Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

Out of everyone here who's reclaimed some charges, has any of your banks told you that they're now closing your account at all?

Nope look at post 85 of this thread

[smucks]

After reading most of this thread and asking someone on here I have put a letter in to my bank asking for a statement of any charges they have charged me over the last 6 years.
I took the letter in to my branch and straight away I was meet with "But you agreed to these charges when signing for the account"
A quick explaination of the information I have learned and its now on its way to head office/branch of Barclays.
I will let you all know what happens after the 40 days

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Nope look at post 85 of this thread

Consider it read

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I am still confused since its not an available balance.

The look of disbelief on the bank managers face is even better

[Pia]

Hi all, just had 2 letters in the post this morning, Barclays have sent for the Barclaycard but NOT the Bank account, wonder if that comes separate or if they really did need their own letter for that... I was told on the C.A.G forums i could kill the two birds with one stone.

Anyway, the charges aren't as bad as i thought, Argos had refunded quite a few times to be fair to them, so taking that into account they've only charged me £119.

Barclaycard have charged me £240 worth, again nowhere near as bad as i thought. But still, better in my pocket than theirs

Just a question though, the letter they sent with it, is that a bog standard reply?

[Mr Angry]

Pia, what did they send you info / printout wise?

[Pia]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

Pia, what did they send you info / printout wise?

Barclaycard sent pages and pages of statements, one for each month, all as detailed as my usual monthly statements.

Argoscard sent a less detailed version see here, for the whole time i've had an account open with them.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Pia

Hi all, just had 2 letters in the post this morning, Barclays have sent for the Barclaycard but NOT the Bank account, wonder if that comes separate or if they really did need their own letter for that... I was told on the C.A.G forums i could kill the two birds with one stone.

Anyway, the charges aren't as bad as i thought, Argos had refunded quite a few times to be fair to them, so taking that into account they've only charged me £119.

Barclaycard have charged me £240 worth, again nowhere near as bad as i thought. But still, better in my pocket than theirs

Just a question though, the letter they sent with it, is that a bog standard reply?

Pia, that's complete bull****. My other half used to run the Microfiche department when Barclays (Bank, Current/Savings/Loans) had them stored in Leicester.

They are now with an external company in Glasgow (at last checking with is former colleagues). The normal accounts are stored in sort code order and then account number and are printed to MF every three months.

For current accounts and savings the account number given to the customer is even given to them in an order so that when the fiche are ordered properly in the cabinet according to a/c number they are also (roughly) alphabetical in respect to name too.

I'm guessing the credit card statements are stored in the same way even now. No point filing statements away in a random order if they can't retrieve them.

Barclays are lying to you mate. I'd contact the Office of the Information Commissioner for advice on this one mate.

It makes me so when companies lie to you so blatantly.

[Pia]

Originally Posted by Shaun

I'm guessing the credit card statements are stored in the same way even now. No point filing statements away in a random order if they can't retrieve them.

That's what i thought, seems strange that they think we'd believe they store things and not be able to retreive them

Well i didn't get my Barclaycard til around late 2003 ish, and i ran my account well at the beginning so i doubt there'd be much point in seeing the rest of the statements.
If i knew there was lots of charges before 2004 however, i'd probably follow it through, but like i say i doubt there'd be much point.

[Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Pia

That's what i thought, seems strange that they think we'd believe they store things and not be able to retreive them

Well i didn't get my Barclaycard til around late 2003 ish, and i ran my account well at the beginning so i doubt there'd be much point in seeing the rest of the statements.
If i knew there was lots of charges before 2004 however, i'd probably follow it through, but like i say i doubt there'd be much point.

You need to go back to them pointing out that you only want the details of the charges and not the actual statements.

