Smile customers

mark3923

I am currently in the process of claiming back unlawful bank charges from Smile the internet bank (The Cooperative Bank's internet bank). I have sent the first letter (using Martin's template) requesting a list of charges with a £10 cheque. The Cooperative Bank sent me a list and returned my cheque stating "As this data is provided free of charge, your £10 cheque is enclosed". On the 01/02/07 I sent the second letter demanding a refund of £951.23 for the unlawful bank charges I paid over the last six years plus £288.08 in interest. I am awaiting a reply. I am interested to know how the Cooperative Bank normally responds at this stage and would be grateful for any advice other forum users have about claiming unlawful charges back from either Smile or The Cooperative Bank.

Thanks

sallyneale

I've just received £500 back from Smile.:T
Absolutely no trouble at all!

1. Sent letter 1 on 7th December with the £10 cheque
2. Received reply on 15th Jan - complete with my cheque!
3. Replied on 18th Jan requsting £320 for account A, and £50 for account B
4. Acknnowledgement letter on 24th Jan
5. Refund on the 29th Jan - for MORE MONEY than I asked for!!!! :j

£455 for account A and £50 for account B :-)

Amazing. So simple. No trouble. Has taken up about 10 mins of my time in total. Am stunned it was this simple and Smile were so great!

THANK YOU

Irish_Paddy

Folks,

where do I stand with this. I have an account with smile with an overdraft on it. I logged into my account about a week ago and seen I was over my limit... by 72 pence, and this was only due to Smile applying overdraft interest to my account. So my balance was 500.72.

Straight away I sent £100 transfer to the account to get it back into order, however I have just logged in to double check my balance and they have charged me £85 for the period I was overdrawn.

Do I have to go through the whole process like before with HSBC to reclaim, or is this kind of charge in anyway allowed due to me only going overdrawn due to interest as opposed to me actually using the account.

I am so so upset right now as I had put away £100 to use for payday and now have £15 for the week, not even enough to fill my car.

Im totally and utterly shocked.

Paddy

max_sand1

Hey,

Got a letter from smile / co-op saying that they have today (letter dated 27th Feb) refunded £1255.80 to my account, paying off my debt to them and leaving a credit balance of £637.13. I logged in to my online account, and I managed to get on (first time in months, i think they blocked me) and it still shows a minus balance of just over £610.

I would have thought if they credited it "TODAY" as they said and the letter was dated yesterday, that the money would have been in, has anyone else had this kind of delay?

I will be calling them tomorrow me thinks!

Edinburghlass_2

max, can I ask you to email [Removed by Forum Team] and ask them to change your user name as using an email address means spammers can, and do even on MSE, garner your email address and use for spam.

max_sand1

Edinburghlass wrote:

max, can I ask you to email abuse@moneysavingexpert.com and ask them to change your user name as using an email address means spammers can, and do even on MSE, garner your email address and use for spam.

OK i shall do that. Thank you.

bennyblanco

My reclaim story so far is as follows:
6/2/07 - Sent secure message to smile requesting statements showing charges on my account.
9/2/07 - Reply secure message from manager stating my 'complaint' was being looked into!
27/2/07 - £145 appears in my account as if by magic!

Today I recieved a letter from smile (dated 19/2 - it took nearly 2 weeks to arrive on my doorstep!) saying that a gesture of goodwill has been paid into my account with regards to my complaint about charges. Even though my original message to them was only really asking for statements so I could assess the charges made in the last six years!
I've just sent them a message as follows:

"Hi, thanks for the gesture of goodwill of £145 which was paid into my current account(as per letter dated 19th Feb, which I might add I did not recieve until today!). As I'm sure you can appreciate I do not know whether or not this is sufficient to compensate the charges on my account as my original request for my statements for the past six years has not been acted upon. Please can you supply this information so I am in a position to judge whether or not your gesture of goodwill is acceptable."

Now my question is this, do I need to involve the Financial Ombudsman Service as mentioned in my letter recieved today from smile?
Or should I await a reply to my above message first?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Butterfliesarepretty

I have just paid £10 to Smile to get copies of all my statements from joining in 2003 and they said they have 40 days to provide me with the information. I have been waiting two weeks so far and not a single thing yet. I did this via the secure messages online to smile. Should it take this long. I am nervous about claiming - it might not be much but I have also written to Alliance and Leicester for my statements going back to £2002 even though I have not got the old current account details.

Surely smile should not drag their feet as I have paid upfront!

Edinburghlass_2

You've given the answer yourself, they have 40 days to provide the information.

Butterfliesarepretty

Asked for my statements showing charges from smile bank. Not received them yet but this morning checked my account and wahey £589.50 credited to my account as (adj commission). I am assuming that is what they charged me since 2003!!:beer: :T :j :rotfl:

I still want my statements though to check them through:o

Overdraft now (£350) rather than over the limit of £900:j :money:

Tracey