Im not sure how many of you are aware of this, i did it in august last year and successfully reclaimed back £811 of charges Barclays had charged me, these were charges for going overdrawn when unauthorised, and for bounced Direct Debits, cheques etc.
It will work with ANY bank, im not sure if many of you know, but most banks have reduced their charges from £30 to £12, as this is the legal limit theyre allowed to charge you, anything over this isnt allowed. I know of at least 2 or 3 people who have taken their bank to court as the bank has decided that they dont want to pay back their profit from customers, and the bank has lost EVERY time.
OK so what are the rules?
Under the 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act, the sheer fact that ALL banks make these charges makes this a breach of the act (the example given is exactly that!).
This is also a breach of the 1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts - the OFT is already investigating the charges levied by Credit Card Companies) and possibly the Sale of Goods Act, and many others.
The first thing you need to do is get a copy of your statements, anything upto 6yrs ago, and the statutory fee for this is £10, some banks will send you them for free, but others will charge you.
Once you receive your statements, work out the charges, you can also include the interest at 3% but i didnt do this as wasnt quite sure how to work it out, here are copies of the letter you need to send to get your bank statements...
If you do not keep all your bank statements you will need to send this letter first of which they only have 40 days to respond, failing to do this they will then occur 8% interest charge on your claim.
(your address)
[their address]
(date)
Data Protection Act disclosure request
Dear Sir/Madam
ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx
Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since (WHEN EVER YOU WANT AS LONG AS LESS THAN 6 YEARS). Alternatively a complete set of bank statements for that period will be acceptable.
Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.
If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.
I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them.
Yours faithfully,
and once you have received the statements and worked out the amount you are claiming back send this letter......
Request for repayment of charges
Dear Sir/Madam,
ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx
My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last XXXX years
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.
Your responsibilites
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.
I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
What I require
I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX
Additionally you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by he taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account.
In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.
My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.
I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.
If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.
After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.
Yours faithfully,
[name]
They will not want this matter to goto court and will get back to you. The maximum amount of time the whole process will take prior to you getting your payout will be 80 days. You can offer an agreement stating you will accept a percentage within 7 days i.e if charges over the past 6 years are £1200, give them 7 days to pay £1000 and they will take this offer.
The banks do not want to goto court and will more than likely settle before it reaches this stage. You are best to keep your claim to under £5k to keep within the small claims bracket so that in the very unlikely case it did go to court then you would not be liable for any court charges.
id be grateful if someone could make this a sticky, im sure im not the only one who has been raped by the banks, and im positive it will help 90% of people
It will work with ANY bank, im not sure if many of you know, but most banks have reduced their charges from £30 to £12, as this is the legal limit theyre allowed to charge you, anything over this isnt allowed. I know of at least 2 or 3 people who have taken their bank to court as the bank has decided that they dont want to pay back their profit from customers, and the bank has lost EVERY time.
OK so what are the rules?
Under the 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act, the sheer fact that ALL banks make these charges makes this a breach of the act (the example given is exactly that!).
This is also a breach of the 1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts - the OFT is already investigating the charges levied by Credit Card Companies) and possibly the Sale of Goods Act, and many others.
The first thing you need to do is get a copy of your statements, anything upto 6yrs ago, and the statutory fee for this is £10, some banks will send you them for free, but others will charge you.
Once you receive your statements, work out the charges, you can also include the interest at 3% but i didnt do this as wasnt quite sure how to work it out, here are copies of the letter you need to send to get your bank statements...
If you do not keep all your bank statements you will need to send this letter first of which they only have 40 days to respond, failing to do this they will then occur 8% interest charge on your claim.
(your address)
[their address]
(date)
Data Protection Act disclosure request
Dear Sir/Madam
ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx
Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since (WHEN EVER YOU WANT AS LONG AS LESS THAN 6 YEARS). Alternatively a complete set of bank statements for that period will be acceptable.
Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.
If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.
I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them.
Yours faithfully,
and once you have received the statements and worked out the amount you are claiming back send this letter......
Request for repayment of charges
Dear Sir/Madam,
ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx
My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last XXXX years
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.
Your responsibilites
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.
I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
What I require
I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX
Additionally you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by he taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account.
In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.
My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.
I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.
If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.
After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.
Yours faithfully,
[name]
They will not want this matter to goto court and will get back to you. The maximum amount of time the whole process will take prior to you getting your payout will be 80 days. You can offer an agreement stating you will accept a percentage within 7 days i.e if charges over the past 6 years are £1200, give them 7 days to pay £1000 and they will take this offer.
The banks do not want to goto court and will more than likely settle before it reaches this stage. You are best to keep your claim to under £5k to keep within the small claims bracket so that in the very unlikely case it did go to court then you would not be liable for any court charges.
id be grateful if someone could make this a sticky, im sure im not the only one who has been raped by the banks, and im positive it will help 90% of people
) they paid mine by chq (as they'd closed my account) DF got paid into his account - a week before court date.
