[Digger]

Probably a thread on here somewhere about this...cant find one...or are you all loaded enough not to be bothered?... Am interested to hear whether anyone here will be pursuing their bank to claim back their last 6 years penalty charges...?

The Money Programme

Penalty Charges Website

May consider approaching Alliance and Leicester to get mine back...if i can summon the energy to do it...can take up to 3 months though

[scouse258]

the law states you can claim up to six years back - if you dont have your statements then are the bank obliged to inform you what they have taken over the last 6 years and do you have to pay for this service?

[pixelpixel]

Did watch the program and was very good. Also this rule does not just apply to banks it covers alot more services than people think.

Good luck to anyone trying to get any money back.

[Digger]

Originally Posted by scouse258

the law states you can claim up to six years back - if you dont have your statements then are the bank obliged to inform you what they have taken over the last 6 years and do you have to pay for this service?

Click on the Money Programme link...thats why i put it there...

[Urien Rheged]

My RSPCA £3.00 direct debit bounced this month and Nat West charged me £38.00. This then produced a snow ball effect of DD's bouncing. In the last month Nat West have charged me around £350.00 in bank charges and I am now in a situation I cannot get out of.
I have written to them and asked for my last 6 years worth of charges to be listed (cost £5.00). Once I get them, I will be asking for all the charges back. It is unlawful to charge me that much as it doesnt cost them that much in administration. If they wont pay up I will take them to a small claims court. The biggest refund someone has got so far is £17,000.
Good luck to anyone else who is claiming.

[Ultima]

I may be missing something here. Are you saying that banks can't charge people and if they do you can claim it back upto 6 years??

[fourfoot]

I keep my money in order, so have never had any bank charges. Am I missing out?

[johnscarlet]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

I may be missing something here. Are you saying that banks can't charge people and if they do you can claim it back upto 6 years??

They can only charge you what it actually costs them , not anymore than that .
It actually cost £6ish i think , not the £20-40 some banks charge . The Money Saving Expert site has a lot of info and downloadable templates for letters.
I went looking for my statements earlier . Could find 96 - 02 but could not find 02 - present . I know they are somewhere and will look into it after chrimbo

John

[Urien Rheged]

I read it costs them about 50p in administration when someone goes overdrawn. They are charging much more than this (£38.00 in my case) to pay for other things like bad debt which they shouldnt be doing. There was legal caselaw in April '06 that stated it was unlawful to charge more than it costs them in admin. It is simply a money making scheme. They will lose if it goes to court so they are trying scare tactics to stop people doing it. Everyone that has pushed them to the point of a court date has won from what I've read. The banks, etc pull out at the last minute and pay up.
Hopefully this will be the case with me.

[RMCF]

Know of a couple of work colleagues currently doing this.

One has been offered approx £800 by his credit card to settle now, but he has rejected it as he believes he can get a lot more.

As fourfoot says above, if you manage to keep your finances fairly well in check, is there any point in persuing this?

As far as I remember, I have only been hit with 2 or 3 late credit card penalties (£25 each) and probably next to none with my bank current account as it is always in credit and its free to operate if you stay in credit.

So it looks like it might actually pay to be useless with money and always have overdrafts, late payments, cheques bouncing, etc.

[Digger]

Originally Posted by RMCF

As fourfoot says above, if you manage to keep your finances fairly well in check, is there any point in persuing this?

Do you understand what this is about? If you are unable to "keep your finances in check" for whatever reason, you will get hit with these "illegal" charges... the banks are breaking the law by making an apparent profit on these "charges" so it is only right that the parties affected claim them back...

[RMCF]

Yes I do know what it is about, as I have spoke to people claiming the money back.

My point was that if you manage your money well then this doesn't really apply to you - the claim procedure is only good for people who have been hit with a lot of charges.

[square-eyes-baz]

My sister in law has successfully claimed hers back

[Steven]

Wow, I know I'm gonna miss having an interest free student-overdraft. I remember listening to this on five live late night (bear with me). Quite funny how the bank rep tried to turn a couple of letters and stamps, and a press of computer keys into £30-odd

[Sonic67]

A word of warning. Since this started some banks have decided that as you can't agree to their terms and conditions then they don't have to have you as a customer. You can't force a bank to open an account with you. They may well refund the money, then close the account and then let other banks know what sort of customer you are from their black list.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/campaig...in_page_id=507

Some customers who have won back bank charges now face a new battle. They are being forced to issue court proceedings to stop their banks closing down their accounts.

