Bank Charge Refund - almost there!!

in_over_my_head_2

Hi,

I know I should be posting on the proper board for this, and will go there today for some advice, but thought I would share here too seeing as I know there are a fair few of you doing the same thing.

Bit of background : I started the process of bank charge refund over a month ago, I should have filed my MCOL for £3,000 plus £500 interest last week, but don't have the £120 court fees so it'll have to wait till I get paid...

However, after receiving absolutely NO acknowledgement from HSBC for either the prelimiary letter or the letter before action, I've now received an offer of almost £2,000 from them this morning!! It's VERY tempting to accept this close to Christmas, but I'm definitely going to hold out for the full amount

sandralovescats

Good on You!

I was watching Martin on GMTV this morning and he has set me off wanting to claim back from my bank and one credit card.

How did you get the charges together - did you write to your bank and ask them to send you the charges for the last 6 years? Did you have any problem in getting that from them?

I would hold out for the full amount if I were you. The bank has no defence so you should have no problem recouping your loss.

Good luck!

yung

sandralovescats wrote:

Good on You!

I was watching Martin on GMTV this morning and he has set me off wanting to claim back from my bank and one credit card.

How did you get the charges together - did you write to your bank and ask them to send you the charges for the last 6 years? Did you have any problem in getting that from them?

I would hold out for the full amount if I were you. The bank has no defence so you should have no problem recouping your loss.

Good luck!

if you go to this site http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/ you will get all the info and letter template good luck to you.

yung

IOMH you can accept but tell them you will still pursue them to get the rest of the money back, my Son did this and HSBC paid out. good luck

in_over_my_head_2

I did get all of the letters from the Consumer Action Group, their advice and step-by-step instructions are excellent... I will keep going!!

Incidentally, I told PayPlan what I was doing (had my inital interview with them yesterday and am entering a Debt Management Plan with them) and that I planned to pay my overdraft and the one outstanding mortgage payment with the money, and they told me that I'd be better off letting them tell HSBC to add my o/d to my personal loan (which would then total £9k) and just pay the mortgage arrears and keep the rest for myself or as emergency money!! In reality, I would keep some of the money (new glasses at last!!) but use it to pay the highest interest debt if PP aren't successful in negotiating deals with any of my creditors.

sandralovescats - the HSBC had all of my statements on-line going back 6 years, so it was just a question of sifting through and pulling out all of the charges. But there's also a "statement access request" letter that you can use to request paper copies from your bank, which is what my x-bf has done as the Halifax don't do this. It's well worth visiting the CAG site if you haven't already.

furndire

At least when it goes to Court, you'll get your 8% interest added on and your court costs back.

sandralovescats

The CAG letters are appalling!

I found Martin's own template letters, which are far far better, on the GMTV website

http://moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632,

Brassic

sandralovescats wrote:

The CAG letters are appalling!

I found Martin's own template letters, which are far far better, on the GMTV website

http://moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632,

I feel that's rather harsh. Have you seen the amount they've helped people win back? (Nearly 4000000UKP!! So the letters can't be that appalling!) Also the help and support on there is just brilliant. I've been following their step by step system (as endorsed by Martin btw) and imho the letters have been fine, and certainly seem to have done the trick so far.

Just my 2 cents worth of course.

sandralovescats

Martin's letters are written in a far more business-like, straight forward, straight to the point, no messing about manner. I much prefer that for a business letter.

crawley_girl

Brassic wrote:

I feel that's rather harsh. Have you seen the amount they've helped people win back? (Nearly 4000000UKP!! So the letters can't be that appalling!) Also the help and support on there is just brilliant. I've been following their step by step system (as endorsed by Martin btw) and imho the letters have been fine, and certainly seem to have done the trick so far.

Just my 2 cents worth of course.

I agree. I feel that without CAG then it is unlikely that we would even know about claiming back these charges!

justruth

I used all the CAG letters and court pack with great success and I could never have got the pack together without them. As for HSBC, I found that if you hold out, provided you did everything else right, they will pay up rather than add to the cost by dragging it out through the court. It cost Barclays nearly £100 more taking that approach.