Scared of reclaiming - should we be? Really worried...

AFCChris

My wife and I are planning to start the process of reclaiming charges on both our Halifax bank accounts, and also cards with Egg, Halifax, Sainsburys Bank and GE Capital. I was just getting the letters ready last night to send off and get the details on the charges when we spoke about it all and suddenly we realised we are quite scared about doing this.

My wife started saying a lot of "what ifs", ie. what if they take away our overdraft, what if they close our bank accounts, what if they cancel our cards, what if they put any defaults on our credit records?

I have been through loads of posts on here and heard about things like the above happening. I wonder whether all the stuff that's written about reclaiming bank charges on here and especially lately in the media concentrate more on the good things (ie. people getting their money back) rather than the downsides of the process.

I predict we have charges running into the thousands which we should be able to get back but I don't want to have a situation where we lose loads of things and get any defaults. We have an Intelligent Finance bank account which could act as a parachute account but as IF is run by Halifax I wonder if they would close that as well.

I would be appreciative if someone can give us some encouragement about all these things we are worried about, and leave me in no doubt that I should go off and post all these letters I have in my bag to start the process. I suppose getting the info on the charges isn't going to do any harm anyway

Regards

Chris

nickmack

AFCChris wrote:

I would be appreciative if someone can give us some encouragement about all these things we are worried about, and leave me in no doubt that I should go off and post all these letters I have in my bag to start the process. I suppose getting the info on the charges isn't going to do any harm anyway.

It can't be guaranteed that any bank will not close your account. As you have a parachute, you have some contingency in place. The fact it's with the same institution shouldn't matter, as it's a seperate agreement.

Other financial products like loans and mortgages similarly shouldn't be touched by the bank as they're covered under seperate agreements. As long as you're up to date with payments, they should be fine.

feedering

If your bank closes your account you can complain to the FO.

nickmack

feedering wrote:

If your bank closes your account you can complain to the FO.

But remember, you must exhaust your banks complaints procedure first, or the Financial Ombudsman won't entertain you.

bigmama59

Myself and two of my sons have reclaimed charges on Halifax accounts and they haven't closed the accounts. They just sent a letter after refunding the charges saying any future charges will stand.

nickmack

bigmama59 wrote:

Myself and two of my sons have reclaimed charges on Halifax accounts and they haven't closed the accounts. They just sent a letter after refunding the charges saying any future charges will stand.

Hopefully there won't be any more, but unless you've actually signed anything, they can say what they like, it won't prevent you from claiming, although of course they may close your account.

bigmama59

I think that was probably what they meant really