As for me Company A have responded again, they've obviously actually looked at my account this time because the threat of legal action is reduced to 'if you take it to court then we'll apply for instant dismissal and come after you for our costs...' and an offer of £4 for each £20 charge they applied (as they claim they have reduced their charge to £16 and the OFT is happy with this)

Looks like this one's going the distance. They are still stating that these are fair charges to recover there costs of adding a single line to my statement each month that they don't event print out (just email me to say the statement was ready) the amusing thing was all the justification they have previously provided for the £20 penalty charge consisted of them having someone to call me if the monthly payment didn't make it to them. Nothing whatsoever to do with going over my limit.

The big argument going back is that at one point in the past I had account cover on the card. I forgot about this but my card reached a point at which the account cover + monthly interest > minimum payment. when did they finally call me about this ? (what I apparently pay £20 each time for!) Only once the monthly payment failed to bring me back under the credit limit, not before. I believe that in this instance alone they had £100 over 5 months and although I was unhappy at the time, they refused to discuss any refund as "It is the customers responsability to monitor their account." So on one hand we have that your paying £20 because they have to employ people to monitor your account and on the other it my responsability to monitor the account. I'm going to court with this to contest that the only justification is that I should pay extra for the privilidge of having someone call me if my payment doesn't make it to them. Considering the rest is pretty much automated what were they doing with my interest payments all the time I was with them ?

Legal action starts on Friday as that was the dead line that they were given in my last letter. If once this is done and dusted I am able to reveal who company A is I will but I suspect that even If I win I will be forced to agree not to say as part of the agreement

[Mr Angry]

Originally Posted by Scarlett

You need to go back to them pointing out that you only want the details of the charges and not the actual statements.

As for me Company A have responded again, they've obviously actually looked at my account this time because the threat of legal action is reduced to 'if you take it to court then we'll apply for instant dismissal and come after you for our costs...' and an offer of £4 for each £20 charge they applied (as they claim they have reduced their charge to £16 and the OFT is happy with this)

Looks like this one's going the distance. They are still stating that these are fair charges to recover there costs of adding a single line to my statement each month that they don't event print out (just email me to say the statement was ready) the amusing thing was all the justification they have previously provided for the £20 penalty charge consisted of them having someone to call me if the monthly payment didn't make it to them. Nothing whatsoever to do with going over my limit.

The big argument going back is that at one point in the past I had account cover on the card. I forgot about this but my card reached a point at which the account cover + monthly interest > minimum payment. when did they finally call me about this ? (what I apparently pay £20 each time for!) Only once the monthly payment failed to bring me back under the credit limit, not before. I believe that in this instance alone they had £100 over 5 months and although I was unhappy at the time, they refused to discuss any refund as "It is the customers responsability to monitor their account." So on one hand we have that your paying £20 because they have to employ people to monitor your account and on the other it my responsability to monitor the account. I'm going to court with this to contest that the only justification is that I should pay extra for the privilidge of having someone call me if my payment doesn't make it to them. Considering the rest is pretty much automated what were they doing with my interest payments all the time I was with them ?

Legal action starts on Friday as that was the dead line that they were given in my last letter. If once this is done and dusted I am able to reveal who company A is I will but I suspect that even If I win I will be forced to agree not to say as part of the agreement

The OFT is not "happy" with £16.00 charges. They cannot force a non-disclosure on you as part of the settlement. I don't see why you just don't name "Company A". Someone may have prior experience of nailing them which could prove useful to you in bringing them to their senses. Additionally I think the OFT have a right to know that companies are now stating that they (the OFT) are happy with £16.00 charges.

Hold your nerve - unless you're talking hundreds of thousands in charges you are 99.99% certain not to see the inside of a court over this.

[Pia]

Scarlett, i took the amount of the charges from the statements, so i didn't think it mattered how they sent them as long as i had the records.

I thought the OFT had only said 'they won't get involved' for charges of £12 not £16

[Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Pia

Scarlett, i took the amount of the charges from the statements, so i didn't think it mattered how they sent them as long as i had the records.

It doesn't If you have the statements for the period in question. I am aware that some people don't actually keep 6 years of bank statements and so might need to get this information out of the company in question. Barcleycard and others are hiding behind the microfich wall to try and avoid paying out money. As you only asked for the details of the charges made, even if you don't need them as you actually have all the charge details, they should still be provididng them.

