Report Bank Charges successes and failures

Slightley · 7 February 2012 at 8:22PM

SueMumof3 wrote: »

I have just received a refund of £531 from Santander. I'm over the moon! I wrote to them last November but was told a refund was a no no. I put a short post on here at the beginning of Jan and had a reply from Little Mo 70 who basically gave me the swift kick I needed and told me to go straight to the top, which I did. With renewed vigour, I sent an Email and letter to the CEO. Within a day or so there was a flurry of activity and I was introduced to Julie Savage from the Corporate Complaints Team. What a super lady she was. A real live normal human being. She rang and emailed me to keep me up to date. She said the bank had made mistakes. She was able to track every transaction (I'd been spot on with my letter). I'm so relieved it's finally sorted. Thanks Little Mo 70. You're a star. :A

Hi Sue! Great news about your refund! I am too trying to receive a refund from Santander. I was wondering if you could forward me the email address for Julie Savage? I need to speak to a real person not just a machine. If you could help I would be most grateful.

Sarah.

SpikeW · 8 February 2012 at 1:55AM

sammitchell05 wrote: »

What do people think? I am now in employment, but as a result of being at Uni and these charges, they have affected my credit rating/financial status and resulted in me being in debt with various companies to the point of being 'default'

I have wrote another email, saying that although I appreciate the offer, it is not satisfactory and will not help me out of the situation they have put me in... etc.

Preamble: I don't know your situation so this is all just opinion off the top of my (rather bald) head.

First off, don't email. Write. You're better off with a written record, even though emails are generally accepted as proof of stuff these days.

Second, Halifax suck. Big time. My lady has a situation where they allowed a company to extract individual card payments beyond her overdraft limit (their problem, not hers), then charged her about $1,000 over a year or so because she was over-limit. On top of that, they've ignored a data request which means they pretty much don't have a leg to stand on any more (oops, illegal!).

In my opinion, if you're not happy, refuse it. Demand the whole amount. That's what I've done with them (on her behalf): we refuse point-blank to pay something that is blatantly unfair, even if we were stinking rich (which we're not).

I'd wait for their response, then reply and say it's unacceptable. Explain that for a £6 over-limit they have charged you over £900 and dropped you into trouble with everyone. Offer to pay them the £6 and their overlimit fee for the month of, say, £12. And demand the rest back. Go through the process outlined here of listing all the charges for years and years. Push them for absolutely every penny. They WILL give in in the end (over three years for me with my bank... but not giving up and about to win).

And in the meantime, open an account with another bank, start from scratch and dump the crap-spewers. Then it won't matter how much they keep adding: you'll still have access to your money. And they'll just have more to pay back in the end.

derekm1960 · 8 February 2012 at 5:34AM

I used template back in November and now have
Been paid £2300 by MBNA £4900 by Bank of Scotland
Also £3400 by Sainsburys all this for 30 mins work
Only Nationwide didnt pay out so that has gone to further investigation Thanks Martin :j:j

sammitchell05 · 8 February 2012 at 9:21AM

Thanks Spike, I sent an email and I have also sent a letter too. i know that they are just trying to fob me off, so i have also filled out the FOS form too..

I have a House of Fraser card, that was taken into collections via Viking Services about 3 years ago. I opened the account in 2006, and because i was hit with late payment/returned direct debit etc so fell behind with payments (also because of Halifax and the snowballing of fees) can I claim back store card fees?

thanks

Slightley · 8 February 2012 at 1:39PM

I have been in a cycle of charges with Santander in tow accounts for 6months now! I had written a letter using a template from Martin and received a response offering £200 refund on £750 worth of charges.

I am a full time mature student and do not have any disposable income to cover these charges.

I was not happy with the measly £200 offer therefore I emailed the CEO of the bank (ceo@santander.co.uk) explaining my situation. This was yesterday 7th Feb 2012, and this afternoon I received a call from Philip Walters. He apologised for the charges placed on my accounts as it was an error from them on a previous charge complaint.

I have now had my accounts brought to a zero balance and I will be closing the accounts with the bank and hopefully will never have to deal with them again.

Good luck to everyone else still trying with them. I am very the moon!!

Sarah.

