Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges article discussion Part II

spikeykatt

Hi, could someone help please? We have started a legal challenge (through Action for Consumers) regarding charges by HBOS, for around £9,500. They have charged us for the last 10 years and we have only managed to get £175 back. Last year I finally managed to break the charges cycle. However, I gave birth in May '08 and both the baby and I were serioulsy ill. My husband paid for some fruit and didn't realise there wasn't money until the next day. For that, we were charged in 1 month, £965. This had a huge impact and we couldn't pay our bills. We told the bank about the baby situation, we begged them to stop the charges, they only said we should stop paying our bills. The next month, they took over £1000 in charges (which included child benefit maternity pay and some of my husband's wage.)and left us with no money for food. I managed to get another account (where we had not been over once!) so the charges finally stopped. Recently however, my husband paid for shopping with his HBOS card by mistake, and they have charged us £63. I have shown them we cannot pay these charges , they say becuase of the legal challenge, it doesn't matter. Also, the cashier informed us beacuse of the new judgement which has found the Lloyds TSB and HBOS were right in their charges, we are unlikley to get any charges back. I don't know what to do, we both have very good jobs and we are not living beyond our means, yet these years of charges have left us in a terrible situation, please help.

arunadasi

spikeykatt wrote: »

..... My husband paid for some fruit and didn't realise there wasn't money until the next day. For that, we were charged in 1 month, £965. This had a huge impact and we couldn't pay our bills. We told the bank about the baby situation, we begged them to stop the charges, they only said we should stop paying our bills. The next month, they took over £1000 in charges (whcih included child benefit and all of our wages)and left us with no money for food. I managed to get another account (where we had not been over once!) so the charges finally stopped. Recently however, my husband paid for shopping with his HBOS card by mistake, and they have charged us £63. I have shown them we cannot pay these charges , they say becuase of the legal challenge, it doesn't matter. Also, the cashier informed us beacuse of the new judgement which has found the Lloyds TSB and HBOS were right in their charges, we are unlikley to get any charges back. I don't know what to do, we both have very good jobs and we are not living beyond our means, yet these years of charges have left us in a terrible situation, please help.

How awful for you; I wish you luck. Can someone point me to the Lloyds TSB and HBOS judgement? What is that about?

YUKI_3

In this world of "opting for paper free bills" and trying to be as good as we can be in this world of BIG BUSINESS GREED, I find myself totally disillusioned with the whole system. I am no longer on a paper free circuit because of the following : An xmas credit card bill (paperless) went out of our account a few days before our 2 salaries went in, pushing us over the o/draft limit. We received the "nasty" letter 5 days later stating they were charging us £15 + £20 per day for being over the o/d limit. Why did they wait so long to get this communicated to us? If we had known on the day, we would have done something about it wouldnt we? On the day we received the 3 page standard charges letter, we immediately put the account in credit, added more money the next day, and two lots of salaries were credited a few days after that. I faxed a letter to them asking them to reimburse the amount - in good faith - as we had been loyal customers of Lloyds for about 30 years and our account has always been run as it should be, without any overdrafts, etc. etc. As I had no reply and anxiety was beginning to set in, I went into a local branch that same day to try and sort things out. They thought the charges of £115 were an "error" and said they would contact my local branch to try and sort the matter out. They said our account was always in credit and so there should be no problems as this was our first time. The local assistant branch manager was going to refund £50 initially but he said this was his limit. After he had been in touch with the area manager, I was told no refunds of charges could be applied and that all claims were being held awaiting Court ruling. I understand this has been put off again for another 6 months!!!! Does this mean the banks will be gaining interest on all the penalty charges that have from all these customers. Who is the Judge in contact with? Is he on a Board of bankers also? Cant trust the law anymore and I have said this for years - corruption is everywhere!!!!!! I hope Martin can help us all with this. Big businesses need knocking down - dont they make enough profit. I dont mind paying interest for my errors, but fairness isnt in their vocabulary. Grrrrrr.......

spikeykatt

arunadasi wrote: »

How awful for you; I wish you luck. Can someone point me to the Lloyds TSB and HBOS judgement? What is that about?

I haven't seen the article; the cashier read out from her screen that the judgement had been passed. I have not managed to find this anywhere else, so either the bank are making it up or it's not common knowledge yet?
Regards, Lisa

Adele_Carr

millie_cat wrote: »

COMMERCIAL COURT LIST
COURT 76
Before MR JUSTICE ANDREW SMITH
Wednesday 21 January 2009
At 10:00
FOR JUDGMENT
2007-1186 Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National PLC
posted by SHAZZAW on LB site
Thought you would like to know

I hadn't realised that each bank was being dealt with separately, I thought they would have all been tried together??

esmerellda

they are all being dealt with together....officially the title for court is Abbey National Plc & ors. Just for ease I guess

Orford

I hadn't realised that each bank was being dealt with separately, I thought they would have all been tried together??

They are, the listing only mentions the first defendant, but includes all the banks

eor81

Has this hapened to anyone else and what's the next step.

I tried last year to reclaim charges on an account that was closed in 2006. I got the correct account number and sort code from my work payroll and sent off the first letter. They replied saying they have no record of the account and unless I have proof, like a statement, then that's that.
I obviously don't have any old statements but it did put me off and I now don't know how to proceed.
Any Ideas?

MissMonkey_2

I am a 25 year old teacher, due to the lack of permanant jobs in scotland I'm actually working as a supply teacher, the amount of work i get varies widely from 0 days a week to occasionally 5, my income therefore is very uncertain? over the course of about 5 years as a student I accumulated about £2,500 of bank charges, I have student loans to pay back, I wanted to know if I was entited to pushing my claim on a bit quicker through the financial hardship claim? Lorna

SuzySu

Hi

I am just starting the process of claiming back my bank charges and have downloaded the letters from the site. I would like to persue the claim under financial hardship but just wanted some advice. Due to the large amount of debt my partner and I had accumulated we got behind with our Council Tax, utilities and mortgage and were forced to sell our house last year as the mortgage company was talking about repossession. Since then my partner and I have split up and I have gone into privately rented accommodation. I have my own personal debts and am still jointly responsible for some others. Do you think I would have any chance claiming hardship as my rent takes up about 90% of my salary. I receive CTC, child benefit and maintenance and had to open a basic bank account last year when, due to bank charges, there was not enough left to pay our secured debts.

Thanks for reading.