Reclaim Your Bank And Card Charges

[lauzjp]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

Lloyds are nasty when it comes to their overdrafts... Guess who didn't get any of the £10,000 he inherited 6 months later

heehee, I did the same thing many moons ago - my bank manager (Lloyds) was phoning me up constantly until I spent down to about £3000 then he wasn't interested anymore!

to be fair, Lloyds have been great to me. There is a handy department called 'customer support' (ask the general call centre for the phone no.) and they can do such useful things as removing one bank charge a year, just cos you phone them and moan about it, or temporarily increase your overdraft if it has gone over its limit because of all the charges (mine does this often! I just forget that I get excess charges nearly every month). they even reduced my loan repayments to £20pcm, so in 4 years time I should have paid off my ickle loan I got so long ago I can't remember how much it was originally for!?

---------- Post added at 05:52 ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 ----------

I'm sorely tempted to go for this reclaim your bank charges thing, but they have been very good to me for over 15 years...

[Chimaera]

They've been 'good' to you for so many years because it's profitable for them - not out of the kindness of their hearts! So it's time to get writing those letters - remember it's now been decided that the charges all these financial institutions have been making for all these years are way over the top - that's why they are refunding them. That's your Sunday sorted out, then!

[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?

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by lauzjp

heehee, I did the same thing many moons ago - my bank manager (Lloyds) was phoning me up constantly until I spent down to about £3000 then he wasn't interested anymore!

to be fair, Lloyds have been great to me. There is a handy department called 'customer support' (ask the general call centre for the phone no.) and they can do such useful things as removing one bank charge a year, just cos you phone them and moan about it, or temporarily increase your overdraft if it has gone over its limit because of all the charges (mine does this often! I just forget that I get excess charges nearly every month). they even reduced my loan repayments to £20pcm, so in 4 years time I should have paid off my ickle loan I got so long ago I can't remember how much it was originally for!?

---------- Post added at 05:52 ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 ----------

I'm sorely tempted to go for this reclaim your bank charges thing, but they have been very good to me for over 15 years...

whats this customer support #?
is it uk based?

my experience of lloyds tsb is they will do anything to avoid increasing overdrafts as they not profitable enough, they keep offering me a loan to remove my overdraft why? because the overdraft isnt making them any money and the loan is a big earner for them at 18.9% apr. I am also hardly using the overdraft perhaps onve every few months.

" Incidently, if you put money in on the same day as you go overdrawn, you won't be charged."


Problem solved !
Youre £50 overdrawn on monday, you withdraw £50 from the hole in the wall and deposit it on the same day!
I know, I'll start digging now
I think with banks they see the customer as a means to an end, making money!
To hammer the point home I will tell you a story ( max bygraves )
I have had an account with lloyds tsb since around the late 80's.
I had never in all that time had one courtesy call from them.
All changed however in 2002 when lets just say a nice redundancy wedge was paid into the account.
The day after the money was due to be paid in I checked the balance as you do
I had to go out somewhere, but when I came back her indoors informed me that the bank had called and said they would call me back! now theres a change !
The resulting call was to assure me that the money had safely arrived in the account ( as I was placing down my new cd player )
But I can tell you that the shock of that call almost resulted in a warranty claim!

---------- Post added at 17:07 ---------- Previous post was at 17:03 ----------

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

whats this customer support #?
is it uk based?

my experience of lloyds tsb is they will do anything to avoid increasing overdrafts as they not profitable enough, they keep offering me a loan to remove my overdraft why? because the overdraft isnt making them any money and the loan is a big earner for them at 18.9% apr. I am also hardly using the overdraft perhaps onve every few months.

At one time they offered us a loan for the same thing, to pay off the overdraft.
But ofcourse aswell as the interest on the loan there would be interest, a higher rate, on the overdraft
Another money spinner is the insurance!

[lauzjp]

yeah the # is uk based, i can't find it right now though...

[Watchman]

my bestist mate has just recieved payment of over £2500 back due to "unlawfull charges"

[Pia]

Originally Posted by Watchman

my bestist mate has just recieved payment of over £2500 back due to "unlawfull charges"

Oooh nice
Which bank was that with?

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

" Incidently, if you put money in on the same day as you go overdrawn, you won't be charged."


Problem solved !
Youre £50 overdrawn on monday, you withdraw £50 from the hole in the wall and deposit it on the same day!

when I was at uni, I could cash a £50 cheque for 50p at Dillons.
Put the money straight into your account.
Repeat until pay day.
You've increased your balance by £100 (2 days of deposits before the first cheque clears which is covered by the 3rd day's deposit).
Actually paid off my overdraft once with this method thanks to the shop not ticking the box in the back of my cheque book.

[SMHarman]

This process is technically know as kiting. Works even more crazily if you have multiple cheque accounts and spin the money round in circles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_kiting

[kronas]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

This process is technically know as kiting. Works even more crazily if you have multiple cheque accounts and spin the money round in circles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_kiting

ok im confused, how the hell does that work!

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by kronas

ok im confused, how the hell does that work!

Because you're drawing funds on an account where you don't have the funds... then doing the same again to credit the initial account you drew upon... then doing the same again to credit the other account you drew upon... etc... etc... etc...

[Chrysalis]

I am still confused since its not an available balance.

[SMHarman]

It does not really work in the UK or anywhere these days as banks have redesigned their systems to cope with the concept of cleared funds and balances.
Back in the day, you wrote a check for $100000 on bank account A (in NY) and paid it into bank account B (in LA), while the banks sent the checks back and forth it showed as available to spend. In the mean time you wrote another check the other way and this balance never cleared in either account but you could spend it.

[Scarlett]

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?

I expect company A would have tried that with me (If I hadn't closed my account alrerady) but at the end of the day if the bank/CC company are being that nasty then your better off without them anyway.
I expect that we will see this happening even more as it's an easy way for the companies involved to avoid paying up. i.e. if you come after us for our illegal charges then we'll call in your loan...
They're probably covered by the T&C's so they can do it but any judge is likely to take a very dim view of that sort of behaviour.

---------- Post added at 16:22 ---------- Previous post was at 16:20 ----------

Originally Posted by AntiSilence

Tell them that it's all rubbish... It's UNLAWFUL for their charges, so they are in the wrong, not you.

I have now, it took me a few days to stop sniggering long enough to write them the letter though...