Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

podperson · 1 June 2011 at 11:08AM

winner1973 wrote: »

In 2005 i separated from my partner , and got into financial difficulty , i ended up owing 13k and i am sure a lot of this debt was bank charges and interest etc , since then i have been struggling to pay debt companies back and at one point even used a debt management agency which in hindsight was a bad idea. Can i reclaim any of these charges from so long ago even if the accounts are closed and the debts sold. cooperative gold card/bank virgin money /mbna and citi financial. I still owe around 4k. thanks

You can reclaim on credit cards fairly easily - have a look at the reclaiming guide on the sticky. Bank charges are having virtually no success at the moment unless you're going down the financial hardship route and even then it is at the bank's discretion and people are generally reporting a max of 6 months of charges back. Any refund you do get back can be used towards any outstanding debt on the account first.

podperson · 1 June 2011 at 11:11AM

Chrisknght wrote: »

Hi I currently suffer with mental illness and due to this I have trouble with money I am always been charged bank charges for going overdrawn or direct debits I live on 91 pound every 2 weeks and this month I have 100 pound in charges I'm upset that tomorrow when I go to the bank after being paid I'll still be 10 pound over drawn and they say they cant give me the money as it's not child benefit can I claim these charges back it must be thousands of pounds in the last how many years and I'm only 21 btw I am with h s b c any suggestions

You could try claiming under financial hardship but they are still not guaranteed to refund anything. In the meantime look at opening a basic account elsewhere so at least you have something to live on.

nat21luv · 8 June 2011 at 4:10PM

Can anyone help with regards to the FOS form for reclaiming?

My partner and I are both looking to reclaim from numerous banks, building societys and credit cards we've both had over the years. They have had quite a lot of charges on them as we have both been suffering financially. Im at the point of complaining to the FOS and all I'd like to know is do I need a seperate form for for each bank/CC/BS and account? my partner and I have both banked with the same bank but had seperate accounts so would this need a form per account?

Many thanks in advance!

haydens_mum · 9 June 2011 at 3:44PM

Hi i was wondering if someone could help me. i have banked with barclays for many years and i have incurred a total of around £1800. since the case went to court they have lowerd their charge amounts from £35 and £30 to £8. Is it worth me trying to claim some money back as alot of my charges were re-occuring from charges being taken when i had no money and was out of work but had i just been charged the £8 back them i would have broken the cycle alot sooner and it would never have got no where near as bad as it did. Technically if it happend to me again now, i would only be charged £8 so should i make a complaint or is it not worth it?

Any help would be most appriciated.
Thanks.x

squig84 · 13 June 2011 at 12:53PM

Hello, please could someone point me in the right direction. i had an overdraft with natwest bank for £3500 when i was 22. i had to leave my job due to family issues and of course my account soon went to a debt collection agency called wescot with a debt of over £5000
i have been paying off £10 per week since 2008 and called wescot last week to ask how much i had left to pay. i had only dinted the debt by less than £500. Natwest have been adding on between £20-£54 each month since august 2008. can i claim this back? wescot have said its the client (natwest) who has been adding on the charges. i went into natwest branch on thursday and no can talk to me about this - no even on the phone. wescot also said they cant talk to me about as its the bank that has been adding on these charges.

i have asked my bank for a statements from 6 years ago and waiting for them now. but could i claim back these charges also from wescot/natwest - neither of them are owning up to the charges.

what should i do?

netty_sland · 21 June 2011 at 10:32AM

Having already tried to reclaim in April 08 without success as the new ruling was being drafted up and all cases were put on hold. I have received a list of charges dating back to Sept 01 when the bank was then known as Abbey. However since then the bank has changed to Santander and I have received many extra charges in the last few months and am finding it very difficult to pay back these charges for example this week I am being charged £100 for 4 unpaid direct debits which is half of my weekly income, leaving me short for paying other necessities, ie; rent and council tax, which will take the other half of my weekly income. What I need to know is do I ask for a list of charges again from Santander going back 6 years as there are more over this period than dating back to Abbey in 2001? Any help would be appreciated.

podperson · 21 June 2011 at 11:51AM

You can ask them for a list of charges for the last 6 years if you want to. However the only refunds for bank charges at the moment seem to be under financial hardship grounds and these are generally reporting a maximum of 6 months worth of charges back - definately not 6 years.

hammy3107 · 21 June 2011 at 1:25PM

Hi,

I am new to MSE so forgive me if this is in the wrong place!!

I have just started action in reclaiming charges from HSBC and Santander. I have done the first step in sending the letter and list of charges.

Have received the following responses:
HSBC - believe that the charges were fair and will not refund - they do however want me to fill in a form listing my outgoings and incoming money to assess the situation. Has anyone done this?
Santander - also believe the charges were fair but have refunded £50 and will not charge me any more charges until August. Thats not much help as I have now learnt my lesson and will NOT be getting charged!

If someone can give me some advice on what to do next that would be great!

Thanks

bingobella_2 · 21 June 2011 at 2:52PM

hammy3107 wrote: »

Hi,

I am new to MSE so forgive me if this is in the wrong place!!

I have just started action in reclaiming charges from HSBC and Santander. I have done the first step in sending the letter and list of charges.

Have received the following responses:
HSBC - believe that the charges were fair and will not refund - they do however want me to fill in a form listing my outgoings and incoming money to assess the situation. Has anyone done this?
Santander - also believe the charges were fair but have refunded £50 and will not charge me any more charges until August. Thats not much help as I have now learnt my lesson and will NOT be getting charged!

If someone can give me some advice on what to do next that would be great!

Thanks

im in a similar situation with HSBC, i wrote to them and they responded saying get lost basically your not having your money, ive then sent all my paperwork to the fos to see if they can look into for me, in the mean time i wrote to HSBC and advised them that i was going to the fos however i did include an income and expenditure list for them to keep on file, ive heard they will only pay out for the last 6 months and only under extreme financial hardship. good luck. Cheers Lindsay

podperson · 21 June 2011 at 3:13PM

hammy3107 wrote: »

Hi,

I am new to MSE so forgive me if this is in the wrong place!!

I have just started action in reclaiming charges from HSBC and Santander. I have done the first step in sending the letter and list of charges.

Have received the following responses:
HSBC - believe that the charges were fair and will not refund - they do however want me to fill in a form listing my outgoings and incoming money to assess the situation. Has anyone done this?
Santander - also believe the charges were fair but have refunded £50 and will not charge me any more charges until August. Thats not much help as I have now learnt my lesson and will NOT be getting charged!

If someone can give me some advice on what to do next that would be great!

Thanks

HSBC have asked you to fill in an income/expenditure form to assess if you are under financial hardship as those are the only conditions under which they are refunding charges at the moment.

There isn't much else you can do - there is no success with taking these cases to court at the moment and if you take it the FOS they will only look at hardship claims as well - therefore they will agree with HSBC looking at your finances and since Santander could be seen to be 'acting sympathetically' in refunding charges and stopping additional ones in order to break any charges cycle then I doubt they will do much against either of them.

Bank Charges Reclaiming Guide discussion

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