Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

I already claimed £228 worth of charges back 3 weeks ago! Will they still refund me for the 5 times they've tried taking this cheque out of my account? :erm:

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

As far as I understand it they will have to as the charges seem to be illegal.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

Sounds good to me! I'll have to get on the case again tomorrow! Cheers hun :)

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

No problem though its Mike (the OP) and Mr Angry providing the useful info. I have yet to see any cash from the bank yet they are playing ball so far.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

Well thanks for your help Mike - and Mr Angry! Good luck with getting some money back - at least I had £228 out of the B***ards!! :)

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

This is what was linked on the OP

Here's the background

Banks and card providers charge penalties if you breach your contract by defaulting, making a late payment, going overdrawn, returning a bounced cheque, or if a direct debit or standing order fails. The thing is, they're not allowed to do this.

What they can do is get you to cover the administrative costs that arise from it, but how much can it cost for a computer to print off a patronising automated letter, or to not process a direct debit? Not £25 to £40, but that's what they charge.

As many of you will have heard, the Office of Fair Trading has decided that banks and credit card companies should charge no more than £12 for such breaches of contract. However, the only reason they set this figure was: "In order to swiftly reduce charges and avoid heavy-handed regulation." In other words, the charge is still too high, but they just quickly set a limit to help all consumers immediately. If they procrastinated over regulation instead, we'd take longer to see the benefits. Also, it'd cost businesses money to implement new regulations, and those costs would filter down to us.

Since the OFT report, many people have already successfully recovered all of the charges plus interest that occurred in the past six years. (Six years is as far back as you can go in the courts.) You can do this too, whether you're claiming against your bank's charges or your card provider's. Here's how I'm going to do it:

1. Check how much they owe you

Firstly, work out what you're owed. I got this information by looking at my statements online, but you might use paper statements. If you don't have all of them, write to your provider quoting your account number and asking:

Please send me a comprehensive list of all the charges that you have made to my account in the past six years, showing the date and amount of each charge, and a description of what it was for. I make this request using my rights under the Data Protection Act and expect your response within 40 days.

You may want to call them a few days later to ensure they've received the letter. Make a note of the name of the person you speak to, as well as the time and date.

2. Ask for your money back

When you have details of the charges, you need to write to them again to request that they pay you back. My lawyer (OK, she's my mother, but she's a darn good solicitor too!) advised me that when you write to banks it carries a lot more weight if you show them in no uncertain terms that you know what the law is and where your authority for making a claim comes from. To that end, I'm going to use this letter, adapted from the successful one used by the Consumer Action Group:

---

Dear Sir/Madam

Account no: (your account number)

Over the past six years, you have charged me for (enter what they have charged you for, e.g. exceeding your credit limit). It has come to my attention that this is unlawful at common law, and under statute and recent consumer regulations.

In the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account, it is implied that you will conduct yourselves in a manner which complies with UK law.

I require full repayment of these charges, which I calculate at £xxxx plus interest of £xxxx. The total is xxxx. I also ask you to remove any default notices on my credit record that are related to these charges. A correction or amendment to the entries are not acceptable.

If you do not comply fully within 14 days, I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount, plus interest and costs, plus a claim under ss.7 and 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998 without further notice.

Furthermore, I shall submit to the OFT a complaint under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 upon the basis that you have failed to comply with their direction of 5 April 2006 and are therefore not 'fit and proper' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act.

Yours faithfully

xxxx

---

The reason why you ask for default notices to be removed is if you defaulted on a charge. It's not fair that your credit record looks bad because of an unfair charge. If you're sure this hasn't happened to you, you can of course remove all the text in italics. If you include the text in italics, make sure you de-italicise it first!

Again, I'd follow up this letter with a call a few days later.

3. The response

If my bank doesn't respond in two weeks I'm going to give them a call. They may offer a full refund, which would be fantastic. If they offer a partial refund, I'll tell them it's not acceptable and write another letter telling them so.

If the bank tells me that they'll get back to me later, I'll write to them saying that I'll allow them just 14 more days before I take them to court. (I'll attach a court form too, see point 4.)

If the bank tells me the charges are not unlawful, I'll ignore their bluff and stick to my guns. So far, the banks have paid out in full before going to court in almost every single case, so clearly they know they're wrong.

4. Wave court action in their faces

If they still haven't settled, I'll download a county court claim form called an 'N1' from the internet. I'll write the history of what happened on the form and quote the relevant law. Then, rather than issuing the form, I'll send it to my bank. With it I'll enclose a letter saying that I shall issue court proceedings in 14 days if they don't agree to settle in full. I'll also enclose bank statements as supporting evidence.

