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Original poster

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?

537 replies

tigermoth · 23/04/2006 08:49

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?

OP posts:
emsiewill · 01/10/2006 20:40

shedevil, I accepted the amount my bank offered (£250, about 10%), but said I was accepting it as part payment of the amount they owed.

They haven't replied to my claim yet, the deadline was yesterday, but as it was Saturday, they get until tomorrow...so I'm praying they don't do a last minute defence.

Will report back tomorrow.

shedevil · 01/10/2006 21:43

Thanks emsiewill, did you use the 'letter 3' template from this thread and just alter it a bit?

BTW sorry for all these questions everyone

emsiewill · 02/10/2006 21:22

Shedevil, here's the letter I used - I think I mainly got it from the consumer action website, mentioned frequently on this thread:

"Ref your recent offer ? account number X

Thank you for your recent offer of £250 as a gesture of goodwill. We are informing you that we will accept this offer in partial settlement of our claim against you. As outlined in our earlier correspondence we explained that the charges you have applied to our account are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. Further or in the alternative, we believe that your charges are a Penalty.

Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963

In our original letter we informed you that we would start legal proceedings within 14 days, we are now giving you a further 14 days to refund a further £ 923 back on to our account. I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original letter of the 28th July. If you do not comply fully within 14 days from today then we shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus our costs and without further notice.

Yours Faithfully"

Hope that's some use to you.

Still no news on my claim - I presume Abbey had until close of play today to either acknowledge my claim, enter a defence or admit the claim. When I try to request a judgement by default I get the following message

"You cannot request a Judgment by Default at this time.

The Defendant is allowed 14 days from the date they were served with the claim to defend or admit your claim before you can request a Judgment by Default.

If the Defendant files an Acknowledgement of Service within 14 days of receiving the claim form, they will be entitled to 28 days from the date they were served with the claim form to file a defence or admission of your claim. If the Defendent does not file a defence or admission within the 28 days you can request a Judgment by Default."

As there is nothing to say that they have acknowledged the claim, I'm assuming I should be able to ask for a judgement tomorrow and get one.

Time will tell...

shedevil · 02/10/2006 22:38

Thanks thats brilliant i'll post that off tomorrow.

Sounds like you should be able to get a judgement by default tomorrow - hope so, let me know how you get on! Good luck hun x

emsiewill · 03/10/2006 15:32

Glad it was helpful.

Well, according to the MCO website, Abbey have still not done anything with my claim. However, having spent some time on the Consumer Action website last night, I found out that if I ask for a judgement by default, they can ask to have it set aside, if they say it was not replied to due to 'an oversight' or similar. Apparently, those people who have gone for the judgement by default and then had it set aside have had to wait longer in the long run for it to be settled (as a 'punishment'?).

So, I have been advised to wait a little...seems it's all weighted in favour of the people in the wrong

shedevil · 04/10/2006 21:14

Yes i've heard they can claim 'imcompetence' for not acknowledging it within the given timescale. Its just another excuse for keeping your dosh for longer if you ask me! How much longer will you wait before you can't stand it any longer and crack!?

shedevil · 04/10/2006 21:15

Oh and I posted my Letter before Action today as well hee hee!

daisydog · 05/10/2006 15:25

Do you know if this also applies to credit card bills - i'm always forgetting to pay mine and then have to pay a £20 late fee?

shedevil · 07/10/2006 08:14

Yes it applies to credit cards as well, i'm claiming £900+ back from MBNA and have got £400 of it so far, just waiting for the rest now!

mrsratty · 09/10/2006 14:39

Hello,
hen you ask Natwest for the amount of charges you have incurred do they send you your statemants or do they work it out for you?

shedevil · 17/10/2006 21:32

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have received a phone call today from MBNA credit card saying they'd repay £901.50 PLUS contractual interest, total reclaimed £1440.50!!

Should get a cheque in the next 7 days!!!!

Anyone else claiming from MBNA have a look at this link here

emsiewill · 17/10/2006 21:35

Well I asked for a judgement against Abbey last night, as I had heard nothing at all. On the CAG website, one man has been told that Abbey are now defending their own claims rather than using a solicitor - this may mean that they have decided they are fighting a losing battle.

Time will tell...

emsiewill · 17/10/2006 21:35

Oh, and congratulations shedevil.

Tortington · 17/10/2006 21:49

they are asking me for £10 to get my information bastard fucks

Tortington · 17/10/2006 21:54

on phone for 15 mins - she tells me i have to write in and include a cheque

2ndtime · 17/10/2006 21:55

We wrote to Barclays last week (12th Oct) asking for them to tell us how much they've charged us in the past six years. They sent us a huge pile of statements today (pretty quick I thought).

I was surprised they didn't just tell us the figure. It will take ages to count them all up.

On the bright side they did it for free and returned the cheque for £10 I sent them.

Let battle commence! I can't wait to get stuck into this!

Tortington · 17/10/2006 22:07

i'm going to send the fee in stamps. stamps are afterall legal tender are they not!

fuckers

bucksmum · 18/10/2006 11:23

Has anyone had any sucess with First Direct? I'm about to try and claim form them

renaldo · 18/10/2006 12:14

just got full and final settlement from FD, turned down their inital offer then 10 day later (today in fact) got full offer. Waiting to see if they will close the accounts now..

bucksmum · 18/10/2006 12:28

Has anyone had there account closed because they have made a claim

shedevil · 18/10/2006 22:24

Hiya, some banks are closing accounts so its best to have a 'backup' account open and ready just in case, but its not very common as banks are battling for customers.

pesha · 18/10/2006 23:25

Hi have just seen this thread have tried to skim through but its just so huge. I bank with lloyds and have been charged loads over the years. Can anyone tell me the basics of where to start with a claim or what is the best website that will tell me where to start please?
And have people had much luck claiming from lloyds?

jampots · 18/10/2006 23:32

pesha - i initially wrote to lloyds about 4 weeks ago asking for a breakdown of the charges to date on one of my accounts. they still havent supplied the details. however i noticed from my bank statement the other day that they have still charged me 60 for going 10 over my o/d facility plus interest,

angelfaces · 19/10/2006 00:24

~A POSITIVE NOTE~ Just wanted to let everyone know that i wrote to HSBC a month ago to ask for bank charges back (I used the stencils on the consumer action group website), got a reply last week saying they would pay me back £1000, only £100 less than the full amount i'd requested! I really didn't have much hope for this but after reading through this thread i decided to try. Do give it a go, its really worth it especially with christmas coming up.

emsiewill · 19/10/2006 17:31

pesha, the website to use is The Consumer Action Group & Bank Action Group .

Navigate your way to the forums, they have templates for the letters you need to send, they have threads for all the different banks, so you can see how other people have done, and get wise to the tricks different banks are trying.

My advice would be to make sure you read everything thoroughly before you do anything, make sure you understand the process, especially if you get to the stage of claiming through Money Online.

HTH