Hutchch0920 · 8 February 2012 at 2:26PM

I was initially going to write to Co-Op bank to question the £95 "daily excess charge" that had been applied to my account. I decided to ring to clarify what exactly this payment was for, on questioning it the advisor actually suggested that he would speak with his supervisor to see if something could be done. He then came back to me a couple of minutes later to say they would refund half the charges - I was happy to accept this.

From this I would suggest that for those that have recent charges this could be an option to try first to see if an immediate resolution can be agreed.

sammitchell05 · 8 February 2012 at 5:20PM

As mentioned above i am trying to apply for the charges totalling £1047 or £1177 including interest, from 09-12.

I got told yesterday on the phone, I did not qualify under 'hardship' even though I pointed out I am in collections with Natwest and my Store card from House of Fraser. Aswell as in 2009-2010 I was working as a casual leisure attendant, and monthly income was between £400-£600, I got charged an unauthorised overdraft fee for going 36 over my limit... this was Dec 23rd 2009. For this charge they proceeded to take £240 out of my account at the end of Jan 2010. This was due to having 12 'fees' of £20 come out of my account over a period of 3 weeks... surely this is an error?

anyway, i only requested that they repay the past 3 years. As this has left me in debt, and being threatened with default notices.

I got offered £100 as a good will gesture. Needless to say, I have pursued it and sent various emails to CEO's etc.

I have just received this email and I am not sure what to make of it?:

"Dear Mr Mitchell (even though I specifically stated I was a Miss!!)

Thank you for your email which has been received by Stephen Hester's office.

I am sorry to hear of the problems you have encountered recently. In view of your comments, we have asked for a full briefing from those involved. Once this is received, your complaint will be allocated to a case manager who will be in touch within the next two weeks.

We will aim to get a response out to you as soon as we can but we also want to make sure that a thorough investigation takes place. If, for any reason, there looks like being a delay, we will, of course, write to you again to explain why.

If you do have any queries in the meantime, please feel free to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Group Executive Office"

Thoughts anyone please??

Monty42 · 9 February 2012 at 12:17PM

I sent a letter to Halifax on Monday 06/Feb reclaiming £337.00 of fees for OD's and returned DD's during the last 6 years under financial hardship.
I received 2 phone calls this morning, the first call was an offer of £40.00 and a stop on all fees for 6 months which I refused, I told the advisor I would prefer to take it to the ombudsman. She said I did not state when my financial hardship started and I should have called the bank when I lost my tax credits and my hours were reduced at work - I explained that it was not a requirement for me to do this and she asked if I was recieving specialist advice from someone telliing me not to accept - i said no:rotfl:she also said they needed proof of when my income went down.

The second call was a few minutes later telling me that they were paying £40 into my account and stopping fees for 6 months regardless as a goodwill gesture and are sending the form to take it on to the ombudsman WooHOO a small victory and I am definatly taking it on to the OMBM

They are obviously hoping I wont - but how wrong are they:mad: Keep going guys I will keep you's updated to see if i can get it all back!!

lesleys24 · 9 February 2012 at 3:50PM

I have been trying to get my charges back from Santander, finally going to the financial ombudsman. I have all the criteria for a refund: financial hardship, charges on charges, disproportionate amounts etc etc. Unfortunately I have now received a reply from the financial ombudsman freely quoting 'the decision by the Supreme Court' and 'the Supreme Court's ruling' before informing me, surprize surprize, that they are unable to recommend that my complaint should be upheld. After an horrendous time with Santander, including having a fraud on my account which I had to fight to get rectified, and incurring around £500s worth of charges in a mere 5 months, I think the ombudsman could have suggested to Santander that they at least meet me halfway and pay some of the money back (when it was them that refused to move the charges date to after I got paid, which was only a couple of days later, so that I would at least have money in to cover them) if only to show a bit of humanity. But what should we expect from Banks and their associated financial friends?!

Little_Mo_70 · 11 February 2012 at 6:19PM

Tommo2012 wrote: »

Hello do you have an email address?!

Tommo
Re your PM. It was Santander the e-mail was sent to.
Your PM doesn't seem to be working.

Mo

Report Bank Charges successes and failures

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