Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges article discussion Part II

Nathan_Spleen

tynes1der wrote: »

An unauthorised overdraft is not 'borrowing' and is as good as taking money that does not belong to you, but belongs to other depositors. This could be regarded as theft.

That may be your view but it's not one that is shared by the banks themselves. In the test case the banks based their entire defence on the theory that any attempt to make a payment or withdrawl without sufficient funds constituted an informal request for an overdraft. Moreover you cannot go overdrawn without the bank allowing it and as such this cannot be regarded as 'theft' or 'taking money that dosen't belong to you' by even the most imaginative of minds.

crysta1010

I have a direct debit taken from our account today as well as my husbands wages going into our account.

It seems the direct debit was paid before my husbands wages went in (not sure how this happened though !!!!!) so we were overdrawn by £2.10 for a few minutes I guess. - CRAFTY OR WHAT !!!!!!!

I will obviously be charged an unauthorised overdraft charge at the end of the month because of this.:mad:

theozziend

I just want to share with you what HSBC have done to my daughter recently. She has banked with them for 8 years. Of late she has struggled, and as a result has incurred a fortune in charges. However, 3 weeks ago, they wrote to her on a Friday and informed her that they had cancelled her overdraft with immediate affect. She was really distraught. I recommended she open a new bank account immediately, which she did with Lloyds TSB. She did it in sufficient time to get her salary paid in. She does not have any overdraft facility with them. Immediately on her money going in she paid the direct debits by debit card as they had not yet been set up, leaving her the rest of the month clear with the balance. On Monday she went and got a balance and found she had zero funds! Lloyds had paid the full amount of her overdraft to HSBC (£685) as they said when she signed to have the s/os and d/ds transferred she gave them permission to close the account and they were obliged to pay the overdraft off. :mad: She was not aware that she had done this as her intention was to set up a standing order from Lloyds to HSBC for £x per month to pay off the overdraft on the account. Apparently they say they were within their rights to do this, but it has caused her terrible financial problems. I wonder if she would qualify for reclaiming against HSBC on the basis of financial hardship, which I gather, if proven, bypasses the "stay"?

Ross_Sheriff

Hello

After being charged for numerous years by HSBC for going over my agreed overdraft i was unable to keep my young family going on the mere £200 i was left with every month after the bank kept charging me £120 per month in charges. I also moved jobs for beter long term prospects, but this was lower initial pay. To cut a long story short i ended up having to enter into an IVA becausethe bank were un willing to assist me despite numerous cry's for help. They did help by putting extra charges onto my account.
My question if anyone can help is can i still reclaim my bank charges when i am still in an IVA.
Any replies will be of a great help.

Ross

Bunnyfeather

crysta1010 wrote: »

I claimed from Natwest last year and got £1900.00 back from them. They have since charged me another £500 plus since then even though I didn't use the account anymore. I sent another letter last year reclaiming this and they sent a usual reply of 'looking into this matter'. Then they signed up for the test case so my request is on hold.

So I would suggest you send in your letter requesting back charges.
Hope this helps.

What happened with this??? We reclaimed charges a while ago, but have ended up with more unfair charges since, HSBC make you sign to say you wont claim again when you claim the first time. But surely this cant be seen as reasonable practice, or stand up in reality because that would assume that they wouldnt make any unfair charges for you to claim for? Can anyone advise?

little_bear_3

I have to say a huge well done to Martin :T who has helped so many people who are in financial difficulty. Have told him many times before and those who genuinely struggle and do have genuine problems need all the help they can get.

However, I help people every day with working in a bank and have been nominated for various awards from my customers for all I have done for them and yes that includes getting charges back :A I listen to my customers, I treat them as individuals and I do all I can to help, educate and reassure them. What really bugs me though is the attitude of so many people who think it is their right to have these charges back :mad: .....o.k so before you all jump on me here please let me explain.

It is frustrating for many of you who feel that you just get "blah" from your bank but sadly we do have to stick to certain procedures etc but there are some staff like myself who will treat people as individuals and go the extra mile. The thing that concerns me is what is continuing to happen with all that has gone on in the press of late.

Martin, you are creating customers who think they have the right to get their money back in a way that they think is owed to them when they got thmeselves into debt in the first place I was brought up to understand the value of money and was taught to save for things etc.

Today people don't want to learn how to handle their money they don't want the repsonsibility. They get on the phone shout and swear and are so abusive I have seen colleagues break down in tears because of how they are treated by the public over charges etc. I too have ended the call when the abuse starts - it really is awful, there is no need for this.

I am not going to debate whether or not I think the amount of what is charged is right or wrong and I have my own personal views on that but what I have to stress is that it is all well and good getting money back but have some of these people actually learned anything? Some will have done and some sadly won't. I see it every day. I have helped so many people and am proud of what I have done and I even quote Martin's tips and this site on many, many occasions.