Banks and building societies, including Alliance & Leicester and Nationwide, have decided to shut customer accounts after bank charges are refunded on the grounds that because the customer has disputed their fees they clearly have a problem with the terms and conditions on the account.

However, legal experts do not think that customers will have much luck trying to stop banks kicking them out of accounts - since any business has a right to refuse service as long as it does this within its terms and conditions.

But they could have more joy in getting bad credit marks overturned. The banks argue that their charges are part of their terms and conditions and that therefore, when a customer refuses to pay a charge, they have defaulted and that a record of this should be kept.

So you might get your money back but no longer be able to have an account.

[Ultima]

I don't like playing devils advocate but if you have agreed the terms and conditions, signed the contract, and then get charged for defaulting, shouldn't you just accept the charge??

Anyway, it's interesting that banks are closing accounts etc after the charges have been refunded. This will make people think twice before proceeding with any claim.

Martin

[cHk4]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

I don't like playing devils advocate but if you have agreed the terms and conditions, signed the contract, and then get charged for defaulting, shouldn't you just accept the charge??

Anyway, it's interesting that banks are closing accounts etc after the charges have been refunded. This will make people think twice before proceeding with any claim.

Martin

its bully tactics thats all. In the past 2 years I have had to pay around 1500 on bank charges. Yes im crap with money. It all started when I brought a ring for my gf for xmas , the cost was £325. that same day £350 came out. The next day my 7 dd's were due to come out. The £350 just went to no one, they could not track it to any company and was later back in my account with no movement if that makes sence. Abbey would not take responsibility as they said it was not there fault. And then started a chain of nasty dd charges.

I Already have another bank account which I use for poker :D woo! so I have no problem with the bank. I have been with the bank who charged me loads for all my life which would be a shame to leave but in recent years since the re naming of it I have noticed it seems to be different. (Have been 7 p over and I ended up getting £50 worth of charges )

SO I will be claiming my money back.

[pjclark1]

My kid got stung for £38 by Natwest for bouncing a cheque (£5 too little in account)
I went along to see the manager and he only agreed to refund £19.
A few weeks later I heard about "the letter" and wrote to them demanding the other £19 within 14 days or court action.
The money was repaid into his account pretty fast (but they didn't bother to write and say they were doing it)

£38 for 45 mins of my time is pretty good!

What's really wrong about these charges is that only the weak and the poor have to pay them, take a firm line with the bank and they soon back down.

[Ultima]

Originally Posted by pjclark1

My kid got stung for £38 by Natwest for bouncing a cheque (£5 too little in account)
I went along to see the manager and he only agreed to refund £19.
A few weeks later I heard about "the letter" and wrote to them demanding the other £19 within 14 days or court action.
The money was repaid into his account pretty fast (but they didn't bother to write and say they were doing it)

£38 for 45 mins of my time is pretty good!

I can understand the problem with the level of the bank charge but don't you think that you (your kid)should have paid any charges for writing a cheque knowing that the funds weren't there to cover it??

Martin

[Urien Rheged]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

I don't like playing devils advocate but if you have agreed the terms and conditions, signed the contract, and then get charged for defaulting, shouldn't you just accept the charge??

Anyway, it's interesting that banks are closing accounts etc after the charges have been refunded. This will make people think twice before proceeding with any claim.

Martin

If the terms and conditions are unlawful then it doesn't matter that you have agreed to them. They are still unlawful. A useful allegory is, if someone punched you in the face, but told you they were going to do it first, it still wouldn't be legal to hit you would it? Just because they have told you they are going to charge you and you have agreed, it still doesn't make the charges lawful.

All you need to do is open a new bank account elsewhere before you pursue the claim.

[Ultima]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

If the terms and conditions are unlawful then it doesn't matter that you have agreed to them. They are still unlawful. A useful allegory is, if someone punched you in the face, but told you they were going to do it first, it still wouldn't be legal to hit you would it?

All you need to do is open a new bank account elsewhere before you pursue the claim.

Err, no, I would have had to agree that they could hit me in the face before they did it. Just like you signed the contract for the credit card/bank account.

