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If you use
information on this site please let us know
if it's useful. E-mail: mail@bankcharges.info (we
only publish first names to protect your identity).
Law
centre helps 1 million people battle banks over unfair fees (post
your comments online to
the Evening Times and support Govan Law Centre)
your
comments & experience
all e-mails
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listed - most recent first
[679] ----- Original Message -----
From: PF
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 5:27 PM
Subject: Scottish Court
> Hi
> Has anyone taken Bank to Court for non-compliance of Data
Protection Act
> (Subject Access Request)? I am looking for advice/help ie
which form do
> I use to do so in Scotland. My local Sheriff Court were
unable to
> advise me which form I did this on!!!! Furthermore they
have also
> stated that fee exemption/dispensation does not apply to small claims
> which I do not believe is so. Any help/advise.comments
welcome please. [GLC note: DPA non-compliance
should be dealt with by a complaint to the Information Commissioner
in the first instance, not the court. For
how to do this click here; separately, fee exemptions (for those
in receipt of certain benefits, tax credits or civil legal aid apply
to all lodging dues - you can download the
Scottish Courts Administration exemption form here (there are
similar exemptions for England & Wales; and Northern Ireland].
[678] ----- Original Message -----
From: Patricia
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:22 PM
Subject: re bank charges
i would just like to inform you i sucessfully had £1,168
returned with no argument from rbs -motherwell branch. thanx 2 the
information on your site.
well done
[677] ----- Original Message -----
From: Emma
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 8:09 PM
Subject: RBS charges
Thanks for your website and offer of help.
I sent the attached letter and info to RBS on 20/1/07 detailing that
I have been charged just under £3,000 within the last 2 years!!!
I have had no reply or an acknowledgment from them.
What do you think I should do? Letter 2 isn't really appropriate as
they haven't said no yet. From reading comments on your site, other
RBS customers have had the same problem.
Your support would be greatly appreciated.
[GLC note: If your bank is refusing to reply or correspond, try
sending our new 'Ignored?
- send this letter'].
Emma
[676] ----- Original Message -----
From: Russ
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 6:03 AM
Subject: Bank of Scotland
I received my statements for my account with the Bank of Scotland in
November, totalled up the charges and it came to £747.00
Wrote letter one and 8 weeks later they sent me a letter offering
£640.00. I refused to accept this and telephoned the
customer service number and I disputed this with the agent. She
finally agreed to refund all my charges in full. Charges were
reimbursed into my account last week.
This website is invaluable and I have informed everyone at my work to
do the same!!!!
Russ
[675] ----- Original Message -----
From: Barbara
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 10:14 AM
Subject: Halifax refund
Hi
Used your letter to request details of all my charges over the past 6
years, giving them 40 days to respond as I had not kepr statement details.
The bank called me after about 25 days and asked if I was going to
persue a refund
I advised them I was. They then asked it we could resolve it in a
conversation on the phone. gave me all the details and advise me that
I had had £1900 in charges over 6 years
They offered to send details told them It was ok I believed them.
They offered £900 to settle there and then.
I refused and said while they probably had a right to charge me I
though the charge was excessive at £39.00 so I offered to settle
at 2/3rds (£12.00 as per the OFT )
Said I would accept £1300. They settled there and then on the
phone, sent me a letter of confirmation in the post the next day
which I returned same day and the money was in my account in 2 days.
I must say I feel they have been fair and I was happy to settle
without having to go through all the letters.
It was £1300 I didn't have before so I am happy.
Barbara
[674] ----- Original Message -----
From: joanna
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 5:34 PM
Subject: NATWEST!!!
Hi,We worked out that over the last 6 yrs NATWEST had charged us over
£3000,thanks to this website we sent letters 1 & 2 but
received no reply,so I rang the Ombudsman and filed a complaint
I have been told by the Ombudsman today that Natwest are offering us
the full £3298 in charges in writing (we have yet to receive the
letter). The Ombudsman also told me that anyone that has gone through
them for their bank charges has so far received 100%. Court is a good
option but for those of us that don't know how or cant afford the fee
up front the OMBUDSMAN is there to help,they understand and are very
helpful and FREE.Thanks for a brill website, without it we wouldn't
have known this was possible.Goodluck to everyone out there still
trying to BEAT the BANKS!!!
[673] ----- Original Message -----
From: ken
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 4:17 PM
Subject: refund of charges
> HI, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR EXELENT WEB SITE,WE ARE
CLAIMING OUR CHARGES BACK AS A FAMILY AND SO FAR HAVE RECEIVED
£3500 BACK INTO MY ACCOUNT.(keep up the good work.) REGARDS KENNEY
[672] ----- Original Message -----
From: Roderick
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 8:51 AM
Subject: Court Case against Abbey
I have filed yesterday a case against Abbey National for £3115
in bank charges. See attached the content of the filing.
I went through the whole procedure before this and was treated very
badly by them. Loads of conflicting advice. Some things I was told:
1. we dont have to sent you statements and if you dont have them you
cant go to court
2. we dont have managers here you can speak to but we'll call you
back (never did)
3. you can go to small claims court unless you first complain to the
financial ombudsman
4. charges "that what you get for taking the banks money"
When I asked them for £3500 they "offered" me £385
as a "goodwill gesture". I refused it but they insisted on
leaving it in my account. They then advised that because they could
show I had already received a payment I couldnt got to small claims court.
From reading your site I had hoped things wouldnt be this difficult
but Abbey do seem to be one of the worst banks for claiming refunds.
Roderick
[671] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 9:15 AM
Subject: Alliance & Leicester Success
Procedure followed as per instructions, a full refund of £600
received after lodging a smalls claims action. Their letter contained
a statement not admitting legal liability and also a threat of
further action which created a smile as the account is closed. At the
same time they have defended the court action.
Stuart
[670] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kellaway, Vicki - The Lincoln Echo
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 10:17 AM
Subject: RE: Media enquiry
Do you live in Lincolnshire? Have you received unreasonably high bank
charges? Are you contesting them in court? Have you won your charges
back from your bank? The Lincolnshire Echo newspaper, which covers
areas including Lincoln, Gainsborough and Sleaford, is looking for
people from these areas, and surrounding villages, who would be
interested in sharing their experiences. Please call reporter Vicki
Kellaway on 01522 804328 or email her on vicki.kellaway@lincolnshireecho.co.uk
[669] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 7:18 PM
Subject: RBS Bank charges
Hi,
Thanks for your helpful information and your letters also.
I sent letter 1 from your site and received a reply from RBS within a
week asking me for more detail of the charges and sent me a reprint
of my bank statements free of charge. I sent another letter detailing
all of these charges and received another letter a week letter
advising they would consider my request.
I received a final letter today (30/01/07) advising that while they
don't accept my complaint, they will give me £940 as a gesture
of good will. This is the full amount that I had asked for!!
Once again thanks!
[668] ----- Original Message -----
From: janet
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 7:11 PM
Subject: HSBC
thank you for your website. what a result. sent letter
one on 6 Jan 07 claiming £3,000 from 3 accounts over 6
years. received offer today, which we have accepted, for £2,925.
[667] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 3:39 PM
Subject: Excellent advice
Thanks to this great web site, I have been able to reclaim £720
from Halifax Bank of Scotland for a period from Nov 2001 to mid
2004. As being in Scotland, you can only claim up to £700
in small claims court, but they repaid the fees charged and the
interest calculated, and also paid the £39 filing fee. I
followed the manner of letters provided by the site. They first
offered £300 for the entire amount suggested of about £1400,
but I refused. After the second letter, no response other than a
phone call which I did not take and did reply to. Then filing the
small claims court and made it for the period indicated. I still have
approximately £500 still outstanding on charges from mid 2004 to
present date, but will persue that a bit later.
Once again many thanks for your excellent advice and manner in which
to claim back these charges from over zealous banks.
Thanks Jim
[666] ----- Original Message -----
From: James
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 11:18 AM
Subject: bank refund- got it
hi I only contacted the Coop Bank 17 Jan with step 1 and 2 and also
requested 6 years statements. out of the blue today we
received £769.50
this does not include debit interest or overdraft arrangement fees
but we will settle
all I wish to do is thank you so much
I don’t know whether I told you before all this came from a
really nasty trick the Bank did on one day in January
they let my switchcard through at lidl £11 and Halfords £8
and charged £35 each time, the same day they stopped a cheque
for the newsagent £7 and charged £35 for that so a weeks
papers, car shampoo and kitchen towels cost me £105
if this happened to everyone it would be a crime
so I cant thank you enough and hope that you keep up the good work
yours
James
[665] ----- Original Message -----
From: Adele
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 11:49 AM
Subject: bank charges
letter sent off today (30/1/07) recorded delivery to the bank of
scotland - I've only went back on charges over 5 years - the total os £3787!
Including over £1000 for last year - all sent via email! Which
costs pennies and not the £30 a time they charged me - worst
month was May when I was away with my son in hospital in England -
they charged me £653!
Anyway I'll wait and see what happens - but thanks to the feedback on
your site I now know - stick with it to the end!!
Adele, Glasgow
[664] (posted late) ----- Original Message -----
From: Andy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 2:41 PM
Subject: Natwest Refund
I would like to say a huge thanks for information on your site, I
recently used step 1 letter to request a refund of £2,795 from
the Nat West Bank. Although this can be a long process it is
worthwhile. I received an letter stating the usual that they
believe charges were fair blah blah blah but as an exceptional
matter would offer me £1,400. I had a loan with the bank with a
balance £2,650 which if settled would cost £2,228. As I
wanted to pay off this loan I spoke to the Manager and stated if they
refunded enough money to pay the loan I would not persue the claim
any further and would use the funds clear the outstanding debt.
It did nt take long for them to come back to me and agree so I if you
have outstanding debt and are willing to use the money to pay it off
it can help you get more money back without having to send step 2
letter. Good luck to everyone trying, keep at it and don’t give
up !!!
[663] (posted late) ----- Original Message -----
From: darren.
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 1:39 PM
Subject: Halifax bank charges refunded in full!!! £6174
> Dear Govan Law Centre
> A big thank you for your site. Thanks to your information
and the letter
> templates which I hve followed to the letter I have just
recieved £6174 in
> my bank account from Halifax.
> I began the process several months ago with the first letter
requesting 6
> years worth of statements. This was an ordeal in itself
because they sent
> me the last 2 years worth of statements twice before telling me
that the
> system couldnt handle such a request. It had to be
actioned manually.
> I then took a couple of months to compile the list of charges
into the
> first letter. and still did not send it for a few more
weeks. The first
> letters, (one for honoured transactions and the other for dishonoured
> transactions were sent on the 11th October 2006. A reply was
recieved on
> 14th October stating that Halifax disagreed with the the OFT's findings
> and that I would not be offered a refund, and that if I was still
> dissatisfied to go through the Ombudsman.
> Letter 2 was duly sent on 14th October with a similar reply
being recieved
> on 19th October. No offer had been made as a gesture of
good will.
> I sent a 3rd letter on 19th October stating that it would be innapropriate
> to tadke my complaint to the Ombudsman, and that I would be
submitting my
> claim through the court on 20th October.
> Unfortunately, due to the Halifax levying a further £250 in
charges to my
> account in the meantime, I was unable to submit my claim to the small
> claims court until 24th October. I did this on-line.
It was so simple.
> I monitored my claims progress on line noting that it was
acknowledged on
> 3rd November. This was followed by hard copy of the
acknowledgement in
> the post. I was at first dismayed to read that Halifax
would be
> deffending the entire claim. I was expecting to have to
appear in court
> in early December.
> However, On Friday 10th November I was ecstacic to open my
on-line banking
> to discover 2 deposits had been made into my account, the first
for £5924
> (my claim) and the 2nd for £250, this being the court costs.
> I have yet to recieve any further communictions from Halifax regarding
> closing my account, although I am expecting it.
> I must urge anyone who has been a victim such as I have to
follow these
> initially time consuming steps. The end result is difinately
worth the
> effort.
> I had a £500 overdraft with my bank, and on many occasions
asked before
> exceeding my limit if it could be temprarily extended to cover known
> expenses until I could replenish my account. Every time I was
denied, and
> because of this it has been Halifax that has kept me down for so many
> years.
> My initial demise was not through banking foolishness, but
through a
> matrimonial breakdown and an unscrupulous business partner.
So it would
> clearly pay the big banking institutions to listen more closely
to the
> needs and requests of thier customers.
> This customer certainly feels like he is KING right now.
> Well done Govan, and once again a big thankyou. Keep up
the fantastic
> work. Darren
> Worcestershire
[662] (posted late) ----- Original Message -----
From: Jane
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 11:01 AM
Subject: Royal Bank of Scotland
I have to amdit to being a bit sceptical when I first had your
website link passed to me but thought hey ho nothing ventured nothing
gained. I graduated this year and while I was a student I had
around £1500 of charges applied to my account for one thing and
another. I followed your instructions and sent letter one only
to be told no sorry we worked within your terms and conditions and
don't agree with the OFT. I sent letter two and one week later
received a no admission of guilt but as a goodwill gesture offer
letter to refund £961. I realise I could have tried to
have this offer increased but decided to accept it and funds will be
paid into my account within 5 days.
Thank you for your help and advice as I had actually previously tried
to have charges refunded at branch level over a year ago only to be
told no, so this was a major result for me.
[661] (posted late) ----- Original Message -----
From: Darren
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 10:44 AM
Subject: HSBC
Dear all, I must say a huge thankyou to my buddy wayne who sent me a
link to your website and a massive thankyou to you for providing the
templates and information needed to get MY money back. I sent your
step 1 letter together with a £10 cheque to HSBC requesting a
list of charges. Within 2 weeks they replied saying that this
information will follow shortly and enclosed my cheque saying that
there wouldnt be any cost.
After 2 weeks or so and 60 statements being posted through the letter
box I ascertained the amount of charges and followed the step 2
letter. After 6 weeks still had no reply so I emailed and rang them
asking for a response or I would seek legal advice and issue
preccedings. Within 4 days I had the response I wanted, I asked for
£1,750.00 to be refunded and they made me an offer of
£1,500.00 on the basis that they were not accepting liability.
So I am going to take the money and run! Thanks again!
[660] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sam
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 7:29 AM
Subject: Natwest
Hi,
Thank you for your site, I used the first letter to Natwest and got a
full refund straight away of £1700.00. A good will gesture they
said but truth is that they know they have ripped people off.
Thanks
Sam, London
[659] ----- Original Message -----
From: Craig
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 10:57 PM
Subject: b of s refund
Just received £789 from Bank of Scotland after taking out a
small claims court action. I am now taking out another to get more
due money back. Thanks for the helpful website
[658] ----- Original Message -----
From: Bridgette
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:42 PM
Subject: Cooperative bank charges
Hi I have just received £1120 from the cooperative bank today
for charges they took within the last year from my accounts.
I will be going back 5 years to claim as I know they have charged me more.
Regards
Bridgette
[657] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rach
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 9:33 PM
Subject: Unfair bank charges
I would just like to say thank you for providing such a wonderful
resource and the support to go after the "big" banks.
I sent a letter to Natwest 7 days ago requesting the refund of my
unfair bank charges - and to my surprise I received a letter stating
that they would be refunding the charges to my account!
The letter I sent was the first letter you recommended to send. I
just added a little detail about how I had been banking with them for
15 years, always been in credit etc and sent it on its way directly
to my branch manager with a copy to head office.
I have been so pleased with the result I just want to let other
people discovering your website as I did - that it is possible!
I thought my amount was small and wouldn't be worth chasing - but
believe me it is!!
Thank you - without your website and resources I still would probably
be wondering how to word my letter!!
Rachel
[656] ----- Original Message -----
From: Radigan
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 7:11 PM
Subject: charges back
Many thanks we used the letter and sent it to our bank in December
and on 27th January we had a reply. They are going to pay us a
substantial amount back or as they put it a good will gesture. I
would advise anyone who has been hit by these bank charges to send
this letter and hopefully they too will receive their money back.
[655] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tom
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 6:49 PM
Subject: Halifax Hits Back - A Warning!
Hi,
Just to let everyone know Halifax Plc has just refunded in total over
£5000 in charges covering the last 5 years.
It came at a price. As a Halifax customer for over 40 years and after
being messed about I raised several complaints with the Halifax
regarding treatment from telephone and branch staff. My account was
suspended all my income for four weeks was snatched by Halifax. I was
told, never written to, it was because I '..complained about charges'.
Why? Because I foolishly told them if nothing was to be done I would
take my complaint to Financial Ombudsman Service. I am now in a
position where I cannot pay mortgage or some bills because they only
accept payment through Direct Debit.
So heed my advice open up another account with another bank before
you declare what a bank now clearly sees as 'open warfare'.
Halifax may have given me £5000 on paper but have manipulated
figures and caused me at least the same in damage to my
creditworthyness as well as distress to my family.
If full refund which I got, was offered at start all distress would
have been avoided.
These are people who don't care about you, or anyone else, they just
want to make a fast buck.
Don't let them win but don't lose out either.
Tom
[654] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jason
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 9:43 PM
Subject: Bank charge refund.
Thanks for all the useful info on your site! I eventually got a
refund of £190 off of the Bank of Scotland after a period of
several months of letters. At first they point blank refused to
refund late payment fees on a credit card, after a while I was
offered £95 as a token of their commitment to me as a valued
customer! A couple of letters later I was repaid all charges out of
court as a further gesture of their commitment to me as a customer,
although they refused to admit that they were acting in an unlawful
manner. Thanks once again, I probably wouldn't have got the refund
without your site. Well done!!
Cheers!
Jason
[653] ----- Original Message -----
From: Russell
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 4:27 PM
Subject: Three succesful claims
Thank you for the help and advice on your website. I have
pursued three main protagonists:
Halifax plc - £2,200
Claimed a refund for all bank charges going back 6 years. They
made an offer of £1,000 in response to a letter before action,
which I refused. After no further response, I issued an online
claim. Halifax filed a standard acknowledgement but paid in
full before the end of the 28 day deadline to file a defence.
Capital One - £1,800
Claimed a refund for all credit card charges going back 6 years.
They made an offer of £500 in response to a first letter, which
I refused. After no response to a final letter before action, I
issued an online claim. Capital one filed a standard
acknowledgement but paid in full before the end of the 28 day
deadline to file a defence.
"The Woolwich" as Barclays Bank plc - £2,800
Claimed a refund for all bank charges going back 6 years, plus their
own penalty interest rate. They made an offer of £1,000
after I issued an online claim. Barclays filed a standard
acknowledgement and then entered a very detailed defence, clearly
designed to deter the faint hearted. The claim was referred to
my local court and I had to pay another £100 to have the a claim
allocated to a particlur track. I provided full claim details
to the court and Barclays paid in full (including the additional
court fees) a week before the first hearing date.
Halifax plc - £2,200
Three months after the first claim was settled, Halifax transferred
£190 from my bank account to my credit card account without
permission or notice before or after the event. This caused a
further raft of charges and interest to build up and they made
derisory offers to refund small amounts of my own money in response
to the usual letters. I issued a new claim a week ago and have
added full penalty interest at their own rate, plus my own charges of
£12 per item for my won administration costs and inconvenience
caused by denial of access to my own money.
Barclaycard, GE Money, Mint, Amex
Have all refunded individual charges in response to one-off letters.
Yours Faithfully,
Russell
[652] ----- Original Message -----
From: margaret
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 1:48 AM
Subject: refunded bank charges
hi there just thought i would let you know that i received a refund
from my bank.last year alone i paid over £1200 in charges as i
had been out of work for a few months,they gave me back £640 but
i am writing to the manager again for a further refund on charges i
incurred in 2005 as i have been informed that you can backdate a few years.
thank you
margaret
[651] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 10:02 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Still pursuing for some other friends and Family, but so far results
have been pretty impressive.
SELF
Monument Credit Card (Barclays) £988.73 Settled in full
MBNA EuroBank £485.00 Settled in full
MBNA EuroBank £2500.00 Settled in full
Marbles Card(HFC Bank)£2300.00 Settled in full
Nationwide Buildind Society £3000.00 Settled in full
BROTHER: HBOS £1900.00 Settled in full
In Law: HBOS £1870.00 Settled in full
InLaw: BOS £617.00 Settled in full.
All paid out after receiving Courtletter. Not one went to Court!!
[650] ----- Original Message -----
From: Marc
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 1:38 PM
Subject: Nationwide.
Claimed 6 years charges for 2 accounts, £3019. Paid full amount
claimed in 1 month before court action. EASY.
Marc
[649] Original Message -----
From: tony
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:06 PM
Subject: un fair bank charges
I have just won an out of court settlement with lloyds tsb for £2000
i was supposed to go to court on the 30th of this month.
Lloyds will take you all the way and as in my case pay out when you
decided to follow through with court action.
tony london
[648] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rachel
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 2:13 PM
Subject: unfair charges
having recieved £1789 refunded in charges from NATWEST i
gleefully accepted even though they stood firm in there FINAL
decision which was no(HA) I took my case to the financial ombudsman
who were very good in helping the NATWEST come to there (OTHER FINAL
DECISION) which definetley helped out with xmas. thankyou so much for
this site its been a god send. .........please be aware of
other sites who claim to help you get a refund for a percentage
because tho financial ombudsman do it for free without going to court
aswell..with lots of thanks rachel x
[647] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kerry
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 11:14 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
I have just received £3749 as a "full refund" from
Bank of Scotland.
Thank you.
Kerry
[646] ----- Original Message -----
From: dawn
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 8:42 PM
Subject: we got our money back
thank you very much , we followed your advice and we have recieved an
offer of £8204 . the full amount that we claimed for , all it
took was two letters and a phone call to the halifax,bank of scotland
telling them that i would not accept an offer that it would have to
be the full amount or i would take them to court and would claim the
interest on that amount . i didnt answer their calls to me i waited
for a letter and it came with the full offer . so anybody out there
doing this just keep at them . dont be nasty but be firm and you will
get your money
thanks andy
highlands
[645] ----- Original Message -----
From: stewart
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 4:06 PM
Subject: Got a refund.
> Thanks for the advice I sent letter one 2 weeks ago - heard
nothing then sent letter 2 - 5 days after sending this I was sent a
letter from RBOS offering me a settlement figure of £1816!!
Amazing the full amount and not arguing!!
> Delighted with this - they also said in their letter they would
offer me a different account if we ever went into more charges, but
thats okay as I have opened another account for security.
Thanks for all your help.
[644] ----- Oriinal Message -----
From: Helen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 2:07 PM
Subject: I got a refund
I sent the first letter to them and altho they said in their letter
(RBS) they found their charges fair they would refund £114.00.
Thanks so much
Helen
[643] ----- Original Message -----
From: keith
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 11:18 AM
Subject: bank refund
hi i recived an offer from barclays of £725.00 this morning this
has been 9 days from start to finish,could you tell me if i should
accept this offer or ask them for more as they owe a lot more than
this amount or shall i just accept it [GLC note: see our comment to e-mail
[163] below].
regard
keith
[642] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carol
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 10:39 PM
Subject: I won
Hi Guys, its Carol, again just thought I would say a great big thank
you for this site and the advice and encouragement given. I can now
confirm I have received £3,685 from my 3 RSB accounts, all I can
say is hold your nerve it’s worth it the end I think brings my
total to to nearly £5,000. So once again hang in there and thank you
Carol
[641] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gerry
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 1:34 PM
Subject: Unfair Charges
Sir,
I have just recieved £190 in refunds(full amount) from The Royal
Bank of Scotland due in unfair charges as a result of declined
transactions. Of course the 2 page letter from the bank did include
the immortal phrase,'..we are refunding charges as a goodwill
gesture..', but I will not hesitate to use the 'Govan Law Letter'
again in the future , if the need arises.
I will also be spreading the good work that you do all my family and
friends, and thank you for your public spirited effort to rid this
pollution from our society.
Yours
Gerry
Coatbridge.
[640] ----- Original Message -----
From: daniel
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 12:23 PM
Subject: HSBC refund
I got my letter this morning refunding £350 for charges made
when i went over my overdraft limit
I had no problems at all with HSBC refunding me the money.
Thanks
Dan
[639] ----- Original Message -----
From: HPW
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:23 PM
Subject: HALIFAX REFUND.
Just to say thank you for such a useful site.
I have just had a £1300 refund from the Halifax. I started the
process in September 06 and it went as far the Halifax stating that
they were going to defend the claim in court&ldots;
Today I received my money back in full with no explanation - as
yet&ldots;I have had to use all the letters and issue a summons
(£120) . I am now back in the black which is where I was before
being charged ludicrous amounts for going an initial £5
overdrawn ( and being charged £58 for the privilege&ldots;..)
Do not be intimidated by the banks threatening letters. Just keep
referring back to this site for information and other claimant's
experiences&ldots;it's worth the effort&ldots;
Thanks again
HPW
[638] ----- Original Message -----
From: michelle
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 11:01 PM
Subject: bank charges refunded!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!
After following your advice and sending the first letter, I have just
recieved a letter from the Bank of Scotland offering to refund the
full amount of charges £617.00 as a goodwill gesture, although
they stated clearly that any future charges will stand and they will
close my account should I fail to manage it correctly etc etc.....
So I guess i'll be looking for a new bank very soon then as I have
just recieved two new charges or would I be pushing my luck to try
and claim those back too!!
THANKS AGAIN
Michelle
[637] ----- Original Message -----
From: Susan
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:52 PM
Subject: unfair bank charges
Dear All,
reading the emails sent to you gave me the courage to go for my
unfair charges, so it is only fair to tell my success stories to
encourage others. I sent letter 1 to Bank of Scotland - £520,
RBOS - £320 and Clydesdale Bank - £460. The first two sent
me a letter saying they would look into the matter before settling in
full although the RBOS says any further claims and they will not be
willing to allow me to keep my current account. The Clydesdale bank
have sent me a cheque for £260 and on sending the second letter
have still dug their heels in, so it is off to court with them. I
also sent a letter to Egg credit card who have threatened to make me
pay my full amount of debt immediately if I pursue the matter, would
appreciate advice on that one. However, keep reading the letters and
go for it everyone. Also, when you receive a result please email to
give others encouragement to do so
Thanks a lot
Susan
[636] ----- Original Message -----
From: Neil
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 5:48 PM
Subject: Abbey
I sent your first letter in December and the Abbey said they needed 4
weeks to have a look.
Today, when I checked my account, they refunded the full £280!
Thanks for the great info and advice!
[635] ----- Original Message -----
From: Prince
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:15 PM
I claimed a refund from HSBC worth £ 580.00. After 15 days I got
a letter offering £ 567.00. Result!
Of course, they stated that this was no admission of liability and
that they are only settling for economic reasons.
Everyone should go for it&ldots; it only takes a few minutes of your
time and a letter sent by registered mail.
[634] ----- Original Message -----
From: martin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:58 PM
Subject: (no subject)
I would like to let you know that I was offered all of my bank
charges going back to when I first open my account which is
£3,266 I would like to take this opportunity to thank your
company for the two letters I used in order for me to successfully
get all of my unfair bank charges back.
Martin
[633] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dionne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:06 PM
Subject: Barclays & Woolwich
Just a quick note to let you know I used the information provided on
your website and I have received £350 from Woolwich and £300
from BarclayCard. In both cases, this was half of the amount of the
total charge I requested to recover, as they claim they deducted the
£12 they are legally entitled to charge. I sent the second
letter to BarclayCard challenging the decision, however they wrote
back stating that was the only amount I was going to receive and then
they credited the money to my account even though I hadn't accepted.
I'm not taking the matter any further as I don't have the time to do
so right now. However, I am in the process of recovering the charges
incurred on my MINT credit card. I will let you know how it goes.
Just wanted to let you know how much money I have received so far and
to say a big: 'Thank you!'.
Dionne
[632] ----- Original Message -----
From: Colin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:54 PM
Subject: successful claim
I too was successful in claiming charges back from Alliance and
Leicester, although only a few hundred pounds, £560, the
principle was the same. Alliance and Leicester tried every threat and
trick in the book but ultimately they paid up, with my costs included
as well. Never ever back down.More power to your web site
Colin
[631] ----- Original Message -----
From: dale
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 2:05 PM
Subject: bank charges
Dear Govan
thanks for all the info on bank charges, I claimed £1.350.00
from barclays on the 2 Jan 2007. then in todays post 17th jan 2007 I
got an offer for £1.000 thats just after the first letter.
I am not exepting this offer, and i will be going for the full amount
plus the intrest.
thanks again
Dale
[630] ----- Original Message -----
From: Robin
To: male@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 7:49 PM
Subject: refunded bank charges
After a lot of hassle the Halifax paid out the full amount of my
claim £3100+£120 court fees on the 29 December 2006.
