Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges Discussion Area

shelley1303

hi im dealing with first direct now could you help me i just want to know if they paid youre interest as well as charges

mothergolf

I only tried to claim a very small amount of money (£30) bank charges from Abbey National and have just received a rejection letter.

Has anyone rbeen successful in receiving a refund from Abbey?

Do you think it worth my while replying to the rejection letter as it would cost me more to try and take them to the small claims court, especially if I am unsuccessful.

I am also waiting on reply regarding a refund for Mortgage charges I incurred when I changed my mortgage a few years ago.

Edinburghlass wrote: »

Welcome to anyone coming to this brand new board after reading Martin's updated article on the Main Site

To any users who haven't had an answer to their question on the old discussion thread please feel free to place it here and hopefully someone will have an answer for you.

If you want to ask a question about a specific bank please check the boards to see if you can find a dedicated thread to your bank and pop your question on there.

Don't forget to put your Success story on this thread when you complete your claim and good luck.

Twinkly

mothergolf wrote: »

I only tried to claim a very small amount of money (£30) bank charges from Abbey National and have just received a rejection letter.

Has anyone rbeen successful in receiving a refund from Abbey?

Do you think it worth my while replying to the rejection letter as it would cost me more to try and take them to the small claims court, especially if I am unsuccessful.

I am also waiting on reply regarding a refund for Mortgage charges I incurred when I changed my mortgage a few years ago.

I think it is worth writing and outlining that you are reclaiming this charge under the Unfair Terms In Consumer Contract regulations that state that a charge must not exceed their actual loss and that you are prepared to go to court. Abbey are pretty hard nosed to deal with and they probably think that you will just go away. To claim £30 it will cost you £30 if you are eligible to pay the court fee. If you are on benefits or a low income you can claim exemption, if you scroll to the bottom of the page there are more details on exemption here:
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/fees/county.htm

Please bear in mind any fees you do have to pay are awarded on successful judgement to you by the court and it is the banks responsibility to pay them to you along with interest due on the charge.

As regards Abbey refunding I researched the success thread on this bank when it was at 98 (ish) pages and found the following stats which might encourage you:

Abbey National - 18 cases of which:

11 settled in full plus costs and interest after claim filed at court
5 settled in full before any court action neccessary
2 claimants went to the Financial Ombudsman and the banks paid in full for one and more than the amount claimed for the other but no reason for this is given in the post
1 case the claimant claimed £5,000 he had estimated as owing. The bank settled at £4,500. On receiving his details and checking he was only actually owed £1,000. There is no mention of them getting the overpayment back

You may wish to take it instead to the Financial Ombudsman and this service is free. Good luck whatever you decide to do

Twinkly

shelley1303 wrote: »

hi im dealing with first direct now could you help me i just want to know if they paid youre interest as well as charges

You cant claim interest before court stage as it is awarded by the court but yes there are cases in the success thread of interest paid before this stage. Its a case of whether you ask for it beforehand and they give it to you really but you arent really entitled to it until court.

Twinkly

bobferg wrote: »

Yet another opportunity for banks & credit cards to turn the screw. CCA 2006 states that from April 2008 lenders must not charge interest on charges (late payment fees, overdraft charges, etc) until a few weeks after the charges have been added to your balance. In the latest version of the act this does not have to be in place until October 2008, so .... the banks, etc can continue to charge interest on "fees" until October 2008. In the case of a certain financial institution ( to remain nameless) this represents an "income" in excess of £100,000 and changes to IT systems are being delayed to avoid losing this income.
Will we be able to claim back interest charged during this period ?

In a word - yes

Twinkly

jetcat wrote: »

hi, can anyone advise me? i have a capital one credit card - limit £200, which due to having a baby just before xmas and previous ill health, i let slide and balance is now £450 as a result of charges. however, i had to pay a £200 deposit when i opened the card, surely they should have used that instead of slapping more and more charges on? as i am in the process of claiming back from nationwide, is there anything i can do about these charges? have ntoiced that the charges are at the lower amount of £12, so not sure if it is possible to claim anything! just recently paid off £80 of card, thinking that it would go someway to clear the overlimit amount, but am shocked when i received a letter this morning stating what balance is.

You can reclaim all your charges and the £12 is the recommended level as decided by the OFT last year. It still doesnt reflect their true costs and we wont know what they are unless disclosed in court. For now you can reclaim them in court so I advise to do so. Ask for full details of charges applied to the account since you got the card if it less than the usual 6 years. Capital One tend to be a dishonest about disclosing them, I got a letter with an obviously incomplete list of charges and have demanded full details, copy statements if necessary at no extra charge.

They dont charge for the details but make sure you make your request as a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act and they have 40 days to respond in full to this kind of request. Good luck

Twinkly

Chrispy wrote: »

Madelaine from Halifax Credit Cards has just 'informed' me that I have to write a cheque for £5 for my first 5 statements and then 5 pounds for each additional statement up to a maximum of £100.

I of course am aware that the legal charge is £10 but I was wondering what to do about it? I hope people arent coughing up £100.

Yikes. Talk about trying it on, at least you are aware they are doing so. Write and advise you are making a Subject Access request under the Data Protection Act for your details, the maximum charge for this is £10, you will not pay more and you expect your request to be processed fully within 40 days. Its all in the wording basically. If you mentioned statements at all at any time they will have got horribly confused and greedy.

sharneymay

hi

new to this site,

i have just put a claim in the court against the halifax, for charges of £3894. inc interest, they have said they will defend claim, they have 10days left to do so,

let you know what happens!

podium_danca

hi i need some advice from someone. ive been abit blonde in trying to reclaim my charges. Firstly i have sent the 2 template letters to my bank asking for my money with interest, and have just realised i have sent them to natwest but with the wrong address. So can i start the whole processs again, or is it ok with this minor error to precede to the taking to court bit. Also my mate said you have to write to Head office natwest and that your branch cant deal with it?so does this mean everything is invalid. thirdly i have just incurred another charge, so if i write it all again can i add this on. will my claim not work if i have to write to them again???i cant believe i got the wrong address im sooo stupid, but google brought up the wrong one

Teacher2301

Mugsymuckers wrote: »

Could anybody else that's had experience with TSB let me know how long i can expect to wait before the cheque lands at my door?

hi there - I haven't claimed against lloyds but am an unhappy customer - my request for for a £30 charge and a £35 charge - took an hour on the phone but got the money back. Persistance is the key and remember what Martin says - the charges are disproportionate. How can banks justify £35 for a standard form (they even refer to them as the EM903 - just look on the standard letter telling their (respected! - Ha) customers they will be charged). i await the day the banks do go to court and prove it costs £35 to print off a standard letter and send it. Good luck with your claim - sorry if this doesn't anser your question - just a bit of moral support.