Abbey (merged)

lillywhizz

Hi all. Just found this forum. We have started the process of claiming back nearly £4,500 in bank charges from Abbey. We sent the initial letter on 14th Feb, then yesterday out of the blue they deposited £655 into our account as a 'gesture of goodwill' without even notifying us or giving us the opportunity of accepting or refusing their offer. Today we received a letter saying they were giving us £805??? I rang and told them we weren't accepting it and was told that it couldn't be taken out as it was a gesture of goodwill on their part. We have transferred this money to another account so as not to use it, that way they can't accuse us of accepting it by spending it. So now we have told them that we're continuing with the process and have sent the second letter giving them 14 days to refund the remainder of the money or it's off to court we go!

Has anyone else had this happen? Funds deposited without consent? Can they do this?

Lillywhizz

PaulW922

lillywhizz wrote: »

Hi all. Just found this forum. We have started the process of claiming back nearly £4,500 in bank charges from Abbey. We sent the initial letter on 14th Feb, then yesterday out of the blue they deposited £655 into our account as a 'gesture of goodwill' without even notifying us or giving us the opportunity of accepting or refusing their offer. Today we received a letter saying they were giving us £805??? I rang and told them we weren't accepting it and was told that it couldn't be taken out as it was a gesture of goodwill on their part. We have transferred this money to another account so as not to use it, that way they can't accuse us of accepting it by spending it. So now we have told them that we're continuing with the process and have sent the second letter giving them 14 days to refund the remainder of the money or it's off to court we go!

Has anyone else had this happen? Funds deposited without consent? Can they do this?

Lillywhizz

Hi Lillywhizz

they certainly can do that - it's a clever move too but as long as you write to say that you will only accept it as part payment and not settlement you are ok. It is if you do nothing for weeks, spend it and then ask for the rest - that might be tricky. I presume you have transferred it to a separate account with the Abbey? It might be worthwhile doing that and telling them where the money now is.

ct5845

On 1st Feb a Direct Debit which i thought was over, (tv liscence) took me overdrawn by £9, i was only informed of this on the 8th March. I Straight away went to the bank to find out they charged me £50 for this infraction in 2 sums of (£20 and £30) to be charged to my account on 22nd March. However this worsened as i found out the same DD took another c.£11 out of my account, pushing my balance to around -£20. This gave me a charge of £55 (£20 and £35), which im guessing will be charged in April sometime. So that's going to be £105 in all. Been charged before but at that time i had the money to deal with it, now i could barely afford to bring that balance back into the green which i have now done.

I have another claim of £85 from August that i could at to this tally. Anyway would i be able to file a letter citing these charges, and asking for them to be dropped/refunded depending on the time that they get back to me in, or do i have to wait untill the charges are taken? If so could i go to the bank and ask to pay the charges right now, then perhaps ask for a statement, for the current month, and august, and use these rather then having to ask via a letter?

Any help/advice would be much appreiciated

[EDIT: Also i only live like 2 doors from the bank, could i just go hand them the letter, save any time + postage costs)

Lady_E

Really silly question ......


When adding up days to wait for Abbey to reply do you include weekends ???

alanarrow

ronanpc wrote: »

Hi There , I have just had a reponse to my first letter to Abbey National.They have said that they can only send me the last fourteen months of transactions.They are unable to send me information from 2001 - 2005 because this has been archived onto microfiche and is not available on their computer system.I know there are many charges on my account and I do not have this information myself.Is this a ploy ? Surely they must have some way of supplying this information.Any advice or help wuld be great. Many Thanks Ro.

If they say they cannot give you your statements because they are filed on microfiche then they are very much fibbing. Most of mine were on microfiche and they sent them to me within the allocated time frame. I suspect that they are really browned off with the large number of people trying to reclaimed their money back that they in reality cannot be bothered looikng for your statements on microfiche. So don't accept their reply

good luck

treasureirealnds

I have been reading thru the success stories. I haven't noticed anything from Abbey.

Are they really not paying up?

I'm trying to get around £500 back. they are really dragging their heels!

lw02vah

I need some advice if at all possible. I sent a letter to Abbey in the beginning of Jan 2007 setting out the various charges they made to my account since I opened it about 20 months ago, which came to around £550. I received the usual 'wait 4 weeks while we look into it' letter and was then informed that while they were sure they were right in making the charges, they would refund £400 as a 'goodwill' gesture. However when I checked my account I noticed this £400 had been refunded the same say the a further £250 bank charges were deducted, thus meaning I was only refunded £150 out of £750 bank charges. I wrote saying this was an unacceptable bribe, and I wanted the matter looked into further, and have since received a further 'wait 4 weeks' letter, and, today I received a letter saying it would take them longer to look into it still and they would get back to me once they had completed the investigation. They have given me no indication of when this will be, however have suggested I contact the financial ombudsman if I am unhappy. I am worried they are trying to stall time before bank charges are discussed in a few weeks and my instinct is to begin a claim in court. However I do not know whether this is too impulsive. This matter has been going on for 12 weeks, should I contact the ombudsman, write a further letter, now stating I want interest to be added to the amount I am reclaiming, or just begin a court action? Please help someone!

Twinkly

treasureirealnds wrote: »

I have been reading thru the success stories. I haven't noticed anything from Abbey.

Are they really not paying up?

I'm trying to get around £500 back. they are really dragging their heels!

I searched the success threads thoroughly when it was up to 50 pages (a few days ago) for all 4 institutions I intend to claim from. There were 11 Abbey cases up to then.

Of the 11:

8 were paid in full before court stage with one paid after the first letter and one after only a phonecall.

2 were paid in full and for slightly more than the claimed amount due to Abbey error.

1 astounding claim was estimated and issued for £5,000. Abbey settled at court stage before judgement for £4,500. On checking statements the claimant was only actually entitled to claim £1,000. (no information as to whether they reclaimed this)

It would seem Abbey are as variable as other banks but do pay.

lillywhizz

PaulW922 wrote: »

Hi Lillywhizz

they certainly can do that - it's a clever move too but as long as you write to say that you will only accept it as part payment and not settlement you are ok. It is if you do nothing for weeks, spend it and then ask for the rest - that might be tricky. I presume you have transferred it to a separate account with the Abbey? It might be worthwhile doing that and telling them where the money now is.

Thanks for your reply. After a 40 minute wait on hold to be put through to the complaints dept, I did in fact inform them that I would transfer the money to another account, yes it is another Abbey account, and did tell them that we would only consider it as part payment towards the full sum being claimed. Also, the letter arrived from them saying they were crediting £805, when in fact they only credited £655!! :mad: We have now sent the 2nd letter giving them 14 days to pay up or we're going to start court proceedings. Will keep you posted of what comes back this time.:eek:

Lillywhizz

Watski

I got my 6 years worth of charges back around the New Year after requesting them. They were actually quite helpful with me, even ringing to check I had them. Although this is the Cahoot part of Abbey.

I sent a letter with the charges spreadsheet on the 31st January, the amount with interest was around £3,000.

I received a letter from Abbey dated 14th Feb saying that they were investigating and it would take around 4 weeks. I received another today dated 6th Match saying that it was taking longer than anticipated and needed another 4 weeks.

I thought they were delaying anyway.

So I sent another letter today telling them that at least 10 weeks from the initial complaint isn't good enough and if the complaint wasn't resolved to my saisfaction within 7 days then I'd be filing details through the courts.

I'm guessing that I'm just adding to their delaying tactics now and should have just filed through MCOL. This shouldn't affect anything though should it? When they dont reply or reply in the negative then I'm guessing that I should just take up the process where I left off and file through the courts.

Thanks
Watski