I started my claim in July 06. The Halifax refused at first to
make any payment, they then made a goodwill offer of £1100 which
I refused. They followed this up with some quite intimidating
letters suggesting I contact the ombudsman etc, but I read your site
again which gave me the confidence to see it through to the very
end. At the beginning of December 06 I issued court proceedings
against the Halifax and on the 29 December 2006 the full amount of my
claim appeared in my bank account. A few days later I received
a letter from the court advising me that the Halifax were going to
defend the claim. I then received a letter from the Halifax
confirming they were going to defend the claim even though they had
already paid out. I then received a letter from the Halifax
saying that they were not going to defend the claim purely for
economic reasons.
I would advise anybody who is having second thoughts to see it
through, you will get your money. Thank you for your invaluable information.
Robin
[629] ----- Original Message -----
From: Graeme
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 2:51 PM
Subject: First Direct
My bank charges over 6 years were well in excess of the small claims
limit of £5,000. I went to the Financial Ombudsman Service,
which is a free, easy to use system. After only 2 months, First
Direct have agreed to refund £6664, my initial claim in full.
Don't be afraid of the power of the banks, even they are subject to
the law of the land. Thankyou for providing such a useful site,
especially the letters, I've recommended it to many people, it just
shows what people power can achieve, Many Thanks, Graeme
[628] ----- Original Message -----
From: THOMAS M
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 6:56 PM
Thank you very much for all your advice. After requesting my bank
charges of £532 to be refunded from RBS, they have offered me a
full refund. That was after only sending the first letter. Thanks a
Million. That's a total of £1500 we have had refunded in the
last 3 months.
Thomas & Claire
[627] ----- Original Message -----
From: MORRAY
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 3:59 PM
Subject: refund from barclays
Wow, a friend told me about this site, but to be honest did not
believe it would ever work. That was until i did all as per
instructed and then received a cheque from Barclays for £470.00.
So I feel it only appropriate to thank you, and to spread the word to
all my friends, Morray
[626] ----- Original Message -----
From: John
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 8:55 PM
Subject: Halifax Charges
Dear Sirs
Thanks for all the fantastic information on your website. Halifax
have settled today for £1,408. This is only around 50% of the
charges however more than I ever dreamed of getting back.
Thanks for your help
[625] ----- Original Message -----
From: X
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 4:43 PM
Subject: Rbs?First Direct/Lloydstsb
Just to let you know I have recovered thus far the following as a
result of following your advice;
RBS £879
LTSB £310
First Direct £485
Total: £1,674
LTSB made an immediate offer in full following my second letter.
First Direct made the offer in full following my first letter and RBS
paid up after failing to acknowledge my claim filed in court and
after judgement was entered......after a threat of the bailiffs and a
member of the financial press present to witness the bailiffs
entering the RBS branch. Almost disappointed it didn't happen. I am
in the process of filing a second claim with RBS, they have entered a
defence, but my its poor. RBS' solicitors (not the courts) have asked
me to provide further info on the charges. As all the details were
supplied on a spreadsheet with my request for a refund, I have told
them in no uncertain terms that I will not assist them in their
defence of the claim and that they need to recover all documentation
from their client, including my correspondence. In all honesty I
think they are banking on the defence looking intimidating - but
trust me when you break it down, it boils down to them hoping to get
it thrown out on a technicality - which I have ensured can't happen!!!
DO NOT ACCEPT 'gestures of goodwill' for reduced settlements. I work
in banking and from an insider's point of view I can assure you, you
will get your money. Banks are seeing these claims every day and in
some instances have hired specialist teams merely to deal with the
increased bulk of payments made as a direct result of bank charges
claims. The majority of banks anticipate at some stage if the
customer pushes hard enough, paying these claims.....it is cheaper
than contesting them. Equally, the influx of claims and the
investigation that is currently underway into bank charges by the OFT
is as a direct result of the consumer's complaints. The British
Banking Association has reluctantly agreed to assist in the
compilation of the report......but the banks are unhappy as the
reduction in these charges which is likely to be enforced following
the report's completion, signify a substantial decrease in the banks'
income......in a retail banking market that has become very competitive!!!
Well, I shall follow this up with an update on my second RBS claim
when its all decided.
[624] ----- Original Message -----
From: Chris
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 9:39 AM
Subject: Bank of Scotland Charges
Thanks so much for your help. Please add another £1250.00 to
your total.
Chris
[623] ----- Original Message -----
From: Derek
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 9:41 PM
Subject: Refund of Bank Charges
Dear Sir
Further to all the good advice available on your excellent web site I
approached LloydsTSB for the refund of £250.00 charged to my
account over the previous six year period. After the second letter
relating to court action, the full amount was replaced into my account.
Thank you
Jenny
Northampton
[622] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sarah
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 6:52 PM
Subject: Thank you!
I just wanted to say thank you for an excellent web site and advice.
I sent the first letter to Abbey three weeks ago to reclaim charges
of £220 incurred over the past three months.
I have just received full reimbursement of these charges from Abbey
and can't believe how easy it was to claim this back.
Many thanks again.
[621] ----- Original Message -----
From: Angie
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 3:50 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Hi
I hope you can help me. Your web page on bank charges is wonderful
and thanks to you I received an offer of £4092 which I have
accepted, however the Bank of Scotland that I have had the problems
with and who have given me the money are not so keen on lifting the
Defaults that they placed on my husband and I, defaults that were
only there because of the amount of charges they were placing on the
account every month. I have written to them further regarding this,
can you help any as this is the only problem we have on our credit
files and this was only placed on us due to the level of charges that
were on our account. we spoke to them continuously and they did not
at any time help us and they also did not inform us of the defaults.
Can you help???
Thanks
Angie
[620] ----- Original Message -----
From: david
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 3:42 PM
Subject: Refund!!!!
> Thanks Govan law!!!!
>
> Got a letter from Bank of Scotland today to tell me that they
will be
> refunding all my charges.... A WOPPING £5000... yip thats
FIVE THOUSAND
> POUNDS :-) :-) ;-)
>
> Thanks so much for all your help!!!
>
> David
[619] ----- Original Message -----
From: Peggy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 4:54 PM
Subject: Nationwide refund
Dear all at Govan Law Centre
Many Thanks.
I recently used your letter templates Steps 1 and 2 in order to write
to Nationwide. They had taken £120 from my account for 4 direct
debits that were 'over limit', Nationwide did not inform us of this
in any way - my wife noticed the money had been taken while checking
our account online. I received a polite refusal from Nationwide and
offers of their complaints procedure. Ten days after sending Step 2
letter I registered a Court claim online, this was issued to
Nationwide officially on 4 January. I have just received a letter
from Nationwide acknowledging that they have repaid £150 into my
account (£120 returned fee and £30 Court costs), they did
not mention the word 'Court' in their letter - presumably I am meant
to believe that the Court action played no part in their decision to refund!!
Many thanks for fantastic site
[618] ----- Original Message -----
From: Errol
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 4:16 PM
Subject: step 1
hi,
I have just received a letter from Barclay's offering £430 for
the past six years of charges incurred however they amount to
£830 which is a bit of a difference. so I am sending them letter
2 to demand the full refund.
many thanks for this useful info,
Errol
[617] ----- Original Message -----
From: brendy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: Result!
Hi i emailed you just over a week ago outlining my intention to
demand up to 12 years worth of charges refunding. Well today on the
phone i managet to get £1067 dating back to Feb last year that
department advised me to forward the letter onto another dept
(concerns and queries team) regarding the previous 11 years.
Thankyou for the advice and If/when I get more refunds ill fire
another email your way!
Regards
Brendy
[616] ----- Original Message -----
From: jehangir
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 12:56 PM
Subject: Bank Charges - First Direct
Good day to everyone. By following the steps laid on this
website I have successfully retrieved £735.00 back from First
Direct in charges I have paid. I only recently became aware of this
website via a friend and now recommend this website to everyone I
speak to and state that I am proof that it can be done. I also show
them the letter from First Direct that states that they stand by
their charges and only on commercial basis credit this amount as the
time and effort for them to go to court would not be viable.
To be honest I found that First Direct were very co-operative and
that they even sent out the last 6 years statements free of charge.
All I can say that to anyone and everyone is to carry on fighting for
your money from unfair charges.
This whole process just took a few hours out of my time and now I can
start 2007 with an extra financial boost.
Good luck
[615] ----- Original Message -----
From: helen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, January 06, 2007 7:01 PM
Subject: HSBC bank charges
Hi,
I sent letter number 1 back in October 2006. I was able to do this
quickly as i had a registered online account. I was able to go back 5
years and retrieve all of my statements. The charges amounted to
£466.00. I did not receive a reply, so i sent the same letter
again in November 2006 asking why they had not responded and could
they please do so ASAP. I received a letter telling me they were
looking into the case and i would hear back from them by 2nd January
2007. In December i received a FULL refund of £466.00 which they
put in my account immediately. A great start to the New Year!!! Thank
you so much for all your help.
Helen, Carlisle
[614] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carol
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 5:36 PM
Subject: Abbey National Refund
I just had £340 refunded from Abbey, thank you so much for
providing this service.
[613] ----- Original Message -----
From: A
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 3:37 AM
Subject: RE: Reclaiming from LLOYDS TSB -Successful
Hi,
I have been pursuing Lloyds Bank, for my charges, amounting to
£935.06, I started this in Oct 2006, Today (04 Jan 2007)i have
recieved a letter from LLoyds (Paul Touff - Customer Service Officer)
that they will credit £750.00 into my account within the next few
days!! - Now.... I am considering rejecting this and demanding my
full claimed amount? I'll have to sleep on this!!
And this was before i actually sent the Court Claim Form!
I am now considering to attack my other banks/credit card companies.
I will keep you posted-----
[612] ----- Original Message -----
From: Chelt
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 8:54 PM
Subject: (no subject)
Hi Big thankyou ..... your site has been so useful... I bank with RBS
i went
through all my statements and charges where just over £1600, i
sent first
letter, i had no response for at least 3 weeks i called them, it
seemed they were
constantly fobbing me off. At last 2 months later they have agreed to
pay the
whole amount back.... excellent and this was there first offer.... I
am well
chuffed.... thanks
[611] ----- Original Message -----
From: DAVID
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 8:55 PM
Subject: Royal Bank of Scotland
Dear All,
Many thanks for your invaluable advice. I Wrote to RBS using the
template for the 1st letter just before Christmas claiming
£310.00 from the last six years. Today I received a reply
offering a full refund !! what can I say, just off to draft the same
letter re my partners Halifax account, I`ll keep you posted.
Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year, ours is, thanks to you
Regards
Dave
[610] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jacqueline
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 5:02 PM
Subject: hi
Hi,
I received £750.00 from my bank. I was asking for £4,000.00
back from charges incurring over the last three years. In one way I
am pleased to receive some monies but on the other it is a far cry
from the amount I asked for.
Please advise me if I should one more time to see if I can get more
of these charges recouped.
With kind regards,
jacqueline
[609] ----- Original Message -----
From: C
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 6:12 PM
Subject: Refund bank charges
Bank charges claimed :£750
Refunded: £750
Last six years (lloyds tsb)
THANKS to your website i received full compensation for my claim
today.I sent standard first letter and recieved a knockback for
charges.I then sent my own 2nd letter saying how can the justify
£30 for sending a punched out letter from a computer telling me
i was overdrawn.I received letter today telling me "as a gesture
of goodwill" they will refund my charges.So people get claiming
your money back.
[608] ----- Original Message -----
From: Steven
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: Barclays
Hi,
Many thanks for your help but I'm after one quick question.
I sent step one to Barclays and straight away got offered £1k!
Do I accept and if not can they go back on it?
Thanks
Steve
[607] ----- Original Message -----
From: Leigh
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 6:18 PM
Subject: HSBC Bank Charges
> Hi,
>
> I just wanted to thank you for your assistance in recovering excess
> charges from my bank. I sent off Letter 1 a couple of months ago
to HSBC
> head office to recover £570 of charges that had been
applied to my
> account. I recieved no correspondence since that time and was
just about
> to send another letter when I recieved notification from them
that they
> would be putting £430 in my bank. Fantastic!
>
> Leigh
[606] ----- Original Message -----
From: patricia
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 4:30 PM
Subject: halifax/bank of scotland refund
>A most sincere thank you for your invaluable advice as
> it has resulted in the bank finally offering me £2300
> .... They stalled and offered £600 but I refused so
> they said that was the end of the matter. I intended
> going to court but decided to ring the ombudsman and
> make a complaint too. Five days later I got the offer
> which I will be accepting. It has not been easy as
> the bank does drag it out but believe me it is worth
> it so if you are reading this and losing hope, don't!
> Go for it. the site is marvellous and I tell everyone
> about it. You deserve a medal!!
> Neil
>
> Patricia
[605] ----- Original Message -----
From: Louise
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 2:16 PM
Subject: Halifax
Hi
I just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU!!! Halifax owed me £810 in
bank charges over 3 years, I sent the first step letter off and
Halifax got back to me within 14 days offering a Goodwill gesture of
£552 ! As is it January I am obviously very short for money so I
accepted their gesture and I have now received the money.
Now I know that banks etc will pay up, can I now do the same for all
my credit cards and loans as well? Also can I claim for bank charges
on closed bank accounts?
Thanks Again
Louise
[604] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, January 03, 2007 10:45 AM
Subject: Natwest Charges
I got a refund of £4000 from Natwest literally 2 days before the
court case! However they still applied charges from the date I issued
the court case in May to the month of the court case in November.
They are trying to argue because I accepted the £4000 I cannot
claim for these charges but I clearly told them from the outset that
any additional charges from May are a seperate issue as the claim was
for 2002 to April 2006. As such they again are being difficult so I
will be taking them to court using a solicitor this time as I will
take it all the way if they do not pay the full amount. (I accepted
the £4000 but this didn't include interest they had charged me
on the fees or the court fees!).
I had an offer from Argos card services as a goodwill gesture of
£120 when I am owed £250, which I declined. I also have
Littlewoods Visa, Preffered Mortgages, Additions and Black Horse to
chase too. All these charges were accrued when I had to stop work due
to a neurological illness and although I explained my circumstances
they all continued to charge me!
I will let you know how I get on.
Rebecca
Northampton
[603] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:47 PM
Subject: Intelligent Finance
Thank you!
Between 2001 and 2005, my partner returned to University; it was a
struggle with only one wage coming in to the house and the banks gave
us a 'hammering'.
Intelligent Finance
I used the two pro forma letters provided on your website to which
Intelligent Finance responded with the usual 'the charges were as per
their terms and conditions' replies, so I issued a small claim from
my local County Court. The bank failed to respond to the claim and as
a result, I was able to secure judgement in default. I was in the
process of having the judgement transferred to Scotland in order to
seek enforcement in the Sheriff court (I have my mortgage with the
Halifax, so I was reluctant to sue the Halifax directly) when the
bank paid up in full. I recovered £496 (bank charges) plus
£114.17(judicial interest) and £80 (court fee).
The Cooperative Bank
I used the first of your pro forma letters to complain about the
£2426.50 in charges that had been deducted from my accounts over
the past six years. Two weeks later, I went to the cash machine and
much to my surprise, I found that I had more money in my account than
I was expecting - the bank had refunded the entire amount.
Cooperative by name, cooperative by nature! I subsequently received a
letter from them apologising for the charges and saying that they had
been refunded as a gesture of goodwill. Perhaps they realised that if
I took them to court they would have had to pay me a further £700
in interest and fees...
BarclayCard
I used letter number one and after about a month, Barclays wrote back
to say that they had reviewed the charges and they had refunded
£141 (the difference between the charges that they had imposed
and the £12 maximum specified by the FSA). I have since raised a
small claims action in order to recover the remaining £424, but
I have received notice from the court that the bank intends to defend
the claim. I'll keep you informed about how it progresses.
Once again, thank you very much for your excellent website, without
it the banks would still be 'taking the mickey' out of us consumers
and furthermore, as the banks had been getting away with it for so
long, in recent years I noticed that other companies (e.g., insurance
companies, public utilities, telecommunications companies and so on)
were trying to get in on the act and impose penalty charges of their
own. I expect that they will be thinking again now!
Kindest regards,
Anthony
[602] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carole
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 7:22 PM
Subject: bank charges
thanks to your letters my son has been offered £471 back from
our bank HSBC it as taken since november for the offer but worth the wait.
thank you
[601] ----- Original Message -----
From: helen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 1:06 PM
Subject: success.
Hi. Just thought I would let you know that I recieved a letter from
the HBOS offering me a goodwill gesture of £1991 . The total
amount of charges on my account was £3000 , so I am pleased to
get the amount offered. Just goes to show you that they know they are
in the wrong and that the little person in the street is no longer
willing to put up with the big banks pushing them around. I have
another account with the HBOS and will be pursuing that too, wish me
luck will keep you posted.
Many Thanks to your company.
Helen
[600] ----- Original Message -----
From: Alexander
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 11:42 AM
Subject: Co-Op bank
I havent had my account with Co-Op for that long, however they
refunded every charge (sans interest) taken off my account - to a
total of £680.00
Thank you very much!
[599] ----- Original Message -----
From: Derek
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 8:48 AM
Subject: Lloyds TSB - part refund of charges
Dear GLC,
I am pleased to let you know that Loyds TSB have refunded £750
to my current account after the 2nd letter (the max. small claims
award). However, the amount of charges I am owed is £3500 and I
intend to pursue them further. Thanks for such an informative web site.
Derek.
[598] ----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 12:49 PM
Subject: (no subject)
Dear sir
My bank has just offered me £700 for unfair bank charges as the
total cost of charges is £1.500 im not sure what to do i don't
want to be greedy but there is a big difference, can you please
advise me on this and if possible send me a template letter to send
to the bank turning down there offer. thankyou for your time
Trevor
[597] ----- Original Message -----
From: andy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 11:26 AM
Subject: re charges
i want to say thank you so much for this website i got over £2000
back from the halifax after 3 years charges
[596] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lynn
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 8:56 PM
Subject: Refund of Charges
Hi, just wanted to let you know that I used your letters to get
£322 back from Intelligent Finance and I'm now pursuing HBOS for
£300 and RBS for around £1700.
Thanks for such clear and easy to read info.
Lynn
[595] ----- Original Message -----
From: Chele
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 5:46 PM
Subject: charges
> Hi
>
> Just to let you know, my partner and I followed the advice on
the website
> and sent through the first letter. My partner had a full refund
of £500
> within a week or so (Co-operative). I waited two weeks and got
the full
> amount I was asking for - £375 (Abbey).
>
> Thank you so much for running the website and helping so many
people get
> back the unfair charges which are quite rightly due back to us.
>
> Regards and Thanks
>
> Chele
[594] ----- Original Message -----
From: kaz
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 23, 2006 5:18 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Thank you for your Web site.After contacting RBS we got a total
refund of £1,126
Thanks again Karen & John
[593] ----- Original Message -----
From: Susan
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 9:15 PM
Subject: Barclays Bank
> Hi
>
> I sent off letter one thinking I had only been overdrawn three times
> totalling £85 and received a offer of goodwill for the sum
of £730 for the
> past six years.
>
> I rang them up to see how much I had actually been charged and
the total was
> £1400, I accepted the second offer of £900 which has
been put into my
> account today. I would like to thank you site and encourage more
people to do this. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
[592] ----- Original Message -----
From: david
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 7:26 PM
Subject: refunds
Hi all! Merry Christmas from a happy visitor to your site. I
initially visited the site because I was a bit peeved at being
charged £80 for being overdrawn by a few pounds for about four
days, and lo and behold, your Step 1 letter resulted in an immediate
refund from First Direct, along with another earlier fee of £25.
Since then I have recovered another £55 from them and have now
written for the last couple of charges totalling £60 from them,
which doubtless they will repay shortly. My wife has also used your
letter to recover £55 from First Direct.
Encouraged by the rank cowardice of First Direct (who have also
backed down on proposals to charge my wife £10 a month for
keeping her current account open for the heinous crime of earning
less than £24K pa), I have now trawled through my credit card
and bank statements for the last six years (who'd have thought my
hoarding habit would come in handy?) and anticipate further refunds
of about a thousand pounds.
You are providing a splendid resource to those who can spare a few
minutes to read your advice and go through their statements. The
downside is that the buggers will still find some other way to screw
us - the credit card companies just jacked their APR up to make up
for it - but it's nice to have the whip hand with them for once - the
last time I had a serious complaint (against Halifax, now HBOS) it
took the Ombudsman to give them the kicking they deserved, after two
years of correspondence.
Keep up the good work!
David, Haydock
[591] ----- Original Message -----
From: Cat
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 9:22 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
>I put in a claim for £2250, I have had a response to my
first letter
> offering me £1752, should I accept or send in the 2nd
letter stating I want
> more - I am scared of losing this offer and end up with nothing??
>
> Cat
[590] ----- Original Message -----
From: Mrs L
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 5:59 PM
Subject: Bank charges refund
> Hi there,
>
> Due to your helpful information & handy useful letter I got
from your
> website, I have been fortunate to have received a letter from my
bank with
> an offer of a 'goodwill gesture' of £895.00, their response
was to the first
> letter and have to admit was very prompt, all happened within 2 weeks
> actually.
>
> I have accepted their offer which was sent to them last week, I havent
> received the funds as yet, but its very positive & I am ever
so grateful to
> you!
>
> Thank you so so much, this will really help us out with all the
costs of
> Christmas !!
>
> Kindest Regards
>
> Mrs L
[589] ----- Original Message -----
From: Robert
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 12:05 AM
Subject: Successful bank refund
In response to http://www.govanlc.com/step1_letter.html
I had received several charges totalling £130 for exceeding my
overdraft limit of £0 by no more than £6.49 at any one
time. I was unhappy and found http://www.govanlc.com/ using Google.
I followed the advice and I sent letter 1 to Abbey on 18 November
2006 and recieved a response a week after saying they would deal with
my response and they didn't know the outcome of the complaint.
Today I received a new letter saying they would refund me £160.
The extra £30 charge was pending whilst my complaint was on-going.
Thank you very much for all the advice and help. I have regained
faith in Abbey again and i'm a very happy customer.
Robert
[588] ----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 5:07 PM
Subject: Halifax charges
Wanted to thank you for the letters which we sent. We had to make a
small claim against Halifax who refused to pay and we won receiving
£1875.00 including Court cost. I am now helping my father-in-law
pursue Abbey. Thank you.
David
[587] ----- Original Message -----
From: G
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 3:11 PM
Subject: Re bank charges Refund
Dear Sir/Madam
Following using your letters on your site i have just secured a
£512 refund from the halifax. A great wouldnt you agree.
Grahame Long
[586] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 11:22 AM
Subject: Unfair Bank Charges refunded
Hi,
I got charged £25 by the Clydesdale Bank for being overdrawn by
£62 for two days. After sending your letter, they dropped the
charges as a 'gesture of goodwill'. Well done and thanks.
Gordon
[585] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jamie
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 11:04 PM
Subject: refunded charges
> Hi
> I'm writing to say thanks for the advice about reclaiming unfair
charges. I
> received an 'administration charge' of £35 on top of a
traffic fine from
> Enterprise-Rent-A-Car. I amended your letters to apply to my
situation and
> got a full refund.
>
> Thanks
> Jamie
[584] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jo
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 10:21 PM
Subject: BANK CHARGES
Hi
Halifax have just offered me a refund of over £2,000. Just what
I need before Xmas.
I'm going to try with Barclays too!!
Jo
[583] ----- Original Message -----
From: Joseph
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 3:52 PM
Dear Law Centre,
I have recently had £350 refunded from first direct and I am now
persuing actions against two other banks I have accounts with. I must
thank you for your kind help in this matter!
Regards
Joseph
[582] ----- Original Message -----
From: martin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 8:30 PM
hi,
just thought i would let you all know that the rbos have just settled
out of court for the sum of £2500, i sent the 1st letter away
and within 2 weeks my local branch offered me £789!! i knew that
i was owed more but was a little bit sceptical that i would get
anymore so was tempted to take it.
after reading everyone else's story i said no way i'll get my money
back so i went straight back to them with a court summons, 2 weeks
after that i recieved a letter from a solicitor offering me
£570?? i emailed her telling her i had already been offered
£789 by my branch and refused it, i told her i was owed
£2500 and due to the stress and time of work that these money
worries had caused i was prepared to accept no less.
a week later i recieved an email back saying the bank was prepared to
settle for the full amount. =)
i urge anyone who is having any doubts to stick with it beacuse you
will get your money back as long as you follow the correct procedures.
best of luck to you all.
martin
[581] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tony
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 6:04 PM
Subject: A Refund
I had to send the final letter to Yorkshire Bank, but they still
insisted it was my fault but had decide to give me back half the
charges. So thats another £156.00 to add to the total.
Many Thanks
Tony
[580] ----- Original Message -----
From: Colin
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 3:18 PM
Subject: Full Refund of Bank Charges
> Hi,
> Thanks to the resources on your website I have managed to get
£2,903 back
> from Halifax. They were a bit stubborn and after offering
£672 as a good
> will gesture (which I didn't even consider) they finally put the money
> back in my account. I did have to take them through court but I
would add
> to anyone thinking about going through court, do it! It isn't
that tricky
> and thanks to the help and info on this site and the help from
money claim
> online I became really straight forward. How banks expect people
to put up
> with charges of this degree is beyond me, but thankfully I have
the money
> back now so thank you very much!
>
> Colin
[579] ----- Original Message -----
From: craig
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 11:12 AM
Subject: Charges
Hi,
I would just like to thank you for the information and letter
templates on your website. By using your site I managed to recover
£370 worth of charges from Bank of Scotland. I am very pleased,
and would not of done it without your help. I would just like to say
that your website is one of a kind and would like to thank the people
who supplied the information on it. Thank you very much
Craig
[578] ----- Original Message -----
From: ANGIE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 5:40 PM
Subject: HSBC
Hi.
Thanks to your website I have just recived £1041 from HSBC.
Just before Christmas how goods that.
If you are thinking about doing this DON'T THINK, DO IT!!!
Angie
[577] ----- Original Message -----
From: D
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 5:22 PM
Subject: bank charges
thank you for you help i have just reclaimed my bank charges back
from the halifax.i asked for a refund of £832 i reseived a
letter after 1 week saying the have got my letter will get back to me
within a month 7 day later got a offer .£1164 two years bank
charges back so thank you .I am a single mum with 3 young childern so
this money will realy help with chrismas.
[576] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:17 PM
Subject: Barclays
>I had £4500 of charges over the last 6 years and today I
have received a
> offer of goodwill for the sum of £1000. Just like the post
from Derek I will
> now be sending them letter 2. Paul
[575] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jo
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006 5:22 PM
Subject: First Direct & RBS
Just to let you know, success!
First Direct refunded £412.00 after just the first letter - and
this was the full amount outstanding! Hurrah!
I have submitted two claims against RBS, the first resulted in no
acknowledgement by them and as such a default judgement. However no
monies were forthcoming so in went the bailiffs - well almost! When
they realised that I was about to push the button on warrant for the
bailiffs, they decided to pay me.....today. A total of £879.00.
Oh and the cherry on the cake? They were due to pay the monies on
30th November and as a result of them not doing so, I incurred a
further £76 in charges - which they have now reversed!!
Please, please, please can I encourage you not to accept 'goodwill'
offers from these banks. Off the record I spoke to a solicitor
representing RBS and she indicated the banks will pay up if you
persist down the legal route. Also bear in min that the OFT has just
commissioned a further report into bank charges, in conjunction with
the British Banking Association and it is likely to find in the same
way as the report concerning credit card charges. Really this money
is being unjustifiably taken from your accounts. I can tell you as an
employee of the largest UK retail bank....BANKS DO NOT REWARD LOYALTY
AND ARE NOT BURSTING AT THE SEAMS WITH COMPASSION.!!!
Good luck!
[574] ----- Original Message -----
From: THOMAS
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 1:05 PM
Over the last 18 months RBS have taken charges totalling £1010.00
from my account. I sent of the first letter and was told no chance.
I sent of the second letter and was offered a good will gesture of
£545, which I declined and threatened them with court action, 7
days later I received a letter offering the full sum of
£1010.00.The full sum has now been credited to my account.
Thanks very much for all your help.
[573] ----- Original Message -----
From: ADER
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 1:26 AM
Subject: Halifax bank refund
Hi,
After following your examples for claiming my bank charges and
learning from others who have posted their results on your website i
am very happy to say i have just a day ago received all my charges
and costs in full totalling £710 .
I would like to thank you and other users for helping me to claim
this back and let you know how i went about it .
