Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges Discussion Area

Twinkly

welly72 wrote: »

Hi All,
This Is My First Post Hope Its In The Right Place.just Phone Halifax About My Bank Statements He Said It Will Be Upto 2 Weeks For Them To Come. He Also Said Not To Calc Interest On As They Will Not Pay This. Is This True

Its a half truth. :rolleyes:

If the bank offer you the full refund of charges without interest you must accept it. You cant claim interest until you file claim at court as it is awarded by the court when judgement is found in your favour. You can ask for it and some banks do pay it before court but by no means all or with any consistency. I would ask anyway and it wont necessarily be the guy you spoke to today that actually deals with your claim. Either way dont settle for less than full refund and good luck

erimus1

amarshak wrote: »

Hi

I know that you can reclaim bank charges does it also apply to credit card charge, e.g taking out advance cash from credit cards and they charge a fee for the privalage which i think it is it is too much. Can anyone please confirm this if the tamplate letter can be sent to Bank credit card companies aswell. I hope to hear from you thanks in advance.

Hi - It covers any contract that is governed by the Consumer Credit Act which, in answer to your question is - yes, CC are covered. Not many people know but there are a few other contracts whereby a finance company have charged unlawful punitive charges that can be reclaimed.

Twinkly

erimus1 wrote: »

Just a few points that I would like to mention that I hope can assist anyone with their prospective claims.

1) Please note that claims are statute barred under the limitations Act after a six year period. However, this does not preclude you from asking for the return of charges prior to this. The fact is, this limitation would only arise if it came to court - and that's just not going to happen.

Anyway, I hope that these points have been some help. If you have anything to add or think I should amend then please let me know.

Good luck in your claims - remember it is only a matter of time before they pay up 'your' money.

Thanks
Steve

Just the one for some slight amendment please Steve

Amendment to the above quoted to read that it is defendable in court if neccessary and indeed, prior to court action. There are reported cases of claims being paid back prior to the 6 years limitation and it only requires some knowledge of the Limitations Act to claim this far back.

Section 5 of the Statue Of Limitations Act states that the action (claim) must be brought within 6 years of the cause of action (charge). This is what they would rely on in court.

You can counteract this statement using this section of the same act (c) which states:

Section 32
(1) .... where in the case of any action for which a period of limitation is prescribed by this Act, either-
(a) the action is based upon the fraud of the defendant; or
(b) any fact relevant to the plaintiff's right of action has been deliberately concealed from him by the defendant; or
(c) the action is for relief from the consequences of a mistake;
the period of limitation shall not begin to run until the plaintiff has discovered the fraud, concealment or mistake (as the case may be) or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it.

Its a bit strong to accuse the bank of fraud unless you are particularly militant in manner and may be better to imply it made a 'mistake'.

You dont have to amend your advice to my suggestion exactly but there is further information available for those that wish to explore the option and you may wish to mention that instead.

lostlollyinnotts

---

Hi,

When I get paid on the 24th I intend to register a claim on MCOL against HSBC. I've had no posted reply from them to any letter I have sent, just some email confirmations to emails sent through their website that the matter was being investigated.

My Question is this. When I sent the original request for my charges to be refunded on 15th March , some charges I requested they pay back were from March 2001. Now I will be registering a claim in April, can I still claim for these charges (about £90) as, in my original request and 1st letter they were within the 6 years? I don't want to lose out putting them in, unless it causes a problem.

Any advice greatly appreciated. (Also what about the student loans company? £20 charges for issuing arrears letters?)

erimus1

purplenicky wrote: »

I was wondering if any one can help, last month I reclaimed my bank charges from Barclays with little problems. I have recently sent a letter to Lloyds along with list of charges, it totaled about £850.

I have just recieved a reply in it it states "The Office Of Fair Trading has published new guidelines on crdeit card default charges. We're still talking it through with them, but the important point is that the guidelines are about 'default' charges that people pay when they break an agreement with us. This doesn't apply to your charges as these were for dealing with your request to go over your agreed overdraft limit. They are not default charges because you haven't broken your agreement. They are our prices for the service we provide in these situations.'

So basically they are not gonna pay!!! The thing I dont understand is that the times I got charged were when I went over my overdraft, I didnt ask for permission prior to going over!!!

Can anyone shed any light on this???

Thanks Nicky

Hi - I think I know what they are getting at but without more information I couldn't be sure. You are basically claiming for 'unlawfully' applied charges that are punitive in their nature, whereas legislation requires that they are only allowed to recover their 'reasonable' costs.

