Lloyds offshore - charges

Gunners89

Hello,

I want some advice about some historic bank charges for being over drawn on my lloyds offshore current account.

This is going back to 2007 so i am not sure if its to late?

Below is the letter I sent to Lloyds:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to complain about about an issue that has been on going since November 2007.

In November I contacted a member of the customer service team to advise them about financial problems I was facing at the time. The adviser told me if I brought the balance of the account back to zero then there would be no charges made against me, apart from the £7.50 monthly account charge. I arranged payment of £36.63 on the 27th november. My account was back to zero.

Since that time, Lloyds have charged me with £309 in charges, and keep charging me!
I am very upset about the charges but even more upset with the fact that Lloyds sent all letters referring to these charges to the wrong address. Not one letter was sent to the correct correspondence address in Sweden. For some reason they were sent to my residential address in England. How can I try and deal with this problem if i am not aware of it?

I have written to Lloyds and have recieved nothing back, this was in February 2008. I have also made countless phone calls, but nothing has changed.

I am asking for a full refund of £309 plus confirmation that all future correspondance will be sent to the correct address.

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There reply:

I write in response to your recent E-Mail dated 11 April 2008. Your concerns have been referred to me as part of the Customer Service Recovery Team.



I am sorry to hear that you’re unhappy about our charges. It might help if I briefly explain why we make them.



I can appreciate that no-one wishes to pay bank charges unnecessarily. However, we do ask those customers who overdraw, or who do not have sufficient funds in their account as and when their payments become due, to make a contribution towards our costs in maintaining their account. These costs are quite considerable. If for example, all of our customers conducted their business in accordance with the terms and conditions of their account, considerable savings could be made. As matters stand however, we have to employ large numbers of staff to deal with all aspects of administration regarding accounts that become overdrawn without prior authorisation.



When you become a customer, we give you details of any charges for the day to day running of your account. Details of our charges are also available from our branch staff, telephone helpline or our website. We apply charges if a customer does not have enough money in their account to meet payments they have requested us to make.



You incurred charges because you did not ensure funds were available in your account to cover the payments set up by you. It is your responsibility to operate your account within any agreed limits.



As a business we are entitled to set charges to cover additional work. These charges are not hidden and are notified in the guide to banking charges leaflet we produce. We advise our customers to ensure cleared funds are available in their accounts to meet payments due. You will also note that in the front of each cheque book we request that funds are available before cheques are issued.



You accepted these terms when you opened your account and when you agreed your overdraft. We did not agree to pay your account in excess of the amount agreed without charges being made.



Accordingly, I am unable to agree with your request to refund the charges. We do expect your account to be run in line with the terms and conditions of its operation. This means that you must ensure that cleared funds are deposited into the account the working day before any payments are due. If you do not feel you will be able to



I hope I have been able to fully answer the points you have raised with us. If not please let me know what else I can do to help.



We have done our best to resolve your complaint, but if you are not happy with our response for any reason, I have enclosed a copy of our leaflet ‘how to voice your concerns’ which gives you details about what to do next.



You do not need to reply to this letter unless there is anything else you would like me to help you with. If you do need to talk to us again about this please contact us within 8 weeks from the date of this letter so we can get to your information quickly. If you do contact after this time we will still be able to help you but it may take us longer to find the information we need.

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I did try to challenge this at the time but got no where.

Can anyone advise if I should try again as I feel Lloyds should not have charged me so heavily for being £36 over drawn.

Thank you

[Deleted User]

Gunners89 wrote: »

This is going back to 2007 so i am not sure if its to late?

You received that negative response in 2008 and nothing has changed since which might allow you to return to the complaint.

Nobody receives back historical charges, least of all those who have already been rejected more than six years ago!