Firstly sent the letter requesting my last 6 years statements along
with a cheque for £10. Following a number of phone calls and 4
weeks wait the statements finally arrived.
I checked through all my statements finding the charges that i had
been given and wrote the dates and amounts down and added them up at
the end to £630.
I then sent a step 1 letter requesting a full refund of the charges
(which i listed on a seperate peice of paper ) to my bank(HBOS).
Around 2 weeks later i received a reply with an offer of £160
which i promptly refused by sending back the letter as seen in step 2
along with another which i added myself saying i wouldnt settle for
any less than the full amount or i would be raising court action.
A few days later i received another reply saying they were sorry i
wasnt happy and wouldnt be offering me any more and telling me i
should complain to the financial onbudsman bla bla bla...
At this stage i was determined to beat them and proceeded to go to
the moneyclaim online website to raise a court action.
I thought this would be difficult and was slightly worried how far it
would go but still went ahead with it all. Raising the
court action was very easy, all i needed to do was fill in both mine
and the hbos's address along with a description (i only entered "
i want to claim back my unfair bank charges") and that was it
!, i payed my charge of £80 on line and printed of my claim form.
A few days later i received confirmation from the courts that the
action had been filed.
I then logged onto moneyclaim website and checked the status every
other day.
Then i received a letter from moneyclaim that the bank had had a
response from the HBOS which stated they were defending the claim and
filed an acknowledgment of service and had 28 days to gather their
evidence .
Then days later i checked my account and found all my charges and the
court fee were in the account !! i was so pleased. A letter
followed the day after from the HBOS stating they didnt agree with
the claim but wouldnt go ahead with the case as they wouldnt be able
to get their costs back etc etc.
The whole process was an experience and i would encourage everyone to
hold out to the end as i did .
Thanks to all and good luck to anyone persuing a claim.
[572] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dan
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 3:46 PM
Subject: Halifax
I wish to thank you for your helpful resources on your website. I had
£146.00 in bank charges through Halifax. I sent them letter 1
and they declined, then letter 2 - they declined. So I called their
bluff and began proceeding through money claim online. I recieved a
letter 28 days later offering to reinburse me in full £146.00
plus £30 court fees!!!!
Now I am telling all friends and family to go to your website and do
the same thing - if there are enough people doing this then maybe the
banks will rightly reduce their ridiculous rip off charges.
Once again thank you very much, I couldn't have done it without you!
Kindest Regards and please keep doing what you are doing.
Dan
[571] Original Message -----
From: MASSEY
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 8:51 AM
Subject: REFUND
I have used all your letters and followed all your advice.
The Halifax acknowledged the first letter and refused on the basis
that they do not agree with the legal analysis of OFT statement.
They did not respond to my second letter.
I went to County Court and issued a small claim against them.
They had till 4th December 2006 for which they did not respond.
On Tuesday the 5th December 2006, Crewe County Court issued a
judgement against the Halifax ordering them to pay up.
Debt of £1036 and £120 Court costs equalling £1156.
Many Thanks for your invaluable help.
[570] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stark
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 2:35 PM
Subject: Charges from HSBC!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello everyone,
I had some difficulties with my finances a couple of years back, to
much going on at once in my life, marriage, baby and having to move
home. Dispite raising the issue with my bank, they could not offer
any help, i.e. higher temp overdraft etc etc, to resolve the probelm.
What a mess I got into. I went over my agreed overdraft limit by
quite a bit, paid it back, paid a massive charge for doing so, went
overdrawn again the following month because of the charge, paid it
back, followed by another massive charge.
Then I was stuck in a visious circle, and started to go overdrawn
every month and getting charged every month by the bank, so much so,
that I just simply added thier monthly charge to my list of regular
bills!!!!! This went on for just over two years until I finally
managed to catch up and sort myself out.
Then I came across you guys and decided to give it a go. I worked out
that within the last two years, my bank had seen me off for nearly
£1,900. I sent Letter One in October and, zilch, not even a
phone call. This was followed by Letter Two in November, which I
thought would work, but again, no reply!! Then I rang them to see
what was going on a couple of times, but was just fobbed off.
Down-hearted by it all and feeling beaten, I decided to ring them on
monday to complain about thier lack of response. I was immediately
calmed down when the adviser apologised and said that a response had
been sent out and I would recieve it very shortly. I reckoned that it
would be a fob off letter written by some manager who has had a
massive pay rise from the income of my charges, but here's just a
little bit from the letter.
''If your claim for a refund proceeded to court, we therefore believe
we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees''
''The bank is, however, mindful of the management time and
irrecoverable legal costs that it may incur in relation to such a
claim. For those commercial reasons alone, and without any admission
of liability whatsoever, the bank is prepared to make a payment to
you in the sum of £1680.00 representing the charges applied in
full and final settlement of this matter''
The banks are wrong, and they know it, but they will keep YOUR money
unless you challenge them. So don't sit there thinking about it, take
this websites advice and do it.
[569] ----- Original Message -----
From: Neil
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 12:59 PM
Subject: charges refunded
I sent your letter to the bank of Scotland Halifax and received £923.
[568] ----- Original Message -----
From: add
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 12:23 PM
Subject: Full Refund from Natwest
Dear Sir/Madam
I would like to extend you my full gratitude and thanks for providing
the letter in which Natwest recieved, consequently offering me a full
refund. I had 2 charges totaling £65, one was for a bounced
cheque and the other a default notice fee due to inactivity on my
account. As a poor student I am extremely grateful for your help.
I am now sending your 2nd letter to Halifax to attempt to get a
refund of £20 for a charge where the transaction was allowed to
go ahead. I will subsequently let you know the outcome.
Thanking you muchly
Kind Regards
Addison
[567] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rae
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:16 AM
Subject: Success!
Thank you thank you thank you.
I would never have been brave enough to take on the might of the Clydesdale
Bank without the support and information from your website. After the first
letter I received a nasty reply warning me if I continued them I
would have
been in breach of contract with them and they would issue court procedings
against me. After the second letter they caved in and I have just received
a cheque for £850!!! What a fantastic service you provide. I
will be singing
your praised to everyone!
Rae A.
[566] ----- Original Message -----
From: rob
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2006 3:52 PM
Subject: victory
Hi, just got back over £200 from Nationwide after starting court
action. Have been given 30 days notice of account closure. Nationwide
have broken all the toys and don't want to play with me anymore, boo
hoo!!! I think T&C's excuse is an unfair one as by paying me out
they must agree I have done nothing wrong, does anyone else feel the
same way, is there anything to challenge this arguement the bank has
for shutting you down, I would be interested to hear if there is.
Cheers Rob
[565] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 12:20 PM
Subject: Paid in full
Hi,
I have just come across you website. I have recently had £4150.00
refunded by the Halifax in respect of the charges made against my
current account!
Wish everyone good luck with their claims from me.
Jim
[564] ----- Original Message -----
From: aeh
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 11:53 AM
Subject: nat west
well done for the info sent the letter 28 November and got a positive
reply today 2 December! all charges to be repaid
thank you
[563] ----- Original Message -----
From: MICHELLE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 11:46 PM
Subject: halifax,barclays
THANK, well can you believe this? i asked for £512 and Halifax
gave me £576. first i asked for all my data and sent a cheque
for £10 this took ages(8 WEEKS IS) as after lots of phone calls
were made to Halifax ( one person saying they haven't received my
letter another saying they have) i eventually got offer of £196
after sending letter 1, then sent letter and got offered more than i
asked for. Letter and 2 were sent by recorded delivery and took 2
weeks in total to get cash in the bank, i strongly recommended
RECORDED DELIVERY. so with Barclays i didn't ask for my data i just
sent letter 1 (recorded delivery, where they have to sign for it) i
have been offered £850 and am in the process of sending letter 2
as i don't know the total of my charges i don't know weather just to
accept it also i have arrears with Barclays and the acceptance letter
states that it will go in to my account can i ask for it to go into
another bank or a cheque can some one please advise me?????? either
way i am so happy with everything this site has done for us a big thank.Michelle
[562] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 5:33 PM
Subject: charges refunded Natwest
I wish to thankyou for your help as I would not have known where to
start , I sent all of your letters and was point blank refused a
refund , I had to take it to the courts and they tried all of the
delay tactics that they could, I then received a letter offering me a
goodwill gesture payment of £950 as I was owed £1723 I
turned this down and sent them a counteroffer saying I would accept
£1500 in full and final settlement of my claim they jumped at it
and paid it out straight away, I would like to advise anyone that is
pursuing there charges to stick to it to the end and also make sure
that when you detail your claim make sure that you put it clear your
account numbers that the charges relate to and take the time to list
all of the charges and dates as to when they were debited from your
accounts as this was one of the delaying tactics that they used with
me, saying that I did not give sufficient evidence of a claim.
[561] ----- Original Message -----
From: Simon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: Information Commisioner upholds complaints against Barlaycard
1st December 2006
Reference RFA0138931
Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
Thank you for submitting your complaint and supporting information
regarding Barclaycard. Please accept my apologies for the delay in my
reply. Our investigation into this matter has taken longer than
initially anticipated.
Complaints such as yours are treated as 'requests for assessments'
under section 42 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act). When we
receive a request for assessment, in most instances we have a duty to
assess whether it is likely or unlikely that the processing in
question has been carried out in compliance with the Act. However, we
have discretion as to how we carry out the assessment and as to what
action, if any, to take.
I understand from your correspondence that you made a subject access
request (SAR) to Barclaycard and made specific reference to bank
statements and to charges levied on your account. Barclaycard
responded by confirming that it would supply you with information
from your bank statements from May 2004 onwards; however statements
prior to this date would only be provided at a cost of £3 per
sheet. It went on to explain that this was because these older
statements were only stored on microfiche which is not a relevant
filing system for the purposes of the Act so did not have to be
provided as part of a SAR.
It may first be helpful to clarify that although the information
contained within your bank statements, such as details of
transactions, is considered to be personal data under the Act so must
be supplied in response to a SAR, the Act simply states that personal
data must be supplied in an 'intelligible form'. This means that the
information you have requested must be provided if it is held as
personal data, but not necessarily in its original format i.e. as a
bank statement.
As you may be aware, the Act only applies to 'personal data' i.e.
information which is processed electronically and which relates to a
living, identifiable individual. Information which is held in some
manual (non-computerised) records can also be personal data for the
purposes of the Act if it is stored in what is known as a 'relevant
filing system'.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) produced guidance to help
data controllers such as Barclaycard decide whether or not manual
records were stored in a relevant filing system; however this was
amended following a Court of Appeal ruling a number of years ago
(Durant v FSA 2003). In light of the outcome of this case, the ICO
revised its guidance and narrowed its interpretation of what
constitutes a relevant filing system. This guidance suggests that
unless the filing system is highly structured, it will fall outside
the scope of the Act and led us to conclude that in our view most
manual records fall outside the definition of personal data.
We recognise that the definition of a relevant filing system is open
to interpretation and that not all parties will agree. During recent
months we have once again been reviewing our interpretation of what
constitutes a relevant filing system and intend to publish new
guidance in the near future, although this is not as a direct result
of the recent issues surrounding bank charges. The new guidance is
likely to represent a significant shift in emphasis from our existing
guidance and our view will be that many more manual records are
likely to fall within the scope of the Act.
Following your complaint and others like it we contacted Barclaycard
for a detailed explanation of its microfiche system, including how
the information in it is stored and retrieved. It was not clear from
the response whether or not the system was a relevant filing system;
therefore Barclaycard invited me and a number of my colleagues to
inspect it and see the system in operation.
Following our visit, we concluded that the microfiche system used by
Barclaycard is a relevant filing system for the purposes of the Act.
This means that in our view the information is personal data and
should have been supplied as part of your SAR within 40 days and for
a maximum fee of £10. As a result, it is our view that it is
likely Barclaycard has contravened the sixth data protection
principle, as this requires data controllers to process personal data
in accordance with data subjects' rights.
As I explained above, we are currently reviewing our guidance on
relevant filing systems and are placing greater emphasis on the types
of systems that are covered rather than those that are not. This will
be based on practical examples of non-computerised filing systems.
Our decision in this case has been made with this shift in emphasis
in mind and it appears that Barclaycard disagrees with us. In light
of the Durant ruling and our subsequent guidance, it is difficult to
maintain that Barclaycard has acted unreasonably in this matter and
it could plausibly argue that its interpretation and subsequent
actions were consistent with the accepted view. If this occurs it
will be for the Information Tribunal and ultimately the courts to
decide which, if either, interpretation of a relevant filing system
is correct.
We have informed Barclaycard of the outcome of our investigation and
I will now write to it under separate cover with details of your
complaint. If it has not done so already, I will instruct Barclaycard
to provide you with the personal data you requested as part of your SAR.
It may be helpful to explain that a contravention of one of the data
protection principles is not itself a criminal offence and the
Information Commissioner has no power to 'punish' a data controller.
In such instances, the Commissioner will seek a resolution to the
contravention and once satisfied that it has been remedied then in
general no further action will be taken.
In addition, section 13 of the Act gives individuals the right to
claim compensation if they have suffered damage as a result of a
contravention of the Act. If this is something you are interested in
pursuing, I recommend obtaining legal advice and pursuing the matter
through the courts. The Information Commissioner cannot comment or
advise upon any claim for compensation.
Thank you for brining this matter to our attention. Your case will
now be closed.
Yours sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxx
Casework and Advice Officer
[560] ----- Original Message -----
From: Doug
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 1:38 PM
Subject: First Direct Bank Charges
I used your letter no. 1 as a base to write to First Direct. I have
been bankg with First Direct since 1993, during which time I amassed
a total of £3,069.50 in charges. I wrote to them on 21/8/06, and
received an initial reply on 24/8/06 acknowleding receipt of my
letter and promising to investigate. Then I received a letter dated
7/9/06 explaining that under the banking code, they are required to
keep records of customer's statements for 6 years. Based on this they
agreed to refund all charges incurred during these 6 years, a total
of £1.050.00. I accepted their offer on 25/9/06, and the funds
were credited to my account on 27/9/06.
In my experience with First Direct I have always enjoyed first class
customer service. In this instance they did not disappoint me.
Thanks for your work on my behalf - Doug.
[559] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kevin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 12:55 AM
Subject: Halifax Charges
Just a quick note to say thank you. Over the last six years my bank
has charged me £700 in charges, after reading the info on your
site I contacted the Halifax in august requesting my charges details
for the last 6 years they sent me 6 years worth of statements and
charged me £10 for the privilege,
after checking all the statements I wrote to the bank with your first
letter, saying I was prepared to pay £12 per charge and wanted
the rest refunded a total of £380, they replied within 7 days
and said they would get back to me within 28 days.
10 days later I hade a call from them saying I conducted my account
badly and was not entitled to any money back and advised me check the
banks terms & conditions but as a gesture of goodwill they would
give me £150. I turned this down and asked for it in writing
which they did.
I sent them the second letter they replied within 7 days and said
"you agreed to the terms on your account and the offer of
£150 was now withdrawn.
So I paid the £80 court fee and asked for all £700 of the
bank charges, they acknowledged the summons saying they would defend
the claim.
24 days after there acknowledgement they credited my account with The
£700 + £80 court fee but I have had no correspondence from
them, What a result and just in time for Christmas, So don't let them
bully you TAKE THEM TO COURT&ldots;.. THANK YOU.
[558] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 10:11 PM
Subject: ALLIANCE AND LEICESTER
After sending of 2 letters to A & L and them sending me letters
back to say they would not pay me back any charges applied to my
account, I started court proceedings. Today (20/11/06) they sent me a
cheque for £2870.00 stating the decision should not be regarded
as an admission of liability on part of the company as they consider
the charges to be fair and reasonable. A & L will contact me
shortly to discuss the future of my account. I already have another
account with a different bank set up and waiting to go. The cheque
has now been paid into that account this morning. Thanks for you
excellent info which has really helped me out a lot. Good luck to
others who use this site
Many thanks again Lee
[557] ----- Original Message -----
From: TAMMI
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 7:20 PM
Subject: Do I accept a goodwill gesture?
Hello there.
Today I received a letter from my bank offering me £784 as a
goodwill gesture. I have incurred charges over that amount in the
past year alone. Is it worth me attempting to be refunded ALL charges
incurred over the past 6 years and if so what letter do I send next?
Regards
TC
[556] ----- Original Message -----
From: Helen
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 3:16 PM
Subject: RBS and Co-operative Bank
> Hi
> Just wanted to say thanks for the advice on your website. I
really thought I wouldn't get anything but thought what have I got to
lose. So I sent letter 1 off to both banks and have had full refunds
from both banks within three weeks. I can't believe it. So you can
now add another £1,000 to your total.
> Helen
[555] ----- Original Message -----
From: Simon
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 10:56 AM
Subject: Barclays offer refund £730...
> Thanks for fantastic advice.
>
> I wasn't able (or willing to spend the time!) to establish how
much I had
> been charged over the last 6 years, but I sent a letter which
combined a
> claim for a refund with a request to provide me with the details
I needed
> (mostly cribbed from your templates).
>
> They replied quickly with a holding letter saying I'd hear
within 4 weeks,
> and then within another few days with a letter which said they disagreed
> with my claim on the basis that their charges were known to me
when I signed
> up for the account. They failed to provide me with the
information ( and
> returned my £10 cheque) but offered me £730 in full
and final settlement
> (with no acceptance of liablity blah blah).
>
> I phoned them and said that I was unable to consider the offer without
> knowing the extent of the overcharge. They disclosed over the phone
> (without any indentity check!) that the charges totaled
£1470, so it turns
> out they've offered me 50%
>
> I'm not really up for a more protracted battle for the balance - although
> my instincts say I'd get the rest if I bothered - so I'm going
to accept
> it.
>
> This is defintely worth pursuing, and if enough people do it
then hopefully
> they'll stop making these outrageous charges.
>
> Good luck to anyone else considering it.
[554] ----- Original Message -----
From: BERNARD
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 9:59 AM
Subject: Return of charges
Many thanks for all advice. Lloyds TSB have refunded my friend £5124.
Bernard
[553] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 9:20 PM
Subject: Bank of Scotland and the Alliance and Leicester
Hi,
I recently found your site, and decided to give it a go. I had
incurred charges on accounts from 2 different banks, the Bank of
Scotland, and the Alliance and Leicester. The Alliance and Leicester
had charged me a total of £271.00, so off I went, writing the
letters. The responses to the step one and step two letters that I
sent were expected, the usual 'it's written in our terms and
conditions' etc. So I decided that I would raise a small claims
action. After two weeks of filing this with my local sheriffs office,
I received a letter from the Alliance and Leicester saying that as a
gesture of goodwill, they would refund the charges in full, and
therefore, the court action didn't need to go ahead.
As for the Bank of Scotland, I had incurred charges of £68.00,
so I proceeded the same way again. This time however, it didn't need
to even go as far as me filling out the small claims action. I
received a letter today stating that I am to receive the money back
as a refund.
I'm so glad that I learnt of this website, and now I'm telling
friends and family about it so that they may get back some of the
money that's illegally being charged by banks.
Regards
Stuart
[552] ----- Original Message -----
From: glenn
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: Barclays
> Over the past 6 years I was charged nearly £1000 by
Barclays. Sent in letter
> one, and behold £645 'gesture' of good will offer from the
greedy swines.
> I am happy with this.
> I urge Everyone to do this, and see the banks off tho the maximum.
> Glenn repaid £645!!!!
[551] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dan
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 3:36 PM
Subject: Got my refund!
Just to say a big thanks for all the useful advice on the site, after
working out my bankcharges (less the £12s) I found that I had
accumulated £512 unauthorised overdraft fees from the
Co-Operative bank since early 2005.
Sent away the letter 1, they said they'd deal with it within a month
but after 2 weeks received the full refund of £511. Can't say
how much you've helped me, thank you SO MUCH!
Dan
[550] ----- Original Message -----
From: Mel
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 5:50 PM
Subject: hsbc
Hi there
just to let you know, i recieved a refund letter from HSBC after
nearly 2 months offering £800 for the £891 owed.
thanks loads bankcharges, just in time for xmas!!!
Mel
[549] ----- Original Message -----
From: Mary
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 5:03 PM
Subject: Bank charges - ABBEY
Letting you know about my success with Abbey, thanks to your website.
Posted letter to them on 3rd November 2006. On the 13th November I
received a reply from them saying they were sorry that I felt that I
had to complain about my bank charges and they would look into this
and reply within 28 days. Today (27th November) received a letter
saying that although the charges were correct and fair and they could
not refund all the charges, as a gesture of goodwill they would
refund £945. As my charges amounted to £1071 I am
delighted! Money was also paid into my account today. Many, many
thanks for the advice on your website and good luck to all.
Mary
[548] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sharon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 4:50 PM
Subject: Bank charges
Back in July I posted off letter 1 to my Bank (Bank of Scotland) they
cashed the cheque for £10 but did not respond to me, I called
several times to be passed around but still nothing except a leaflet
about charges. After more attempts I eventually sent off letter 2 in
September where I got a response saying they would deal with me
within 4 weeks! And another leaflet on charges. On Friday there I
finally received my statements from the last 5 years, they totalled
over 2.5k. They offered me my £10 back and "as a gesture of
goodwill" £840. Oh, and a leaflet on charges! What should I
do? Should I persist for the rest as they are more or less
acknowledging the charges are wrong but I'm afraid I'll end up with
nothing and look how long it took to get to this point! They insist
the charges are legal and that its only credit cards that are
questionable but why do they offer me cash then? Please, someone help!
[547] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 1:38 PM
Subject: Refund
> Just a quick note to thankyou for your help in getting a refund
to the sum
> of £615 from Smile.co.uk I am now about to send off letters
to Capital One
> and Barclays, will keep you updated. Thanks,
>
> Stuart
[546] ----- Original Message -----
From: samantha
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 8:20 PM
Hey
Sent letter one 2 weeks ago got a reply a week later saying that
Abbey were looking into my complaint and would get back to me, then
exactly a week later i checked my bank account online and to my
surprise they had refunded over £500 in refunds then the next
day i receieved a letter from abbey saying they were not in the wrong
but as a gesture of good will they will refund £645! Have
accepted this as i think its a reasonable offer!
Am so happy i got ym refund as abbye have been charging me for months
now! So glas as well just in time for christmas!!!!Anyone else
thinking of doing it well i would go for it you have nothing to loose!!!!
A big thankyou to this website its wicked!!!!
[545] ----- Original Message -----
From: Steve
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2006 11:57 AM
Subject: Thanks
Thanks to you I have just had £1285 refunded from First Direct,
it took two letters and about 4 weeks.
Thankyou so much for such a useful site, I will be recommending it to
all my family and freinds.
Steve.
[544] ----- Original Message -----
From: M
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 9:54 PM
Subject: Refund of Bank charges
Brilliant website - thankyou
I have been battling with HBoS since April to get a £39 charge
for not having enough funds to pay a Direct Debit that I had already
cancelled (but not given 8 working days notice). Several letters to
HBoS and Abbey who were the people trying to take the money and put
it in a closed account!!! had proved completely useless with a joint
"its your fault" response.
I sent your 1st letter to HBoS a month ago and today received a
letter offering me the full £39 as a gesture of goodwill if I
signed to say I would not pursue it any further.
Needless to say after 20+ years with BoS (now HBoS) and never having
paid any charges before, I was astounded at their treatment of my
original complaint and have moved my account elsewhere.
Thanks again
[543] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sue
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: bank charges
I sent your first letter to HSBC, they took over 4 weeks to respond
but I received back all charges I requested which amounted to
£300.00. They even refunded £25.00 that I had not
requested. Thanks very much for your advice it was really helpful.
Regards
Sue
[542] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jill
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 12:28 PM
Subject: Refund success
After months of misery caused by excessive charges by my bank the
final straw came when I was charged £295 this month alone which
then caused me to default on two loan payments. I worked out that I
had been charged around £2600 in bank charges over the last 18
months. I sent letter 2 weeks ago and the bank responded by letter
telling me it would take four weeks to investigate my case. To my
surprise and relief the bank have now refunded £1080 of these
charges. I'm thrilled!!
Jill
[541] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ian
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 9:55 PM
Subject: £1000 Refunded today,
> After several letters to my bank (Woolwich) I have recieved and
accepted an
> offer of £1000 which landed in my account today. Thankyou
very much for
> your help and I will be passing on this advice to anyone who
thinks it will
> help them. Together we can make a difference. ;-)
[540] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 6:53 PM
Subject: ALLIANCE AND LEICESTER
After sending of 2 letters to A & L and them sending me letters
back to say they would not pay me back any charges applied to my
account, I started court proceedings. Today they sent me a cheque for
£2870.00 stating the decision should not be regarded as an
admission of liability on part of the company as they consider the
charges to be fair and reasonable. A & L will contact me shortly
to discuss the future of my account. I already have another account
with a different bank set up and waiting to go. The cheque has now
been paid into that account this morning. Thanks for you excellent
info which has really helped me out a lot. Good luck to others who
use this site
Many thanks again Lee
[539] ----- Original Message -----
From: Steve
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: refund of bank charges
Sir
I have over the last few months as a result of using your site been
pursueing my bank (halifax) in regards to excessive charges.
I recently received one thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds from
them in settlement of my claim.
they offered me £1250 but i declined. they then increased their
offer to avoid the prospect of me going to court.
I have no doubt I could have got more but I decided to settle having
recliamed 50% of charges incurred.
I thank you for your efforts in supplying the information that
allowed my success. For all out there wavering go for it, they will
pay out. Yes they will try to put you of but follow the advice given,
let them know that you are determined and willing to go through to
the end. believe me you will win.Of course the will refer to it as a
good will gesture, to be honest they can call it what they wish we
all know what it is and the most important thing ai the money is back
where it belongs.
Good luck and thank you once again.
Steve
[538] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 1:14 PM
Subject: RBS Refund
Sent a letter to RBS reclaiming £1800 of bank charges over a 5
year period including spreadsheets showing all the transactions and
charges to show how I had come to the figure. Received standard reply
of "don't agree with OFT", "OFT never asked us",
"OFT findings only apply to credit cards not bank accounts",
etc etc. Wrote second letter pointing out that the findings were
based on non negotiated consumer contracts not just credit cards, and
they replied with a goodwill offer of £900 with no liability on
them, and asking me to sign a document that stated all future charges
must stand. Rejected this offer and said I would accept £1400
but reserve the right to pursue further action on charges. They
replied agreeing to the £1400 but again asking to sign the
clause on future charges. I changed the document to accept the
£1400 but still reserve the right to challenge in future. Money
has been paid into the account! Excellent
I am sure that if I took them all the way, I would have got the full
amount, but for the little effort that I put into it, I am delighted
with £1400. Some action needs to be taken against all these
organisations to stop them doing this permanently. It's about time we
had real competition in this business
Jim
[537] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jake
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 12:24 PM
Subject: HSBC
Hi,
Received an offer of £812 out of £900 from the first
letter. Which I
accepted. Not a very interesting story perhaps but thanks! This was
only for
2 years so I might now go back further. Keep up the good work. Yours,
Jake.
[536] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ian
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:36 PM
Subject: big thankyou!!!!!!
> I slightly adjusted the first paragraph in your Letter 2, got 6 years
> of statements and before i had chance to work out what they owed Barclays
> offered £700 which i accepted as it so near to xmas.
>
> Thanks a lot Merry Christmas ( I will with an extra
£700!!!!!!) Ian
[535] ----- Original Message -----
From: Katherine
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:04 PM
Subject: Refund of charges
> Hello,
>
> I contacted Barclaycard and Capital One about charges totalling
approx. £130
> and £70 and both refunded the charges after the first letter.
>
> Natwest have so far refused to refund the charges made to my
current account
> with them.
>
> Regards,
> Katherine
[534] ----- Original Message -----
From: SeF
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:34 PM
Subject: overcharging
just got post today and HALIFAX offered me £847 as a goodwill
gesture out of about £1700 charges from last 3 years so gonna
take it and tell everyone i know to send your letters.thanks for the help
[533] ----- Original Message -----
From: Chris
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:00 AM
Subject: Refund
I used your letter and got back £486 from HSBC and am now onto
Lloyds TSB to claim back charges from them! thank you very much!
Although I do think it's only a matter of time before banks start
charging to use current accounts to recoup their losses!
Regards
Chris
[532] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 7:33 PM
Subject: HSBC
Many thanks to your great site! I have just had £615 refunded
back from HSBC since May this year. They originally offered £285.
I looked at what I had been charged since and what was pending. They
agreed the full amount of £615.
This has come at a great time in my life after hitting debt problems
for the first time in my life.