Sounds like they are saying that the charges that have been applied to your account are service charges rather than punitive charges for defaulting on your contract. If this is true then they would be right. Can't see how they would be able to justify large fees for these services though.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Steve

erimus1

forest1975 wrote: »

Ive been a Lloyds tsb customer for 18 years But 3 weeks ago i bit the bullet and started to reclaim charges back.
Ive had no news from them yet even though they have 40 days to comply.
But to my surprise this morning i got a letter charging me another 30 pounds because i was 8 pence overdrawn?
I phoned very politly to see if they would consider waiveing the charges but they had no compassion whatso ever.
So this afternoon i went to my local branch paid the charges and closed my account with them.
Luckaly i opened a new bank account a few weeks ago.
I am so angry at tsb ive been a loyal customer of theres for 18 years but to them it buisness?
Can someone plse tell me if by closeing my account with them will this make any diffence to my claim.
Thank you in advance
1 frustrated ex customer

Not at all - you still have a valid complaint as they still owe you money.

Good luck.

Regards
Steve

erimus1

susan1961 wrote: »

Hi this is my very 1st post, i am trying very hard to claim my bank charges back from yorkshire bank, sent off my £10 and 1st template letter, 41 days later YB are saying due to the large request for statements from other customers, they will try and have them sent to me in the next 40 days, are they allowed to do this ,bearing in mind i have just gone onto monthly pay and told them this 6 weeks ago, i am £21 over my overdraft limit, and they are charing me £35.00 a day which by the time i get paid will be a total of £675, i really can not stand much more, and feel that i am not going to get anywhere, has anyone else had this from YB,:mad:

Hi - No, they are breaking the law and this is a criminal offence, which is quite difficult to enforce on a corporate level. This is police by the Information Commissioner - you could tell them that you want the information by return or you will be making a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner.

Good luck.

Regards
Steve

erimus1

Whitey0372 wrote: »

Anyone know how I go about geting bank account details that have been shut down?

i am thinking of taking Virgin and Midland to the cleaners but dont know the account details!!

You can find old and dormant account information here -

http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=144&a=552

You fill in any info that you can and then they do all the leg work for yu - I found an account from about ten years back.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Steve

erimus1

Twinkly wrote: »

This article has info on it you may find useful. It states complaints are being dealt with on a daily basis but it is not precise about what they actually do:
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2323398.ece

I assume they contact the bank and tell them to hurry up - or else !

The Information Commissioner has the power to enforce finance institutions to provide the required information, and if they do not in a timely fashion then they are able to award compensation also.

Regards

Steve

erimus1

Twinkly wrote: »

Just the one for some slight amendment please Steve

Amendment to the above quoted to read that it is defendable in court if neccessary and indeed, prior to court action. There are reported cases of claims being paid back prior to the 6 years limitation and it only requires some knowledge of the Limitations Act to claim this far back.

Section 5 of the Statue Of Limitations Act states that the action (claim) must be brought within 6 years of the cause of action (charge). This is what they would rely on in court.

You can counteract this statement using this section of the same act (c) which states:

Section 32
(1) .... where in the case of any action for which a period of limitation is prescribed by this Act, either-
(a) the action is based upon the fraud of the defendant; or
(b) any fact relevant to the plaintiff's right of action has been deliberately concealed from him by the defendant; or
(c) the action is for relief from the consequences of a mistake;
the period of limitation shall not begin to run until the plaintiff has discovered the fraud, concealment or mistake (as the case may be) or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it.

Its a bit strong to accuse the bank of fraud unless you are particularly militant in manner and may be better to imply it made a 'mistake'.

You dont have to amend your advice to my suggestion exactly but there is further information available for those that wish to explore the option and you may wish to mention that instead.

Thanks Twinkly.

What I meant in point 1 was that the limitation act only apples in 'black letter' law within a court structure. The fact is that all these claims are being settled prior to any of these legal points being issued. The point that you mention in relation to s32 is pertaining specifically to 'notice' as a legal definition. The charge date as being the cause, as you say is irrelevant, the only relevant date being the date of notice, which in court could arguably be they date in which you receive copies.

You will also note that there are many other ways within the Limitation Act for circumventing the time constraints, but on the whole, all will be from date of notice of cause rather than from the date of cause. As a slight aside and for information only in respect of another topical issue. The limitation for claiming for PI under negligence is 3 years, but this would not preclude a claimant from claiming damages for the same incident as an unlwful battery, which also has a limitation period of 6 years.

Thanks again.

Regards

Steve