Bank Charges Success Stories II

Princess-as

Barclays Bank PLC
Amount Claimed: £4,481.71
Amount Recieved: £4,481.71

I started my claim in November last year and eventually had a court date for 06/06/07. Barclays wrote and settled in full 10 days before the court date!
A long battle but well worth it in the end. I have just sent a letter to them claiming another £1200 for a different account I had with them, I am hoping it won't take so long as it is a smaller amount.
DON'T GIVE UP. YOU'LL GET THERE IN THE END.
There were MANY times when Barclays took £120 from my account within a 3 or 4 day period just for a timing problem; our wages would go in a couple of days after a payment was due to go out. When you are on a tight budget and have hardly any surplass income as we didn't you can never catch up and make up the money that they took in charges. It is a viscious circle that you can't get out of (until you come across this website of course!)

aagree

Lloyds TSB
Amount Claimed - £687
Amount Received - £687

Logged onto my account this morning to find that Lloyds TSB had refunded the FULL claim into my account. This is how I got the money back:

1) Used 1st letter template and sent letter to Lloyds asking for a refund of £515 (Did not ask for interest in this case)

Received letter back from the Andover Recovery Centre stating that the charges were legal and as such, no refund would be made

2) Sent the 2nd template letter with an offer figure. I said that I'd settle for a payment of £450 but this time included the interest on the fees which took the overall claim up to £603

Received no response

3) After 4 weeks of waiting, I filled in the claim on the MoneyClaim website. Total claim was for £683 - £603 unlawful charges + £80 MoneyClaim fee

After 8 days received letter from Lloyds TSB responding to my second letter. This response made a reference to my claim on MoneyClaim and stated that the matter was now in the hands of their solicitors

On the final day of Lloyds allocated response period I received letter from Northampton court stating that Lloyds intended to defend the claim in full

6 days later I logged onto my account to find that Lloyds had paid in £687. In the meantime I've had a statement through with another £30 charge on but this morning I phoned the bank and they have agreed to waive the charge. This is because I said if you take the money out, I'll just go through MoneyClaim again to get it back.

My advice would be to not worry about going through MoneyClaim. I know that the whole thing appears to get rather serious when filling in the details but if in the worst case scenario the claim goes to court (which appears very unlikely), neither you, or your bank would have to be present anyway.

Thank you to MoneySavingExpert and the best of luck to everyone trying to get their money back!

Jester

Woooo - bloody - hoooooooooooooo !!!

I was beginning to think I was never going to be able to post a success story here, but this morning I have finally received notification that Smile are refunding my charges.

Amount Claimed: £3124 + £534.91 interest
Amount Paid: £3124

The story:

29th March: Wrote to Smile asking for a copy of all my charges for last 6 years. They took almost 5 weeks, but eventually did provide me with a copy. I totted up the charges and was stunned to find it totalled £3124.

28th April: Wrote first letter to Smile asking that they refund my charges in full on the basis that they are unlawful.

1st May: Received letter back from Smile stating they were 'sorry I felt the need to make a complaint and that they would look into it.

17th May: No response from Smile so I sent my second letter to the bank (this time via secure message thru the online banking system) telling them that their 14 days had expired without response. Reiterated that their charges are unlawful and that if I didn't hear from them in 14 days that I would start court proceedings. Response came back that they were still looking into my 'complaint' and would get back to me in 4 weeks as per guidelines, though they were also allowed 8 weeks if necessary.

9th June: Still no response so sent another secure message reminding them of their obligations and that I would be taking court proceedings against them if they did not adhere to my timescales

10th June: Received response from Smile identical to the first one.

10th June: Issued MCOL claim against Smile

16th June: Received letter from Smile in the post which said that 'After reviewing your complaint, a refund of £3124 has been agreed and returned to your account as a gesture of goodwill. As debit interest does not constitute a charge or fee this has not been refunded to your account'.

Ironically, 16th June (today) is the day that the MCOL claim was considered served.

I've checked my account but the money is not there yet. As today is a Saturday, I've decided to wait until Monday to see if the funds arrive. If they don't then I will chase them up. Until I actually see the funds in my account, then my MCOL claim will remain valid. As soon as they credit my account I will withdraw the claim.

I'm not worried about not getting the interest and neither am I worried about the £120 I spent on filing an MCOL claim online. I've got back what was always rightfully mine and am off to celebrate tonight - BIG TIME !!


So, finally I have a victory to celebrate !!


Just the stubborn folk at First Direct left to go. Am claiming over £8000 from them with interest. Have a court date of 14th August and served the first of my court papers last Thursday. I am considering writing a letter to their solicitors today stating that 'I know they have no intention of going to court and that if they contact me then we might be abl to come to a settlement before it reaches court' !!

