Reclaiming bank charges

CLf1234

Is it too late to reclaim bank charges ? I have basically lived in my overdraft since 2008 can I still claim ? What do I ask the bank for a list of charges or my past statements? How far will they let you claim back for ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Nasqueron

CLf1234 said:

Is it too late to reclaim bank charges ? I have basically lived in my overdraft since 2008 can I still claim ? What do I ask the bank for a list of charges or my past statements? How far will they let you claim back for ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

You cannot complain about historical bank charges since the banks won the case at the supreme court in 2009

If you have current financial hardship you can raise a case

CLf1234

Where do I even start ? Do I ask the back for a list of charges and for how far back ? 

dunstonh

Where do I even start ?

The first is to consider the reasons for your complaint.

If it is current financial hardship, then you don't need to list charges or do anything like that.  You just have to give the bank your current statement of affairs and explain why you believe you are in hardship, what debts you have and which are going unpaid.

The bank will look at your spending habits and transactions on your account.   Mainly to see if it's genuine hardship or self-inflicted overspending.    They usually ask for a phone meeting with you so they can ask you questions based on what you supplied them.   And then they will carry out an assessment.

If they agree you meet their current financial hardship criteria, do be aware that they still may not refund anything.  They have a range of options available to them, which can include suspending future charges for a period or putting you on a debt management plan.   If they do refund, often it's only limited to the last 3-12 months.    Extreme cases have been known to do more but they are not commonplace.

So, before you start contacting the bank, you should start building your statement of affairs in a way that is easy to read and understand.   You want the bank clerk to be on your side.  So, make it easy for them.   

The debt-free wannabee section on this board has a lot of good regulars who can help you with your financial problems and how to document them for a bank to understand.

Nasqueron

CLf1234 said:

Where do I even start ? Do I ask the back for a list of charges and for how far back ? 

You do not ask for refund of charges, the bank will already know what charges were applied.

You can log a current hardship case i.e. you are today in a cycle of charges and interest and cannot get out of it - that can be logged with the bank, they will look at your account and see what help to offer. It may mean some charges to be refunded, they may simply freeze future charges to help you get out of debt. If they do a refund, it is likely to be 6 months at most, but most will not.

You cannot log a historical hardship case i.e. today you are fine but in the past you had this problem.

Any reference to unfair charges will be rejected with reference to the 2009 case

CLf1234

Thanks for all the information, it has been unfair charges , I was having to ask for an overdraft increase to cover the mortgage coming out several years ago . And direct debit that had to get reversed , all these charges did not help . I was not really sure what I would be best to do .

dunstonh

Thanks for all the information, it has been unfair charges 

That is game over then.  Banks won that court case in 2009.  Bank charge complaints on the "unfair" basis is long over.

ManyWays

You arent likely to win a claim for "unfair" charges.
But if you have been in your overdraft for all (or almost all) of the month for years then you can make an affordability claim. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/get-refund-overdraft/ which explains. 

SomebodyToldMe

CLf1234 said:

Is it too late to reclaim bank charges ? I have basically lived in my overdraft since 2008 can I still claim ? What do I ask the bank for a list of charges or my past statements? How far will they let you claim back for ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

This also happened to me. But looking at Martin's advice on the matter, I thought it applied to current and past hardship?
I also lived in my overdraft in the past until I went bankrupt.

retiredbanker1

I can see it from both sides - you say charges were unfair but the bank might argue that extending your overdraft helped you at the time - missing important payments such as your mortgage might have made things much worse.
Did your bank attempt to call you in for interview at any rime since you first went overdrawn?

Nasqueron

SomebodyToldMe said:

CLf1234 said:

Is it too late to reclaim bank charges ? I have basically lived in my overdraft since 2008 can I still claim ? What do I ask the bank for a list of charges or my past statements? How far will they let you claim back for ? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

This also happened to me. But looking at Martin's advice on the matter, I thought it applied to current and past hardship?
I also lived in my overdraft in the past until I went bankrupt.

You cannot put complaints in about historic charges or historic financial hardship, only current

Further in your case, as you went bankrupt, any refund/compensation from the lender would be used either to offset the debt wiped in the bankruptcy or passed to the OR to distribute to creditors. There is no point in proceeding here, I'd let sleeping dogs lie.