Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges Discussion Area

moneysaverconvert

Hi Guys
I am just about to send my first letter to claim my charges back from HSBC, can anyone advise if its better to ask for the interest as well in the first letter or wait? The interest is just over £50 in total. Just want to give myself the best chance of getting the charges back.

On another note my partner introduced me to this site a couple of weeks ago - it has been invaluable in seeing that mine is not a hopeless case, and really has given me hope that I can get rid of my debt! Thank you!!

M

INeedATissue

INeedATissue wrote:

is the letter on CAG for credit cards the initial letter you send? or am i looking at the wrong letter?

sorry to ask this again but i think my post got lost on the previous page

lewt

my bro phoned hsbc to ask for a list of charges yestersday the man on the end of the line asked him why he would ant to do that. whilst explaining the line went dead. funny that hey?

Rex_Mundi

moneysaverconvert wrote:

Hi Guys
I am just about to send my first letter to claim my charges back from HSBC, can anyone advise if its better to ask for the interest as well in the first letter or wait? The interest is just over £50 in total. Just want to give myself the best chance of getting the charges back.

You are not really entitled to claim any interest on your claim untill you issue any court claim. Martin suggests in his article that most claims seem to end up with a court claim, so you should claim the interest from the beginning.

Personally (I'm dealing with four different banks for four different people) I'm not adding any interest until the court stage on any of the claims.

If you do claim interest from the beginning, you have to be aware of one thing. Say you issue a claim for £600 charges + £50 interest. If the bank decides at an early stage to settle (before you get to the court stage), but will only offer you £600 (and not the interest). You must settle for this (this would be the amount you are entitled to claim for). If you turn it down, you would be in the wrong, and could damage any chances of winning in court. The bank could say they offered the full amount due, but the claimant (you) turned down the offer.

Clive67

Hi - Great site and forum!!

Does anyone know how I find out an account number for an old account I had with HSBC? The account is with a debt recovery company (it ended up there party due to so many charges)

Can I just write to my branch and ask for the account number or is there a better way to go about it?

Thanks

clarenic

Clive67 wrote:

Hi - Great site and forum!!

Does anyone know how I find out an account number for an old account I had with HSBC? The account is with a debt recovery company (it ended up there party due to so many charges)

Can I just write to my branch and ask for the account number or is there a better way to go about it?

Thanks

Hi

I telephoned them and they took me through the security, then gave me my account details. I'm not sure what you'd do if you can't remember your security number.

Clare

kimmie32_2

I have just gone through all my statements from Kays the catalogue company and i have been charged £128.93 in the past 7 months for something called account cover plus! I have never signed for this or agreed can i claim this money back?????

rbscustomer

Hi everyone,

It is so nice to have found this website after I did some searching online over problems I have had with RBS. Basically at the end of last month I had a Direct Debit come out my account for my mobile phone - which I had completely forgotten about. Having looked through my internet banking I have noticed that not only have I been charged £28 for being overdrawn... which is steep but a standard rate charge (after all it was my fault for being overdrawn) However I also noticed something else... £60 referral charge? Now I bank online and Im not good with post - I rarely open it but I needed this months statement for something and had a note about the £28 charge and date it was going to come out - no problem. However having done some research apparently the referral charge is because they paid that direct debit on my behalf? So to put this in black and white - I have been charged £88 for making one small mistake - and which is more than enough covered in the £28 fine? Has anyone got any thoughts on this?

I am absolutely livid as I know that I have not been the best at keeping track of things coming out my account despite my best efforts and having a mobile phone bill that is anything between £40 and £150 coming out 2 days before pay day doesnt help! However this is the last straw. Not so long ago I had an overdraft limit of £2600 which I ate into to the very last £ every month before getting some money through I was owed elsewhere. This originally occurred after I paid a cheque in for £45 which they cleared as £4500. The same thing had happened to a friend and 10 years down the line he still has the money - he said banks do make errors. I stupidly used some of the money. However after 2 weeks I just had to find out what it was all about so I went to the branch. Ironically it turned out to be a cheque from the same chap who gave me the advice and the bank had made the error. The money was immediately withdrawn from my account leaving me with overdfaft charges (before this point I was exceptional with my money - never overdrawn etc) this was the start of my problems and left me with this cloud of debt over me where I couldnt pay the charges. I became lax and started spending more than I was earning - and the amount of debt gradually rose. I am lucky now - that despite only being 23 I just had a £12k rise and at last I have cleared this issue. However I was at such a low point when this happened (debt and money worries really leaves me low) that I didnt complain about what they did.

I decided to look over all my charges since then - and the amount is astronomical what I have been charged - through my own carelessness of course (I wont argue that I havent been) and I noticed that I had payments coming out because after I turned 21 - despite apparently having letters regarding the Royalties account, the bank had "decided that the best account for me was the monthly fee paying account" no - not the interest only account that is free. I contested this angrily saying that I online bank for a reason - ie I dont read the realms of junk that come through - and barring bank statements - I throw everything else with the RBS logo straight in the bin. Eventually after a lot of fury on my behalf at why they should decide to do this (the reason for which was my previous account was for under 21's only) they refunded.

However - this latest incident is the last straw - so I have opened an account all internet only with excellent charge rates as well as high interest too - and now I have an appointment later this week with RBS where I will no doubt shut my account of 6 years.

Any ideas on any of the above - I dont really want to take legal action as it is another stress and not really how I like to be - but I would like them to accept they are greedy, accept they were the ones who exacerbated my original problem with no help despite it being caused by them and have a refund back for certainly some of the charges - ie the £88 recent charge and the charges after originally going overdrawn.

Oh, and one other thing - during the period of being in £2600 in the red I got calls advising to take a loan to pay it back as the bank wanted to help me. (ah - some good service at last maybe? ... we will see) I declined as I was waiting for a cheque for just over £3000. I thought maybe they do actually want to see customers reducing debt (something they continually told me over the phone) however when my proud day came when I was able to call and reduce my £2600 overdraft down to £100 (for just in case purposes) the lady tried her utmost to persuade me that the current overdraft was costing nothing to have there and I may as well keep it. I insisted I wanted it reduced and eventually after I became angry at her persistance she reduced it - I find this behaviour appalling from such a large bank who clearly dont give a toss about their clients and who know that I had an issue with my money. I feel very lucky that I have managed to get out of this situation but I know there are plenty of people in financial difficulty who must be under a lot of strain because of these outrageous acts.

Please help!!

(sorry for such a long post - had to get it all out though, and see what advice you great guys have - and also what a superb website - in every aspect of monetary concerns!

James

magnolia65

Hi could someone let me know what LBA and MCOL mean?

Thanks

clarenic

... it's Letter Before Action and Money Claim On-Line.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong!

Clare

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