I work as a Credit Manager for a living but no skills were necessary
as I used your letter templates.
Please, anybody who has been hit with these charges, use the
templates on this site, its worth half an hour of your time!!!!!
Good work guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[531] ----- Original Message -----
From: D
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 1:55 PM
Subject: Halifax bank charges refunded in full!!! £6174 (fwd)
> Further to my email yesterday, I have now recieved a letter from Halifax
> dated 8th November2006 but recieved today (14th November 2006), confirming
> the amount they have refunded to me.
>
> However, where I was expecting to be asked to close my account,
quite the
> opposite, they have only stated that should any further charges
be applied
> to my account that they reserve the right to withdraw my banking facility.
>
> I have attached a copy of the letter I recieved. I thought
perhaps you
> could use it on your site. Please blank out my account details
if you do.
>
> Kindest regards
> and once again a big thank you.
>
> D
[530] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gordon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2006 5:25 PM
Subject: Success
Hi,
Thanks, I used your letter to the Bank of Scotland over a recent
charge of £39. Although it took about a month and a half for
their decision they have offered me a refund of £218.00 as a
"goodwill gesture". This is the charges over the last few
years. They have advised future charges will stand and threatened me
with closing my account etc but I had already prepared for that by
opening an account with another bank just in case.
Thanks again
Gordon
[529] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ali
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 10:07 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
We used the letters from your website and the bank sent us 6 years of
statements without charge. This week we heard that we would have a
refund of charges amounting to just over £1,000; almost the
total amount of charges made over the 6 years.
Many thanks
Alison
[528] ----- Original Message -----
From: dean&gail
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:00 PM
Subject: BANK CHARGES
> After reading your website 3 weeks ago I decided to write to
FIRST DIRECT for the last 6 years of statements showing my charges.
Couldn't believe that they amounted to £1411.75! Sent both
letters asking for refunds on charges for declined & monies paid.
4 days later received offer of £1200! Obviousy accepted this
& will now be going for my partners account at Yorkshire bank.
Fantastic - just in time for Christmas.
[527] ----- Original Message -----
From: Scott
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 9:57 AM
Subject: bank charges
Guys i heard about you from a friend looked it up and thought what
have i got to lose. asked for 1 years charges returned to me on 1st
letter and recieved a letter today offering me £302, below what
i asked for but i'm not grumbling
Its great to see people can still stand up for the consumer in the
21st century, many thanks once again, you just helped me pay the bill
on my cars service!
Scott
[526] ----- Original Message -----
From: m
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 6:54 PM
Subject: The Co-Operative
Hi there,
Have just used one of your letters. Bank has refunded the full
£78.00 to my bank account. Many thanks for your help.
J
[525] ----- Original Message -----
From: Yvonne
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: Bank Charges refund
Hi, I would like to start by saying what a great site with
exellent information you
have put together.
Over the years i have been subjected to many bank charges but always
had the
opinion the bank had the 'right' to do this. Recently i found myself being
charged yet again for being 32p overdrawn for 1 day!! I decided that
this was
intolerable and surfed the net for some help and advice. I came
across your
site and browsed it fully as it seemed to be very informative and
gave me the
confidence to act.
I printed off the 1st letter to reclaim the most recent £30
charge only. So
imagine my surprise and pure delight when i received a letter this
morning from
Barclays Bank stating that they were going to refund a total amount
of £415.00.
i know that i could follow this up with letter 2 and probably get
more but as i
was only after £30 then i consider this to be a excellent result.
I would like to thank you for your help with my situation and i will certainly
be recommending your site to everyone i know that has suffered unfair bank
charges. With thanks,
Yvonne
[524] ----- Original Message -----
From: Samantha
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 8:14 PM
Subject: Refund of bank charges
Hi
I am writing to thank you, due to the advice on your website I have
managed to get a refund of £1225 for bank charges from Natwest Bank.
I used the letters you have provided on your website. I had a
negative response from the first one saying they believed the charges
to be fair, reasonable and transparent and they would not be
refunding any charges. I then sent them a copy of your second letter
and received a much more positive letter asking me exactly which
charges I was referring to and that they would look at my account
again. I asked for a total of £2101.06 which was the total
amount of charges applied to my account over the last three years.
They offered me £1225 as a 'good will gesture but without
admission of error or liability'.
Many thanks again
Samantha (Warwickshire)
[523] ----- Original Message -----
From: DAWN
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 7:27 PM
Subject: charges
Have you heard any more from Derek since 30 Sept 06, as I am pursuing
refund from Barclays also and they have offered £1,000 against
paid charges of £2,500. I note Derek says he is going to refuse
first offer so iI was wondering how he has got on?
Dawn
[522] ----- Original Message -----
From: Steven
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 2:39 PM
Subject: RBS Scotland Bank Charges
I requested my statements for my current a/c from the Royal Bank of
Scotland for the past 5 years. They charged me £5 for this. To
my amazement I totalled up a sum of £1535 worth of bank charges.
I sent letter 1 - they responded 2 weeks later stating that as a
"goodqill gesture" they would refund £350. I sent
letter 2 rejecting this. 2 weeks later I got another letter (this
time from their customer relations dept) offering me £1060.
I phoned the customer relations department stating that I would
reject this claim and would proceed court action immediately if they
did not settle. The Customer Relations Manager offered me £1500
- I accepted. This will be put into my account witihin 2 working days.
This is an invaluable website and I have forwarded the link to all my
friends. I urge people not to accept the first or second offers from
the banks.
Regards
Steven
[521] ----- Original Message -----
From: joanna
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 7:43 PM
Subject: bank charges
Hi thanks for all the help,HSBC had overcharged me by £310 in
the last 6 years,didnt get any response to first letter so changed
the wording of the second letter to say that I was taking their lack
of response as a refusal to refund any monies to me.IT WORKED!,within
a week I had a letter offering me £303 which I have
accepted-although on the receipt of my bank statement the next day I
realise that they are about to charge me £100 for going over my
overdraft last month the only reason I went over my overdrat was
because of fees that they had applied had took me over my limit so
they will be receiving another letter.We are working on Natwest at
the moment who owe us £3500. It looks like court action is
needed for this bank though.Will keep you informed. good work and
thanks again.
[520] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kath
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 1:45 PM
Subject: Refund of Bank Charges
Thought I'd let you know that having sent the stage 1 letter
requesting a refund of £240.00 from Abbey, we've just a letter
offering £300 as a goodwill gesture!
Many thanks for providing the information and letters on your website
enabling us to achieve this!!
[519] ----- Original Message -----
From: albert
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 1:10 PM
Subject: barclays charges
After sending your first letter Barclays agreed to a 'goodwill
gesture refund of £975 even though the charges amount to
£1983.I have declined their offer and started court proceedings
and await the response
albert
[518] ----- Original Message -----
From: Maureen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 10:29 AM
Subject: Success
Thank you - Halifax have reluctantly agreed to refund charges of £58.
Maureen
Bangor
[517] ----- Original Message -----
From: Luise
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 9:31 AM
Subject: Bank of Scotland..
You're doing a fantastic job!!!! I sent the first letter to my local
branch, with a reply stating that they would be in touch within 28
days. I then received an offer to settle of £496 for bank
charges that totalled £580. I decided to accept.
Thanks again for all your help.
Luise
[516] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 7:28 AM
Subject: Refund of charges from Mint Credit card.
Hi
Sent Mint Credit Card letter no. 1, asking for refund of £368 in
charges. Received the usual reply, "our charges are fair and
reasonable...blah blah.. in your terms and conditions...blah
blah", so told me I'd get nothing.. Sent them letter no. 2,
ditto, nothing, nada.
Filed small claim online, for £420 inclusive of court costs.
Received a letter via the court saying Mint would be defending my action.
Then a week later, a letter from Mint arrived stating it would be too
expensive for them to defend my action, a cheque for £420 was
enclosed, and I was not to speak of this to any third party.
Thanks heaps for your help. I had previously negotiated a refund of
charges with GE money on a storecard, of £600. So my refund
total currently stands at £1020. Together with my partner we
have refund requests outstanding that add up to over £10,000
jointly from bank and credit card accounts. First Direct have just
refused us on letter no. 2, an amount of £2,597, and Bank of
Scotland credit card offered £300 on letter no. 2 , after we
requested £1098. So they will both be receiving notification of
small claims action. Will keep you posted.
Dee
London
[515] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tobias
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2006 10:13 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Thank you so much for your website and letters! After seeing an
article on TV I did a search and found your website. Since july I
have had the following refunds:
HSBC £210 (the most helpful so far as they paid me only a week
after your 'Letter 1' was sent)
Alliance & Leicester £700 (They paid me but then closed my
account as I 'didn't agree with their terms and conditions')
Barclaycard £60
Capital One £56 (They deducted the £12 from each charge
before they paid me back)
Style Card £40
I have been doing the same for my mum and am pleased to report the
biggest amount paid back so far, £5500 from Natwest! They are
really difficult and keep sending you letters to say that it's all
your fault and you can't have anything back. After 'Letter 2' I
raised a court action against them. This resulted in a letter from
their solicitor saying that she would receive nothing and they would
fight it all the way. However a few weeks later she received another
letter saying they would offer us £2000 as a 'gesture of
goodwill'. She wrote back declining and surprise surprise received
the full refund this morning.
Don't let the banks bully you into thinking you will lose. It is
definately worth fighting them as you can see from my success above.
Good luck everyone and thank you again GLC!
Tibs
[514] ----- Original Message -----
From: dave
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 2:34 PM
Subject: bank charges
I had £ 887 of charges with marbles they offered to pay half as
a goodwill payment i declined their offer wrote back saying they had
seven days or i would take them to a small claims court and a week
later they offered to pay the full amount. Now im trying to get back
£850 from my halifax credit card and over £2000 from my
halifax current account.
dave
[513] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tracey
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 1:57 PM
Subject: Halifax Bank
Hi I would like to thank you for the useful information provided on
this sire I did a Data protection letter to Halifax asking for my
Bank statements which I received 10 days later worked out my charges
over the last 6 years which horrified me to see that these were just
over £4000. I then did step 1 letter of which they replied
saying my fault Blah Blah Blah and as a good will they would reverse
any charges for the month of September I sent letter 2 saying not
good enough 10 days later they offered me £2035.00 being full
and final offer! I was extremely pleased with this offer and accepted
1 week later my account had been credited.
Thanks
[512] ----- Original Message -----
From: Roger
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2006 12:58 PM
Subject: BANK CHARGES
JUST GOT £1500 for my bank charges over the last 4 years from
hbos great website a big thanks roger
[511] ----- Original Message -----
From: keltik
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 10:54 PM
Subject: RBS refund
hey, your site was great thanks! i requested £1054 from RBS,
they were actually quite good, sent out my statements no problem, at
first they refused to refund it, quoting T&C's, but i used your
letters, they eventually made an offer of about £540, which i
refused, and then about a week later, i happened to call the bank and
a couple days earlier, they had made a refund into my account for the
full amount! freakin sweet! :D
thanks again!
Keltik
[510] ----- Original Message -----
From: neil
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 9:31 PM
Subject: Unfair charges
Hello
After a total of 2 months HSBC have offered me 1980 pounds, this is
after sending the first letter with 6 yrs worth of bank statements
with charges highlighted, which came to a total of 2600 pounds.
This website has been a godsend!
Thanks
Neiil
[509] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 3:01 PM
Subject: Natwest Bank
Thanks to your site, I have had 60.00 refunded from the Natwest. They
charged me twice within a couple of days for going about 1.26 overdrawn!
I'm now going to go for the big one - charges for the last 6 years
from my husbands and I joint account. It might be a good christmas afterall!!!
Rebecca
[508] ----- Original Message -----
From: Nigel
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 12:12 AM
Subject: Halifax Bank Charges
Dear Sir.
I went into branch and requested 6 years of statements which were
supplied within days (in 39 envelopes!). From that I worked out a
claim of £671.00.
After sending letter 1, I received an offer of £95.00 as a
goodwill gesture.
I then sent letter 2. This brought an offer of £280.00 as a
further goodwill gesture amounting to 6 months refund.
I rejected this and issued a claim through the county court small
claims track.
Within a week I received a full refund plus costs on the grounds that
the case was too expensive to defend but like others this letter
contained the threat of curtailed banking facilities should I go
overdrawn again. This did not worry me as I had already moved my
account to another bank.
Thank you very much for your web advice and letter templates and good
luck to all others who follow your advice.
Nigel
[507] ----- Original Message -----
From: ali
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 7:35 PM
Subject: A&L REFND CHARGES
THANKYOU FOR THIS SITE AND INFO I DID WRITE A LETTER EARLY THIS YEAR
TO MY BANK BEFORE I FOUND THIS SITE BUT WROTE IT IN MY OWN WORDS AND
WAS REFUNDED ABOUT £80.00 WHICH WORKS OUT ABOUT TWO CHARGES THIS
WAS A GOOD WILL GESTURE I HAVE BEEN WITH THIS ACCOUNT FOR 6YRS SO
HERE GOES MY FIRST LETTER IWILL KEEP YOU UP TO DATE
[506] ----- Original Message -----
From: Nicola
To: <m@govanlc.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 3:42 PM
Subject: Royal Bank Result
Received full amount of £1,651 today! After 1st letter I was offered
£130, the 2nd offer was £1,000. I threatened taking my
statements to
the ombudsman and was offered the full amount in a week. Many many
thanks for a brilliant service.
Nicola
[505] ----- Original Message -----
From: Bernadette
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 2:37 PM
Subject: bank charges
Dear Sirs
I am writing on behalf of Mr A Grant who approached our organisation
for assistance with regards to bank charges applied. We forwarded
your letter to Halifax, who in turn have refunded the total charges
applied, this being £67. Mr Grant wanted to let you know of the outcome.
Thanks
Bernadette
Money and Debt Advice Worker, Glasgow
[504] ----- Original Message -----
From: daniel
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 9:31 AM
Hi
Big Thank you to you!!! Thought we had no chance with the bank of
scotland as they are soooo unhelpful and not very understanding. Sent
off the first letter to them and they sent us a letter stating that
they were looking into it. I thought we really had no chance as a
month and a half had passed and that we werent going to receive a
penny back. How wrong was I???? We sent the letter and at first were
claiming only 1 years worth of charges on 2 accounts which totalled
to about 400 quid. Received a letter on Friday offering us 982 quid
final settlement!!!!!!! I cant get over it!!! I would strongly advise
anyone to challenge their bank and reclaim back whats rightfully theirs!!!!!
ONCE AGAIN A GREAT BIG THANK YOU!!!!!!
Regards
Daniel
[503] ----- Original Message -----
From: ANN-MARIE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:58 PM
Subject: Succesful
I advised my sister in law of the campaign and she contacted her bank
with the first letter and within 14 days was offered a full refund of
£110.70 in full settlement. As she did not have a total list of
bank charge she was however to be able to get this back and is now
very happy.
Regards,
Ann-Marie
[502] ----- Original Message -----
From: ANN-MARIE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:58 PM
Subject: Refund of bank charges
Further to advising my friends of this campaign for unfair bank
charges and giving them the details we have so far managed to reclaim
a total of £370.70 across three people. We (including myself)
still have claims outstanding with Capital Bank and Abbey National
who have both had a second letter sent to them claiming a total of £490.
So 50% success and waiting for the response.
[501] ----- Original Message -----
From: Adam
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 10:42 PM
Subject: RBS Refund
Hi
Thankyou very much for the advice on your site. After a bit of
trouble getting my statements, I sent off the step 1 letter. After a
week I received a standard letter stating they were looking into the
complaint. Roughly a week later I received a letter offering around
70% of what I had claimed as a goodwill gesture.
I then sent off a slightly amended step 2 letter, refusing to accept
the partial refund (sent recorded delivery). Within 2 days I had a
letter back offering the full amount (around £700). Brilliant!
Thanks again,
Adam
[500] ----- Original Message -----
From: Claire
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 9:37 PM
Subject: Refunded in full
Thank you so much for your brilliant website.
I was charged £118 by Halifax back in August and searched the
net for help.
After finding your site I sent off the first letter and was offered
£30 as a
'goodwill gesture'. I then sent the second letter and received the full
amount back by the beginning of October!
The second letter looks a bit scary, but I can only advise you to
send it
and get what's owed to you. I am now telling all my friends, so hopefully
we'll have even more victories to add to the list!
Many thanks again,
C
[499] ----- Original Message -----
From: Hilary
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 1:28 PM
Subject: Refund Alience & Leicester
Hi have followed all your procedures sent for the statements (6
years) done the sums, wrote one letter (your template varied a
little) and received an offer of £2,000 .Within a week! Replied
doesn't reflect the loss of £6,000 . The A & L stuck to
their £2000 offer so I accepted a bird in the hand ---
Many sincere thanks for enabling me to achieve this via your website.
H
[498] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tracey
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: Abbey Bank Charges
After reading the wonderfull info on your website, I sent letter 1
off to Abbey and after almost a month suddenly received £215
bank charge refunds into my account I received no letter advising me
of this untill after finding the funds in my account. I then sent off
letter 2 as I was claiming back all charges I had incurred from Abbey
since opening my account 5 years ago (they only refunded 12 months)
after they received my second letter they said I should have taken up
these charges at the time of receiving them. I have now started court
proceedings against them totalling £4000 I will keep you
updated, Fingers crossed !!!!!!!!
Thanks Tracey - Leeds
[497] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dawn
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:00 AM
Subject: Abbey bank charges
Hi
Sent second letter to Abby asking for my bank charges of £2236.93
to be refunded, I was very surprised when I received a letter, as a
gesture of good will, the bank would refund £472. I promptly
contacted the bank, recorded delivery, explaining If I don't receive
the full refund. The next step would be Court.
Thanks for all your help and advice. Will let you know if I have
success with stage three.
Dawn
[496] ----- Original Message -----
From: PAUL
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 5:29 PM
Subject: Halifax charges
Thanks for all your great advice and to everyone who has contributed
with their comments.
I was finally offered £266 by Halifax for charges of £815 after
sending letters one and two. I wasn't happy so raised a small claims
action for £744 ( just under £750 limit) Today I received
credit into
my account of £744 and an extra £151 for costs and
interest. They
didn't even try to contest it. Power to the small
folk!!!!! Thanks Again
Paul.
[495] ----- Original Message -----
From: Robert
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 5:26 PM
Subject: I WON I WON I WoW I WON
I just want to say a massive thank you to this site! With your
templates and help I have just managed to get back £4071.50 from
the Alliance & Leicester. Before starting this process I really
didn't believe it was possible but I was so mad with the bank I
thought what the hell.
I started the whole process mid September and received my cheque
today. I went through money claim on line via the link on your site
on the 6th Oct and it was acknowledged on the 10th Oct. I noticed at
work they filed a defence online today and I started to panic. I
didn't need to as I had a wonderful surprise when I got home (a
cheque for £4071.50). I rang Money claim online and they
explained that the defendant did not accept liability however agreed
to pay me my money rather than appear in court.
Anyone out there not sure whether to take the plunge I can only say
ARE YOU MAD GET YOUR MONEY BACK..
WOW WOW WOW sorry I am just so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU! £4071.50
Regards
Richer Robert
[494] ----- Original Message -----
From: John
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:10 PM
Subject: Bank Charges- Smile Bank
By using the letters on your web site I have successfully obtained a
full refund of £255 bank charges from Smile bank.
Many thanks
Neale
[493] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gary
To: 'mail@bankcharges.info'
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 3:42 PM
Subject: RBS Bank Charges
I have been offered £178 for £400 worth of charges as a
gesture of good will! Oh... but that's not all I've also been asked
to sign a letter stating that if I get one more charge my maestro
card and cheque book will be taken from me....
And to add to it... I've been offered a re financing loan from bank
to pay back my overdraft and guess what.... They are wanting my card back!
I'm feeling very much bullied - any advice on this one would be
gratefully received!
Regards
Gary
[492] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gary
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 7:13 PM
Subject: bank of scotland
Hi
Just looking for a bit of advise. Bank of Scotland have charged me
£4500 over the past 5 years in unlawful bank charges. Have sent
the first letter and got offer back of £375 as a goodwill
gesture. Refused and then offered £1096. also refused this
offer. Bank wrote saying this was final offer. Due to the higher
value of the claim where do I take this to and how do I go about it.
Would greatly appreciate your help as feel as though ive hit a dead end.
[491] ----- Original Message -----
From: Nikki
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 5:05 PM
Subject: Bank Charges!
A big huge thank-you to your site for bringing this to our attention,
without your help in claiming back what is rightfully our money we
would still be in debt! I wrote to the Woolwich to claim a refund of
£744 for 1yrs charges and within 2wks received a letter back to
say they were looking into our claim and would reply within 4wks. Two
weeks later I received an offer of £350!! Not satisfied I phoned
and explained that on no account would I except this amount as I had
been charged £180 within the space of 3days on my account one
month which is disgraceful, only to be told that they have no set
minimum of which they are allowed to charge within a space of time,
but would pay me the full amount £744 as goodwill gesture. The
money was paid into my account in a couple of days without any
problems, i am still trying to claim a huge amount back from HSBC for
charges over the last 6yrs but after sending numerous letters STILL
WAITING!! Small claims court here I come....
Cheers!
A very happy bunny,
Nikki
[490] ----- Original Message -----
From: Nichola
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2006 12:18 PM
Subject: Bank of Scotland charges
> Over 5 years I had been charged by B O S over 800.00 for direct debit
> returns etc and was informed about your site so decided to do something
> about it. After my first letter I was given a 4 week date upon
which they
> would contact me and they kept to their word and I received a
letter saying
> they would be in touch again by another 4 weeks with the outcome
of my
> letter as they still needed to investigate it. After 3 weeks to
my delight
> I received a letter from them offering me 546.00 as a goodwill
gesture. I
> know from reading all your other letters that if you persist you
can get the
> full amount refunded but I have decided to accept their offer as
it would be
> extremely handy for xmas and am unsure of exactly how long it
would be to
> get a response from them again and it could go on for months and months.
> Thank you very very much for your site and all the information
provided as
> it has done me a good turn and am sure will continue to do so
for many many
> people.
> Thanks again.
> Nichola.
[489] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paula
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 3:03 PM
Subject: Bank of Scotland VISA Refund 90% of charges 580.50
Hi
A BIG thanks to everyone who created and maintains this website!!
The little people are taking on the banks and winning!
To every one give it time! I started the process on the 3/7/06, by
requesting all my statements, I sent letter 1 on the 13/07/06
requesting £645.00 of charges since Nov 01.
On the 3/8/06 I received an offer back of £50.00. That day I
sent a letter saying it was not satisfactory and requesting a full refund.
My reply on the 19/08/06 was an offer of half £332.50 - I
refused on the 4/9/6 and sent a mesh of letter 2 but advised I would
be willing to accept 90%, otherwise I would be taking it to small
claims and claiming interest also.
On the 20/10/06 I received a letter saying that for an "amicable
resolution" they would refund the 90% £580.50.
So.... HAVE PATIENCE, it pays off!
Thanks again!
Paula
[488] ----- Original Message -----
From: paul
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 9:26 AM
Subject: bank charges refund
>i had £2302 in bank charges over the last 6 years (£1542
halifax £760 co-op)
> i used your letter for both banks so far i have been offered
£975 from the
> halifax and yet to hear from the co-op. i wasnt sure that these letters
> would work to start with, but i tryed it anyway and they do.i am
going to
> write to the halifax again to see if i can get a full refund not
just part,
> i will write again when both banks have replyed again. but to
anyone who
> is not sure just send the letters, i did and i am on my way to
getting what
> i deserve. but could not have done it without the help of this website
> thanks paul
[487] ----- Original Message -----
From: gareth
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2006 11:04 PM
Subject: barclays bank
Thank you very much for the information provided on your website. I
used letter 1 and have been made an offer of £750 as a gwg to
resolve my complaint. My total charges were just over £2000 but
in my current financial situation £750 will go a long way. To be
honest for the price of a couple of stamps and a couple of phone
calls I don't see this as a bad result. It was money that I had
originally written off and never thought I could get back. I did try
sending letter 2 but the bank didn't want to raise their first offer.
I'm quite sure that if I could have held out another few weeks and
taken it that step further I would have got the lot back.
If any one else out there is deliberating over whether or not to
challenge the charges, I say go for it, the worst they can say is no.
I would highly recommend sending any correspondence with your bank as
special delivery, it took me three attempts to get the original
letter to them.
I'm now going to sort out my wife's account with HSBC and hopefully
get a similar result.
Again, many thanks.
G
[486] ----- Original Message -----
From: David
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 4:03 PM
Subject: RBS Bank charge
Hallo
RBS wanted to charge me £28,- for overdrawing my overdraft by
£2.98!! I sent the first letter and "as a gesture of
goodwill" they are going
to refund it as soon as it is taken off my account!
"However, our Terms & Conditions will continue to apply and
any charges that accrue in the future must stand"!
I lived 31 years in Germany and there are no such charges like here.
I'm now going to get back the charges from the Bank of Scotland.
They charged me three times because of failed direct debit payments,
one because of £1.50!
Thanks
Dave
[485] ----- Original Message -----
From: janc
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 9:41 PM
Subject: Halifax
My husband heard about your site on Radio 4's moneybox, xome time ago.
Like most people, I dithered, and dithered and eventually (yesterday)
sent the letter to the Halifac by hand. I was hoping to get a refund
of £18 a charge - the difference between teh £30 they
charge and the £12 in the letter.
This morning, I had a phone call, pointing out that the case referred
to was credit card charges. I said I thought there was a possibility
that the regulation would also be applied to banks in the future.
Result - a complete refund of all charges since April this year has
been promised.
Thank you.
Jan
[484] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lisa
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 5:34 PM
Subject: Halifax refunded half
I followed your first two steps with the halifax. For one year I had
been charged £900. Their first offer was half of the money back,
so I accepted as full and final settlement. They did also add in the
letter off offer that as a halifax customer it is my responsibilty to
keep track off my account and it is their right to close my account
if I do not keep to my side of the contract. But I got £450
refunded. RESULT for the customer.
A big thanks
[483] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carol
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 2:17 PM
Subject: Abbey bank charges
I just wanted to say thank you for all the information and help you
are giving because I just would not know have known where to start.
In my particular circumstances I also had to go through the
humiliation of having to draw out cash (amount dictated by the abbey)
over the counter every week as the bank charges had taken me over my
overdraught limit.
I am a full time carer for my son who has cerebral palsy. I used to
work full time but my son's health took a turn for the worse and I
had to give up working to look after him. I informed the bank but
incurred many bank charges resulting in my overdraught going over the
limit. In one month alone I was charged over £400. I am still
paying the bank back 4 yrs on! I cannot put into words the stress I
have felt as well as coping with the problems at home. I am sending
your suggested letter to obtain details of all charges and will
follow this through!!!!! I will let you know of my progress.
Thanks again!!!
Carol
[482] ----- Original Message -----
From: harriet
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 1:46 PM
Hi
I sent a step 1 letter to my bank, Halifax.
I have received a respose and they have offered me £608.
I was actually expecing around £1400. Would you suggest I persue
it further or be happy with what I have got?
Kind regards,
harriet
[481] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kris
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:36 PM
Subject: unfair bank chages
I followed the guide on your site and sent both letters adapting them
accordingly. After the first letter to the Royal Bank of Scotland,
they refused any liability, I then sent the second letter which then
pushed them to offering half the amount, I then set up the claim
online and after a week, they sent me a cheque for the full amount
but still stated that there were not admitting liability! Ive got my
money back now and I am very grateful to the organizers of this site!
[480] ----- Original Message -----
From: Michael
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 10:59 AM
Subject: Refunded charges from the Bank Of Scotland
Many thanks for setting up this excellent website. Just a quick note
to say that i have been rebated £600 from the Bank Of Scotland
by using the letters provided by you.
Many thanks
[479] ----- Original Message -----
From: Geoffrey
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 8:49 AM
Subject: Success
A big thank you for your very useful website. Natwest decided to
charge be the total sum of £210 for exceeding my overdraft limit
by £33 for 2 days and (as they claim) exceeding it by £207
for 1 working day even though I had paid money into my account on the
Saturday morning, because this was not an "official"
working day they still decided to charge for all the direct debits
going out even though the bank statement never actually showed me
being over my limit.
Today, success, just by sending the first letter and pointing out the
facts they have refunded me in full all charges. Never again will I
just sit back and accept these ludicrous fees which are obvious money
making penalties (why charge £35 for letting a £4.25
payment through by debit card, what is the actual loss there?)