Originally Posted by Pia

I thought the OFT had only said 'they won't get involved' for charges of £12 not £16

The Co in question believe that because they insist on a DD being setup for every card then they are immune from paying the charges back and even go so far as to imply that the OFT has agreed to this! Their excuse is that they use the money gained from the charges to pay the people to call us when _we_ fail to pay them.

As this does not cover the majority of my charges (all but 1 is an over limit charge) this IS going to court. However, they are apparently fighting every case at the moment it is yet to be seen what happens in open court because once a decision has gone one way or the other it will have a slight knock on for all subsequent cases. (and will certainly be cited) I may consider only going after the over limit charges as this is by far the stronger case (i.e. they do absolutly nothing except put a line on my bill) on the other hand, the worst the judge can do is to remove that part of my claim, I don't believe that it will invalidate my whole claim provided I keep the 2 section seperate in the court papers. I may be seeing a solicitor for a free 1 hour consultation on this, after all the Co. do advise that I seek independant legal advice before starting a court action.

---------- Post added at 13:20 ---------- Previous post was at 13:16 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

The OFT is not "happy" with £16.00 charges. They cannot force a non-disclosure on you as part of the settlement. I don't see why you just don't name "Company A". Someone may have prior experience of nailing them which could prove useful to you in bringing them to their senses. Additionally I think the OFT have a right to know that companies are now stating that they (the OFT) are happy with £16.00 charges.

Hold your nerve - unless you're talking hundreds of thousands in charges you are 99.99% certain not to see the inside of a court over this.

Actually this might see the court as the Co believe they are immune from court action. I will be submitting a complaint to the OFT on this. I am deliberatly not naming them so that I can state that I have acted in 'good faith' on that point. More brownie points from the Judge in case they try to bring it up. (I am now assuming that unless there is a massive change in the outstanding cases, this will reach court)

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by Scarlett

You need to go back to them pointing out that you only want the details of the charges and not the actual statements.

As for me Company A have responded again, they've obviously actually looked at my account this time because the threat of legal action is reduced to 'if you take it to court then we'll apply for instant dismissal and come after you for our costs...' and an offer of £4 for each £20 charge they applied (as they claim they have reduced their charge to £16 and the OFT is happy with this)

Looks like this one's going the distance. They are still stating that these are fair charges to recover there costs of adding a single line to my statement each month that they don't event print out (just email me to say the statement was ready) the amusing thing was all the justification they have previously provided for the £20 penalty charge consisted of them having someone to call me if the monthly payment didn't make it to them. Nothing whatsoever to do with going over my limit.

The big argument going back is that at one point in the past I had account cover on the card. I forgot about this but my card reached a point at which the account cover + monthly interest > minimum payment. when did they finally call me about this ? (what I apparently pay £20 each time for!) Only once the monthly payment failed to bring me back under the credit limit, not before. I believe that in this instance alone they had £100 over 5 months and although I was unhappy at the time, they refused to discuss any refund as "It is the customers responsability to monitor their account." So on one hand we have that your paying £20 because they have to employ people to monitor your account and on the other it my responsability to monitor the account. I'm going to court with this to contest that the only justification is that I should pay extra for the privilidge of having someone call me if my payment doesn't make it to them. Considering the rest is pretty much automated what were they doing with my interest payments all the time I was with them ?

Legal action starts on Friday as that was the dead line that they were given in my last letter. If once this is done and dusted I am able to reveal who company A is I will but I suspect that even If I win I will be forced to agree not to say as part of the agreement

You are claiming through the small claims tracks aren't you? If so then they can stuff their costs as neither of you can apply to the courts for costs mate. Guff and bluster again. These companies make me really

[Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Shaun

You are claiming through the small claims tracks aren't you? If so then they can stuff their costs as neither of you can apply to the courts for costs mate. Guff and bluster again. These companies make me really

Nope its the county court using a D1 form...