Did you know that bank charges of more than £12.00 have been ruled as unfair by the OFT and you can claim your money back? And your claim can cover the last 6 years?

[tigermoth]

I've cut and pasted the article that appeared in Telegraph money section:

Get your money back from the bank

The Office of Fair Trading's ruling that bank penalty charges of more than £12 are unfair could spark a flood of complaints from customers seeking compensation for unjustified charges over several years.

Earlier this month the OFT ruled that penalty charges for late payments on credit cards, unauthorised overdrafts, unpaid direct debits and standing orders and missed payment fees on store cards and mortgages were deemed unfair if they exceeded £12.

Last weekend, this paper revealed that this could lead to redress for bank customers who have been erroneously charged for the past six years.

The OFT's initiative strengthens the case of anyone who has seen penalty charges automatically deducted from their accounts after falling foul of bank and building society small print. As with any legal proceedings, there is not a 100 per cent guarantee that you will win, but lawyers and consumer groups reckon the OFT's position means judges will be far more likely to accept arguments that penalties of more than £12 amount to unfair contract terms that cannot be enforced.

The process for reclaiming the unfair charges from your bank is straightforward.

First your bank is obliged to supply you on demand with a list of all charges you have paid in the past six years under the Data Protection Act. You then need to write demanding the bank repays the unfair charges. If that is not successful, you can take the matter further by either going to the small claims court of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

More details on how to claim and pro forma letters are available on the website of Which?, the consumer group.

"Claiming back these unfair charges from the banks is a relatively straightforward process," says Emma Bandey, a personal finance campaigner at Which? "These charges are nothing but an easy money-spinner for the banks."

I am thinking of doing this. What a windfall if I am successful!

But I am worried about something. If I push for this, and my bank give me my money back, is there a risk that the bank might start to get difficult with me? I don't want them to mysteriously refuse to send me a new cheque book, refuse to extend my overdraft limit or refuse a loan. Do you think there is a risk that banks might start doing this to customers who claim their charges back?

Once I get my statements and have calculated the damage, do I ask for the full amount?

Hello,

could someone please answer my questions about this subject.
I have sent off letter one already and am awaiting my statements.
When i get them do i have to read throught them all and write down every charge and add the all up as a total for all the charges.
Or
Do i take off the first £12? IYKWIM?

I was asking the same, gemmz.

I didn't deduct the £12, claimed the full ammount, and after a bit of a battle got it back too

hth

Just sent off my 3rd letter to Natwest, notifying them that I have logged a complaint with Finance Ombudsman, sent recorded delivery this morning. Read in paper last night that a man had won a £4,000 claim againt Abbey National - feel inspired now to carry on with this, will let you know what Natwest say

can you claim on bank accounts which are closed?

good luck golds!

FWIW, I looked around on other sites about this, read some case histories, then decided to claim for the full amount of charges (not deducting £12.00 per charge). Some sites are urging people not only to claim the full amount of charges, but also to add interest, and provide an interest calcular. I have also made a small claim on one account that I have closed. The bank have had the letter for a week or two but no response so far.

As for my main refund claim on my current account, I phoned the head office customer services about the lack of response to my first letter asking for a refund - and then got a phone call back (today) within the promised 48 hours. I will be getting a written decision by next Friday apparently - I am not holding my breath, but you never know. I have got letter number 2 already typed out, ready to send off.

Ok - I need some help! We sent the first 2 letters to Barclays after working out they have taken £750 in charges.

Today we have received a letter from Barclays saying that when dp opened the account he agreed to the charges in the terms and conditions blah blah blah and that whilst they are not officially accepting 'responsibility' for charging us too much they are offering £350 to be put into dp's account within 7 days..."as a gesture of goodwill"

Result!!

Now, here's the problem. We are unbelievably broke. Barclaycard decided to help themselves to £490 from dp's wages last month (they are next on the list to get letters from us). £350 would be sooo handy in the next 7 days and would mean we could prob get a week in Newquay that we were hoping for.... On the other hand, if we know that holding out would get us the full amount that would be superb in the long run........What to do??!!! Do we take it and be grateful we got that or try and push it further?

oh, don't know what I'd do. I think you need to check out some of the other banking and money websites mentioned on this thread, especially look for the barclay customer's comments on them. Find the most recent case histories too.

I know some sites advise you to reject the compromise offer ( from what I have read, this half way offer getting to be a routine thing), but obvioiusly if you hold out, it could take a weeks if not months time to get any money.

You could consider contacting barclays by phone and say you'd settle for eg £500.00 That's nearer your request and they might be willing to concede - I just don't know though.

We are stumped!! Although I know that they are doing this to fob us off, I'm also worried to reject their offer and end up with nothing. Here's what their letter says:

'May I say how sorry I am to learn that you feel the bank charges you have incurred are unfair. In your correspondance you have referred to elements which you feel support your claim. Barclays is aware of the information you have drawn to our attention. I must inform you , however, that we disagree with your view.

(Then a bit saying that when we opened the account we were provided with the term and conditions and our obligations etc)

Despite my comments above in relation to your views, on this occasion, and without admissions as to the basis of your complaint, I am willing to offer the sum of £350.00 towards the total amount youe seeking. This is with the cost and inconvenience inherent in a further dispute and is intended as a gesture of goodwill. If you would like to accept my offer please sign and return the enclosed form.

If you are dissatisfied with my proposal for resolving your complaint you may ultimately be eligible to refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service.'

The form is for dp to sign saying that he has accepted £350 in full and final settlement of his complaint.
To me it sounds like they are trying to fob us off and make it sound like it would cost us more to try and take it further and therefore make their offer sound good.