Thanks again
Geoff
[478] ----- Original Message -----
From: John
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:12 PM
Subject: victory over Lloyds TSB
I've recently had £1042 plus £120 court costs paid into my
account by Lloyds TSB.
In March, I sent the following (abridged) letter to Lloyds TSB. I
wasn't sure if this would have any success: As far as I know nobody
seems to have had any success yet with Lloyds yet.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Re Penalty & unfair charges - request for refund for Account Number:
The following charges were applied to my account during the period 2000-2006:
2000: Unauthorised borrowing fees: £220
2001: Unauthorised borrowing fees: £80 Fees for unpaid items: £310
2002: Fees for unpaid items: £112.50
2003: Overdraft excess fees: £140: Unpaid cheque fee: £60 :
Unpaid D/D £60
2004: Unpaid cheque fees: £60
By my calculations, these charges amount to a total charge of £1042.50
I am of the view that your charges represent etc...... ( standard letter)
..................................................................
A few weeks later, I received a standard letter back, saying that I
entered into a contract, and it was all fair enough etc. So I put a
claim into the Small Claims Court, paying £120, which was then
transferred to the "Mercantile court". I paid another
£200 towards court costs, then in September the whole amount,
plus £120 court costs, was paid into my account with no warning.
When I rang Lloyds, nobody in the call centre could tell me where the
credit came from! When I said I thought it was actually from them,
they still couldn't confirm it! I still have had no correspondence
from Lloyds about this payment, and wonder if they will ever admit
they have paid me it.
So in answer to the query a few weeks ago on this email list, yes, go
for the whole lot because as I understand it the whole lot is classed
as fines, which are illegal.
I'm absolutely amazed at getting this money and now intend to go on
to the many other banks and credit card companies that have ripped me
off over the years. I'll also publicise it anywhere I can. One thing
I don't understand is that the banks haven't persuaded the Government
to change the law, so that they can keep their crazy profits. For a
Government that bows to any demand from big business, whether it's
invading Iraq to nick the oil, or flogging off every public service
to the highest bidder, I would have expected Blair and his dodgy,
spineless, corrupt cronies to cave in to this by now.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. While our actions won't exactly bring
down international capitalism, it feels good, and gives us the very
rare opportunity to get back a bit of what is ours.
Thanks very much Govan Law Centre for all your work. Youn are
providing a fantastic public service. If you are ever threatened with
closure (it seems to happen with Law centres, especially good ones)
you have a ready made network of supporters who you just need to email.
John, E17
[477] ----- Original Message -----
From: Alison
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7:03 PM
Subject: bank charges
Hi
Have just settled for £3120 out of Court (against charges levied
of £3880) from Abbey. Thank you!
Alison
[466] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jeneti
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 3:05 AM
Subject: A big thank you
After using your template letter 1 to Barclays, l got £700 back
out of £1400 for the charges incured for the past 6yrs.Your
website was so useful and the process only took 3 weeks. I have
started spreading the gospel around, its been tried and truly
works!!!!! A big THANK YOU!!!
[465] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jones,
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 3:26 PM
Subject: RBS Money Refunded
Just to say a big thank you, I followed your advice and requested
details on all charges to my account with your first request for
information along with cheque for £10, they just sent me
duplicate copies of all my statements since I've been with them. I
had a total of £500 in charges and after sending the first
letter they sent me a letter saying that although they believed the
charges were fair and what I had signed up to they were offering me
over £300 to be refunded. I have taken it and it is paid in my
account tomorrow morning. I didn't think this would work but they are
obviously paying out in a bid to avoid further action against them by
the majority. I have passed this on to all of my friends so hopefully
word will get round. Thanks again for your help.
Oli
[464] ----- Original Message -----
From: Simon
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 1:39 PM
Subject: Halifax Success! Myself and girlfriend have got £7830
in total
> First of all, thanks to the people who make sites like this
available to
> everyone.
>
> My girlfriend and I have just successfully claimed all our
charges back
> from Halifax totalling £7830 (+£240 court fees).
>
> Below is a brief explanation of my experience...
>
> Bank: Halifax
> Amount Reclaimed: £3917
> Amount they paid: £3917 + £120 court fee
>
> The story: I had to go all the way with Halifax. They were slow
off the
> mark to begin with and made two offers in total. The first offer
was £550
> and the second was £1540. The first offer was made by
letter and the
> second was made over the phone. I rejected both so they sent me
a letter
> simply stating that I had exhausted their complaints procedure
and I could
> now go to the Ombudsmen blah blah blah. I simply went on Money Claims
> Online, paid my fee of £120 and they acknowledged it within
2 days, I got
> a letter of their acknowledgement stating they would defend it,
then 2
> days later got the final letter stating "Although we do not accept
> liability and could well win if taken to court, it simply won't
be worth
> us defending it and would be uneconomical to the bank. We will reimburse
> you the full amount of £3917 plus your £120 court fee
within 7 working
> days"
>
> Took about 2 months in total from asking for statements to
settlement. If
> anyone's got doubts then do it because my girlfriend has just
done it for
> a similar amount and she had to fill out the online money claim
also. Both
> of us got our £120 back. Do not accept any offers and go
all the way with
> Halifax. Just my opinion of course...
>
> Thanks again for the help and guidance that this site and other peoples
> comments offer.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Simon
[463] ----- Original Message -----
From: Susan
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 8:28 AM
Subject: RBS Unfair Charges
I just thought I would share with you that RBS has agreed to refund
£4,000 to my account as a "gesture of goodwill"
without admitting liability. I had claimed for over £6,000, but
as this is greater than what I can pursue via Small Claims in
England, and I cannot afford to pursue any other legal avenues, I
have decided to accept.
Thank you so much for the advice that I was able to use and whilst
the initial letter to the bank was dismissed out of hand by them, the
offer of the settlement came by return of post!!
Thanks again.
Susan
[462] ----- Original Message -----
From: Bird
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 5:14 PM
Subject: HSBC
Success!
I sent your 1st Letter and HSBC refused to pay.
I sent your 2nd letter and HSBC referred me to the Financial
Ombudsman Service.
I wrote to them.
They wrote back and told me they would investigate.
A few week later they sent me a letter saying they had negotiated a
settlement of £1,640.00.
This was nearly all the money I was disputing, so I told them to go ahead.
I expect payment in 4 weeks time.
Many, many thanks for your help. I will pass this this on to anyone
who I know has a similar bank charge issue.
Jeanette
[461] ----- Original Message -----
From: HELEN
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 2:37 PM
Subject: Refund from First Direct
Many thanks for your help - I have just received a refund of
£2600 from First direct (HSBC) after two bank letters and one
complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman. That was certainly
worth three stamps!
Helen
[460] ----- Original Message -----
From: Coral
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:41 PM
Subject: Refund Bank Charges
> SUCCESS !!!!, may I say a big thank you to your website, just
had all my
> bank charges of £764.00 plus court fee of £80.00 paid
back to me. Sent off
> the first letter, was refused a refund, sent second letter was
still refused
> a refuned then filed a claim in the small claims court to which (the
> Nationwide) replied by refunding all the charges.
>
> my advice to anyone wanting to pursue the banks for unfair
charges is to go
> for it .
>
> Thanking you again.
>
> Lisa
[459] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rob
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 8:57 AM
Subject: Bank charges
I received £450 from HSBC which was a full recovery of a number
of excess overdraft charges from 5/6 years ago. They claimed they
were perfectly entitled to make these charges but as a gesture of goodwill............
I also claimed £160 from MBNA - a similar story - fully entitled
to make these charges but as you are valuable customer................
Rob
[458] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ange
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 11:50 PM
Subject: I HAVE WON
After reading this sight in July i decided enough was enough being
ripped off Got my bank statements and the shock of my life when i
found that my bank had taken £3,331 in charges
i went through the usual palaver with them but anyway i have been
offered the full amount back and im delighted and it was pretty much
stress free thanks to this wonderful site x
[457] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 5:35 PM
Subject: WON
Dear Govan Law centre,
I have started various actions with Banks and credit card companies.
The first to settle was MBNA. Claim was for £550 in charges. I
rang a guy called Paul Miney in Chester and he offered me £260,
the difference between the old late payment fee of £20 and the
new one of £12, for the number of charges made. I refused but he
then offered me the full £550.
I had been told on the consumer action group site to ask for compound
interest as well, which I did. He rang back 15 minutes later and told
me the compound interest was £590 (I had no idea of how to work
that out). The total claim was then for £1160, I accepted and it
was deducted from my balance within 48 hours.
GE Money (Laura Ashley) paid the full £96 calim.
Barclaycard paid a £48 goodwill payment against £120 claim
Mint has paid a £56 good will payment against a claim of £140
Less success so far with the Bank of Scotland, we have claims for
£1800 altogether started in July and today they offered £922
in full and final settlement. We will have to take them to court now.
Regards,
[456] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kieran
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 5:25 PM
Subject: Halifax folded, £1032!
Halifax have decided that it would be too pricey to challenge me in
court and have agreed to pay me back the full £752 in charges,
£250 in
interest and £80 in court fees (total £1032). Woop!
I filed against First Direct a few days ago for a similar amount and
am waiting to hear from them. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for setting up such a helpful site!
[455] ----- Original Message -----
From: jamie
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 3:10 PM
Subject: bank chargers
hi to start of with a big thank you. i had allsorts of problems about
four years ago lots of direct debits was returned in one month
leaaving me with chargers of 180.00. this had a snowball effect as i
paid these chargers it left me short over a 3 year period my chargers
was over £1500.00. i then got a better job and was sorted
but bitter about these chargers. about 2 months ago i then saw your
web site and thought nothing to lose i sent your first letter to the
bank (lloyds tsb) i got there bog standered letter back refusing to
refund me. in went letter 2 they replyed saying sod off do not
contact us again (not in these words)so i toke them to court £120
costs no defence was entered so i entered judgement by default give
them a week to pay up ,they never did so i sent in a warrent(£55
costs) and am now £1729 better of so a big thank you for the web site
[454] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jackie
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 2:19 PM
Subject: RBS REFUND
I would just like to firstly say a big thankyou to you for your very
helpful website.
After learning about your website from a newspaper, I went about
requesting my bankstatements for the last 5 years. I then highlighted
all charges made to my account ,referral charges , unpaid direct
debit charges and account maintenance charges.To my horror it
totalled £662.00. I sent my first letter requesting a refund on
31/07/06 and received a reply on 15/08/06 basically saying they were
not going to be refunding any charges. I then sent another letter on
26/08/06 your refusal to refund bankcharges and heard nothing back so
sent another letter on 25/09/06 to which they responded on 05/10/06
refunding the total amount which i requested which is great.
It can take a while to get a refund as i have found out but it is
well worth the wait.
I have also an ongoing complaint with the BOS Halifax, I sent them a
letter requesting a refund of bankcharges on the 31/07/06 they have
sent me 3 letters apologising for not giving me a conclusion to my
complaint . I saw red with the last one and sent them a letter
stating that i wanted a reply to my letter of 31/07/06 not letters
apologising for not dealing with my complaint. I then received a
letter dated 05/10/06 offering me £174 which I am not accepting
and have sent a letter to that effect today. Will keep you posted,
and thanks again for your help.
Jackie
[453] ----- Original Message -----
From: Shelley
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 9:55 AM
Subject: Refund Sorted
Just thought I should let you know that your website is fantastic. I used
all your letters and received a full refund of £2744.44.
Thanks
:-)
Shelley
Scotland
[452] ----- Original Message -----
From: wes
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 1:23 PM
Subject: ABBEY
SENT OFF LETTER 2 REQUESTING REFUND RECIEVED A LETTER AFTER 9 DAYS
SAYING THEY WOULD INVESTIGATE MY CLAIM WHICH COULD TAKE 40 DAYS
PHONE NEXT DAY JUST TO LET THEM KNOW I WASN'T GIVING UP (AND
HOPEFULLY RUSH THEM ALONG) WAS TOLD STILL BEING INVESTIGATED 1 HOUR
LATER RECIEVED A PHONE CALL LETTING ME KNOW I WOULD GET A FULL REFUND
£195.00 IN NEXT FEW DAYS
THANX (GREAT SITE)
[451] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:13 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
>i have used ur letters to recover 4 charges from my current
account with the
> halifax, totaling £156.
>
> first they sent me a letter within 7 days saying that they were
going to
> look into the matter, which could take up to 4 weeks.
>
> 2 weeks later i got a letter from them saying things like they
had the right
> to recover their costs ect. and that any future cahrges would
stand, but
> also offered a full refund for all the charges i complained about.
>
> thank you very much for the help. i have also given other
people with bank charges your site and they have said it looks
helpful, hopefully they will have the same result as me!!
[450] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sharon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 8:11 AM
Subject: Halifax...
Hi
A very big thank you for your excellent guide and advice on
reclaiming bank charges. I sent your first letter to the Halifax on
Wednesday 4th October. On Monday 9th October they said that they were
sorry that I was unhappy with the charges that had been taken from my
account since May 2006 and that they would deal with my complaint
within 4 weeks, I was willing to give them two. On Wednesday 11th
October I received a letter to say that they would reimburse me the
full amount of £548. I am over the moon with the result. I have
struggled so hard these last few months and I was getting so upset
that I couldn't give my twins the Christmas they deserve. Ok we lost
out on our holiday but I'll make it up to them at Christmas. Many
thanks to your excellent website, I have already forwarded your
e-mail onto everyone I know.
Thank you very much
Sharon
[449] ----- Original Message -----
From: Brown
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 7:28 AM
Subject: thank you
I have just followed your very simple steps and have just recovered £2,300.
regards
[448] ----- Original Message -----
From: Caroline
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 7:28 AM
Subject: HSBC - Refund of charges
I would just like to say a huge thank you. I have just received
£1,000 paid into my account as a final offer of the £1140
that they owe me in charges over the past 6 years. It only took the
first letter, along with some prompting letters and a phone call, as
they took nearly 2 months to make an offer. Their first offer was
substantial though, so for the sake of £140 I took it! Surprise,
surprise they did not admit liability and offered it on the basis
that they would not recover their costs if it went to court!
If it wasn't for this site - I would not have realised that the banks
were acting illegally and would never have got this money back. So
thanks for the invaluable information and advice. I just think it's
disgusting that they still get away with it, as so few people know
their rights. I am going back for another £175 that they have
charged me since - so wish me luck!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks,
Caroline
[447] ----- Original Message -----
From: Helen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 5:31 PM
Subject: RE CHARGES.
Hi I had an old account with the abbey which was overdrawn by
£2.50p .I never really bothered with this account as I had not
used in such a long time. Then I got a statement from them in july 06
the debt had now risen to £192 . I sent off the first letter to
them and got the standard reply , they decieded to give me a refund
of £200 as a good will gesture , day after that I got another
statement from them amount now up to £218 so I have decided to
send of 2nd letter to see what kind of response I get, I will keep
you posted on outcome.
Helen
[446] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jackie
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 1:17 PM
Subject: clydesdale bank
Thanks. I was looking for a refund of £420 from Clydesdale bank.
Today I received a cheque for £366 after sending the second
letter 12 days ago.
Jackie
[445] ----- Original Message -----
From: ALEK
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 12:55 PM
Subject: Clydesdale Bank
Well, it took some time and perseverence but today a cheque for my
partner arrived to the tune of £2056 ! It's a wee bit short of
what we claimed but we want nothing more to do with these legalised
thieves and are accepting the cash.
I'd love to meet these managers who send out letters such as we
received along with the cheque. According to a certain Mr. McKirdy,
my partner could in theory be taken to court by the bank as it "
would have a claim against you for damages suffered as a result of
your breach of contract in failing to adhere to the terms and
conditions of the account". Unbelievable !
Not a word about the excessive and possibly illegal nature of the
bank charges. No admission in any way, shape or form that the bank
was in the wrong - " This cheque is tendered without admission
of liability." " The bank charges debited reflected the
operation of the account."
Anyway, my advise to everyone who is still waiting for a satisfactory
response from a bank is - DO NOT give up! You are in the right and
the banks know it.
Good luck, I feel a holiday coming on !
Regards, Alek.
[444] ----- Original Message -----
From: Derek
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7:35 AM
Subject: Barclays
Dear All
Having been offered £975 in response to my first letter, this is
out of the £2650 i was claiming from Barclays for the last
years. I first decided to go to court, then like I am sure many
others I felt it may be more hassle than it was worth.( I am sure
that is the wrong attitude)
I spoke to Barclays again and they increased the offer a little bit
to £1125 which I accepted, so you can add that to your running total.
Good luck everyone, stick with it,it really is worth it. My advice is
make sure you follow the steps to the letter, have patience, and send
everything recorded delivery.
Great website, little donation on it's way to you.
Derek
[443] ----- Original Message -----
From: BEV
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:50 PM
Subject: Abbey Bank Charges
Claim - £1137 bank charges plust £158.05 interest - Abbey 1999-2006
Thanks for your extremely useful website. I have sent step 1 letter
to Abbey - who replied their charges were not unfair, but on sending
step 2 letter they have offered a goodwill gesture of £310.
However they state that these charges were correct as I had
insufficient monies in my account to cover payments and that the
history on the account showed it was not the first time.
They have sent me copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service Booklet if
I am not happy with their investigation.
I am determined to take this to Court to recover charges, but feel
intimidated at this last letter. Is this the Bank's usual ploy making
the customer feel guilty ?
I would be grateful for your comments. Many thanks.
[442] ----- Original Message -----
From: Vicky
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 4:44 PM
Subject: halifax charges
I have sent the first letter off, and had a standard letter back
saying it is in their terms and conditions to charge £30 for
bank charges. Then i sent a second letter and they offered me
£1000 on the phone, I refused that offer, they then offered me
£1500 within the same phone conversation,which i refused. Now
they have offered me £2512.87 in writing, as my charges are in
the excess of £14000 do i take them to court on but as the limit
is £5000 do i do this 3 times. Can anyone advise me on this
please. Thanks Vicky
[441] ----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 11:00 PM
Subject: RBS
I used your first letter in the two forms (charges and referrals) and
after the seven days I got a letter stating that although they
disagreed with the OFT they were willing to make a goodwill payment
of the full amount - £646. I got it three days later. They did
state that this goodwill payment is only that and any future charge
must stand. I see about that if the occasion arises.
Nice one and thanks.
[440] ----- Original Message -----
From: joseph
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 5:55 PM
Subject: Refund of charges RBS
> After sending standard letter to my bank, I have now
> received a full refund of my bank charges from RBS
> which came to £152. The refund came with conditions,
> this has already been mentioned, RBS don't recognize
> OFT ruling on bank charges, I had also to sign
> declaration that I make no future demands on bank
> charges. In time I will leave the RBS and open a new
> account
[439] ----- Original Message -----
From: CLARE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 10:14 AM
Subject: halifax bank charges
Thank you! thank you! Last week the halifax paid all my bank charges
in full £2688.00. I had to take the court action and they paid
the court fees so that cost them an extract £120.00. So now I am
on with the abbey they've made me an offer of £360.00 so far but
I don't even know how much the charges are, on my account has they
still haven't sent even through I requested them 3 months ago. I am
telling everyone I know about your site its amazing how much the
banks have being stealing from us all. I am off on holiday with my
kids! YEE AH!!!!!
[438] ----- Original Message -----
From: Andrew
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 10:10 AM
Subject: Halifax Bank Charges
£3,700 accumulated bank charges over a 3.5 year period. Letter 1
to the Halifax resulted in an offer of £250 in full and final
settlement, which was increased to £780 after sending Letter 2.
Making an online claim through the County Court has resulted in full
repayment of the £3,700 plus the £120 court fee.
Thanks!
Andrew
[437] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jay
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 9:33 AM
Hi
Thanks - I just got an 'administrative fee' of £30 cancelled
after sending my bank your first letter.
Regards
Jay
[436] ----- Original Message -----
From: Priya
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:09 PM
Subject: Refunded Bank Charges
Hi,
I have recently been successful claiming back bank charges of
£660 but I am still unhappy about this as I am sure that over
the years I have paid out thousands of pounds. Can I still pursue my claim?
Thanks
[435] ----- Original Message -----
From: anne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 3:30 PM
Subject: refund
Dear Sirs
Just writing to let you know about a great result against the
Alliance & Leicester.
We wrote them 2 letters and then applied to the court they told us
that they would defend the case, but in fact paid all the charges of
£5319.56 as a goodwill gesture.
Well worth the time and effort to get what is rightly ours.
We are also in the process of reclaiming charges from Abbey who today
have offered us half of the £8400 that we are applying for. We
are not going to accept so watch this space.
Keep up the great work.
ANNE
[434] ----- Original Message -----
From: Elaine
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 2:52 PM
Subject: Bank of Scotland
Thanks for the heplful info on this site. I have notification of a
full settlement of my claim (£240). Without needing to go to
court and only 5 weeks after sending letter 2.
Elaine
[433] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 1:58 PM
Subject: Woolwich/ Barclays
Hi @ Govan Law Centre
You are doing a great job, your specimen letters really cut to the
chase and the banks realise the game is up.
I challenged a number of charges with The Woolwich dating back to
2002 and the sum was £120 pounds and they paid up in full. I had
challenged the charges at the time and The Woolwich were very snippy.
Their attitude has now changed.
Thanks again.
Steve D.
Findhorn.
[432] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sandra
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 7:24 PM
Subject: HSBC Bank Charges
I have used your site & standard letters and am so grateful for
the help - I have now received a refund 'without prejudice' from HSBC
who said they would be win any court case as I was fully aware of
their charges but in an effort to save time and costs would repay me
£1250. Thank you again
[431] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 6:00 PM
Subject: Refusal of refund from NATIONWIDE
I obtained a list of statements from Nationwide and worked out over
the last 5 years they have charged me approx £2500. I have sent
them letters 1&2 and both times they have refused to accept any
liability stating I signed an agreement when I opened the account
that I would undertake any charges they deemed suitable.My next
option is court action.Has anyone else had problems like this with
Nationwide? I,m also having the same problem with Barclays were my
bank account disappeared when I sent the letter in and is no longer
on their records after closing it 2 years ago and they refuse to
reply to any letters I send now.On a good note Capital One did refund £200.
Thanks for all the advice
Lee
[430] ----- Original Message -----
From: Dave
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 5:51 PM
Subject: Success Vs Halifax
Firstly, thanks to this great site without which I would not have
triumphed over the previously untouchable bank. To summarise, here's
how it went;
10 Sep - Requested details of charges, enclosed £10 cheque.
13 Sep - Details provided, cheque returned uncashed.
14 Sep - Initial letter sent requesting £1397 charges
23 Sep - Reminder sent
25 Sep - Reply received, they did not agree, but did say they would
waive the £28 charge due on 30th.
26 Sep - Letter 2 issued
30 Sep - £28 charge taken out !!
2 Oct - Phone call received offering me £200, I turned it down,
they increased it to £649 in the next sentence, again turned it
down. Lodged court proceedings with MCOL.
5 Oct - Letter received confirming the £649 final offer
6 Oct - Letter received, although they don't admit liability, purely
from a commercial point of view, they will not be defending the case
and will be refunding £1425 (initial amount plus the £28),
plus £92 interest, plus court costs within the next 7 days.
So there you go, a full refund in under a month. Thanks once again to
this site and as others have said, stick with it, you will win in the
end !
[429] ----- Original Message -----
From: david
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 2:37 AM
Subject: bank charges
Hi;
Heres my situation in may i succesfuly got £ 693 refunded but at
a price they said i could not ask for refund again I told them i am
not happy with it.
Now I am back to square 1 they managed to charge me with ove £650
in the space of a week (just before pay day) they refuse to refund
of course and I have to take then to court.
They actualy own me after calculation over £2600 and have now
put me in a very bad situation.
I would appreciate any input on how to correctly proceeding to get
hopefuly succeful.
thank you
david
[428] ----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 3:25 PM
Subject: Refunded charges
Hi,
I used your first two letters and had £560 worth of charges
refunded from Halifax PLC.
Lloyds TSB have not given me such an easy ride however, I will be
taking them to court regarding this and hopefully allowing people to
quote precedent off the charges.
Thanks
Matt
[427] ----- Original Message -----
From: mark
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 1:21 PM
Subject: unfair charges
i was charged £39 by the halifax as i had gone slightly
overdrawn,they told me this amount would be debited a week after the
date of the letter and if this £39 charge left me overdrawn they
would charge me a further £28 plus an unauthorised overdraft
interest rate.i sent them a letter asking them how many people had
phoned me to discuss my account,how many people had written letters
to me regarding the conduct of my account and as your sample letter
states its simply another way to get more and more money out of their
customers,the vast majority of these customers are just trying to
obtain and manage their own money.
i got a letter back saying it would be investigated by their customer
relations department,its part of the terms and conditions of my
account etc.2 weeks later i received another letter saying nobody
likes to pay these charges etc,the usual stuff that we have all heard
before but as a gesture of goodwill they were willing to refund me
£78,then they ended the letter with more threats,they reserve
the right to close my account if it is not correctly managed and
future charges will apply
after i had banked the refunded money i politely informed them there
was nothing wrong with the conduct of my account,i wouldnt have been
the first person to go overdrawn and i certainly wouldnt be the
last,i asked them if and how they could justify levying unauthorised
overdraft fees that in many cases are over20 times higher than the
actual amount the customer has gone overdrawn,and lastly yes thats
fine,if you want to charge me such a high amount again i will just
have to write another letter again.
anyway,many thanks for a great website that contains some really
valuable information,great work
[426] ----- Original Message -----
From: darren
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 1:19 PM
Subject: Halifax
Cheers for a cracking and informative website, took 56 days to get
statements back, ended up with £1723 in charges, sent letter one
and got offered £210 in full and final, phoned them up and told
them this wasn't acceptable, and was told that the OFT findings
weren't anything to do with banks but purely a credit card issue!!!
Just compiled letter two and shall await outcome, fully prepared to
take it to court, it certainly doesn't worry me!! Shall keep ya all
posted, Darren
[425] ----- Original Message -----
From: andrew
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 8:33 AM
Subject: Barclays
I have just had an offer off Barclays for £800 (goodwill
gesture) They owe me £1835&ldots;&ldots;&ldots;Obviously I want
more,but I have just read this e:mail on your site:-From: Joanne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:04 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
I have recently disputed my charges for the past 6 years with
Barclays - totalling nearly £2000. Following Letter 1 they
offered me an £840 'gesture of goodwill' refund, but I declined
this and sent letter 2.
This was not effective so I had to raise this dispute with the local
county court. Barclays had 28 days in which to either refund the
money in full or dispute the claim. I have checked the situation
today as their grace time has now ended and they have put in a
defence against me!!! How can they do this when I know by looking at
other comments from Barclays customers on this site that their
amounts have been eventually refunded in full. Is it fair they can do
this for one person, but not another???
Any advice on what I should do from here???
Any advice on which way I should go&ldots;&ldots;.?
Many Thanks
Andrew
[424] ----- Original Message -----
From: CATHY
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 9:46 AM
Subject: success and thank you so so much.
success! please add £760 to the total. I paid Nat west £5
for my historic statements going back 5yrs 6mths.Went through them
with a highlighter pen. sent letter one and was made an offer of
£96. Resent letter one, and was sent the offer. The whole
process took under 3 weeks. I did make contact with the local branch
manager( which is not where my account is held) Having a point of
contact was v.v. helpful, and I believe speeded up the process.It was
dealt with really well.I did however have to sign a letter agreeing
not to question charges in the future. I do however believe that
there will be some ruling on charges soon, thanks to amazing people
like all those who operate this site. Thank you so much, it has
helped my family in many ways. Not just financially.Alleviating the
debilitating stress of the cycle of debt, charges, debt, has made
such a difference to our lives. cathy
[423] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ellen
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 5:12 PM
Subject: Bank charges
I have a friend who has a bank account to receive benefits. He is
disabled and has a mobility car for which he pays insurance through
the account.
Unfortunately due to bad timing his account was empty when the
insurance payment was applied for, and the bank has taken charges
from his account this week leaving him with only £15 to live on.
Are there no agreements for the banks to be lenient in cases where
people have to have their money paid through the bank for benefits.
One bank charge can be half of a persons living allowance, leaving
them with no money to live off.
Regards
[422] ----- Original Message -----
From: ALLY
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 7:14 PM
Subject: charges refunded
Followed your instructions to the letter. Total charges over 5 years
of £764.
Initial "goodwill" offer of £350 refused.
Received letter today refunding total charges. Best bit is that the
bank had already refunded £220 of these charges after I
complained at the time.
Champagne and cigars time.
Thanks for your great website.
