Northern Bank trying to be smart? Advice needed

nelliebag

Clare

If you need any help deciphering the interest and fee charges then pm me - I will be happy to help.

Burt256

Hi Clare,

All the best with your claim. I too am about to put together a claim against the Northern having checked through my statments for the last few years I discovered they have continually been charging a £7.50 'maintenance fee' every month of any quarter I have been overdrawn (I have been overdrawn on occassion but only every by a few pounds and only for 1-2 days).
I will be interested to here how you get on we get ripped off for so many things in NI without the banks sticking the arm in as well!

Burt256

Nelliebag - Hi - Can you advise on the 'Maintenance charge' (see my previous post) - Am I justified in claiming this - I have totted up about £350.00 -surely this is a 'penalty' when you are being charged it every month of the quarter for only being overdrawn by a couple of pounds?

nelliebag

Hi Burt

I think the account you are talking about charges £7.50 for all your day to day transactions regardless of how many you have - it was usually offered to customers who would have quite a few DD's, s/o's etc. The maintence fee was in the T&C's. I dont think you would have much chance of getting that back (it was actually quite a good deal) but if you were overdrawn then you were probably being charged a 'referral fee' (not sure what other NI banks would call it) and also penalty rate interest which is usually about 10% above your normal rate. Therefore you could have been charged around 20% (ie bank base rate being around 5% plus say another 5% for small o'd borrowers PLUS the 10% penal rate.) Referral fee started off years ago at about £10/12 but now is around £25. Also, dont forget the charge for writing out to you of around £25 per time.
All in all even on a small, occasional overdraft you can see how the charges mount up. I would definitely go for it-start with Martin's letters and work your way through them - I did it for my husband's G E credit card (he is just lazy and only writes one cheque per year for his car tax) and got £138 back.
If you need any more help PM me and I'll try my best to help you.

Good Luck!
nellie

Clare11

Hi Nellie and Burt.
It would have given me great delight to recieve back all the Maintenace Fees but it seems I have to eat "humble pie" instead.

Would you advise me to admit my error in the next correspondence with them when they decline a full refund?

It was a genuine mistake on my part.

I have been corresponding with my local branch of the Northern Bank and they have been forwarding the same to the Head Office.
I think when I send the threat of taking them to court I will send it to their Head Office in Belfast instead.
As for the interest it all sounds very complicated to calculate and not worth the headache so I will just add the statutory 8%.

I think the Northern Bank were the biggest culprits in issuing penalty charges!
I often said they charged you for saying "hello" to the cashier!!

I expect to hear from them within 14 days.
I will keep you informed.


Kind regards
Clare

Clare11

Today 13 Jan received this letter from the Northern Bank

"I refer to your letter dated xth January 2007 regarding your dissatisfaction with the charges applied to your account.
All customers are expected to conduct their account within the agreed facility and provide in advance for items presented for payment. If there are insufficient funds in the account to cover such items, the Branch may have little option but to return items unpaid, attracting the charges you describe.
Having investigated the matter I can confirm that the fees you refer to were properly charged in accordance with our published tariffs and I have, for your convenience, enclosed a copy of our current Fees and Charges Explained' leaflet.
I have also enclosed for your information a copy of our internal Complaint Handling Procedures. These procedures confirm how to pursue your complaint if you remain dissatisfied with this response and how to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service if we cannot resolve the matter.
If we do not receive a response from you within eight weeks of the date of this letter, your complaint will be considered closed."

Our account is/was a BUSINESS account so my reply to the above letter will be slightly different
to personal current holders.
I found the "business user" reply letter on https://www.penaltycharges.co.uk and its a very strong worded letter
Link http://www.penaltycharges.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10933
What's your opinion?
kind regards
Clare