What gets me with all this is that people are expecting to default on payments, go overdrawn with a facility, make late payments to credit cards etc and not expect to pay a penny as a result.

I would expect to be penalised if I didn't organise my finances right and lived beyond my means or didn't make finance payments on time after I had agreed to do so.

Just my take on things.

Martin

[Sonic67]

These days you get on-line banking, telephone banking, statements sent to your house and there are plenty of packages out there that can manage money or you can use a spreadsheet, or the back of a fag packet if you like, has no one heard of budgeting?

You can’t spend money you don’t have. I think it’s a sad thing about today that it must always be someone else fault and no one is prepared to take the blame themselves.

If you have to go overdrawn have you tried sorting it out with the bank first?

Still when your bank account is closed down you will have to manage on what money you have then.

[Sonic67]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

All you need to do is open a new bank account elsewhere before you pursue the claim.

Banks talk to one another. They have their own blacklist of problem customers. The same way insurance companies talk to one another over claims etc. You may find your other new bank account is closed when your original one is.

[Urien Rheged]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

Err, no, I would have had to agree that they could hit me in the face before they did it. Just like you signed the contract for the credit card/bank account.

What gets me with all this is that people are expecting to default on payments, go overdrawn with a facility, make late payments to credit cards etc and not expect to pay a penny as a result.

I would expect to be penalised if I didn't organise my finances right and lived beyond my means or didn't make finance payments on time after I had agreed to do so.

Just my take on things.

Martin

Its not the penalty that is unlawful, it's the amount that's unlawful. If it costs them 50p in admin for you to go overdrawn then legally they can only charge you that. Charging £38.00 is the unlawful bit.
There is legal caselaw from April '06 that does say these charges are unlawful, and even though you accepted the terms they are still unlawful. That's not just my opinion, that is a legal fact.

[Urien Rheged]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

Banks talk to one another. They have their own blacklist of problem customers. The same way insurance companies talk to one another over claims etc. You may find your other new bank account is closed when your original one is.

Thousands of people have made these claims successfully and managed to open a bank account elswhere with no problems. They can't blacklist you for making a complaint.

[mrtbag]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

What gets me with all this is that people are expecting to default on payments, go overdrawn with a facility, make late payments to credit cards etc and not expect to pay a penny as a result.

I don't mind paying. It should be a reasonable amount though. I've been less than a pound away from having enough funds for a DD, and they charged me £28.

Originally Posted by Sonic67

Banks talk to one another. They have their own blacklist of problem customers

How would that affect opening an account BEFORE you send the letter?

[Ultima]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

IIf it costs them 50p in admin for you to go overdrawn .

How much it costs depends on the bank but I would have thought that it would cost more than 50p but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, why are people asking for full refunds and not accepting some responsibility for their actions and actually paying something for problems that are their fault and not the banks.

Martin

[Digger]

Originally Posted by mrtbag

I don't mind paying. It should be a reasonable amount though. I've been less than a pound away from having enough funds for a DD, and they charged me £28.

Thats exactly where I stand on this too, having discovered that all the banks are breaking the law by making a huge % profit on all their charges, and then they have the audacity to close your account. I am happy to pay the penalties, but having discovered the degree of profiteering something must be done.

So, which is worse the customer breaking the T & C's or the banks breaking the law, and taking advantage of the financially disadvantaged?

[Ultima]

Originally Posted by Urien Rheged

Thousands of people have made these claims successfully and managed to open a bank account elswhere with no problems. They can't blacklist you for making a complaint.

Thats the problem, the more and more people who are trying to get a refund on charges the banks may get together and make a global decision about these customers and just decide not to deal with them. Business is business after all.

Perhaps everyone would be happy to pay for banking facilities, like businesses do. Well no, it's free so nobody complains.

Martin

[Urien Rheged]

Originally Posted by ashworthacca

How much it costs depends on the bank but I would have thought that it would cost more than 50p but don't quote me on that.

Anyway, why are people asking for full refunds and not accepting some responsibility for their actions and actually paying something for problems that are their fault and not the banks.

Martin

I believe 50p is the standard admin cost for sending a letter when someone goes overdrawn. Bounced cheques, etc do cost them more in admin.
As far as the law is concerned, if the charge is more than their costs, then the whole charge is unlawful. This is why people are claiming back the whole charge.