Al
[421] ----- Original Message -----
From: Steven
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 5:30 PM
Subject: Bank Charges - Part refunded
I was looking for your help.
My girlfriend had been charged £1900 in total over the last 5
years in bank charges from the Halifax Bank of Scotland.
She received a letter last week offering her £575 repayment as a
goodwill gesture from the bank.
What should she do next?
Steven
[420] ----- Original Message -----
From: Victoria
To: 'mail@bankcharges.info'
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:07 PM
Hi. First of all thank you so much for your incredibly informative
website. I recently sent the first 2 letters (recorded delivery) to
Natwest claiming £1022.00, they have come back with an offer of
£410 with no liability etc. etc. I have phoned Natwest and said
I would not be accepting their offer (as its not even half the
amount). They did not offer more and said I was entitled to pursue it
through the small claims court. I have now raised the claim (paying
£120 in the process) and I will let you know of the outcome.
Thanks a lot!
[419] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: DPA Letter
Hi,
I have recently sent a DPA Letter to my old bank, Lloyds TSB, they
replied promptly but only gave me statements with charges on for my
current address, informing me that they did not send statements from
previous addresses. As I had banked with them for a number of years
spanning over three address moves. I will have to write to them again
and ask for statements from my previous addresses. I thought it worth
telling anyone wanting to claim back their charges that it might be
worth putting your previous addresses on your initial DPA letter.
Thanks for all the information on your web site, I have found it very useful.
Kind Regards
Kim
[418] ----- Original Message -----
From: Peter
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 4:11 PM
Subject: bank charges
Hi There,
I have been trying to claim back bank charges amounting to £1700
from the Bank of Scotland. They maximum they have offered to refund
is £750. As they wont budge any further I am going to take them
to a small claims court. As in Scotland you can only claim up to
£750 in a small claims court could you advise if I can lodge 3
separate claims against them i.e. claim £750 from 02-04 and
another £750 from 04-05 etc.
Your bank charges site is very useful and I have already claims back
over £800 in charges from other banks so thank you very much.
Thanks in Anticipation,
Peter
[417] ----- Original Message -----
From: Louise
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 8:10 AM
Subject: SUCCESS! HSBC/First Direct
I only opened my account with First Direct 8 months ago after moving away
from Barclays and their astronomical charges. I sent first Direct an email
last week and yesterday I received a letter in the post not admitting
liability and offering me £395! I went through my statements and
can only
find £260 worth of charges! So of course I will be accepting
this offer!
I have also sent the first letter to Barclays who my account was with
previously and my two credit card accounts - I have not heard back from
these as yet but only sent the letters last week. I will keep you posted!
Thank you!
Louise - Milton Keynes
[416] ----- Original Message -----
From: ian
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 9:47 PM
Subject: bank charges
> Thanks, I sent letters 1 & 2 to Lloyds TSB but they were not
interested and
> told me to contact the banking ombudsman, however the Abbey were totaly
> different and rolled over on letter 1 and refunded £407.
Now thats what I
> call a result.
> Thanks again
> Ian from Wales
[415] ----- Original Message -----
From: lisa
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 6:19 PM
Subject: unfair charges
>I have taken Nationwide through the small claims court having had negative
> responses to the 1st and 2nd letter. The amount I wanted
refunding was
> £600.00 plus £80.00 court costs. Before their 14 days
to reply to the court
> are up, they have deposited £338.21 for unfair charges plus
£80.00 to cover
> court costs into my account. I didn't get any option on this
just a letter
> telling me what they had done! Having telephoned them I was told
they did
> not have to refund all the costs..... as I know this is not the
case , where
> do I go from here? I have told them I do not want to accept
this, but do I
> just continue on the original courts' 14 days or do I have to
start all over
> again now they have deposited something into my account? Would
be really
> grateful ffor some help here as we are on a 14 day countdown!!
>
> Lisa, Derbyshire.
[414] ----- Original Message -----
From: Richard
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 6:28 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Dear Sir,
Following your advice I wrote to the Nat West Bank regarding charges
made for presenting cheques when the banking system delayed
transference of money rapidly. As a result of delayed transference
which I should have checked I received charges amounting to £114
for the production of letters only.
They denied liability at first but on sending the second letter
threatening court action they acted.
I today received a letter offering the sum of £152 in full and
final settlement.
I would like to thank you for your guidance in this matter, please
keep up the good work.
Many thanks
[413] ----- Original Message -----
From: Vicky
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 10:29 PM
Subject: barclays bank
As many of you might be aware&ldots;.there are hardly any refunds for
Barclays customers, we are claiming a total of £1790 of which
they offered £900 gesture of goodwill, of course we refused,
however they have now filed a defense against us. Is anyone else in
this situation or have gone any further than this?
We have to respond by 17/10/06 , are there any suggestions? Bit funny
really that Barclays are the only ones taking us to court, all other
banks are paying up
[412] ----- Original Message -----
From: Helen
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 2:16 PM
Subject: Abbey Charges
Abbey recently charged me £50 for going over-drawn for 1 day by
£4.99, when I called them a very rude woman they told me that as
the fines had already been taken from my account there was nothing I
could do and was told if I was un-happy I should change bank!!
I found your website and sent the 1st letter off and after 4 weeks
they replied saying I agreed to the terms and conditions...blah blah
blah.... BUT as a ' gesture of goodwill' they re-funded me the money.
It just shows you that they know there are in the wrong and even if
they had refused I would of proceeded with the 2nd letter out of principle.
Huge thanks to your very helpful site, I hope more people continue to
stand up for themselves and take on these big banks that make
fortunes out of our money
x
[411] ----- Original Message -----
From: Nickie
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 7:44 AM
Subject: Capital one
I have recently received a refund of £156 from capital one after
sending letter one. They were very quick to reply and I have now
closed my account with them. Still waiting for a reply from HSBC bank
who are proving to be not very helpful so here goes letter one again.
I will be persitent on this one. Thanks for all your help!!!!
[410] Original Message -----
From: Derek
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 10:15 AM
Subject: Barclays
I had £2650 of charges over the last 6 years and today I have
received a offer of goodwill for the sum of £975.
I will now be sending letter 2 as clearly Barclays know they are
wrong in some way.
I will keep you posted.
Derek
[409] ----- Original Message -----
From: paul f
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 9:11 AM
Subject: bank charges
Hi,
I sent off your letter No.1 to my bank outlining the incidents of
overchargin, they took two forms; Referral Fees and Unpaid Charges.
They totalled £4000. The Bank replied stating that they would
respond within 20 working days which I felt would have been deemed
reasonable. They have now responded and say that the Senior Branch
Manager and Local Branch Manager will be in contact with me. I would
really appreciate some advice on what my next step(s) should be.
I live in Northern Ireland and I presently bank with the Northern
Bank which is now controlled by Danske Bank.
Regards and keep up the great work and website
Paul
[408] ----- Original Message -----
From: Pete
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 7:52 PM
Subject: succesful refund
Dear Friend!
I wish to thank you for your effort in providing and editing your
website. It's great stuff!
I had succesful refund from RBS in matter of returned direct debit
instruction. Charge was £38.
Ridiculous thing was that the means were available on the account on
a day of transaction. Apparently bank requirements are ONE FULL day
before DD instruction funds are needed on the account.
They ignored and turned me down on phone conversation and also
ignored my first letter (your sample)
However they reacted on the second and offered me full refund of
£38 providing that I won't be claiming back anymore charges from
them. As I switched to Cahoot (which already presents as not very
good...) I agreed. Refund came 3 days later.
Thank you for your help
Peter H.
[407] ----- Original Message -----
From: M
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 4:24 PM
Subject: refund of charges hali fax bank
whoopee SUCCESS !!!!, may i say a big big thankyou to you and your
website, just had all my bank charges from the last six years
refunded total £2,787.00 plus court fee of £120.00. sent
off the first letter , offer of £260., sent second letter ,
offer of £600. then filed a claim in the small claims court to
which they replied by saying they (the halifax) were within their
rights to extract these charges from my account but they were
refunding the charges as it would be too expensive to defend in court
and that they would not be able to recover their costs if they won.
my advice to anyone wanting to persiue the banks for unfair charges
is to go for it .
if i can do it then anyone can!!!!. once again thankyou for the
invaluable service that you provide.
kindest regards
melvyn
[406] ----- Original Message -----
From: TONI
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 4:12 PM
Subject: refunded money
my name is rob reid my bank charges added up to £650 over the
past 6 years from my halifax current account i was told the maxium i
would get refunded would be £250 so i excepted. its better than
nothing. thanks for your help in this matter great information.
[405] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ken
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, September 29, 2006 10:26 AM
Subject: BOS
Add £206.00 to your running total! Bank of Scotland offered full settlement
of my claim without any need to go to court ( but it did take 2
months )
Ken
[404] ----- Original Message -----
From: paul
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:57 PM
Subject: Nationwide
Hi All
Ok where to start, well after checking my internet banking statements
for the last 2 years as my account has only been with them that long,
I found they have charged me a total of £938.76. This includes
Judicial interest rate of 8%. After all the usual letters back and
forth I filed a summary cause claim on them for this full amount, in
their wisdom have not replied to me as of yet of their intent to
defend the claim, but have paid the sum of £585.67 into my
account. A few days later I receive the standard we are closing your
account down in 30 days letter.
Dates as follows
They receive the claim 16th Sept
Part payment goes in my account 19th Sept for £585.67
I make a call and also send a letter asking for the rest, get reply
saying NO this is all we feel you are owed.
Balance of £353.09 due.
My Question is this
The calling date of my claim is the 25th Oct, can I file for
judgement before that date as they have made it clear by letter this
is all they are paying, and if I can how do I go about filing for judgement.
Kind Regards
Paul
Dumbarton
[403] ----- Original Message -----
From: Angi
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 9:35 PM
Subject: A Huge Tahnk you
I would like to say a huge thank you, I sent the 1st letter to Abbey
around a month ago, then received a letter from them saying it would
be fully investigated, then nothing until I logged onto internet
banking tonight and WOW, they put £835.00 back into my account!
So for the price of a 1st class stamp it all changed! I just cant
thank you enough, I was struggling to pay my rent and now I'm going
away for the weekend with my partner.
Thanks again!!
Angi
[402] ----- Original Message -----
From: H
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 11:48 AM
Subject: barclays refund
just received letter from barclays offering £1000.
[401] ----- Original Message -----
From: Claire
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:47 AM
Subject: HSBC
I have had a refund of £900 from HSBC for charges that totalled
£1100 in just one year. I have no written to them again asking
for the charges that have been applied to my account previous to this
time. What chance do I stand of also getting these back? It has been
two weeks now since I wrote, should I write again?
I also got arefund of £73 from Capital One, for charges that
totalled £120.
It certainly looks like most banks are now giving in.
Many Thanks
Claire
[400] ----- Original Message -----
From: matthew
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 10:24 AM
Subject: Repayment
Hey,
I recently used your site to question £400 of charges and within
two weeks have been offered a settlement of £330 which i will
gladly accept. I have futher discovered another £350 of charges
which i shall also be writing about.
Thanks for a great site and all your help
Matthew
[399] ----- Original Message -----
From: Scott
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 10:50 PM
Subject: RBS refund of bank charges
I received a letter today offering me a full refund of my bankcharges
of £2,374. Your website was very helpful. I started of by
requesting my bank statements going back 5 years which cost me
£10 . I went through them highlighting all charges referal
charges account maintenance charges and returned direct debit
charges, to my shock it totalled £2,374 which i requested back
using first stage letter . About 2 weeks later received a letter
offering me £792 , sent second stage letter refusing to accept
and stating i was not prepared to accept anything less than the total
amount of £2,374, to my delight the bank has offered me the full
amount back but they do still say that this is a goodwill gesture and
that they are not accepting liability or error. Thanks for your
informative site and i am urging everyone i know who has been
affected by this to reclaim their charges back after all its their money.
Scott
[398] ----- Original Message -----
From: Mark
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 8:03 PM
Subject: Lloyds/TSB
I am currently making a claim for a total of 80 unfair charges to my
account over the last 6 years.
Total charges were £2766 against which I have offset the correct
charge of £960 (being 80X£12)
Could you assist by advising whether I need to offset the £12's?
It may help you to know that the Financial Services Authority have a
broad remit to fine Firms for failing to 'treat their customers fairly'.
Unfair charges would certainly fall within the scope of this
requirement as would place an obligation on the Banks to pro actively
identify and reimburse customers.
I have included the following statement in my claim letter; "You
will also be failing in your duty to 'treat customers fairly' under
the Financial Services and Markets Act, 2000 and this is also likely
to result in my making a complaint".
Mark.
[397] ----- Original Message -----
From: renee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 3:57 PM
Subject: refund of bank charges
Using your advice and letters on-line, the RBS offered me a 'gesture
of goodwill' and offered £220, which I refused on the grounds
that by offering this token amount they were admitting liability. I
followed your guidance and sent the second letter. I have now been
offered £1300 as refund on excess bank charges over the past 6
years! I note that they have reserved the right to continue to charge
me at the same rate until they are forced to change under the law.
Still, nothing ventured nothing gained. It leaves you with a bad
taste in your mouth though realising that the bank you have stayed
with as a loyal customer for many years have not been honest with you
regarding their charges, makes you wonder what else they havent been
honest with you about. I have yet to receive their refund and expect
that they will deduct anything else they think I owe them before
passing it to my account!!
Many thanks for your guidance and very useful website, I have already
recommended you to others in the same situation.
[396] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anne
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 3:20 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Just to let you know that Capital One has refunded £196 in bank
charges and the Royal Bank of Scotland has refunded us £766
also. Many thanks for the sound advice you shared on your web site.
A&I Hood
[395] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kath
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 9:16 AM
Subject: halifax
I filed a claim against HALIFAX PLC for bank charges totalling
£840. Received initial offer of goodwill for £140 along
with all the BLAH....BLAH. Sent your letter 2 declining their
offer.Received a 2nd offer of £413. I have now written to them
to request a copy of their calculations as to how they have arrived
at these figures as there is a considerable difference between the
two. (or have they got a lucky dip bag that they just pull out a
figure and hope for the best) I have informed them that this will be
my final communication to them regarding this matter and the next
step will be court proceedings........ Will keep the site imformed of
outcome Kath.
[394] ----- Original Message -----
From: James
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 7:45 AM
Subject: totaliser
Hi there
You can add another £11,056.98 to your totaliser, RBS paid up a
couple of weeks ago!
Many thanks
James
[393] ----- Original Message -----
From: AW
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 9:02 PM
Subject: More Success
I received a cheque from A&L bank yesterday for £1594 pounds
as an out of court settlement following stages 1-3 - lots of stroppy
letters up to the brink, but they gave in at the end.
Thank you!!!
[392] ----- Original Message -----
From: bally
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 7:45 PM
Subject: Natwest Bank
Hi,
I have been using your site to claim back 6 years of charges on my
account with Natwest totalling almost £2,000.
Having sent out letters 1 and 2 Natwest have refused point blank to
1) admit that their charges are unfair, and 2) not made any offers to
resolve this. I have decided to make a claim via the small claims
court (processed online).
Recently, I have received letters from the court and their Natwest
solicitors claiming that Natwest wish to defend the claim.
I am in the process of advancing the claim to go to court.
Watch this space.
Regards,
Balvinder
[391] ----- Original Message -----
From: Pam
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 7:28 PM
Subject: Sainsbury's credit card
Many, many thanks. Having phoned and written twice to no avail last
year I used your letter to claim unfair charges for a one day late
payment on my Sainsbury's credit card. They replied with a very
polite letter, justifying their charges but, as I was a "valued
cardholder" they would refund all my charges.
I am very grateful - keep up the fight.
Pam
[390] ----- Original Message -----
From: jason
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 7:07 PM
Subject: bank charges
> after checking your website out and surfing some more i've
decided im going
> to go ahead and process my claim.
>
> My only question to you is this:
>
> i've had my account for a few years now 1. can i claim for years
gone by?
> 2. if so, how can
> i find out how much im owed without having to pay the £5
for each monthly
> statement my bank have asked me to pay (internet banking only
covers this
> year)?
>
> Many thanks and great work
>
> E J Roberts
[389] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stacy
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 7:02 PM
Subject: Thankyou so far!
This email is just to let you know my progress!
BOS charged me £837 over 1 year in unfair charges, and after the
decline of an initial offfer of £165 tomorrow is the last day
for them to contact me, so I wait in hope for that.
Halifax Visa (Credit Card) charged me £187 over 2years, and one
week after sending letter 1 to them they agreed to take this amount
from my outstanding balance.
GE CAPITAL (River Island Card) charged me £75 over 1 year, and
just one week, and two polite letters (from them!) later they agreed
to repay this in full.
Capital One charged me £25 and after a quick call suggesting I
would take matters further they took this charge off of my account.
I wait to hear from the finance company behind my WAREHOUSE store card.
So there's another £287 to add to your total, and a hope for
another £837 tomorrow!
Thank you so much for your valuable information, these charges were
getting on top of me every month with their incurring interest levels
so I feel a little less out amongst it!
Stacy
Dundee
[388] ----- Original Message -----
From: mark
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 6:27 PM
Subject: Bank charges refund
Hi,
Like others I was very sceptical when I first heard about the
possibility of reclaiming my bank charges. It just sounded too good
to be true. I thought the stumbling block was the bank's terms and
conditions re charges, that is, until I read the information on your
web site. The letters you have produced here are authoritative and
expertly written.
On going through my bank statements I calculated that Bank of
Scotland had overcharged me by almost £800 over the last 4
years. Therefore, I sent off letter 1 in early July and 3 weeks later
received a reply offering me £170 as a gesture of goodwill. I
rejected this offer and sent letter 2 stating that if they didn't
settle my claim in full within 7 days, I would raise a small claims action.
As I didn't hear from them within the 7 day period specified, I
started the process rolling of taking them to court. This isn't as
daunting as it might at first appear. I simply phoned my local
sheriff court and was promptly sent a claim pack with the forms to
complete and a guide. I restricted my claim to £750 to comply
with the small claims procedure and returned the forms together with
a cheque for £39 for the court fee. (Coincidentally, this is the
same amount my bank had been charging me for simply sending out a computer-generated
letter!) Shortly afterwards a letter arrived from the bank with an
increased offer of £507 in an effort to settle the complaint as
quickly as possible, as they put it. (This offer was obviously made
before they received the papers from the court.)
I was about to send a letter to reject this offer also when, with a
month to go before the case was due to be heard, I received another
letter from the bank stating that they were prepared to settle my
claim in full and would pay £789 into my account within the next
5 working days, ie the charges plus £39 for the court fee. The
reason they gave for not defending the action was that because my
claim was going through the small claims procedure, they would not be
able (even if they won) to recover their costs!! The money was paid
into my account almost immediately. The whole process, from sending
off letter 1 to getting a full refund of charges, had taken about 10 weeks.
I was obviously delighted with this outcome. However, as a Bank of
Scotland customer for almost 30 years I was also angry and disgusted
with the bank, firstly because they had taken money from my account
(by way of excessive charges) which I felt was tantamount to theft,
and secondly because they didn't have the decency to at least come
clean after they'd been rumbled and immediately offer to pay back
what they had taken. Instead they added insult to injury by having
the temerity to maintain that they had done nothing wrong, but were
settling the claim simply because they didn't want it to drag on
and/or it would cost them too much money to defend.
Flushed with success and feeling in control for once, I closed my
account with Bank of Scotland after telling them exactly what I
thought of them (although I'm under no illusion that they'll take a
blind bit of notice) and switched to another banking group altogether.
I take my hat off to the Govan Law Centre, I really do. You are
helping people who are probably the least able to afford these
excessive bank charges to fight back and to win, apparently against
all odds. It's a famous victory for justice and decency over
excessive greed and mendacity.
Mark
[387] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sheila
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 1:11 PM
Subject: Outcomes
I write to share the successful outcome of my claims for charges
using your advice against my two banks. Whilst one (The Cooperative)
was most helpful and prompt in rectifying the problem the other
(Alliance & Leicester) has issued a further threat! Punitive or what!
[386] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jess
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 10:31 AM
Subject: Abbey
hi there,
i just want to say thank you so much for this web-site. i was really
struggling with charges by Abbey. i sent the first letter and within
7 days had £457.00 in charges refunded (the total amount i asked
for). This has been such a great help to me. i cant believe it really worked.
do you know if i can do the same with my credit cards?
thanks again.
Jessica
[385] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 7:00 PM
Subject: HSBC sweet success at last!!!
Thank you for all of your information and encouragement relating to
unauthorised bank charges. I followed the 1st and 2nd steps on your
website having battled with my bank for years to assist me with my
account and have today received a letter from HSBC of course not
accepting "liability whatsoever" but offering £1850.00
as a settlement against the £2064.00 claimed. For anyone who is
in the process of claiming against your bank for these unlawful
charges I definitely urge you to continue!
Good luck to everyone!
[384] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lee
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 6:36 PM
Subject: HSBC refund
Thanks for the invaluable help from your site....
After sending letter 1 and then a copy of the list of charges (again)
that had been applied to my current account, HSBC have refunded
£1,000 against a claim of £1,175 along with what seems to
be their standard letter; not liable / would win in court etc.
I have to say, to their credit, they dealt with my complaint pretty
well and pretty quickly overall. Problem is they are now about to
charge me £125 in charges for the next month along with the same
amount on my joint account. Two more letters will be posted to them
today. Do they think we don't look at our statements ??
Lee
[383] ----- Original Message -----
From: MIKE
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 10:47 AM
Subject: Bank Have Submitted 12 page defence
> Hi,
>
> I have used the pro formas on these sites to reclaim
> charges totalling £1600. Natwest's solicitors have
> submitted a 12 page defence today, which is asking me
> to provide proof of charges (which obviously I have
> from bank statements) and to provide a defence to
> everything written in the pro forma letters.
>
> What should I do now? Clealy I am no legal expert.
> Should I reply at all, or leave it? Do I need to send
> them (the solicitors) photo copies of my bank
> statements detailing charges?
>
> Any advice would be fantastic.
>
> NB - I note that some websites says I should nothing,
> but the (court?) letter says I have to sumbit a
> defence by October 15th?
>
> Thanks
> Mike, London
[382] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:33 AM
Subject: bank charges
Just to say a big thank you for providing the information to tackle
these unfair bank charges. Recently went on holiday and thought I had
enough in bank but got back and found i had gone overdrawn by
£1.11 and charged £60 for paying 2 DDs +£28 because I
was £30 overdrawn which I was because of my charges . Its a con
big time . Anyway I sent letter 2 got reply straight away - looking
into it then 3 weeks later another letter still looking into it. Then
this morning, 2 days later an offer of £241 came through my
door, which I will accept as I did claim £281 . Thanks again. Val
[381] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sarah
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:07 AM
Subject: business bank accounts
Hi,
Just to say a huge thank you for this excellent site giving so many
of us the opportunity to reclaim our personal bank charges. I am
currently waiting a payback of £244 from capital One and a
response from Halifax which will be considerably more than this!
I have tried the same approach with HSBC on my business bank account
as their charges are also £28 for every unpaid cheque etc etc.
Today I have received a letter saying that a business account is not
under the same OFT standards etc etc and that the case cannot be
taken forward. Is this correct and if so do you have any info for
reclaiming on business accounts. I am sure this is an area that many
others would also be interested in. It seems unfair that we can
challenge personal accounts and not business accounts when the
charges are the same.
Kind Regards
Sarah
[380] ----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 8:10 AM
Subject: HSBC Refund
I sent the first stage letter to my bank - HSBC, requesting the last six
years of changes (totalling £2255.33).
I did not get a response for 2 months & was starting to think
about taking
it to the next level, when out of the blue I get a letter offering a "no
acceptance of liability" payment "to close this matter"
of £1830.
Needless to say, I'm chuffed and will be accepting this offer (as it would
cost me more than the difference in my time to take things further.
So I just wanted to say 'Many Thanks' to 'bankcharges.info', & to all
readers - go for it and stuff the banks by getting back your money.
Wayne
[379] ----- Original Message -----
From: shona
To: <m@govanlc.com>; <m@govanlc.com>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:29 PM
Subject: bank charges Query
Dear Sir/Madam
I have found your website really useful regarding the unfair bnk
charges info and downloadable letters and subsequently sent one off
to the Bank of Scotland. However they have written back saying that
the refunding only applies to the credit cards and not current
accounts.
Is this the case or could I continue to pursue a refund claim?
I would really appreciate your advice,
Thank you
Shona
[378] ----- Original Message -----
From: Arthur
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:13 PM
Subject: ARTHUR V MBNA
MBNA has agreed to return £674.85 for illegal bank charges. Iwas
advised to write to MBNA and request the reurn of the monies to me
,not Link Finance. As you will see with the letter from MBNA they
have refused to retun the charges to me although the credit contract
was between them and me . Is there any other way I could force their
hand or than going to court.
Please see attached letters.
Thanks
[377] ----- Original Message -----
From: Indiya
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 2:51 PM
Subject: Paid item & bank charges
I was charged £25 for a paid item charge by Alliance &
Leciester for
exceeding my overdraft limit. The very next day I paid funds into the
account and transferred £400 from another account into my
account. I am
also going to be charged an additional £25 for going over my overdraft
limit. I wrote to my bank with the first letter you recommend to claim
back my charges as I believe £50 for me going over my limit for
a small
amount for only 1 day is excessive. In response I got a letter from
them, advising:
"The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has commented that they
consider the
level of late payment charges to be unfair, however they were actually
referring to late payment fees for credit card payments, which are
quite distinct from a bank's charge on current accounts. As yet, the
OFT have not entered into any discussions with the banking industry
regarding current accounts".
Then they went on about charges being in line with the terms and
conditions of my account and so wouldn't refund charges, blah blah
blah.
Can you confirm if this is the case and what would you advise my next
step be?
Many thanks in advance,
Indiya
[376] ----- Original Message -----
From: Syd
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: Royal Bank of Scotland
Just negotiated a refund of £2000 (slightly short of claim but
happy nonetheless!) with the wonderful Tommy McLean at Royal Bank of
Scotland. From sending out DPA letter to talking to Tommy today - 3
months! It felt like a very long 3 months!
[375] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jamie
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 11:09 AM
Subject: Reverse Bank Charges - Questions.
Hi there,
Just thought I'd write an email letting you know I found the
bankchargesfromhell.info pages that you showcase as part of your site.
Having looked all over the site the only thing you dont have is a
note of the addresses to write to to send the letters?
I had to call up Abbey and ask where to send my dpa request letter
and they said their "Banking Team" but the agent seemed to
just wat to get me off the phone by saying they probably wouldnt reply.
I sent the letter on tues anyways with a cheque for £10 - can it
really take up to 40 days to gather the information?
Should I just send the step 1 letter while I wait - and see if i get
an offer?
your quick reply would be appreciated :)
Being a southside of Glasgow resident, would it be easier to make an
appointment in person to discuss my other debt issues?
[374] ----- Original Message -----
From: Helen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 9:36 PM
Subject: bank charges!!
I have been going through so much trying to reclaim my bank charges
from the RBSc. I went in personally to hand deliver to my bank
manager, as the receptionist 'forgot' to hand this in when I had hand
delivered it the week before. I was immediately offered £1,050,
out of £4,600. I declined and have gone through sending all the
usual standard letters.
I have had countless letters from their solicitors who say I have not
placed sufficient information in the Particulars of Claim and
apparently they can strike your claim out - so BEWARE!! DON'T FORGET
TO PLACE AS MUCH INFORMATION IN THE PARTICULARS OF CLAIM BOX SHOULD
YOUR CLAIM GET TO THIS STAGE!!! I have, under the instructions of the
courts, now sent in copies of all the letters sent to the bank onto
the solicitors, and am still waiting!
Any comments will be gratefully received!!
Helen
[373] ----- Original Message -----
From: William
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:46 PM
Subject: Alliance and Leicester get nasty
I phoned up Alliance and Leicester today and asked them to refund £90
worth of charges. They told me that if I took court action against
them, they would settle the case and shut my account down. They said
that that would leave a mark on my credit file and make it very
difficult to get another bank account again. Can they do this?
[372] ----- Original Message -----
From: jim
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:29 PM
Subject: abbey refund
During june/July of this year, whilst moving house, the Abbey charged
me £245 for breeching overdraft limit. I found out that some of
these were because of an error by them. Feeling rather 'miffed' I
turned to the G.L.C. and downloaded the step 1 letter and sent it
off. A phone call got me a refund of £70, and two weeks later I
received a letter from Abbey saying that they would take between 4
and 8 weeks to investigate. The very next day on checking my account
I found that £425 had been refunded into my account. A few weeks
after that I got another letter from Abbey saying that as a goodwill
gesture they have refunded my charges from the last 12 months! I had
no idea that they had taken that much from me in such a short time,
even though they must have been aware that most of the deposits were
from the D.S.S. my brother told me about your site, and I am very
grateful, thanks.