But what people need to realise that today there are so many people choosing to live beyond their means and until that habit changes they are never going to learn. I could not sleep at night if I couldn't pay my credit card bill off each month, nor could I sleep if I had a huge overdraft and when I got paid it sucked up my salary, basically working for nothing then.

Let's take responsibility for our own actions as well and if you get your money back or have got your money back already then don't get in this position again. The truth is though that each week I have helped people and some won't learn and end up back in debt and I can't understand why, really I can't.

Martin you have given so many people a voice who really did need it but you have just given those with the loudest voices already a bigger chip on their shoulder and they don't want to learn from their mistakes. We need to educate people too, understand finances, look at our spending habits and stop this culture of blame. If many of you had learned from your first mistake you may not be in the position you are now. Like I say there are some very genuine ones out there but there are lots of lazy ones too.

i should imagine those that have the loudest voices already will feel I have touched a few raw nerves and will probably be the first to come on here and shoult at me now, well fine I have probably had a converstion with you already and put the phone down when you got abusive But seriously let's stop for a minute and see what has been achieved, how we can now get something better out of this, Martin saves us so much money with his hints and tips so you shouldn't be getting into debt as much etc and let's change our habits and more importantly let's stop this attitude and become friendlier people who like to help each other and listen.

I know there is a brick wall type person in every bank but we are not all like that, we are people with feelings too who do our job, some granted better than others, let's not forget that and let's give them the chance to help and if they can't and they have to insist the processes are followed then go with it, don't stress, follow Martins advice and then sit back and look at what else you can do to stop this happening again, be more responsible for your own actions and learn from your mistakes.

Well done to those who have really had genuine problems and who have been treated appallingly by their bank and a huge pat on the back to you for challenging that and getting your finaces sorted and back on track and sticking with it :T For those that haven't - well you probably never will, you'll run up another overdraft if you move bank and will still have huge credit card balances etc and will just move on to shouting at someone else as you won't take responsibilty for your own actions - but really you have to stop and take responsibility. We all do, we're all adults and it's not as if the help isn't out there

little_bear_3

Bunnyfeather wrote: »

What happened with this??? We reclaimed charges a while ago, but have ended up with more unfair charges since, HSBC make you sign to say you wont claim again when you claim the first time. But surely this cant be seen as reasonable practice, or stand up in reality because that would assume that they wouldnt make any unfair charges for you to claim for? Can anyone advise?

Do not want to offend, but am very curious here.....Sorry to ask this but it is something I am trying to understand with working in the industry Why have you not learned from your mistakes and got into this situation again with charges??? Did you not learn anything? I am not being funny but it is something I have to deal with each day with customers shouting and giving abuse and I just can't understand that if you have been in trouble, got help to get out of it then why did you not change your financial habits. Martin offers plenty of help and advice???

little_bear_3

Ross_Sheriff wrote: »

Hello

After being charged for numerous years by HSBC for going over my agreed overdraft i was unable to keep my young family going on the mere £200 i was left with every month after the bank kept charging me £120 per month in charges. I also moved jobs for beter long term prospects, but this was lower initial pay. To cut a long story short i ended up having to enter into an IVA becausethe bank were un willing to assist me despite numerous cry's for help. They did help by putting extra charges onto my account.
My question if anyone can help is can i still reclaim my bank charges when i am still in an IVA.
Any replies will be of a great help.

Ross

Hi Ross, I know someone who did an IVA and still challenged to get their charges back and got loads back but I don't know if they had to tell the IVA people though or not but worth asking though and trying.

little_bear_3

crysta1010 wrote: »

I have a direct debit taken from our account today as well as my husbands wages going into our account.

It seems the direct debit was paid before my husbands wages went in (not sure how this happened though !!!!!) so we were overdrawn by £2.10 for a few minutes I guess. - CRAFTY OR WHAT !!!!!!!

I will obviously be charged an unauthorised overdraft charge at the end of the month because of this.:mad:

Ring your bank, be nice to them and explain the situation. With working in a bank I listen to all my customers as individuals and make a fair decision that way or refer things for investigation if needed. If this hasn't happened before things should go your way, o.k. They will check your account history etc and see if you've had refunds and stuff before but one bit of advice is that it is always worth having a small interst free overdraft on your account for emergencies like this so that if a d/d is asked for early or wages are late then you know you will be o.k

Steve_O_5

crysta1010 wrote: »

I have a direct debit taken from our account today as well as my husbands wages going into our account.

It seems the direct debit was paid before my husbands wages went in (not sure how this happened though !!!!!) so we were overdrawn by £2.10 for a few minutes I guess. - CRAFTY OR WHAT !!!!!!!

I will obviously be charged an unauthorised overdraft charge at the end of the month because of this.:mad:

I moved some direct debits by a few days so my wages were in first. The companies were more than happy to change the dates