Suggestions for honing the Reclaim bank charges article/reclaiming

TheOptimist_2

Louling06 wrote: »

Hi,
Can you tell me the web address and where I might find this spreadsheet?
Thanks
Louise

Louise - Penalty Charges. Run by a law student (from reading previous posts on these forums). The spreadsheet can be found in the Start The Ball Rolling article. I hope MSE doesn't mind too much about posting a link to another site :-)

A suggestion I'd also like to make would be a simple timetable with the major milestones of a claim on. Start with the initial letter asking for the statements then map out the timeline that should then take place. 40 days - receive your statements, send the claim in, 14 days after that etc etc...

I'm just going through the process now with one of my banks and due to my incredible lack of organisation (which is probably why I have charges to reclaim) I didn't send the letter for the statements recorded delivery. However I'm still on track to be claiming almost 4k (without interest) from one account with NatWest. It'd be great if I'd mapped out a timeline from the beginning, but putting one into the article would be good for folk who just need reminding every now and then.

10 points for the person who shows me where it is (as I bet it's out there somewhere) :-)

MSE_Martin

Hi folks

Just to say I've made quite a few of the tweaks above suggested (though since i last looked you've made more :rolleyes: ).

I'm planning another 'look through your suggestions' session next week (now we know whats happening with the OFT - so I know I don't need a full rewrite.

Martin

Twinkly

TheOptimist wrote: »

A suggestion I'd also like to make would be a simple timetable with the major milestones of a claim on. Start with the initial letter asking for the statements then map out the timeline that should then take place. 40 days - receive your statements, send the claim in, 14 days after that etc etc...

10 points for the person who shows me where it is (as I bet it's out there somewhere) :-)

I personally did actually do this for a friend and gave them a whole bundle of information collected as well to help them reclaim since they cant get online.

This is the info I gave my friend, hope it helps someone at some point:

This is how long it may take you.

40 days for the return of Data after initial request
14 days for the first letter reclaiming charges
14 days for letter before action and then you file your court claim
5 days for claim to be filed in court and then
14 days for the bank to acknowledge the claim and notify intention to defend
14 days thereafter to actually defend
indeterminate time thereafter for court hearing to be set dependant on how busy court is

This process in its entirety may take 101 days & court hearing date to be set but it may be less due to your agreement to a settlement offer in 54 days. This is dependant on the result of your first letter asking for refund.

If you do not need to request details and have full proof of charges as old statements then you may be able to settle after only 14 days from the first letter. Accordingly, with initial proof and court process entered the maximum time may be 54 days dependant on date of court hearing.

In conclusion:

Max Time: 101+ days (inc request for data)
Min Time: 14 days (excl request for data)

I have neglected to put this particular advice on the site and was going to do it if asked for. Can I have 5 points for already having the information at hand ?


Edited today as I've just seen this timetable reposted on a thread and would like to just sharpen it up a little for clarification of some finer points.

TheOptimist_2

Twinkly - duly awarded :-)

Great easy time slots to be seen as just what they are - a quick reminder!

Twinkly

It occurs to me that a stickied thread dedicated to losses as well as the one this site has for successes might be an idea to entertain, purely in the interests of balance.

It would be a great visual on the first page of the forum to anyone initially wondering if anyone has ever lost and it would probably get a lot of views. Cases already reported in the media such as the Citi case and the abuse of small claims court case that was thrown out (sorry I dont have the sources to hand at the moment) could be posted there first for information and the rest of the thread left open for anyone (if at all) to post in.

I think that a direct comparison, easily visible on the front page, between successes and failures (2012 versus 2 as of todays date and time) would be a fantastic encouragement to anyone worried about reclaiming.

caroline1973lefty

just got £1149 (full amount claimed, excluding statutory interest) from natwest, only took 3 weeks & 2 letters - not sure if they even had a chance to get my second letter before they agreed to pay up. Brilliant advice on these pages.

One post on here implied that banks were more nervous at the thought of bailiffs turning up at their branch, (worse PR somehow, certainly more likely to make the local press I suppose) than at their head office. I took this on board and addressed all my correspondence to my local branch.

I delivered my letters to my branch in person, because when i used to have to seek court orders for my job, we always delivered important letters personally, writing on them 'by hand'. No quibbles, that way.

I basically followed the templates on here, adding in statutory interest as a bargaining chip. After that, in the same letter, I also added a bit about feeling that the bank was exploiting my financial difficulties, which i strongly did feel. I think something along these lines was on an earlier template letter from the Scottish Legal Centre (?). For example, in my case my bank extended my overdraft hugely without asking me, encouraging me further into high interest rate debt, which I believe is something the FSA frowns upon. I also read on here that the banks were more likely to pay up promptly if they thought you were really !!!!ed off, so i ad libbed a bit about what else they'd done that really !!!!ed me off (profits, some of the most extreme charging examples, etc) - wasn't exactly difficult

MSE_Martin

Twinky - the thread is technically a 'report successes/failures' thread - just no failures have been reported (ive not heard of any either)

martin

Twinkly

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Twinky - the thread is technically a 'report successes/failures' thread - just no failures have been reported (ive not heard of any either)

martin

Aha ! I didnt know that. Someone sarcastically pointed out to me I would be hardly be likely to find failures in the success thread at one point when I had stated that there were no failures reported on this site in that thread. I thought a failure thread would be a good idea, if rather empty and a waste of space and bandwidth. :rotfl:

Thanks for that Martin I'll remember that and state it if/when necessary

PsychoApeMan

I'm sorry if this has already been said, but I'm lazy and my eyes hurt from staring at a monitor at work all day... Anyway, I had been putting off reclaiming charges primarily because I had the sneaking suspicion that the £10 fee you pay to receive the list of charges was going to be more than the charges themselves, as I haven't paid many.

I recently started working at a bank and was explicitly told that if customers come in to a branch and ask for the charges to be waived, they are. We apparently aren't keen to charge customers again when they're reclaiming previous charges

Not sure whether all banks will follow this policy, but mine *cough-HSBC-cough* certainly do. So save yourself another tenner if you ask nicely...

Apathyawakened

This has not been my experience. I am claiming at present and at the stage of them defending the court claim. They have since continued to charge me and done so on more than one occasion - when their charge took me over my overdraft limit. If anyone can suggest a better way to stop this happening again I am open to suggestions.