Times article: "Student wins claim over bank charges"

richiethekid

Just composed a letter to Natwest asking them to refund the £35 charge or I'll start court proceedings. Let's see what they have to say about that. Presumably something along the lines of "we never received a letter from you" but let's see.

Surely the topic of discussion on this thread is whether these charges are legal or not, and how to get them refunded, as opposed to who is at fault for the charges being made in the first place? I would suggest that anyone wishing to discuss who is at fault for bank charges being imposed posts their opinions on another thread.

tinalives

My mum is still awaiting a response from Natwest after her first letter - sent 2 weeks ago. She is also intending to send a second letter threatening court proceedings if she hears nothing within the next few days.

I'll let you know if she has any progress (she's trying to get £70 of charges refunded).

dchurch24

Oddly, last week Barclaycard added a £20 charge for late payment, even though I'd sent the cheque in time (as according to their instructions on the back of their statements).
I phoned them (of course on their 'foreign' line to avoid paying for the 0870 number) - and said "I'd like it back please." - no quoting laws or anything. They said, "OK - it's back in your account"
Just like that. No argument at all.

dchurch24

Incidentally, Natwest will claim that a breach of the conditions hasn't occured and therefore a penalty has not been applied. You've simply been charged for an extra 'service' that they have provided.
Make sure you are prepared for this when you start proceedings.

tinalives

Oddly, last week Barclaycard added a £20 charge for late payment, even though I'd sent the cheque in time (as according to their instructions on the back of their statements).
I phoned them (of course on their 'foreign' line to avoid paying for the 0870 number) - and said "I'd like it back please." - no quoting laws or anything. They said, "OK - it's back in your account"
Just like that. No argument at all.

I think that's absolutely disgraceful! - Sometimes it appears that they just try their luck on the offchance that the charges go unchallenged.

tinalives

dchurch24 wrote:

Incidentally, Natwest will claim that a breach of the conditions hasn't occured and therefore a penalty has not been applied. You've simply been charged for an extra 'service' that they have provided.
Make sure you are prepared for this when you start proceedings.

Eeek! So how do you argue against that point?

dchurch24

You would have to prove that it actually was a breach of the contract. Their terms should already do this for you. But in one particular case the claimant wasn't ready for this argument and therefore the court judged with the status quo.

I also phoned Barclaycard up after this (as I assumed that they would be one of the 8 that the OFT is starting proceedings against for these charges) and said that with that in mind I would like all charges ever levvied against this account. Sadly, there had been only the one.

I have also written to my MP asking for him to write to the OFT to investigate the banks regarding the bank charges. The OFT found that credit card late-payment charges are a breach of the Unfair Terms thing, and so my argument is that so are the bank charges as they are more-or-less exactly the same thing.
I have also asked him to raise the subject in parliment and with the treasury, as at a time when personal household debt is over 1 trillion (and there is debate that this number actually exists!!) in the UK, banks should not be allowed to worsen the matter by forcing people into further debt and therefore putting the economy at further risk.

So to argue that people 'get what they deserve' or some-such argument is indeed blinkered, narrow minded and also somewhat misses the whole picture. A win in the courts against these type of charges would benefit the whole consumer society.

tinalives

Thanks for the info as my mum does intend to take this to court if she doesn't get a refund.

I think that what you're doing is absolutely fantastic and I really do wish you all the best - EVERYONE should be standing up to these extortionate penalties so that we can force a change sooner rather than later.

richiethekid

What happened with me was, I paid in a cheque for £1000 on the Monday. On the Wednesday online banking was including this in my available balance, so on the Thursday I attempted to transfer the £1000 to my ISA. I didn't even know anything was wrong until my debit card was declined. I wrote to complain that they shouldn't have indicated that they money was in my account if it actually wasn't, and asked them to refund the charge. The standard letter I got back said I would have a proper response within 10 working days. That time has now passed so I'm planning to post the follow-up letter tomorrow if I haven't had a letter through the door by then. But if what you say is true dchurch, I may have shot myself in the foot by claiming it was their fault in the first place.

dchurch24

tinalives; I think you are absolutely right. Everyone should challenge these charges, it would make their worst abuses unworkable - they simply couldn't defend themselves against everyone.
Because of their charges - and they were indeed not created by any fault of my own and I notified my bank of this before the 'offences' took place, although that is irrelevent - my family and I had a terrible year. I had taken a lower paid job in an attempt to further my career, and I had the support of my family for this. My new employer underpaid me for 3 consecutive months (they no longer exist) and there was sometimes a gap of 6 weeks between paydays. At this time we were already living at the edge - we knew (hoped) it would be a temporary situation and that once my career moved on again we would be ok. To incur £1400 of charges over this time made living impossible. I couldn't afford to get to work and my daughter had to wear shoes that were too small for her feet and this ended up with her getting painful blisters.
Incidently, at this time I was also fined £520 by the DVLA for not informing them of a change of vehicle. This has since been withdrawn as the fine was wrongly imposed, but it goes to show that if you don't challenge things, they get away with them.
The last straw came when I had paid everything up and had obtained a new, better paying job, that I received a letter stating that I still had £120 of charges to pay.
I phoned to see about getting these dropped and the Abbey stuck their heels in.
I told them that one way or another I would be getting that money back, and that's when I started investigating the law.
I have now generated a lot of media interest in the outcome of this case and so I should imagine that there will be a lot more people getting a lot more angry about these unfair charges.

Also, I think that everyone should write to their MP regarding these charges and urge them to ask the OFT to investigate these unfair practices.

https://www.writetothem.com, will allow you to fax or email them through their service for free.