Cheers and huge thankyou to Martin for this wonderful website, and huge thankyou to everyone who given me advice and support along the way. You'll still see me posting on my progress against First Direct and I will remain here to offer help/advice/support to everyone else who is doing this.

But finally I have a victory to celebrate ....... Yeeehhaaaaa !! http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/img/ml-thumb-spin2.gif
:money:

punkston

Bank:HSBC
Amount claimed £401.50
Amount received £361.50

Yipeeeeeee!!!!! Originally sent letter on 11th of April. Received offer letter on June 15th. Took a while but came through in the end !!!!

Thanks so much Martin for your website. This is money I thought I would never see again.

Thanks very much to all other forum writers too for your useful tips which have helped me on the way.

XXX:j :j :rotfl:

Mrs_Fluff

Bank: First Direct
Amount claimed: £1100 inc. interest
Amount won: £825

First direct sent me all bank statements by courier on first request with no charge within a couple of weeks. Offered amount shown after first request in full and final settlement of claim with no admission of liability yada yada yada. This process cost me 2 stamps and was all thanks to MSE.

Kim_M

I am so amazed that they are making me an offer!!

I recommend that everyone follows the instructions on this website - I sent Natwest the first letter asking for my charges of £2600 plus statatory interest totalling £3200. I received a letter saying that they would be looking into it - I gave it a month and received no response so I sent the letter threatening Court - I received a letter from Natwest the other day saying that the charges were fair and reasonable and they haven't done anything wrong etc but they were willing to make me an offer of £2665 as a gesture of "goodwill" as they put it!! I have accepted the offer and am completely amazed and thank this website as I would never have done it without all of the template letters and instructions.

Thank you!!

barbie31

Bank: Alliance & Leicester (Girobank)

Amount Reclaimed: £166.00

Amount they paid: £238.72

The story: Followed all of Martin's steps, starting on 4th March 2007 with the request for historical statements. Went as far as court claim, which resulted in cheque from A&L for £238.72 (original amount requested plus interest plus claim fee) being sent to me on 7th June 2007. Quote from their letter: "We have now reviewed your particular case and have decided in this instance to settle the claim." along with the standard "As it is clear that you do not accept the terms and conditions for the operation of your account we will shortly be contacting you to discuss its future operation."

Many thanks for making this easy to do.

advent

Amount claimed incl.court costs interest etc: Just over £3200
They paid it all :j
Hi. Hope I'm in the right place to post my success story.:D
My better half heard Martin on the radio and encouraged me to claim on an old Nationwide joint a/c I had with my ex husband.

Sent off for list of charges or statements in March enclosing fee. They dragged their heels a bit but eventually supplied list of default charges over the 6 year period 40 days after cashing the cheque (and only after a phone call to the data protection team!)

Sent next 2 letters as per templates-received standard letters back saying they had looked at a/c and were very sorry but couldn't possibly refund charges as it wouldn't be fair to everyone else (yeah right!) etc etc etc!!

Filed MCOL deemed served 18th May with immediate acknowledgement from Nationwide solicitors that they would defend. Waited and watched site convinced that they would enter defence at the last minute.

Phone call from ex husband 3 hours before deadline saying HE had received cheque :mad: payable to both of us!!
Lucky he phoned though or I wouldn't have known they had paid up and may have gone for judgement at a minute past midnight!!

Thanks to all especially Martin. Might chance my arm with Capital One now!
Good Luck to all. Keep up the fight (especially with Nationwide who were anything but helpfull when we needed it most... boot on other foot now I think!!):rotfl:

tracey05uk

BANK: NATWEST
AMOUNT £578.00

SENT LETTER ONE GOT ALL MY STATMENTS BACK, SENT LETTER 2 AND GOT A REPLY SAYING THEY WAS DEALING WITH MY LETTER. AND THEN RECEIVED A LETTER SAYING HERES YOUR CASH BACK WOOOHOOO. BUT, THEY DID SAY I CANT CLAIM ANY MORE CHARGES FROM THEM, AND IF I DID THEY WOULD DOWN GRADE MY ACCOUNT OR I MAY EVEN HAVE TO LEAVE THEM !!!!

ANY WAY GOOD LUCK:

:beer: :T

ad231

Bank: Capital one,
Amount Reclaimed: 1016
Amount they paid:424

The story:I sent a standard letter then had a responce with an offer. I was in the position that my credit card only has A limit of 600. this cleared my credit card but now wish I did bargain better for a bit more but still happy.


Bank: HSBC 1 nad 2
Amount Reclaimed: 1 - £118.50 2- £1717
Amount they paid: Offered full amount on first account.yippy.

They offered 1640 on larger amount too, I asked them to pay in full or court action will proceed. I'm on a mission with HSBC as I'm making a point due to the fact I had so many disagrements with them. they also put me in a position of closing my accounts due to these charges and not being able to get ahead. I now don't desperatly need the money so I'm gunning for them.