Bank Charges Success Stories II

yrneh

Bank: Natwest
Amount Reclaimed £257
Amount they Paid £257

Story. Went over overdraft for first time in 30 years. Called them to say had put money in account to cover and would they refund charges. Refused. Followed Martins instructions. They did not reply to any of the letters till I started court proceedings then lo and behold letter arrives offering full refund . Although could not get back court fees of £30 it was well worth the stress.

Thank you so very much Martin

Davnikk

Bank: Abbey National
Amount Reclaimed £1766
Amount they Paid £1402.15
Started claim 5th January and recieved a refund of £550 after 4 weeks. Submitted further claim for remaining amount. Lots of delaying letters 'looking into claim however charges are legal, blah, blah...'. Finally recieved letter saying no further refunds will be made after 11 weeks. Advised them of my intent to take court action and gave them 14 days - more delaying letters. Finally lodged claim with HMCS and after 4 weeks recieved further offer of £852.15 (80% of initial claim) which I have decided to accepted. This leaves me free to chase up my wifes claim which is still going on! It is good to be able to fight back against these financial institutions! Thank you Martin.

GAOrmerod

Bank: Halifax Visa
Amount Reclaimed: £1620.96 inc. interest & court costs
Amount they paid: £1620.96

I began the whole process in February and didn't receive payment until 29th May. I did have to go through the courts and the bank sent a letter saying that they intended to defend the claim. However this was as much as they did and after another 48 days I received a letter stating that they were going to debit my account. Thanks to Martin & all of the other people involved in bringing Bank Charges to our attention my partner & myself now have £1620.96 towards our first home together, and we are still in the process of claiming another £1500.00 in total from various other Halifax bank accounts.


Thanks again for everyones help

TC_EOD

Halifax PLC
£120 fees
£6.95 interest
£30 court chargers

my son also won
Halifax PLC
£640 fees
£40.75 interest
£80 court charges

We had to go all the way up taking them to court. Slightly worrying with some of the results coming out from the courts but let it tick over. They replied to say they would defend both cases but at the last minute paid both in full and interest up to the date!!:beer:
not admitting they were wrong blah blah blah!!
So Martin thanks very much we owe you a beer

slrsbw

Bank - HSBC
Amount claimed - £2500
Amount awarded - £2449.50?

Sent my first letter to HSBC at the start of April. Already looked through last six years statement online. Received their usual looking into it letter. Rang them and advised they are allowed 8 weeks. On 9th week exactly received a without prejudice letter offering £2080.50p. Faxed a refusal letter straight back to them giving them 7 days to revise the offer or go to court. Today I received another without prejudice letter for £2,449.50p (dont know how they came to that figure but hey) faxed an acceptance letter straight back. Bring on the money :-)

Here's what the final offer said,

"As mentioned in our previous letter dated 4th June, we are mindful of the management time and irrecoverable legal costs incurred if your claim proceeded to court.

For those commercial reasons alone and without any admission of liability whatsoever, we have reviewed our original offer and are prepared to make a payment to you for the sum of £2,449.50p in full and final settlement of this matter. In the circumstances, we do believe that the banks offer is fair and reasonable and would urge you to accept it."

CHALLENGE THE BANKS, DONT LET EM GET RID OF YOU WITH THEIR FIRST OFFER, THEY DIDNT MIND ME CHALLENGING THE FIRST OFFER AT ALL.

GOOD LUCK ALL.

STEVE

jambomadden

Hi guys this is my first ever post but had to tell you all about my success.

14th Febuary Requested statements

10th March 2007 statements received

15th March sent first letter to branch requesting 1461 pounds plus intrest

30th March no reply

31st March sent second letter requesting charges within 14 days

10th April received bog standard letter saying they would reply as soon as possible but provided me with a conatct number which i decided to use to harass them.

During this time and by contacting them by phone i was told that i would receive a reply no later than the 28th May 2007 and during one such call was told that an offer would be made.

I decided that instead of taking them to court I would wait and see what happened,

On returning from holiday on the 8th June i received an offer letter from RBS admitting no liability but having reviewed my case they had decided that they would pay me 1461.00 as a gesture of goodwill.....result!!!!

I have to thank everyone who has posted there messages and advice on the forum and it it hadnt been without your help i doubt i would have had the determinatination to stick in and harass the bank..remember its your money they have, get mad and get it back.

Also dont be afraid to phone the bank and ask whats happening with your case i found the folk at RBS more than helpful.

Thanks Martin and good luck to everyone else.

Nuz

Bank: Halifax
Amount Reclaimed: £311.21
Amount they paid: £366.21
The story: I saw Martin's interview on the BBC Look North news program in January and decided that I had nothing to loose by trying. I sent the first letter to Halifax (16/01/07) asking for the charges back with interest to which they sent me their standard Complaints Procedure literature with a template letter. I sent my second letter threatening Court action on the 19/01/07. As I didn't receive anything from them by the deadline of the second letter I applied for a claim on Money Claim Online (30/01/07).
The Halifax ignored my claim so I applied for a Judgement By Default when the deadline passed (20/02/07) which was accepted. After the Judgement was ignored by Halifax for a few weeks, I applied for a Warrant Of Execution to be carried out on Halifax (14/03/07). For some reason I found this to be vastly amusing.
The Halifax sent me a cheque with a standard letter saying that they weren't at fault. They paid up the charges, interest and court fees but not the fee for the Bailiffs. I phoned the local County Courts to ask what to do about the missing money. Their advice was to write to Enforcement Section and ask them to pursue the last £55. I did...and they did. Halifax dumped the £55 in my account (28/03/07) the next day without any kind of indication as to what it was.

