Intelligent Finance

silou

silou wrote: »

Hi all, first time poster stumbled across this site purely by accident but boy am I glad that I did!
Could really use some advice with regard to (I am sure) many hundreds of pounds that my ex husband and I paid to IF in charges. Will try to be brief but please bear with me. My ex and I have a joint a/c with IF which has remained open (although unused) as it is linked to a mortgage with them which for numerous reasons has had to remain in joint names, we also each had an IF credit card. My CC is now being repaid (slowly) by means of a DMP (CC debt was passed to Blair, OLiver or whoever) but I have no idea how or if my ex is dealing with his CC debt!
If I were to go ahead and reclaim charges from them would it impact in anyway on the mortgage? (there is some arrears on the mortgage which I am paying off monthly and any reclaimed charges would more than cover the arrears anyway).
Would they be likely to get funny about the DMP arrangement on the credit card debt?
As it is a joint bank a/c would any application for reclaiming charges have to be done in joint names or would just my signature on any letters suffice?
Any and all help gratefully appreciated cos as I said at the outset I am sure they owe us an absolute fortune in charges.
Thanks.

If anyone could give any advice on the above I would be very grateful.
Thanks.

nikez2k4

Hi Guys,

My first post on here, i'm quite excited! I'm a little bit of an MSE virgin so appologies if I offend anyone with my ramblings

Anyways... Firstly a question - As Intelligent Finance's address is based in Scotland, are there any rules or regulations I should be careful of when claiming back? Or are they based on where you live rather than where the account is located?

I just thought I would regail you all with my story of how my reclaiming is going. Maybe my experiences might help someone or perhaps I can offer some advice if people are stuck with IF

So here is the story so far:

Tuesday April 24 2007
I was listening to Martin on Radio 1 and decided to do a little investigating on my bank charges. IF only give you a limited view of your past financial transactions so I decided to find this "letter template" he kept banging on about.

I found the page he was talking about and read through the guide for "Step 1". I prompty printed out the customised letter and attached a cheque for £10 - great another charge(!). Then nothing happened for a long time....


RESOURCES
Reclaiming Bank Charges Step 1
Letter Template



Thursday May 10 2007
I recieved a letter from IF informing me of the past charges (£1254 in total!) and...to my amazement they also included my £10 cheque and informed me that there was no charge for the service "on this occasion". So thats another £10 that I didn't have to pay them. The phrase "on this occasion" seems to me like they can possibly charge at their discression so don't take this to mean you won't get charged

I have just written another letter back to them asking for the charges and interest to be paid back to me within 14 days. We shall see what happens I guess - fingers crossed for an easy ride but I don't think it will be that easy somehow! I decided to ask for interest on top as it works out about £140 extra - if they don't feel like paying that then it's no big loss....worth a try though!


RESOURCES
Reclaiming Bank Charges Step 2
Letter Template (Claiming With Interest)
Letter Template (Claiming Without Interest)



I will update this thread as time goes on, but please - if you would like to contribute and relay your story about reclaiming from IF I would be very interested

Just FYI. The address I used to write to IF was:

Intelligent Finance
PO BOX 1717
Livingston
EH54 7AZ

Take care everyone

Edinburghlass_2

silou wrote: »

If anyone could give any advice on the above I would be very grateful.
Thanks.

Two threads you need to have a read of, this one regarding ex-partners

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=310783

and this one regarding DMP/IVA

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=423917

Edinburghlass_2

nikez2k4 wrote: »

Anyways... Firstly a question - As Intelligent Finance's address is based in Scotland, are there any rules or regulations I should be careful of when claiming back? Or are they based on where you live rather than where the account is located?

You'll find two address for IF in the address posts in the Reclaim Help Thread which is linked in my signature, one is in Scotland and one in England. If you are claiming via MCOL you need to use the address in England.

another

ok so i go to the stage where i calculated the charges and interest and sent that letter off on the forth of may now ten days later i have received a standard letter to basically say they are sorry i was not satisfied with their service and they are looking into it.?? with no date to tell me when they will get back to me they just say they will keep me informed. And enclosed a copy of a complaints leaflet.???
please someone help me as to what step to take next.!!:money:

maniac886

Send the second letter and wait 14 days, if they do not refund or they ignore you then file a claim. Always stick to your own timetable.

another

so your saying i should send them the second letter again (the one asking for the amount plus interest)?? is this correct.

maniac886 wrote: »

Send the second letter and wait 14 days, if they do not refund or they ignore you then file a claim. Always stick to your own timetable.

rs82uk

Hi All,

I claimed £1,400 from IF they got back to me today to offer £700 Im not sure whether to take the offer or to keep pushing, there is a phone number on the letter and it says to call if I wish to discuss, should I try calling them and try to negotiate?

Thanks in advance

Edinburghlass_2

Not many responses I'm afraid as to what IF may or may not do, you can only try its worth a phone call.

rs82uk

yeah it seems alot of other banks are generally offering 75% which for me would be 1000 which I would be happy with.