Help!!! Tigermoth there was a bit in the letter saying we could contact the senior case manager (whjo sent the letter) directly so I think dp is going to phone today and say we will accept an offer of no less than £500 on the theory that if they say no then dp can still sign the form if he's too scared to go further!!

how did it go? if you are still not sure what to do, you could try contacting the financial ombudsman - and also posting your problem on some of the other sites. Have you read through any barclay customer case histories?

BTW as the Woolwich is owned by Barclays I am totally expecting to get a compromise offer similar to yours in the next week or so, and will also be faced with this. I will be looking for recent barclay entries on other websites and may well talk to someone from the financial ombudsman service.

If I decide to refuse the compromise offer, I will be sending the second letter asking for a refund and threatening court action - the letter gives barclays 7 days to reply, then I have to begin the court process by filing something online. So I suppose things get speeded up, as that is not a long deadline.

Good luk ! hope you get to newquay one way or another!

I brought this up with Halifax when they charged me £39 for a direct debit I had no funds for (was requested from my account a day early by Barclaycard!!). They said it was rubbish and I had to ask Barclaycard to refund me!!!!!!!

Does this mean i'll be able to get back the £60 charges Halifax did me out of for going SIX PENCE over my overdraft limit???? THERE IS A GOD!!!!

Hi Tigermoth - nothing so far. DP rang them but it was an answer machine saying they'll get back within 48 hours, so he's waiting.

7 days is not too bad at all to wait for a reply if we refuse...

I haven't been into the money saving sites etc for a while - I registered with one when the thread started and got very lost and confused once I was in!! I will try again though...

Done my letters, all signed ready to post tomorrow, hope it works but judging by the rest of the responses on this thread it looks v promising. Fingers crossed! :-)

Rumour has it that there is a test case going to the crown court sometime later this year, as such any lesser courts (inc small claims court) cannot make any further judgements until the higher court outcome is known.

As such all of the banks are now likely to stop any settlement activity until the test case is heard and the outcome known.

There isn't much point threatening them with a small claims court acton atm because they know the claim will be held over until the higher court judgement comes through.

They're running quite scared of a test case. That's why they've palmed all these people off with settlements.

Currently going thro' the process with Lloyds. I'd say stick tight & go for full amount (lots of helpful stuff eg. template letters at Bank Action Group forum) BUT be aware that sooner or later enough people will successfully hassle them that the balance will tip in favour of court as far as they are concerned - & you just conceivably might lose out.

It is a gamble. However, it seems that the banks are overwhelmingly accepting that they daren't risk it in court. Obviously they'll find another way to shaft us soon enough...

hmmm....sounds like getting a settlement from my bank could be an idea worth considering.

I think The Woolwich (Barclays) is deliberately stalling me.

I phoned yesterday to chase up responses to some requesting refund letters I had posted them regarding two (now closed) accounts. The Woolwich had denied they had received the letters (I first phoned on Friday). Yesterday I found the recorded delivery signed for slips and gave the bank the reference numbers. As if by magic they 'found' my letters and told me to expect an acknowledgement/response to them in 5 days.

I will definitely be sending ALL letters to The Woolwich via recorded delivery from now on.

Tigermoth do you have any dealings with Barclays or is it strictly with Woolwich? I'm just thinking if you need the names and addresses of people we wrote to and are dealing with I'm happy to pass them on to you...

That court thing is v interesting and puts a whole different perspective on it. I'm now thinking if they refuse dp over the phone then we just sign for the offer. We just aren't in a position to be able to gamble it.

I'm going to start the whole process again with Barclaycard now. They have well and truly done us over in the last few years.

Hi, just an update on my situation. The bank had refused to refund me so I started court proceedings. The banks solicitors sent me a copy of their defence and one to the court. Then it was left for me to arrange a court date and stuff.
BUT, before I had chance to do that I received another letter from the sols saying the bank thought that I had no chance in court but as a good will gesture they would give me £1000 (I was claiming £1236). I just have to withdraw the claim and not tell any third party eg the press.
I've accepted the £1000 and will do as they say. I don't think its worth going to court over the extra £236.
This was Royal Bank of Scotland by the way.

topbanana - can I ask how you started the court proceedings? i have just downloaded a form from the HM money claim website, but I am not sure how to fill it in or where to send it.

Hiya, I registered on here did it all online. They get a couple of weeks to decide if they are going to defend the claim or pay up. If they decide to put in a defence they have 28 days to do this and they will send you a copy. When the court receive their copy of the defence they will send you some forms to fill in which will transfer the claim to your local court. Not sure what happens after that though because I didn't have to go that far.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Oh, and mine cost £120 because the claim was for over £1000.

Having been inspired by your sucess I have telephoned my bank, Abbey, and they say that the only way that I can get a list of charges for the past 6 years is to pay £10 and go through the 6 years worth myself. What a helpful start from them, certainly making sure that I will see this through to the end!

I had to go through all the statements! Its not too bad when you get into it
Good luck.

Have just found this thread . Well done Topbanana!

I am now considering claiming back late payment charges on my credit card. Has anyone tried this, or is it mostly bank account charges?

Actually something has just occurred to me. About 3 months ago my credit card limit was greatly reduced (with immediate effect) because I sent my payment very late. OK, I know that was wrong but the outstanding balance was only about £90 and I owed them £5, for which they charged me £20, plus the reduction in my credit limit. Hopefully this is a one off and not something the banks may start doing to those who challenge them.