Bank: Halifax
Amount Reclaimed: £824.39
Amount they paid: £824.39
The story: I sent off the first letter to Halifax (16/01/07) asking for the charges back with interest which they ignored. I sent off the second letter threatening Court action on the 30/01/07. I received a letter from Halifax with an offering which was approx 46% of the amount I was claiming for from both accounts (this one and the one above) without the interest. While feeling rather insulted by this offer I ignored it and applied for a claim online when the deadline of the second letter ran out (08/02/07).
A couple of days before deadline for Judgement By Default, Halifax acknowledged the claim. This granted them an extra 14 days to get their defence in. I felt that they were just 'rattling the sabre'...and sure enough 4 days before the final deadline the money (charges, interest & court fee)appeared in my account with a letter (goodwill gesture, we're not admitting fault, etc) appearing in the post that day. Winner!

Bank: Barclays
Amount Reclaimed: £864.18
Amount they paid: £864.18
The story: I sent the first letter to Barclays (16/01/07) asking for the charges back with interest to which they sent me their standard Complaints Procedure literature with a template letter. I sent my second letter threatening Court action on the 30/01/07. I received a letter from Barclays with an offering which was approx 46% of the amount I was claiming for without the interest. Funnily enough I felt the same about this letter as I did about the same type of letter from the Halifax so I ignored it and applied for a claim online when the deadline of the second letter ran out (08/02/07).
Just like the Halifax, on the day of the deadline for Judgement By Default, Barclays acknowledged the claim. This granted them an extra 14 days to get their defence in. At the end of the extra 14 days there was no defence. Yay! I won! The next day (15/03/07 about 10am) I applied for Judgement By Default only to have my request Rejected (!). I phoned up the help line for Money Claim Online and it turns out that the defendants have until 4pm on the day of the deadline to get their acknowledgement/defence in. The Claimant has from the following midnight to apply for a Judgement By Default. From that point onward it is a race against time to see who gets their paperwork onto the system first. Damn.
My claim was transfered to the local County Court who sent out a Court Allocation Questionnaire which had to be back by the 02/04/07. I sent mine back and a couple of days after the deadline I received a letter from the Courts saying that the Defendant had until the 13/04/07 to send in their Questionnaire or their defence would be struck out. Yet another delaying/intimidation tactic used by the bank. Unfortunately Barclays sent the Questionnaire back and a court date was set for the 27/06/07.
When the news broke about a District Judge threatening to throw out claimants cases in Hull (where I live. Was a bit worried) I checked this forum for any news and I came across a post from someone saying that they had phoned up Barclays the day they received their court date and asked them if they wanted to settle out of court (which they did for that person...in full).
I found the contact details for the Barclays Litigation & Disputes Team and phoned them up. I spoke to the lady dealing with my claim and she sent me a PDF copy of a letter via email offering me a full settlement (goodwill gesture, relatively modest sum (to them it might be!), not cost effective for either party to take this to trial (eh?!), etc) on the 05/06/07. I printed this out, signed it, scanned it and emailed it back. 2 days later the money was in my account.

My advice to anyone who reads this is:

• Don't be afraid of the banks. It's through this fear that they get away with this. The Financial Ombudsman & Office of Fair Trading are on our side. I was nervous when I posted the first letters & physically shaking when I clicked the 'submit' button to file my claims. I am SO glad that I did.
• Don't give up. The banks want you give in as this will allow them to keep your money. They will delay and try to intimidate to make you stop your claim. Don't give them the satisfaction.
• Be polite to the person on the other end of the phone. It gets you a lot further than loosing your rag at them. Remember they may be working for the bank that has your money but they are just doing a job and probably getting a lot of flack from us customers.
• If something about the Court's process confuses you, phone them up and ask. All the people that I spoke to in the County Court were very helpful and polite.
• Don't be afraid to phone up the bank once you've got a court date and ask for a settlement out of court. It surprised me but they pretty much leapt at the chance.
• Take courage from those of us who have won against the banks. It does work.

I hope my story helps. Good luck to you all.
Thank you Martin.

Chrissiesmoney_2

Whoo i just looked online and saw my bank charges in there i didnt expect them to be there until the end of the week at the earliest

steveh66_2

Great news, a £710 refund from Smile. Went so far as LBA, but I waited a while past the deadline for making a court claim, as I was A) broke and couldn't afford another MCOL fee at the time (having recently made one for HSBC), and I'd received a letter from them stating they'd get back with a full response within four weeks, and I'd read on these boards that the Co-Operative was paying up. Their own 4-week deadline was up on the 8th of this month; I called to be told that I was getting a refund (I'd only claimed for £650 - I'm presuming the additional sixty quid is the interest specified in the LBA; I'll have to check), then received a secure email yesterday informing me that the cash would be in my account in the next 2-4 days. Checked my account today, and there it was!!

My sincere thanks to you, Martin, and everyone on this site and over at CAG - like the majority of us claimants, I'd be hundreds of pounds worse off if it wasn't for you, and this money's really going to come in handy with a baby due any day now!

Still ongoing: HSBC - £3500; Alliance and Leicester - £700

christie8701

Bank:Nationwide Building Society
Amount Reclaimed:£5120
Amount they paid:£3479.81

The story: Sent first letter and received a reply on 30/4/07 to say they didnt agree to the charges and wouldn't pay.

Sent another letter and then had a similar reply on 19th march.

I filed the case online which cost me £120 and they put in a defence - i was now worried!!!

Nothing happened until i received copies of the court papers and still nothing.

Then on the 31st May the money was credited to my account in about three different amounts and the account is still open to my surprise.

Then i had another letter on 4th june to advise of the payments and telling me how better i could run the account in the future! - Job Done!

(Threatened to go to court was the furthest it went, no court date set. - case settled and payment received).

Good luck to everyone else out there and thanks to Martin - MSE. Christie