If I had a question, it would be; could the same form be used for
credit card companies as most of these are part of large banks.
Thanks again.
Jim
East Dunbartonshire.
[371] ----- Original Message -----
From: R
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 7:06 PM
Subject: Excessive Bank Charges
Dear Sir, My name is R and i work as a General Advisor in Aberdeen
Citizen Advice and I wondered if you could help me with a couple of
queries i have.
At the moment i have a couple of clients who are going through the
process of claiming back excessive charges from their bank using the
letter response that you championed. Letter 1 etc.
My queries are as follows.
If lets say a Customers bank account is closed by the bank as he had
upset them by querering the charges and when you look at the amounts
claimed by both sides then its in everyone best interest and the
client is happy with the arrangement as long as the debt stops there.
(1) Is it the banks job to inform the Credit Agencies that this debt
has now been finalised and should now be removed from from the
agencies records
(2) Is it the clients duty to ensure this debt is no longer attached
to his Credit record thereby given him an adverse entry against his name.
(3) Or as we suspect the debt can still be lodged against that
persons record for a considerable time afterwards.
These question I pose to you can also be applied to a person who goes
all the way and it is settled by the banks prior to going into court.
With these settlements are the clients names cleared with the Credit Agencies.
I look forward to your response I feel you are doing a marvellous job.
Regards
R
[370] ----- Original Message -----
From: janet
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 8:04 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
> Thank you so much for all the advice on your website. On 17th
August I wrote
> to the Halifax over my bank charges sending them the 1st letter
on the web
> site. I had worked out how much they had charged me over the
course of 3
> months whilst I had been trying to re arrange my direct debits
from my
> account (if they hadn't charged the amount they did I would
never have been
> over drawn) and asked them to refund to me the amount of 484.00.
They wrote
> back within one week to advice they would look into my complaint
and be back
> in touch with in four weeks. I had their reply within two and
half weeks
> offering me 234.00. I decided to respond with the second letter
and got a
> response from them within ten days (20th September 2006)
offering me a good
> will gesture of 701.00. As you can see this is a lot more than I had
> initially asked for so it just goes to show how much money they
are taking
> from us under the heading of "charges". Thanks again I
have given your web
> address to all my family, friends and work colleagues the more
people do
> this the better maybe one day the banks will realise they cannot
carry on
> with the high charges they throw at customers if they want to
keep us. There
> final response letter also told me they can choose to close my
account if
> they dont think I am managing it correctly they needn't bother
as soon as
> the money has arrived in the account I will be closing it!
>
> Regards
[369] ----- Original Message -----
From: Janis
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:33 PM
Subject: Refund
Thank you for your assistance, I have received back £110 which
was taken for an overdraw of £47 over 2 days. Keep up the good work
[368] ----- Original Message -----
From: mairs
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 4:58 PM
Subject: success
Bank of Scotland refunded the full £80 bank charges within seven
days of writing the letter.
Thankyou!
L. Mairs
[367] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carol
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:44 PM
Subject: RSB bank charges
I have 3 accounts with the RSB and in total have been charged
£4,075.44 without interest and with interest £4982.50 over
6 years.
I have sent the stage 1 letter to them recently after hearing the
publicity and the advice your and advice. On 1 account I was claiming
£1,27.50 although deducting £12 for every transaction it
would be £815.00, they offered me £646.00, and just by
chance this is the amount I am overdrawn at the moment. The one
question I haven't seen asked or answered anywhere is, when claiming
do I reduce my claim by the £12.00 for each transaction that is
deemed to be reasonable by the Office of Fair Trading or not?
And my other question is should I accept the offer made by the RSB or
hold out for the full amount (less the £12's) which is as I
stated £815.00?
Actually I haven't requested any interest charges they have levied,
so I will hold out for the larger amount, they have been greedy over
the years I think maybe it's my turn.
They have replied and stated, I quote-:
"And as an exceptional matter we have agreed to refund £646
as a gesture of good will. Acceptance by you of this payment will be
in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to
our bank charges. However, our terms and conditions will continue to
apply and charges that accrue in the future must stand."
I must say the offer they have made will only clear the account it
will not help with all the bills which have now gone into arrears due
to these charges.
I am still waiting to hear about the other 2 accounts; I think maybe
they are waiting to see if I accept this offer before committing
themselves to offers on the other 2 accounts.
I also have about £2,500 in charges on creditcards which I am in
the process of claiming back; I'm on a roll all thanks to you.
Brilliant web site by the way, keep up the good work.
I will keep you informed it's fingers crossed.
Thanks
Carol
[366] ----- Original Message -----
From: Brendan
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:41 PM
Subject: Bank Changes and Interest
Hi,
I'm currently pursuing the RBS for the refund of bank charges. I have
received 5 years of Bank Statements and have identified about
£1000 worth of charges. I have also noticed however that for the
years 2000 - 2004 that the bank have taken between £1 and
£30 in interest charges on my current account. On avarage this
is about £20 per month. Am I able to claim this money back as an
unfair charge.
Thanks for you help in this matter.
Brendan
[365] ----- Original Message -----
From: dylan
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:30 PM
Subject: Lloyds
>
> Hi,
>
> I saw your website through "this money" website.
>
> I have paid thousands upon thousands to my bank in unfair
charges, with
> threats of court action etc etc.
>
> I have a couple of questions maybe you can help me with:
>
> I have a loan with Lloyds who I bank with. I am worried if I
claim my
> charges back they will demand immediate repayment of the loan,
which is
> possible, as I am much more solvent now, but I'd prefer not to.
Have you
> heard of this happening? Do you know what the FOS would make of
them doing
> that?
>
> Also, some of these charges go back 5 years....any idea of any
time limits?
>
> Thank you for your help and your excellent website.
>
> Warm Regards
[364] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kate
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 11:18 AM
Subject: question regarding bank charges
> Hello
>
> I would be most grateful if you could assist me with this query.
I have
> got all the details of all bank charges within the last 6 years.
> However, I am unsure which letter to send (I have referred to the
> website but am still unclear). My charges are a mixture of
unpaid direct
> debit charges and "referral charges", charged at the
end of the month,
> which I can only assume are for going over my overdraft limit.
Should I
> send letter 1 or 2 or should I split up the charges and send 2 letters?
>
> Thank you in advance for your help.
>
> Regards
[363] ----- Original Message -----
From: derek
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:59 AM
Dear Sirs
I am currently trying to claim back £3412 of charges from the
RBoS they have sent me a letter back refusing to pay up but offering
me £525. I am not willing to accept this but can't see how to
take the next step as i can't take it to a small claims because it's
over £750 i'm seeking.
Can you please advise on what i should do next.
Many Thanks
Derek
[362] ----- Original Message -----
From: Joanne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:04 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
I have recently disputed my charges for the past 6 years with
Barclays - totalling nearly £2000. Following Letter 1 they
offered me an £840 'gesture of goodwill' refund, but I declined
this and sent letter 2.
This was not effective so I had to raise this dispute with the local
county court. Barclays had 28 days in which to either refund the
money in full or dispute the claim. I have checked the situation
today as their grace time has now ended and they have put in a
defence against me!!! How can they do this when I know by looking at
other comments from Barclays customers on this site that their
amounts have been eventually refunded in full. Is it fair they can do
this for one person, but not another???
Any advice on what I should do from here???
[361] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anne
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:55 AM
Subject: Bank Charges
I am in the process of claiming back charges over the past 6 years.
They total around £1,700
I'm a little confused however. If I am successful in claiming it
back, will I potentially receive the full amount or will they deduct
the £12 from each transaction and refund me that?
Anne
Liverpool
[360] ----- Original Message -----
From: D
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:43 PM
hi, i would like to say thanks to your site,i sent the first letter
of last week to abby and they have refunded all the charges,at first
they did not want to know but sending this letter proves they cannot
get away with it.and they are willing to help then!!!its amazing that
i got it back. banks should not take your hard earning money to save
their own pockets.this is a brillient site thanks very much.from dawn
[359] ----- Original Message -----
From: julie
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:13 AM
Subject: Abbey bank charges
>I sent letter one to Abbey on 22nd August requesting £260 in
charges. A
>week later I received a reply that they were dealing with my
complaint and
>a copy of their complaints procedure. Two days after this I had a
refund of
>£295 in my bank but nothing in writing from Abbey. A week
after tihs I
>received a letter informing me that they could not agree to
refund "all" of
>my charges but as a "gesture of goodwill" they had
refunded the last twelve
>months worth. They had also cancelled £125 in charges that
were due to be
>taken on 22nd September. When I rang them they were unable to
tell me how
>many more charges had been made on my account so I have now sent
the data
>protection letter to see if it is worth pursuing. As it stands
they have
>refunded more than I asked for and cancelled more charges that I
would have
>requested back anyway and they have not closed my account so I
feel that
>they have been fairly reasonable howevr, if they still owe me a substantial
>amount I will certainly chase them for it!
>
> I have passed details of this site on to friends, some are owed over
> £1000! As yet none have received a refund but they are
pursuing it.
> Fantastic site and thankyou
>
> Julie
[358] ----- Original Message -----
From: Greg
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: Co-op SMILE Account £860 refunded
To all concerned at this fantastic site.
I used your first letter template to claim back £860 in charges
from the Co- op's online bank. After many letters telling me they
were looking into the matter I received £860 into my account.
Thanks for the help - now to go after the other's!
Greg
[357] ----- Original Message -----
From: Sophie
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 9:37 AM
Subject: Barclays Refund
Used your site last month to ask for £50 back from Barclays for
two £25 charges - one in 2001 and one in £2005. Received a
letter today saying they would refund me £70 as a good will
gesture. This has roused suspicion on my part! I only asked to be
refunded the two £25 bank charges that I identified after going
through the bank statement print outs that they sent. Is it only
these charges you are entitle to ask money back for or is it possible
to ask for money back on the interest they have charged me on my
account? Just wondering why they are offering more? Could it be
likely they owe me a lot more than I have identified and they are
offering me this so I cannot claim for anymore? Any advice would be appreciated!
Finally - thanks for the fantastic site!
Sophie
[356] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 3:00 PM
Subject: Money back from the Bank of Scotland
All I can say is thank you.
I went through all of my old statements and was stunned to find that
in the past 3 years I had racked up £760 in charges. I sent the
first letter and received an offer after a short delay for £230.
I decided this really wasn't enough (I'd set a target of at least
£500) so went with the second letter.
I hadn't received any word for a couple of weeks and was planning on
launching the small claims action - when another envelope landed at
the door. This time they upped their offer to £690, only £70
short of the total amount I was claiming. This amount I have
accepted without pushing things further - which means I can finally
close the account as soon as the money is transferred.
Fantastic!
Anthony
[355] ----- Original Message -----
From: Scot
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 11:33 PM
Subject: Unfair Bank Charges HBOS
I have £321 charges over the last 5 years. After sending the
first letter, HBOS offered £60. When i sent the 2nd letter,
their reply was to offer £176.
Looks like I'll have to lodge papers, but it's good to know that
they're taking this seriously. I'll let you know how court goes!
Thanks for your help,
Scot
Edinburgh
[354] ----- Original Message -----
From: Emma
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:13 PM
Subject: Bank charges
I am currently in the process of claiming £3240 from Barclays
Bank. I sent letter one and they offered me £1000, which I
declined. Apparently they only make one offer and told me that I now
have to take them to court. I have raised a claim in the small claims
court but I am not sure what I need to take to court if it gets that
far. I would appreciate any advice.
emma
[353] ----- Original Message -----
From: Victoria
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:12 PM
Subject: unfair bank charges
>I sent the bank your template letter stating all the
> points you'd mentioned for a period from June 2005
> unitl the present-it totals about £1500!!! Got a
> letter back saying they were sorry to hear I was
> unhappy but I had agreed terms and conditions when I'd
> signed up with them. However they said they would give
> me £1000 as a goodwill gesture but they still accept
> no liability!!! Do I take the money and run or do I
> pursue it further?
>
> Vicky
[352] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rebecca
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 9:47 AM
Subject: Refund of Charges
Earlier this year after 2 weeks of sending letter 1 to Capitol One I
received £250 back to my credit card.
Natwest however who I am taking to court (Case is in Nov) have used
every scare tactic and ignored my letters and continued to put
charges on my account despite explaining I can't pay charges due to
being on sick due to a disabling medical condition and asking them to
freeze the account once I started the court claim so they now owe me
over £6000!!! I haven't given up as there conduct has been
terrible and has been going on since March!
Has anyone else had Natwest give them this much trouble as I've
noticed they've paid fairly promptly to others !
I will update on the court case when it happens.
Rebecca Huggins
Northampton
[351] ----- Original Message -----
From: Greg
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 1:50 PM
Subject: Co-op SMILE Account £860 refunded
To all concerned at this fantastic site.
I used your first letter template to claim back £860 in charges
from the Co- op's online bank. After many letters telling me they
were looking into the matter I received £860 into my account.
Thanks for the help - now to go after the other's!
Greg
[350] ----- Original Message -----
From: Graham
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 8:42 PM
Subject: Cheers For the info
> After reading this site.
>
> I added up my charges for the past 10 years and have
> made a claim for £1000 from Bank Of Scotland
>
> After a little prodding they have agreed to refund
> £600 while still claiming that I am in the wrong, I
> have never known any bank to give money away when the
> customer was in the wrong so do chase the banks for
> this money back as they must be terrified of making
> this a big issue.
>
> I have accepted the money and changed my bank. Good
> luck to everyone else.
>
> G
[349] ----- Original Message -----
From: gareth
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 5:44 PM
Subject: succesful claim
> Dear GLC
> Many thanks to you at GLC for getting me £140 refunded bank
charges from
> First Direct. I requested copies of statements from them which
were provided
> FOC. I then gave details of the charges in your letter 1. Within
10 days
> we had received an offer of full refund without prejudice.
> Many thanks for the free advice and information
> Gareth
[348] ----- Original Message -----
From: Simon
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 4:33 PM
Subject: Abbey Rufund
I have had charges to my account ranging from £20-£35 over
the past year or so and obviously went into further debt due to the
bank penalising me. So someone at work told me about Bank
charges and web sites, so I did a search and found this one. So
simple to do, infact so simple that I only had to send the 1st letter
and exactly 35 days after sending letter I have received a refund
totalling £315.00 from Abbey National. However the bank
did not inform me that this was going to take place, the only
correspondence I received from the bank was to say they were dealing
with my complaint. So today I checked my account just out of
the blue and saw I was £315.00 better off, well more like I have
received my money back.
The only query I have is will they continue to charge me such
excessive rates for overdraft limits, cheques or debit card payments
not clearing. Do I have to send them another letter when this
takes place. [GLC note: until there is law reform
in the UK (see here)
or banks reduce their charges to a fair sum then the answer is
unfortunately, yes].
[347] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kimberly & Andrew
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 2:24 PM
Subject: bank charges
I have sent letter 2 with the data protection act claiming £1300
onto RBS after recieving all my statements, they have today sent me a
letter saying that they do not accept the Office of Fair Traiding's
findings in relation to credit card fees and therefor are not
refunding any money to me at all.The 2 accounts that i am claiming
over is my last account that is no longer in use and my current bills
account any ideas on what to do next? [GLC note:
you will need to decide whether you wish to raise a small claims
action (step 3) - in that regard you should look at the experience of
other site users - see for example here.
Remember when you raise proceedings the onus of proof and
responsibility is on you).
Thanks for all your help
Kim
[346] Original Message -----
From: bren
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:55 PM
Subject: HSBC
Hi, many thanks for such an easy way to try and nail my bank to the
wall. Have been banking with them for 10 years but that makes me
nothing but a long-term earnings tool! Sent the first letter with
dates and amounts for all charges applied to my account over the last
four and half years totalling £2250 – three weeks later and
have just received a letter claiming they are confident of winning
any court case I may open against them but due to management and
administration costs in order to do this, have offered £2000
directly into my bank if I drop this matter. So they’d win, but
are paying me off to keep quiet!! I got them, don’t give
up – they blantantly know they are in the wrong and have no
argument so make sure you persist. Thanks
[345] ----- Original Message -----
From: caroline
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 11:20 AM
> Thank you for your help with bank charges. I sent the first
letter to The
> Royal Bank Of Scotland, they replied with "in our terms and
> conditions......" I sent the second letter and they have
offered me a
> settlement of £1,608 and all in less than 4 weeks.
[344] ----- Original Message -----
From: Helene
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:15 AM
Subject: Good News/Bad News
I have just successfully claimed back over £4000 in bank charges
from HSBC BUT their solicitor has now told me that they are
keeping a proportion of it back to repay the credit card account I
have with them! Can they do this? [GLC note: a
creditor who agrees to pay a sum of money is entitled at common law
(in England/Wales, and Scotland) to off-set (or 'set-off') other
debts the debtor is due to them, and pay over the net balance - see
for example 'The
Law of Set-Off'].
Helen
[343] ----- Original Message -----
From: joseph
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:10 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
> The banks to me are unaccountable, the quicker they are brought
in line the better.
>
> I have just had over £200 in charges out of my account,
paid referal charge, mainatance charges,service charge, all because
of a mistake with credit card cheque, which they allowed funds to be
drawn. But what really disgusts me is I have just place
£15,000 into my current account to clear all my debts, loan,
credit cards overpayment tax credits. I have been contacted 3 times,
Oonce by phone the other two in the bank by various tellers; they
suggest that I invest the funds,I tell them I am not interested a the
funds are for repaying debts
>
So all in all they are quick to take money out on charges, slowa
tputing it back for any reason put forward, but quick to suggest any
large sums of money placed into current account should be invested.
>
I am currently in discussions with my bank to reclaim all charges,
and have highlighted to them the recent ruling from the Office of
Fair Trading, and I have the right to make this ruling known in my
local news paper, assume bank would not want this ruling widely known.
[342] ----- Original Message -----
From: jennifer
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 5:08 PM
Does anyone know if it is possible to do this on a bank account you
have already closed and also with a credit card? as Capital One are
technically a bank. I'm sure Capital One have haken me for £1000
on my credit card. [GLC note: the fact an account
has been closed is irrelevant. You have 6 years in England,
Wales, NI or 5 years in Scotland to pursue a refund - this is the
short negative prescriptive time period for economic loss flowing
from an alleged breach of contract].
Thanks.
Jen
[341] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jeanette
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 12:33 AM
Subject: Halifax Charges
Dear Sir or Madam
Thank you so very much for a fantastic website. I did go all the way
and lodged the claim in £4,500.00. The Halifax settled last
Friday, 8th September 2006 for £3,009.00. There is an
outstanding balance of £1,500.00 which is for my credit cards.
After receiving an accident in December 2005, I received injuries to
my neck and back. The bank stopped my Protection Cover because I was
in arrears. They had letters and numerous calls from me updating them
all the way. Being out of work for 3 months and not being paid sick,
this of course was a very difficult time for me. They also took a tax
credit payment which was owed to me in 2005 for £700.00. The
Bank took £300.00 without my knowledge. When I rang them about
this, I was told to go away and read my contract.
Do we have to accept this money back on the credit cards or can we
ask for a cheque made payable to me? Reasons being the Halifax asked
that I contact the CCCS which I have done and no longer use the cards.
Would appreciate it very much if it is possible to answer this query
for me.
Thank you so very much for the amazing help and could not have done
this without you.
With very kindest regards
Jeanette
[340] ----- Original Message -----
From: Langston Family
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 10:44 PM
Subject: THANK YOU!
I've just had nearly 2k put into my account from HSBC with a letter
not admitting liability! I was only asking for £882 and they've
gone through my accounts and over the last 6 years that's what I've
been charged. No wonder I always feel tight and squeezed at the end
of each month.
[339] ----- Original Message -----
From: Marilyn
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:50 PM
Subject: Unfair Bank Charges
Last week I read an article in The
Mail regarding the Govan Law Centre in Scotland helping someone
have charges on their account refunded to them. My daughter had
unfair charges made on her account with the Abbey and they have
refused to refund them apart from £90.00 which we refused to
accept. We have now passed this over to the financial ombudsman who
have been very helpfull but due to the volume of work have not yet
been able to look at the case. Please can you tell me if there is a
time limit after which we can not claim on a case and also would the
ombudsman be able to tell the Abbey to refund the charges or would we
need to file a claim at the County Court. I can give you more details
about the claim if needed. [GLC note: there is a 6
year timebar in England & Wales for breach of contract claims -
why have the Abbey refused? Have you tried sending a modified
Step 2 letter? See the England & Wales section (Step
3) on how to raise a small claims action].
Yours sincerely,
[338] ----- Original Message -----
From: Roberts
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 7:49 PM
Subject: Another satisfied customer!
Many thanks for your priceless information! After following all the
steps and issuing Court action against Nationwide Building Society
they have finally given in and refunded £719.50 plus court costs
back to my account where it rightfully belongs.
Many people say that Nationwide are closing the accounts of
successful claimants but this has not happened to me! Maybe they are
starting to lose too many customers!!
Good luck to everyone out there claiming back their unfair charges!
[337] ----- Original Message -----
From: colin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 7:18 PM
Subject: bank charges
WAT A WONDERFUL WEBSITE JUST GOT BACK £639 FROM NATWEST TOOK A
WHILE,BUT USED YOUR TEMPLATE LETTERS AND I THINK THAT BANKS FINALLY
REALISE THEY CANNOT CARRY ON TREATING US (THE CUSTOMERS) LIKE PROFIT
MAKEING TOOLS MANY THANKS COLIN
[336] ----- Original Message -----
From: Admin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 4:03 PM
Subject: Refund Success!
I would just like to thank you for your help and advice regarding
charges. We held two accounts with First Direct (HSBC) for a few
years, but which were closed 3 years ago. However, we still used your
letters to try and claim refunds from them for the charges we
incurred over the 2 years that the accounts were open. Over this
time, across the 2 accounts, we incurred just over £2000 in
charges - we had to take out a loan with First Direct to pay them
off! Admittedly, they refused to refund us the money, even after the
final letter and we had to write to the Financial Ombudsman as a last
resort. However, we have just received an offer of £1601.00 in
refunds, which of course we have accepted! This has made such a
difference to us financially and should be inspirational to anyone
else out there. I also told a friend at work about the site and she
received a refund of £850 from her bank. So don't give up, just
keep pestering them and don't feel intimidated - they pay up eventually!
Amanda
[335] ----- Original Message -----
From: VIV
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:08 PM
Subject: halifax
Halifax agreed to pay us 206.00 as full and final settlement which we
are taking.
It took the second letter and a phone call to get this so thanks to
the Govern law centre for providing the letters
Martine and Jon
[334] ----- Original Message -----
From: scouse
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:52 PM
Subject: Refund Thanks to your letters
Hi,
Just thought I would let you know that I today received a letter
offering me a refund of £600 against £665 of charges
applied to my account by HSBC. We are obviously going to accept it.
I was a bit sceptical when I initially sent your standard letter. But
sure enough it paid off. Thanks for the site.
One thing I would suggest is that you tell your readers to enclose a
schedule of the charges they want to claim back. This will help speed
up their claim.
Thanks again
[333] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jane
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:59 PM
Subject: claim filed
Barclays offered £180 in entirety - nearly £500 owed on a
Woolwich account and £370 on another and refusing to up the
offer. So I've merrily filed the papers at the small claims court
today re the Woolwich account. Sitting here with a glass of white in
pleasant anticipation of what is to come.
[332] ----- Original Message -----
From: Holly
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 3:37 PM
Subject: Bank charges
I have recently written to the bank to reclaim bank charges and they
have offered me £300 , my actual charges over the last 6 years
are £655 . Should I accept the £300 or try and get the
£655 plus interest i would have made ?
[331] ----- Original Message -----
From: Kerrie
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 9:37 AM
Subject: My third success!
>I have written before with successes from Capital One and Clydesdale.
> Clydesdale paid us £155.00 out of £310 or £320
(cant remember), but this
> week we had joy with Abbey Credit Card. My husband had a balance
of £1300.00
> which was constantly being exceeded due to their charges. We
were paying
> £52.00 per month which is all we can afford at the moment
due to me being on
> unpaid maternity leave from work. They were then taking
£50.00 per month
> from that figure for a late payment and an exceeded limit charge.
> After sending letter 1, despite not knowing the actual default figure
> charged to the account in the last 6 yrs because they haven't forwarded
> statements, we were credited with £550 as goodwill, there
was no offer to
> accept or decline, it was just placed back into the account.
After phoning
> that same day and asking about the other £672.00 still due
to us (including
> 8% interest) we were offered an additional £680, £7.00
more than the
> actually amount we expected. This was credited this morning, so
overall they
> have paid £1230 back into the account leaving us a
difference of £10.07 to
> clear the whole card!
> This has been one of our nightmare cards since day one so to
have the
> balance wiped out in one go is outstanding, we were overjoyed.
thank you so
> much again.
> I am still pursuing one claim but will update in due course.
Total amount
> received back so far since we started sending letters on July
30th is
> £2,040.00
> Thank you so much
> Kerrie
[330] ----- Original Message -----
From: Denise
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:10 PM
Subject: Thanks.I got a refund!
>i would just like to express my appreciation for this quick & easily
> accessible advice.
> The standard letters are great! After sending the first letter i
received a
> refund of £225.
>
> Thanks. Keep up the good work.
[329] ----- Original Message -----
From: L
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:11 AM
Dear All,
I came across your website on the recommendation of a friend, and
thought it
was worth a try-nothing to lose!! I've been banking with Natwest and thought
getting any omney off them would be like getting blood out of a stone!
Four weeks later I got a cheque for £3000! I didnt even
have to take it any
further than sending the second letter!!
I would recommend anyone to do it!
Lynne
[328] ----- Original Message -----
From: Janes
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 7:42 AM
Subject: halifax
I have sent first letter and eventually got a response offering
£95 good will payment and a veiled threat to close the account,
what do I do?
[327] ----- Original Message -----
From: DALE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:00 AM
Subject: Thanks
I just wanted to say thank you for your extremely informative
website. I have today received a letter from HSBC offering me over
£1200 worth of bank charges as a full and final settlement
without admitting liability.
Thanks so much!
[326] ----- Original Message -----
From: Fluffy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 8:56 PM
Subject: Refusal of account data.
Hi there.
After sending two copies of the Data Protection letter to find out
how much I've been charged over the past five or so years by the RBS,
each of them with cheques for £10 in, I haven't heard anything
back from them. I know that the bank charges I've had taken out of my
account are extortionate - I've totalled up (from looking at my
online account with the bank - where details of my account don't go
back any further than six months) £1297. Seeing as I've been
with this bank for five plus years, these charges are probably the
tip of the iceberg.
Now that I've not heard anything back from RBS after waiting forty
days (twice) for my account information/details, I'm about to lodge a
complaint with the ICO as instructed to by this very website (which
is brilliant, by the way). How long will this process take?
I don't want to send letter one to the RBS as I really wanted to find
out how much money they've taken from my account since I joined with them.
Because of these extortionate charges, I'm now currently £200
over my overdraft limit (not including the interest) and am recieving
letters and phonecalls galore about repaying them with money that I
just don't have. In June of this year, the bank took out £114 in
just one day in their so called 'bank charges'. One time they even
charged me £38 because a direct debit was short of just twenty
seven pence.
After months of financial hardship, severe stress and many arguments
with my partner, I've decided that now is the time to finally make a
stand. I'm willing to go to court to reclaim all (or some) of the
money that has been unfairly taken from us.
Thank you for the brilliant website and I hope that yourselves or
your readers can help me with this problem.
Kind regards,
[325] ----- Original Message -----
From: Jamie =M=
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 6:10 PM
Subject: RBS and Barclays
Hi there,
I would just like to say thanks for your wonderful site as I managed
to get back £392 from the RBS after they settled out of court.
As they dismissed the first 2 letters, so I had no option but to put
a small claim in through the court.
So I would just like to say that people, they shouldn't be put off by
going to this stage as they are more likely to settle out before it
goes to court as the RBS left it till the very last minute.
I'm also about to start a claim against the barclaycard. When I sent
them your letter regarding a request for charges.
They sent me back 2 years worth of statements and a letter stating that:
"Statements prior to May 2004 are not held on a computer system
or a structured relevant filing system as they are stored on a
microfiche in date order and therefore, they do not fall under the
Data Protection Act 1998"
But each of these statements costs £3 so to get the remaining 3
years statements it would cost £108. Is this lawful and can this
expense be claimed back just like the charges?
