FAO ANYONE who has ever had a bank charge

[lmarszall]

Oh wow that has cheered me up so much. How amazing if it was before June too!

DP and i will have no car then and thats when peanut is due so any money will make a huge difference. Thanks girls i am a very happy bunny!

 

[Urchin]

Got my statements from Barclays today...they only sent me from July 2003 so I rang them for the rest...will probably have to wait another month


Anyway, I wasn't expecting many charges from the 2003+ statements, as it was before then when I had more problems BUT I found 13 £25 referral fees!

That's £325 already!!

Now I just have to wait for the rest, and the Barclaycard statements too

 

[lmarszall]

Cool!

Will they charge you again for the rest of the statements?

Did it take a month to get the first lot?

Sounding good though, good luck!

xx

 

[Urchin]

Yeah it took about a month, I told them I didn't want to wait a month again and also they did sayu I wouldn't be charged for the next lot.

One thing I did noticed, February 2005 I got charged 5 times in one month! I didn't think this was allowed!??

 

[EllieG]

Hiya, my husband and i are just going to do this and i was wondering, if you have a credit card, say barclaycard, but it went to a collections company can you still laim money back? And can you claim back money for late payment or is that a whole new kettle of fish? The other thing was, if you have closed an account with a bank can you claim back for charges made whilst the account was opend?
Sorry lots of ?'s!!!!

 

[x-kirsty-x]

Hiya, my husband and i are just going to do this and i was wondering, if you have a credit card, say barclaycard, but it went to a collections company can you still laim money back? And can you claim back money for late payment or is that a whole new kettle of fish? The other thing was, if you have closed an account with a bank can you claim back for charges made whilst the account was opend?
Sorry lots of ?'s!!!!

Hiya, I know you can still claim charges back for accounts that are no longer open but I dont know about the other things, sorry

 

[Princess_Puddles]

Wahoo OH sent off his letter to HSBC yesterday claiming back £725 worth of charges, excluding interest though. We were both so worried that his bank would close his account & demand back his loan in full but after some research he found that legally they can close his account but cannot ask for his loan back in full

 

[Emmylou]

EllieG.....as far as I am aware you can still claim back even if it went to the collections stage. What you are claiming are the unfair chagres that were applied to yur account, so even a charge for late payment is unfair because what they charged you (e.g. £25 a time) is not in line with the actual cost of them notifying you that you had missed the payment (e.g. cost of letter/ processing & postage) - therefore it was a penalty charge, which is an unfar charge.

So I would say, total all all the charges and claim them all back, you can 100% claim back from an account that is now closed, for the charges that were placed on it when it was open.

Good Luck Hope they pay you back quickly

 

[EllieG]

Thank you! We sent off our first letter to Halifax the other day tatal charges £1485! So bad with money management, don't think they will give it to us easily! Has anyone else claimed from them? Also going to send Barclays a letter, total claim is £900 or there abouts, again its such a lot of money, can't see them giving it up without a fight!!

 

[EllieG]

Hiya all, I sent my letter off to the halifax last week asking for a full refund of £1485 worth of charges. This morning we received a letter saying "thank you for your letter......sorry you are unhappy...... our commitment is that we respond to you at the earliest possible oppertunity however we need to thoughroughly investigate..... the financial services authority allow 8 weeks for this, we aim to write within 4 weeks to update you". this seems a long time, is this right?

 

[Emmylou]

I just had a letter back in the week, saying that Lloyds TSB expect to get back to me within 4 weeks

Was quite a stupid letter, said sorry to hear you are unhappy......if we have misunderstood your complaint please contact us.......

......but they didn't anywhere in the letter state what they understood my complaint to be idiots! Just a bog standard letter that they must send out whenever they get a letter



I'm going to leave mine until I hear back from them, they have said 4 weeks, so thats what I'll give them, I would suggest you do the same and allow them 4 weeks. If you don't hear back from them then, write to them saying something like:

Further to your letter dated [16th February 2007 - or whatever the date is] I would like to acknowledge your failed response to my complaint regarding the unlawful bank charges applied to my account between [date - date] amounting to [£amount].

I would request that you please revert to me within 7 days of receipt of this letter, or I will be forced to pursue court action against you.