You can get the claim form and related guidance here.

5. Take court action

If they don't pay, I'll then issue court proceedings. This sounds scary, but it probably won't even get as far as court anyway. My experience of small claims (claims of less than £5,000) is that big businesses that are in the wrong will often let it get right to the point where court proceedings are imminent, then they'll pay up. You don't need a solicitor at the hearing if the claim is less than £5,000, as it's all rather informal. It'll cost around £130, which I can add to my claim. If I lose (and I'd be very surprised if I did), I won't have to pay the banks costs unless they can show that I've acted unreasonably. Which I won't.

If my claim was for more than £5,000, I'd get a solicitor before proceeding. Good ol' mum!

> For more guidance on claiming, see HM Courts Service and Consumer Action Group.

> Read the follow up articles on claiming more charges, calculating interest owed and sticking to your guns.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

Right...................:erm:

60 Bank statements later the grisley details...:erm:

Lets just set the scene and say I did got through a divorce and this did not help things out at all and as some one here will know if your not on the ball 1 bank charge can snowball into other charges very easily.

I'm with Yorkshire bank and they charge in the following way. They have a day rate if your over drawn (£5,ÃƒÆ ’ƒâ€šÃ‚£6,ÃÆ⠀™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£8) Its gone up over the last few years. If you go over drawn they also apply a charge the next month (£25,à ƒÆ’‚£20) and this has actually dropped ober the years. They also apply a charge of £33 for unpaid items and sometimes £33 for 'debit under advice'.

This is the break down since sept 2001

7 x £5.00
101 x £6.00
53 x £8.00
10 x £20
12 x £25
18 x £33

Grand total £2159 in bank charges in 5 1/2 years and I'm gutted. It makes terrible reading once you add it all up and frankly I'm ashamed that I ran my account like that.

That asside lets see what the bank will have to give back :) thats the only good point......


Thought about wether or not to post this but I would like advice from mike and mr angry as to the chances of getting this back and lets face it it stands as good advice to those thinking of getting into debt.. it's not nice.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

Excellent post................well done.

See letter above or the link on first post....................get that letter off to them and ask for your £2159 back !

Cases I heard of and seen in press people have got a full refund.................... so please do it you have nothing to loose !

Mike

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

that's blantantly immoral to be extorting £228 from someone in 3 weeks. the average person could be put in financial difficulty by it. they make money out of misery and exploiting the weak.

---------- Post added at 22:18 ---------- Previous post was at 22:15 ----------

handyman, I'm with nationwide - transfer to it - the overdraft is free you only pay interest. you apply for it via the on line banking screen, over the years I have gradually increased my limit and it's now £8k.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

I can't tell you how bad I felt during 2002-3.

There was a point that I had zero cash for so long that I forgot my pin number and that with earning £1500 from ntl.

On of the charges was £33 for refusing a bill when I was £8.00 overdrawn, this incurred a £6.00 charge for 15 days as I did not check my bank account assuming nothing had gone in or out. Then they hit me with a £25 charge for the over drawn period. That 1 mistake cost £148 for been a few quid overdrawn. They really did not help the situation.

---------- Post added at 22:22 ---------- Previous post was at 22:19 ----------

I can't transfer to another bank I have such a low credit record. Can't take advantage of any savings.

Yorkshire bank is part of Clydesdale bank which is in turn owned by National Australia bank group btw ;) According to the literature I got.

I think I'll look at the joint account tommorow but that mostly during my getting better period so won't amount to much.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

and I suppose they refused to increase or give you an overdraft?

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

I raised my overdraft to £1200 before I had any troubles. Then when I did get into bother the bank decided that they should reduce the overdraft down to 0 by £75 each month. Of course this just made the situation worse as I moved to a lower paid job as well.

Even now depite the fact that my current account has been clear and ran well for a year they refuse to allow me a over draft such that when I made a mistake thinking I'd paid for something with my joint account switch when I'd used my current account switch I went overdrawn and was getting charged £8.00 per day. I kicked off and got the charges removed, after all my joint account was well in credit.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

You should always leave it with a polite - "Please could you tell me who you Data Protection Manager is as I wish to get my last 6 years of statements to see if you have charged me indisproportianate charges that have been deemed unlawfull by the OFT?"

Then see what happens... :D

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

a disgraceful state of affairs. they should make their money on providing a service not by screwing the customer.

Re: Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges
 

Any one know what is a reasonable amount of interest to add or should I leave that out as I would have to calculate the interest on each charge?