Can anyone advise me?

Basketballfan

I have written to my bank to reclaim my charges using Martin's site advice. I wrote the second letter to HSBC about three weeks ago. I gave them 14 days to respond. They did reply within the 14 days saying they were looking into my request. How long should I give them to respond now? Has anyone else had experience of this. basketballfan

Suffolk2007

I believe the general advice is to stick to YOUR timetable - so if they have not responded, start the court proceedings. I didn't get any response from my second letter, so started the online small claims procedure - this went as far as getting a court date, then Lloyd's settled in full - including interest and fees.

Stephen_Leak

Basketballfan wrote: »

I have written to my bank to reclaim my charges using Martin's site advice. I wrote the second letter to HSBC about three weeks ago. I gave them 14 days to respond. They did reply within the 14 days saying they were looking into my request. How long should I give them to respond now? Has anyone else had experience of this. basketballfan

The letters saying that they are investigating and will reply within 8 weeks are acknowledgements of receipt and attempts to make you give up and go away. The 8 weeks only applies if you refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman because you haven’t received a reply.

Your first claim letter should give them 14 days to reply. If you have not received an acceptable reply by your deadline, send them the second “Letter Before Action” letter.

At this point, you have to decide between referring your claim to the Financial Ombudsman and starting court proceedings.

If you don't think that you could successfully handle a court claim, or can't afford the court fees and aren't eligible for fee relief, then the Financial Ombudsman is an alternative. It is free of charge and handles everything for you. They charge the bank involved £400 for each complaint they accept. However, they cannot award interest like a court. Their success rate is good but, if the Financial Ombudsman is unsuccessful or the settlement is unacceptable, you can still start court proceedings.<O:p</O:p

If you threaten to refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman, give them until 8 weeks from the date of your first letter to reply. However, if the reply either suggests that you now refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman or says a definite no, then you can refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman straight away. If you have not received any reply for the 8 weeks, you can then refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman.

If you threaten to start court proceedings, give them 14 days to reply. If you have not received an acceptable reply by your deadline, then start court proceedings on Money Claim Online.

Elo_3

I've also just recieved the same letter from HSBC, saying they are going to 'look into' my request. If they are trying to put me off they've another thing coming!!
Thanks to this thread I'm now going to go ahead and threaten to start court proceedings.