Hopefully they'll get back to you sooner though, I think most businesses like to underpromise and overdeliver so you might well hear back within a week or two. The next letter I'm certain will say that they are unable to refund the money, refer to your contract with us blah blah blah.

So its just a matter of waiting for that then taking the next step (either another letter or straight to the courts).

Keep us updated hun

 

[EllieG]

Thanks for all your help with this, I think your right, it's just a standard letter, I have been looking on the consumer action group website and most of them have had something similar, I am just really impatient!!
Oh well.... watch this space!

 

[Minime]

I'm fuming!

I was apparantly up to my overdraft limit unbeknown to me and they paid some direct debits, the indian call centre said 4 of them. I dont even have 4 direct debits!
Anyway I knew nothing about this as they didnt write to say I was over my agreed limit nor did they bounce the direct debits.

Anyways I had just put in a cheque for £14,000 and it was a HSBC cheque going into a HSBC account. Couple of days later I checked at the ATM and it said available balance and showed it had cleared so I drew on it. Got my statement and they have charged me £100 "arrangement fees"

WHAT ARRANGEMENT???

When I called them they claimed they had allowed 4 DD's at £25 charges a time. Now thats funny why didnt they decline them as they have in the past? Why didn't they inform me? She said its up to me to manage my account, errr its up to the bank not to pay out money that isnt there! They also said I'd drew on an uncleared cheque. Errr excuse me? The ATM said it was AVAILABLE!!

Told them I want to make a complaint and I was not happy. Ive been with them 17 years and am inclined to go elsewhere now that I'm considerably in the BLACK

Awaiting complaints form and will look into the previous charges as I know when I left my ex husband and had difficulties they hammered me left right and centre. *******s!

 

[Emmylou]

Fair weather friends - like to give you an umbrella when its sunny and take it away when its raining!! Bar-stewards!!

I bet they asked if you would like to invest some of your large cheque when you paid it in too? I had a house sale go through just before xmas, and went to the bank to pay in a cheque for £11,000 - they asked me if I'd like to discuss investments with an account manager - er no!! I have parents and credit card companies to pay thanks - but they were quick to try and take some of my cash then - same as when I had no money the week before and they felt they should charge me for a DD that was taken early!!

Look into all your charges Minime - and claim them all back - every last penny they've taken in the last 6 years! Might sound like quite an effort - but its worth it!!

 

[Minime]

I bet they asked if you would like to invest some of your large cheque when you paid it in too?

You bet they did! Also asked again when I went to change my name last week. Told them no thanks. Mine was from a house sale too.

Like others on this thread I know a couple of years back when I left ex husband I was paying rent plus half the mortgage plus as I found half his friggin bills until I stopped them. I asked HSBC if I could miss a couple of loan payments until I could get on my feet, they said no chance. It was like a vicious circle, money came in, charges went out, that left me short so got more charges.

Went in last week and paid off my loan in full, that was liberating


Ive never been charged an "arrangement fee" before, funny now I had money in there they choose to do that and at £100!!!! Cheeky *******s!
How long does it take a cheque to clear from one of their own accounts into another? The ATM definately said it was available.

 

[sparky]

i'm having the same probs with HSBC at the moment....they've lied no end of times on the phone..

gonna stuff them for charges then move on!

 

[Minime]

Halifax will pay US £100 to switch to them


HSBC have driven me nuts, its indian call centres and as previously stated you can ask for a refund of charges which I did just last week, I asked for that £100 back. She said no.

 

[Emmylou]

Take it further hun - honestly - don't let them get away with stealing your money!!

 

[Minime]

Have sent my letter off requesting statements now.

Interestingly OH and also a bloke I know who's a surgeon both said they went over once and the bank waived the charge. I specifically asked and was refused. The difference, they have platinum accounts and I dont.

That to me is blatant discrimination and the banks are stinging those who can least afford it so if you are in any doubt whether to do this or not then I hope that convinces you otherwise

 

[sparky]

HSBC have just shut their main branch to anyone other than premier and business users in edinburgh now, they have another fully automated branch, so if i want to go and see a human being i'll have to travel the 50 or so miles to Glasgow now!