ignore me 'cos I'll give way to a tactic/advice like that willingly!!

IMHO questions about what can be claimed re interest (such as simple contractual, compound contractual, and authorised/unauthorised rates) is the single most confusing and most asked about question on the CAG/BAG forums. It is complicated and it needs setting out in a very clear way so that there is no confusion. It probably needs someone to draw up a flowchart with the decision making process and answers (yes/no) included but I confess I feel faint at the idea of trying to produce something myself!

Lots of indepth discussions regarding this very topic over on the Consumer Action Group as mentioned by sweetrevenge. Prob the best to send people if they want to go down this route.

JMHO

Red_Panda_2

cazziebo wrote:

The new template letter for letter befoe action doesn't specify a 14 day period before court action - should it?

The LBA gives a timescale of 7 days but there is no time in the Prelim letter - Martin could you amend the letter to include a timescale for the bank to reply to the initial letter please.
We may be flooded with - how long do I wait for them to reply threads, if people are unsure.
Thank you.

Lizzy

I don't know how this would work but I think bank sub forums are needed.

Each bank works in a different way, they send different letters. If all the queries are all put together everyone might think they all apply to them and they don't.

Lizzy

Lucycat

I'm happy to help out where I can - I've got several irons in the fire at the moment with financial institutions on behalf of my bloke (in a long-term DMP with CCCS) & a successful claim from Halifax under my belt, but my only knowledge comes from hours (probably days, possibly weeks... ) reading up on the CAG site.

One thing that has become apparent from answering PMs on MSE & CAG regarding reclaiming charges is that a lot of people see that they can claim charges back, fire off a template letter or two & then throw in the towel either as soon as they get a desultory - oops, meant to say 'goodwill' - offer or when it gets to filing with Money Claim.

It's *so* important to know what you're doing before ploughing ahead...if for no other reason than to reinforce that this is *your* money you're claiming back - you're not being a bit cheeky asking for it back - IT'S YOURS!

Lucy.

dexters_mum_2

Hi Martin & All Members,
Would it be viable to provide addresses of the financial institutions or at least a starting block of the main addresses where customers can write to regarding thier charges. I have found in try to make claims, the branch doesn't respond but I get letters from Customer Relations in a different place. When trying to get an address to write to for one bank, it was exceptionally difficult to find the correct address and I feel the institutions do this deliberately!
Maybe a thread where people could add addresses from where they have had responses and where they wrote to?
Just an idea????
DM x

Rex_Mundi

MSE_Martin wrote:

Just to say the new article is now up and running - any feedback, suggestions?

I agree with a few of the other posts here about claiming immediately for the interest. A lot of new members seem to be joining from this article alone, and the impression I'm beginning to get is that your article leads people to believe that they are entitled to their charges plus 8% from the beginning. This isn't actually correct. It's only at the court stage that you can legally claim the interest.

I think you should make this a bit clearer in the article. I know this process quite well, and when I read the article, I winced a bit when I came to the section about the interest.

Edinburghlass_2

We have a thread started with addresses which I'll bump up as there are two threads running asking for addresses.

I am also editing titles of threads to put in which bank/building society is being talked about so threads on the same bank can be merged.

Keep those ideas coming

fabianne

Can we arrange coffee mornings with bickies,all over the country to explain it all please?
The BCR? ('Bank Charges Roadshow'?)

MSE_Martin

I've rewritten the bit about interest and one of the team will add it into the article today.