Bank Charges Success Stories II

debs81

i've been itching to write this post but i've been stuck at work. A couple of days before OFT was announced i sent Halifax letter asking for refund on my mortgage account for letters sent phone call made etc when the mortgage fell in arrears. I told them that I had just successfully claimed from my current account with them via the FO and wish for another refund on mortgage account.

I received a letter a few weeks after saying that they were going to look into my claim and get back to me. I thought nothing would come of because of OFT. Then lo and behold i received a letter today saying that they will pay up in full with interest. there had also been a couple more charges applied with i hadn't claimed for. I can't believe it. I dont know if its because its a mortgage account but i still cant believe how easy they've been this time round. i thought they would have put up some sort of fight. they didn't even say it was a goodwill gesture. just said - after investigating your claim we are willing to pay £850 in full and final settlement - which suits me fine. sooooo happy :j

davey1013

Bank: HSBC
Amount claimed: £2,933.00
Amount won:£2,733.00

I applied for copies of my statements which came bang on the 40 days. After checking them I made a claim for £2,933.00 for all my charges over the last 6 years. I didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks, then got the standard letter saying the claiim was been looked into and HSBC would get back to me shortly. I didn't hear anything for another couple of weeks so wrote to them again asking for the full amount, but saying i'd be willing to accept a lower figure of £2000 without prejudice for a quick settlement. I received another letter 2 weeks later stating the charges were fair and they accept no liablity, however as it would cost more to defend the claim in court HSBC are willing to make a payment of £2,733.00.

That's £733 more than i'd been willing to accept in my last letter to them so I sent the form back recorded delivery the next day and got the money in my account 3 weeks later.

:beer:

So thanks to Martin and the site i'm now £2,933.00 better off yey :j

Now i'm pursuing:

MBNA - had a letter confirming my request for statements relating to charges and my PPI reclaim are been looked into
Creation (Allders store card) - still waiting for statements as my original letter, apparently and conveniently, wasn't received and reclaiming PPI I hadn't applied for
American Express - waiting to hear about my PPI reclaim
GE Capitol - waiting to hear about my PPI reclaim

Fingers crossed i'll have some more good news to report soon and good luck to everyone who's in the process of claiming

GeoffB_2

Bank: HSBC
Claimed: £2648.00
Received: £2568.00

I originally wrote To HSBC at the end of April this year asking for a list of charges. They left it right to 36 days then the statements started arriving in batches over a period of five days. I wrote back with a schedule of charges ar per Martin's instruction Claiming £2648.00 plus interest of £536.00.

I received a letter back basically saying that they would look into the matter. I heard nothing after about three weeks so I resent the claim again with a covering letter explaining that the money was of secondary importance and that if I didn't receive an adequate response within fourteen days I would go ahead with court proceedings as a matter of principal.

ten days later I received a letter saying that they had looked into the matter and that they were legal excess overdraft arrangment fees and not penalty charges and so they were very sorry but they could not make any refund. Enlosed with the letter was a computer printout obviously done on a dot matrix printer showing all the charges as Excess overdraft arrangement fees. I wrote back explaining that on my statements all the reclaimed chages were show as 'Total Charges' and no mention of any arrangement fees and that I would proceed with the court action if they didn't make an acceptable offer within seven days.

Two days later they made me an offer of £2568.00 'WITHOUT PREJUDICE'
I signed the acceptance form and returned it Special Delivery. I didn't hear anything for about three weeks and there was no credit to my account. Then I received another letter explaining about the OFT court test case and that in agreement with OFT and FSA and the courts They were suspending dealing with claims and court cases until after the test case. The letter went on to offer me the £2568.00 again as a goodwill gesture. I signed the second acceptance. The money was credited to my account three weeks later.

Many thanks to Martin for all his advice and encouragement.

hazel66

bank:natwest
claimed:£4398.00
received:£4398.00
first wrote asking for statements 13th april 2007.asked for my charges back at the end of may.received first offer letter 27th july,then had to wait for the second offer letter which arrived 8th august sent it back recorded delivery same day money arrived in account this evening.had to wait the full 21 working days which they kept quoting to me on the phone

Carol57_2

Mint CC
Went through the FO and finally got a cheque this morning for £237.60 which is a lot better than the £98 they originally offered me.
Now waiting for Natwest CC which is also with the FO

tpxxx

I started a claim for refund of bank charges in August 2006, my initial claim was for around £400. They made me a "goodwill" offer of £144 which I flatly refused. After much correspondence and charges building up to £776 they sent me a letter recently when the OFT decision came out which said that they reiterate their good will offer originally made. I was outraged and prepared to hang on whilst the cases were put on hold but when I read the form enclosed for me to return accepting their offer they had actually put the full amount of my claim on there of £776. I signed and copied the form and sent it back and the full amount has been refunded!

Another blunder made by Natwest to add to my list....at least this one was in my favour!

tpx

debtfreejames

Bank : HSBC
Amount claimed : £60.00
Amount received : £60.00

I followed Martins template letter for reclaiming my bank charges and then just signed the form they sent back to me. Money was in my bank after only a few days. It was SO easy. Thanks Martin.

Although reading the other posts my £60.00 is a miniscule drop in the ocean compared to what some people have reclaimed, £4000+ seems not to be uncommon. How does someone get charged £000s by the banks in the first place ?

debtfreejames

wriggle

Think the reason some people have a lot of charges is due to a change in circumstance. My husband was made redundant at the end of last year, although he was only out of work for three months we soon racked up £1200 in charges with the halifax. Basically they would charge us £39 if they paid a cheque then another £39 because their charge had put us over our overdraft and so on and on. My wages would then be eaten up with charges and i still had to feed kids etc and so would borrow more and get charged. I realise its not good to borrow money you know you havent got but it really was to just buy nappies food etc as we got no help from the government because i was still working. After all that im pleased to say i have been refunded the £1200 from Halifax and my husband is now settled in his job. :j

jennyhatesjazz_2

Roughly applying Martin's suggested format to report my bank fees success story.

BANK: Natwest
AMOUNT SUBMITTED CLAIM FOR: £350ish
AMOUNT PAYED: £243 - the amount I claimed offered without interest.
POTTED HISTORY:
I accepted the above amount minus interest as the offer fell on the doormat just prior to the current court proceedings, and I hadn't had to issue court proceedings - just waited 8 weeks for a decision. I decided to accept the offer, as I'm currently living on a low income and am always overdrawn.
Particularly perked by the fact that the 6 year legal time limit for claims included £75.00 which I was charged in just 1 week, back in the days when a £25 charge was applied to EACH ITEM which went out as 'unarranged borrowing'. It really hurt at the time, as I recall.

So a sincere thank you to the brave, pioneering philanthropist of the cut-throat world of money: Sir Martin Lewis!!!!! Hip hip!...:T

jayja

I started my clame with L/TSB, then the test started. so I sent a letter to say that the only money that went in my account was child benefit & my state benefit as Im a s/mum. They sent me the same old test letter.
BUT this week I got a letter, it seemed like they were not going to give me a thing. They said they had looked at my account, blar,blar, blar.
BUT I got to the last page & it said £**** would be in my account within 10 days. The money was in that day. They did not pay intrest but I got over £500 on top wot I was asking for. they payed all the money they had ever took of me.