As it seems very expensive for my statements.
I will let you know how I get on once I start my claim.
Thanks again
James
[324] ----- Original Message -----
From: Iain
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:35 AM
Subject: cahoot. Halifax BoS
Thanks for a straight forward easy to use site! The letters you
supply enabled me to reclain £90 from Cahoot, 1st letter and
took 3 weeks. Thanks.
Now I am dealing with Bank of Scotland who have taken 4 weeks already
and not even looked at my complaint, they say it is because of the
"high level of complaints of this nature".Good. They've
said they'll take no longer than another 4 weeks! 8 weeks is their
agreement with the ombudsmen, apparently.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again.
Iain
[323] ----- Original Message -----
From: Linda
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 10:43 AM
Subject: Bank of scotland
I heard about your website from a friend and sent off the letters.
Today I received £3450 directly into my account from the Bank of
Scotland as a refund for account maintenance charges and excess
overdraft charges over the past five years. I sent letter 1 and they
offered me £250 and then I sent letter 2 and they offered me
£788. Not willing to accept their offers I went to court. The
amount I had paid in charges was over the small claims limit so I
raised an ordinary action against BOS in Glasgow Sheriff Court (this
being my local court). They had 21 days to defend the action but they
didn't lodge a defence and a week later I received a letter stating
that their legal department had not received the papers in time to
lodge a defence. They went on to state that as it would cost them
more to defend the action they were willing to refund me in full
without admission of liability! YIPEEEEEEE!!!!!! The money's great
but the fact that people are fighting back after years of extortion
is brilliant - go get em!
Thank you for such an informative website!
Linda
[322] ----- Original Message -----
From: Ian
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 3:20 AM
Subject: Bank charges
Hi there I would just like to say a big thank you to you all.
I have just received £175.00 back from the Clydesdale Bank , it
was exactly how you said it would be, after the second draft letter
my Bank told me that as a goodwill jesture and that they did not want
the expence of going to court they would return £175.00 they
even sent me all of my Bank statements and did not charge me the ten
pound fee.
cheers
[321] ----- Original Message -----
From: Martin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 1:15 PM
Subject: Co-operative bank - full refund £112.50
Hi
Just wanted to say thanks for a brilliant site. Used your first
letter only and detailed all my charges at the start, and why my
banking slip ups happened.
About a month after sending the first letter, I finally received a
refund in full.
It just appeared in my account yesterday, and I imagine I will get a
letter from the bank soon. I'm worried they will cancel my student
overdraft soon as a consequence, but I will deal with that later.
Just to let anyone else know, please stay polite with your bank, and
offer credit where it is due in your letters as (from my reading
around in the forums) it seems they pay up quicker if you a fair and
polite with them.
Regards
Martin - West Midlands
[320] ----- Original Message -----
From: GAYLE
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 6:32 PM
Subject: Case won!!
Just wanted to say a big thaks for all your advice about claiming
back my bank charges. Here's what happened to me with my HALIFAX
CURRENT ACCOUNT
1) Phoned HALIFAX and requested 6 years of bank statements they
charged me about £6.00 i think. The arrived within the week.
2) Totalled all my charges over the last 6 years...came to a whopping £2650.00
3) sent letter 1
4) Got a standard acknowledgement letter within the week saying they
would look into my complaint within 28 days.
5) 10 days later got a 2nd letter saying they would offer me
£160.00 as an offer of goodwill.
6) Declined offer and sent letter 2
7) Got a reply within 2 days offering £460.00. I sent them a
letter declining their offer and informing them that i was taking
court action.
8) Got a reply in 2 days saying that they were sorry i was not happy
with the last offer of 6 months refund of charges if you want to
complain contact the ombusman blah blah.
9) Filed a court claim online paid my £120.00
10) Recieved a letter 4 days later from court saying that Halifax had
acknowledged my claim and were defending the claim fully. they would
now take upto 28days to engter their defence.
11) The next day i did some online banking and the whole amount had
landed in my account plus the £120.00 court costs....what a shocker!!
12) The following day (today) i got a letter from HALIFAX saying that
it would cost them too much to settle in court even if they won so
they were without admitting liability paying the full amount into my account.
From beginning to end less than a month. Make sure you send your
letters recorded delivery. I got responses within a day of them
recieving my communication. A massive thanks to Govan Law Centre for
their help. Couldn't have done it without you!!!
I have just managed to pay off our wedding and we have also just
found out we have our first baby on the way so this is a lovely way
to move into the future....thanks again!!
To everyone who is thinking of doing this....take it all the way!!
Gayle
[319] ----- Original Message -----
From: Tracey
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:34 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Just read your site and I first wrote Abbey national back in June
they totally ignored my first 2 letters I then when into the branch
to be told when on of the CSC telephoned the complaints dept that
they could only refund the last 12 months bank charges which in total
came to £241.00, I declined this offer I have since received my
last 5 years bank statements and highlighted all the charges which
comes to £2145.00.
I have copied and edited your stage 2 letter and sent them the letter
with the highlighted charges of my account , will keep you updated
thanks again for all your help.
Regards
Tracy Liverpool
[318] ----- Original Message -----
From: cath
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:44 PM
Subject: refund of bank charges
Dear All
A big thanks for the use of both of your letters which have just
resulted in me receiving nearly £1000 back from Abbey bank.
After the first letter i received the standard response that it was
all in my terms and conditions so there was nothing they could do, so
i sent of the second letter not holding out much hope of achieving
anything and on ringing the bank to see if they could reduce the
£390 charges due to be taken out this month i was told that
these charges had already been refunded so i checked my account on
line and to my surprise there are nearly £1000 in charges
refunded. This is only a fraction of what they have charged me over
the last few years but it is a start. So once again thanks.
[317] ----- Original Message -----
From: ALDRED
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 10:01 AM
Subject: halifax
i have been charged 780.00 in a 4 yr period by halifax.
after sending letter 1 i received offer of 185.00.
do i accept or send letter 2.
thank you ... i love this site!!!!
[316] ----- Original Message -----
From: Rob
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 12:10 PM
Subject: sucessful refund
> Dear Sirs,
Just writing to say that this morning we received a letter from the
> Halifax back in reply to your first letter we sent them over
unfair bank charges.
> After we had 3 direct debits returned due to me being off work sick,
> they've offered to refund us £48 as a 'gesture of goodwill'
as they 'clearly
> outline our charging policy in the terms and conditions that
apply to your
> account' and 'we are committed to complying with the Banking Code'
> Needless to say the £48 offered just about covers one of
their charges at
> £39 a time so we will be sending a copy of your second
letter to them.
I would just like to say thank you for pointing all of
the facts out on
> your website, without seeing it we would have just taken it as
we would have
> not known any different, now however we have the ammo to take it
further. I
> will email again to let you know how letter two goes!
> Many thanks
[315] ----- Original Message -----
From: Martin
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 7:19 PM
Subject: Charges
Cheers
Over past 6 years I have incurred £2808 of charges on my
Woolwich openplan account.
Following an off of £53 from my first letter, I used the 2nd
letter after coming across your site.
This week - following a slight breach of the data protection act
after Barclays sent an £900 offer to my old address where my ex
partner lives, I have had a full refund offered which I have accepted
with pleasure.
Great site, thanks for your help, I have sent a link to a few friends
so hopefully they will reap the rewards too.
Thanks
Martin (slightly richer).
[314] ----- Original Message -----
From: Andy
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 5:50 PM
I posted a few weeks ago thanking the site in helping me get £780
of charges refunded from HSBC.
I received a letter a few days ago stating that following a review of
my account they hav made a commercial decision to withdraw banking
facilities, under clause 12.4 of their terms and conditions. Happy
days, this means they paid me up in full, and now they are going to
lose my mortgage interest as I am taking my custom elsewhere.
Thanks again
[313] ----- Original Message -----
From: Eileen
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 3:40 PM
Thank you for your advice. I managed to get the full amount of
£166 back from my bank - but only after I wrote to them telling
them I was going to take them to the Small Claims Court. They were in
touch with me the day they received this final letter.
Eileen
[312] ----- Original Message -----
From: LESLIE
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 1:37 PM
Subject: Partial Success
> Hi ,I have used your letter 1 twice and Asset Link For First
National have
> gone back 6 years and agreed there was £350.00 in charges
they are limiting
> these charges to 10 x £12.00 =£120.00 so my refund
will be £230.00 . Should
> I except this ?? .They say that it is in keeping with the office
of fair
> trading.
> The 2nd one Yorkshire Bank I had to send letter 2.They require 4
weeks to
> look at my account again.
> Regards Les
[311] ----- Original Message -----
From: vicky
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 12:46 PM
Subject: Bank Charges
Hi,
Just to let you know I have looked at your site and found it very
useful. I emailed my bank the "Step 1" letter a few weeks
ago requesting bank charges refunded which were around a few thousand
pounds. I received an immediate reply saying that someone will
looking into the matter shortly. Today I received a letter offering
me an insulting £168.04!! I have declined this offer and have
sent the "Step 2" letter via email. I will keep you updated
woth any further coresspondence from my bank.
Many Thanks,
[310] ----- Original Message -----
From: Harry
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:17 AM
Subject: Bank Charges Refund Claims.
For Mike Dailly.
I am well through the process of claiming in excess of £5000
from the Clydesdale Bank and, assuming they do not come up with a
suitable offer in the next few days, I will proceed to court action.
Having studied the info on the Consumer Action Group web site, I
still cannot decide if I should submit a series of Small Debt actions
split into date sequences or to go for a lesser number of the Summary
Cause actions, again split into date order to keep within the
£1500 limit.
My preferred course of action is to raise 1 Small Debt action per day
over 7 working days as this will really hack them off and the total
costs will be similar to 4 summary cause actions without the risk of
further legal costs if they defend. [GLC
note: No! you can only raise one legal action
concerning the same subject matter at anyone time - otherwise your
opponent will request that they all be conjoined or struck out.
For discussion of this issue see here.]
Any thoughts on the best, (simplest), course of action ?
Regards
Harry
[309] ----- Original Message -----
From: Anna
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:11 AM
Subject: The Halifax
While I think what you are doing is brilliant in helping ordinary
people fight the banks, it does also depend on the bank in question.
Two weeks ago the Halifax offered me £1537, which I have
accepted. I have since had to ring up 3 times to see what is
happening, as no money has gone in and 3 times have been told it
would be in in a few days. I am about to ring up the 4th time now.
Their deadline is up today with the court, and if I was meant to
inform the court it was settled before receiving the money into the
account, I was not informed of this. The Halifax are so busy trying
to attract new customers that they neglect the ones who have been
with them for years.
Thank you so much for the service you provide,
I only wish the Halifax would do the same
[308] ----- Original Message -----
From: F
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Cc: www.chris77pine@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:05 PM
Subject: need advise
barclays have offered me half of the amount they owe me 1,575 what do
u reckon i do.
[307] ----- Original Message -----
From: Carmel
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:01 PM
Subject: Update bank charges
> Hi All,
>
> Firstly I must Thank your wonderful site.
>
> After 6 weeks of sending letters and talking to the Halifax PLC
I have
> recieved a credit to my account for £1,200. After sending
letter one to
> Barclaycard Visa they have credited my account with £360.00.
Still waiting
> to hear from Abbey will keep you all updated.
> Thank you
[306] ----- Original Message -----
From: Daniella
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:53 PM
Subject: bank charges refund
I have been waiting 6 weeks on letter or phone call my bank charges
total to £676.00 and I have been offered £176.00 which is
not even half. Do you think I should try for half.
Thanks
[305] ----- Original Message -----
From: cath
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:44 PM
Subject: refund of bank charges
Dear All
A big thanks for the use of both of your letters which have just
resulted in me receiving nearly £1000 back from Abbey bank.
After the first letter i received the standard response that it was
all in my terms and conditions so there was nothing they could do, so
i sent of the second letter not holding out much hope of achieving
anything and on ringing the bank to see if they could reduce the
£390 charges due to be taken out this month i was told that
these charges had already been refunded so i checked my account on
line and to my surprise there are nearly £1000 in charges
refunded. This is only a fraction of what they have charged me over
the last few years but it is a start. So once again thanks.
[304] ----- Original Message -----
From: Claire
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 5:06 PM
Good afternoon,
I have recently received a letter from my bank (Halifax) following
the submission of the 'first step' letter offering me £75 to
compensate me for the charges over the past 5 years, which came to
over £1000!
I am not sure what to do now, do I argue this or do I accept?
Please can you provide some further advise me as to what I should do.
Many thanks.
Claire
[303] ----- Original Message -----
From: Michael
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 5:36 PM
Subject: My story
Hi,
Can't tell you how glad I am that I have found this site.
Our lifes have been dogged by bank charges for the last 4 or 5 years
and have become so used to getting them that we look at them as part
of our monthly outgoings.... ridiculous. We have an average of
£90 to £150 per month deducted from our account meaning we
cn never get out of the red.
My worst incident happenned just under a year ago when I had been
developing a website for a friend. The site had a paypal payment
option which I was unfamiliar with. To test whether the site was
working, I made a series of nine 1p (one pence) payments to the
paypal account to fine tune how the site worked. Three days later
when the 9p came off my account, I was overdrawn again due to
standing orders and BANK CHARGES etc. The Abbey charged me 9 x
£30 in charges, one for each one penny transaction. I called
their customer services call centre and complained bitterly but they
refused to refund the any of the payments. I then demanded that I
speak to a supervisor who also refused to make any refund. However,
after writing to them they agreed to refund £90 as a good will gesture.
However, over the past five years I estimate that they have taken
more than £6,500 from us and using the info on this site, will
fight them all the way to make sure I get it all back. Have today
sent a request for a list of all charges over the last 5 years and
will then send letter 1.
Will keep you informed on my progress.
Thanks again,
Michael
[302] ----- Original Message -----
From: peter
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:14 PM
Subject: refunds!
Hi there,
Thanks to your great website i got £142 in bank charges refunded
by the Royal Bank Of Scotland.
I am unemployed and was financially crippled by these fines. But as
soon as i sent of the letter, they refunded the money the next day!
Maybe if everybody sends in similar letters, these banks can stop
ripping people off and thinking they can get away with it!
Many thanks
Pete
[301] ----- Original Message -----
From: neil
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 10:50 AM
Subject: Halifax Plc
Just a note to express my sincere thanks to all who have put their
efforts into creating your website. Without it I would now be
£148.00 poorer and Halifax would be £148.00 richer!
Having exceeded my credit limit for 24 hours, Halifax hit me with 4x
£30.00 charges for direct debits honoured during that period
plus £28.00 for exceeding the limit.
Luckily I found your website and, feeling suitably empowered by it I
have finally managed to get all charges refunded. My first three
letters (one to the Chief Executive) resulted in a derisory offer of
£28.00. I eventually had to resort to the small claims court -
it cost £30.00 but it was money well spent. Even though the
Halifax wrote back saying they would defend the claim, in the next
paragraph they stated their willingness to reimburse the £148.00,
plus £30.00 court fee plus £1.39 interest (all without
admission of liability!). Suits me!!!
Just a note to anybody planning to use the small claims procedure -
TAKE THREE COPIES TO THE COURT. THEY KEEP TWO AND WILL GIVE YOU BACK
ONE ENDORSED WITH THEIR STAMP.
Thanks again
[300] ----- Original Message -----
From: Mhari
To: <m@govanlc.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:20 AM
Subject: very large thank you
> Dear All,
>
> Thanks to the Law Centre's standard letters regarding unfair
bank charges, I
> have just received an £80 refund from my bank.
>
> Please could my thanks be passed on to everyone who was involved
in drafting
> them and in publicising them.
>
> I'd like to make a small donation as a token of my appreciation,
is that
> possible, please? [GLC note: Govan Law Centre
is a registered charity, and although we do not actively seek
donations, any donation would be gratefully received and should be
made payable to 'Govan Law Centre' and can be posted to Govan Law
Centre, 47 Burleigh Street, Glasgow, G51 3LB - many thanks)].
>
> Many thanks,
> Mhairi
[299] ----- Original Message -----
From: Michelle
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 10:08 PM
Subject: Barclays
Was referred to this site from another site; Motley fool, which has
loads of info for people in debt or good advice re any money issues.
How glad I am that I took the time to purvey this site in detail.
I wrote to Barclays on 3/08/2006 re charges totalling £2065 in
the last 4 years since my partner became disabled and unable to work.
I received an immediate letter acknowledging receipt dated 8/08/2006.
I have now received a letter, 20/08/2006, offering £680.00 which
I am not going to accept and have just drafted letter 2 adapted to my
own circs.
I will let you know how I get on.
Piece of advice I'd send letters recorded so you know they have
received it and they know you know you know. L.o.l.
Feel like Robin Hood, except I am the poor one having lost this to
the rich bank moguls. Go get em everyone!!!!!!
Have you considered putting details on under each bank name? Would be
great as then when researching can see easily what applies to you.
Been telling everyone about this.
Loving your work!!! And hears hoping I beat the banker.
Regards
Michele. West Midlands
[298] ----- Original Message -----
From: Richard
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 9:58 PM
Subject: Over £3000!
After a colleague told me about your site (and the fact it resulted
in a refund of £1100 from HSBC), I fired off copies of the first
letter to HSBC, Capital One, BarclayCard, and Monument Visa, back in June.
Following a few letters from the credit card providers assuring me
they were looking into the matter, I finally received the following:
£500 from Capital One, £240 from BarclayCard, and £348
from Monument. However, in the interim between sending the original
letter and receiving the refunds, I paid off and closed these credit
card accounts - so was surprised that, as I was no longer a customer,
the card providers still readily agreed to reimburse me via cheque.
Already delighted with £1088 I never thought I'd receive, HSBC
contacted me requesting a full itemised breakdown of the charges in
dispute. Using your Data Protection letter, I requested they send me
my statements dating back to June 2000. They did this and even waived
the £10 fee required.
After totalling all the charges applied to my account since 2000, I
requested £2487 in repayment. Never thinking I would receive
anything approaching this amount, I received a letter last week
offering me £1950 - which I of course have accepted, and am
awaiting payment into my account.
So, within two months, and for the cost of about six stamps, I'm now
£3038 better off, and so grateful to this site for providing me
with the information required to successfully claw back the cash
wrongfully taken from me over the years. I'd be the first to admit
that I have mismanaged my accounts over the years and simply took the
penalties as they came, without thinking anything could be done about
it. I cannot stress enough to anyone what a help this site has been,
and how it is possible to break a vicious circle and get back on
financial track. If anyone reading this is any doubt whether it's
worth the effort: IT IS.
One note: all the banks / credit cards do seem to issue standard
replies, followed by a standard letter offering recompense. Most of
these admit that any charges over £12 have been unfair, and that
they are willing to refund the total difference. This should help
anyone in working out exactly how much they should rightly receive.
Many, many thanks again.
[297] ----- Original Message -----
From: Betty
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 4:42 PM
Subject: Abbey refund
Just thought you'd like to hear my Mothers story. She is a 62 year
old pensioner who is undergoing treatment for cancer and still
managed to fight for what was hers.
After finding your website, she found that for 12 months Abbey had
charged her over £1000 in fees. Following your information my
Mother has just found £780 worth of bank charges refunded into
her account today. This was all acheived from sending letters 1 and 2.
We are still awaiting the statements that were archived to be sent to
us and will keep you informed.
Thank you doesn't seems enough but THANK YOU. Keep fighting the fight.
[296] ----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 1:57 PM
Subject: Refund Success
Hello there,
Just a very quick word to you folk who provide this extremely useful
website, which I found through the Govan Law Centre site at http://www.govanlc.com/index.html.
I had two charges, one for a DD that I has insufficient funds for,
and another for card misuse, both in the same week, starting 21st
August 2006. I had a quick look at your site before calling my bank
to complain, and I am glad I did. The operator was only offering the
advice to not let this happen again, and call them to arrange an
extended overdraft if I was having trouble making payments in future.
However, I was still left with charges for £34 and £37,
totalling £71.
I then asked if the operator was 'aware of the Oft ruling earlier
this year' and was immediately offered a 'goodwill' refund for the
£38 charge. While this is only half the debt, I am more than
happy with the result, more-so in the knowledge that the banks know
that they are in the wrong over such excessive charges. I would now
like to see the Oft ruling and its consequences being enforced
throughout the bank and building society industry.
Also, the prewritten letter that you include on the website is very
well composed, and more people should be made aware of this. Although
I did not require to use it on this occasion, I would be very willing
to send such a strongly worded document if ever I am in the same situation.
Again, many thanks and utmost praise, how the bank industry is not
regulated I do not know, hopefully sites such as yours will help to
slash the profit margins made by banks for unfair charges.
Regards and best wishes
[295] ----- Original Message -----
From: Gayle
To: Govan Law Centre
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:16 PM
Subject: Re: current accounts
Hi,
Just wanting to know if I am on the right track.
Sent letter 1 got back an offoer of £260, sent 2nd letter got
offer of £461. They owe me £2650. I am now doing the whole
court claim thing. Do i just do the court action or do i send them a
3rd letter? If i write a letter what do i say or will the court
action be the next piece of paperwork they will get directly from them?
THANKS
Gayle
[294] ----- Original Message -----
From: Beverley
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:56 AM
Subject: Abbey Charges totalling £1,700
£1,700 of bank charges since October 2005. Ranging from £115
- £250 per
month
I tried time and time again to either get Abbey to not charge me just
for 1
month but they wouldn't, they wouldn't even change the the date they took
the charges out (4 days before I got paid each month) which
constantly put
my account over it's authorised overdraft which incurred even more charges.
After looking at the OFT website I decided to write to them with the 1st
letter and sent copies of all bank statements dating back to last
October (I
could have gone back a few years more, but didn't have the statements).
They wrote back to me offering a good will gesture of £115 plus
to reverse
the £55 charges set for that month (June), I phoned them and
said if you
believe that "Abbey's charges are fair and I was aware of the
charges when I
first opened the account" then why offer me a good will gesture
of £115? I
said to them that I will accept an offer of them to pay me back
£1,000 and
take the matter no further, and they duly declined.
I Wrote them stating that I am declining their offer of £115 as
a goodwill
gesture and that many other customers of various banks have had most
if not
all of the charges back and that they must have seen that the charges were
"unfair, unreasonable and unenforceable" and that I will
give them 7 days
to respond to my letter letting me know if they will accept my offer
of them
paying me back £1,000, if not then I will be taking the matter
further and
going for the full amount of £1,700 and if necessary going to
small claims
court.
Well to my surprise, I received no letter for a couple of weeks and
yesterday checked my bank and there was a long list of credited fees back
into my account totalling nearly £1,000. They never wrote to me
saying they
were paying me this back, but I am happy that I actually won and got
most of
the fees back. Now my account is in credit and I can now sort out my bank
account.........................and hopefully no more charges!
If it wasn't for a television program about bank charges and the OFT website
I would never have thought of doing it and would never have thought I would
get any charges back..........A BIG THANK YOU!!!!!!
[293] ----- Original Message -----
From: Alistair
To: m@govanlc.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:25 PM
Subject: Preferred Mortgages Ltd
Good evening
I am writing to you to question a company:
Preferred Mortgages Ltd
Oakfield House
35 Perrymount House
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 3BX
I have had my mortgage with them for some 18 months and never missed
a direct debit payment until recent
Over the past 2 months I have missed 2 payment deadlines due to a
change of employment payment dates.
I have incurred 2 x £30 charges from this company following
payment declined because of insufficient funds in my account.
I wrote to them with your first letter (payment declined) and they
replied as follows:
Conclusion (theirs)
'I acknowledge your comments with regard to the Office of Fair
Trading and Consumer Credit Act 1974 however, this information is not
applicable to the mortgage you have with us as this is a regulated
Mortgage contract. I would advise that Preferred Mortgages is not a
bank and as such is not governed by the Banking Regulations but by
the rules laid out by the Financial Services Authority.'
[GLC note: Preferred Mortgages have got it wrong - if they are
charging £30 default charges in terms of the mortgage contract,
then the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations will apply -
see the actual OFT press release here - http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2006/68-06.htm
The relevant part of it is: The OFT now
expects all credit card issuers to recalculate their default charges
in line with the principles set out in a statement published today
and to take urgent action where needed to reduce the level of credit
card default fees. The industry has until 31 May to respond to the
statement. These principles also apply to default charges in other
consumer contracts such as those for bank overdrafts, store cards and mortgages].
I wondered if there was any other recourse I could follow and I would
greatly appreciate your guidance
I look forward to your response in due course
Kindest regards
Alistair
[292] ----- Original Message -----
From: Arthur
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 11:19 PM
Subject: REFUND OF BANK CHARGES
M.B.N.A. have closed my account and sold my account to Link Finance
last year, after many letters going to and fro M.B.N.A. has agreed to
pay the sum of £552 for bank charges also £122.85 in total
£674.85. The only bad part is they have refused to send me a
cheque for that sum, they stated they will deduct the amount from
what I have to pay Link. Is there any way I can force M.B.N.A. to
send me the cheque [GLC note: why do you need to
pay money to Link? Ask for details of the contractual
basis of charges which Link believe they are entitled to].
[291] ----- Original Message -----
From: Lindsay
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 9:48 AM
Subject: Bank Charges refund - success!
Hello,
This is a fantastic site - thank you so much for your help!
...I used the information supplied on your website and your template
letters to contact my bank (Bank of Scotland) and request a refund of
unfair bank charges. The charges had been made on 2 separate accounts
over a period of 3 years and totalled £579.
At first the bank dismissed my claims (their first letter might as
well have read "get lost") but as I persisted by sending
more letters (based on the letters on your site) they began to take
me seriously. They firstly offered me a refund of £150. I
rejected this and soon afterwards received an offer of £275.
&ldots;Although I considered taking my case to the small claims I
decided to settle for £275 on the basis that I thought the court
might well recommend a refund of a similar sum.
I sent my first letter on 23.02.06 ...and received the offer of
£275 (which I have now accepted) in July so this has been a slow
process, but well worth it. Thank you so much for making these
letters available since otherwise I don't think I would ever have got
anywhere with my bank!
[290] ----- Original Message -----
From: Emma
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:18 AM
Subject: Capital One
Hi,
Because of this wonderful website I sucessfully claimed back all my
charges from Ulster Bank, but now want to do the same to Capital One.
I have asked them for copies of my statements which they said they
would, but didn't. Can they refuse me? They seem to have taken an
awful lot of money from me over the last few months as my balance
does not seem to be going down. I need advise on this one as they are
rude, money grabbing and in no way comprimising.
Look forward to you response
Em
[289] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 12:51 AM
Subject: refund
Hello All,
A big thank you to such a fantastic site. I initially sent Halifax
the 1st letter and they wrote to me saying they would refund me
£200 as full and final settlement.
They have used delay tactics constantly by not sending me copies of
statements and me paying the £10 charge for the info.
When i contacted them they said their last offer was £610. With
persistance, i went to small claims court and i just received a
letter before going to court offering me the £2000.00 i asked
for and the £62.00 court fee. In 8 weeks i went from £200
to £2000. I believe they owed me a lot more but hey i'm happy.
May take them now for breaching Data Protection Act 1998. I wonder.
Thank you sooo much for your advice. Good luck to all in their quests.
[288] ----- Original Message -----
From: paul
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 1:00 AM
Subject: refund
Hello all,
Many thanks to your website and by using your letters i have just
secured a £2062.00 refund.
I paid quite a lot in fee's over the years, however trying to get the
information from Halifax is almost impossible even after paying the
£10 charge for the info. Anyhow they initially offered £200
as a final settlement and i refused. Then it went to £610.00 and
again they refused.
I had enough of them and proceeded with the small claims board. I
just received a letter saying they won't accept liability but it
would cost too much at court to defend, so they credited by a/c with
the £2000 + court fee reimbursed.
Please don'y give up, if you think you are owed more......fight them
for it. Send them the court papers.
Thanks again
[287] ----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 8:39 PM
Subject: Unfair Bank charges
> Thanks to your help and others i have just received a refund of
my bank
> charges totaling £220. Although this is a small amount in
comparison to
> other people it is a lot to me and for this month at least i
wont wander
> into an unauthorized overdraft. I sent the step 1 letter in June
and got
> the usual response that the charges where fair and reasonable in
> comparison with other banks (the fact that ALL banks where
making unfair
> charges doesn't count!!). They also threated to close my account
if i
> continued with my threat of action, this if nothing else
galvanized my
> resolve into taking action and i sent the step 2 letter in July,
to my
> surprise their response this time was to tell me that they where
> refunding my charges in full as an act of good will. In one
sense i was
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