Reclaiming charges from closed bank a/cs & credit cards? (Long one)

hannahkrystyna

Hi

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find it!

I am over 20K in debt. I recently had 3 bounced direct debits on my Nationwide current account, costing me £90. I waited until the statement arrived today and am now writing to claim back the last 6 years of fees (am I sad for still having 6 years of statements to hand?!). - I am astounded it is over £500 (just about to write the letter and calculate properly now including the interest!). I am well aware they may try to close my account for asking and I say bring it on. I will keep my money under the bed if I need to!!!

Now the thing is...I had several credit cards and a bank account which are now closed and being paid off. I owe HSBC around £1200 for the current account (which was at the overdraft limit when it was closed!) and about 5K on the credit card from memory - am paying £1 a month until 2052 on both! I know I have been charged fees in the past (fairly regularly on the current account as I frequently had unauthorised overdrafts and bounced direct debits etc) but I have to be honest I haven't yet worked out how much.

Should I / can I challenge them for a refund of charges (for accounts which are now closed) and if so is it a good idea to ask them to write off the debt, or do this further down the line? I suppose I am thinking if I ask for charges back it may be beneficial for them to write off the debt rather than send me a cheque which I would then lay against the debt! Any advice welcome!

Thanks!

Twinkly

hannahkrystyna wrote: »

Hi

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find it!

I am over 20K in debt. I recently had 3 bounced direct debits on my Nationwide current account, costing me £90. I waited until the statement arrived today and am now writing to claim back the last 6 years of fees (am I sad for still having 6 years of statements to hand?!). - I am astounded it is over £500 (just about to write the letter and calculate properly now including the interest!). I am well aware they may try to close my account for asking and I say bring it on. I will keep my money under the bed if I need to!!!

Now the thing is...I had several credit cards and a bank account which are now closed and being paid off. I owe HSBC around £1200 for the current account (which was at the overdraft limit when it was closed!) and about 5K on the credit card from memory - am paying £1 a month until 2052 on both! I know I have been charged fees in the past (fairly regularly on the current account as I frequently had unauthorised overdrafts and bounced direct debits etc) but I have to be honest I haven't yet worked out how much.

Should I / can I challenge them for a refund of charges (for accounts which are now closed) and if so is it a good idea to ask them to write off the debt, or do this further down the line? I suppose I am thinking if I ask for charges back it may be beneficial for them to write off the debt rather than send me a cheque which I would then lay against the debt! Any advice welcome!

Thanks!

Yes you can reclaim on closed accounts. They will take any refund against the debt anyway and this will reduce it immediately, benefitting you. I dont know about asking them to write off the debt entirely though and I would suppose it would depend on how much was left after reclaiming the charges. They may accept a low settlement figure if you can afford to do that though. Perhaps someone else can advise on this I have no experience or knowledge of getting debts written off entirely sorry. Good luck