claim back bank charges...

I'm not sure I fully understand your point. If I'm paid a fixed sum per month and I allocate some to a vehicle, some to Direct Debits, some to savings, some to charity, some to essentials and some spare and my wife makes a purchase for £11.95 when the account is within the limit and then three days later the current account is over the OD limit by £6 I'm not happy to be charged £30 largely because the ombudsman tells me its an unfair sum.

Isaac you are coming across as a little pious. I really can't accept I should only make arrangements for a vehicle once I have a certain buffer in my current account sufficient to prevent going over my small overdraft limit. I can also state that were I the only person using the account I wouldn't miss this type of event.

You seem to be mixing up the idea of people living la vida loca - going out every night with a flagrant regard for credit, "buy it now, pay for it in the never never" against my circumstances with my wife and I balancing a very busy life with four children and me running a business, where my wife gets up at 05:00 each morning and we don't sit down to eat until 22:00. We barely have enough time to talk never mind enough time to go through our accounts each evening.

Rearrange the following: "pole ass your from the remove"

 

Is this becoming a Monty Python sketch?

 

I think that's rather generous to the banks (the £23).

Yes.

Why not? I'm not Alvin Hall, but it seems if you're putting money into "savings... and some spare" then perhaps it could better be used avoiding these problems now, lowering overall expenditure on bank charges than sitting in a savings account not earning enough interest to cover the charges resulting from lack of availability of that money?

You're coming across as rather rude:

 

Issac, my routine for dividing and allocating our finances are my affair, my Wife's occasional mistake is her affair. The latter sometimes impacts the former and the impact is significant given the inflated charge applied. I'm quite aware of what would make sense however the stresses of life, the lack of time to sort this type of thing out in advance add to the problem, but hey don't bother applying any regards to any of that.

I still maintain you are lumping what I've described above in with your disdain for people who generally use and abuse credit. Bit simplistic IMO.

Not my intention, my last remark was intended as a joke actually, but apologies if you feel offended.

 

So, has anyone tried this?

I know a couple of people who started the ball rolling today.

 

Got this from moneysavingexpert.com today.

Bank charges are unlawful. Take them on and get your money back.
Help spread the word. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.


The campaign to reclaim unlawful bank charges is the biggest consumer revolution for years. Anyone who's had a penalty charge/fine from a UK bank in the last six years should get their cash back. Tens of thousands already have, many in the £1000s. Yet it's in danger of being hijacked by commercial claim handling vultures, who are dominating Google with ?no-win, no-fee? ads. It's hoped this e-mail will help combat that, spreading the word that you should....

...Never pay any company to reclaim bank charges!

Everything needed, including template letters to send to the banks, is available free, without registration, at www.MoneySavingExpert.com/bankcharges. Plus further support can be found at penaltycharges and consumeractiongroup

 

It does work - a few people on the overclockers.co.uk forums tried it and got their money refunded.

I've always found my bank (HSBC) to be pretty darned lenient when it comes to bank charges - I have gone over my agreed overdraft limit now on 2 occasions, by up to £100, and it takes them ages to even bother phoning me to even ask when I'm making a payment (being paid at the end of every month means I always go back within the limit fairly soon, but one time I was over my limit for almost 3 weeks, and it was a fortnight before they even rang me). I have never been charged for going over the agreed limit.

On the other hand, whilst this is pretty generous, before you get the idea HSBC are completely wonderful - in November the local branch managed to somehow lose/misplace a £330 savings warrant that was sent to them by NS&I, which was rather less helpful and would have made for a rather more auster Christmas than I'd have liked had my parents not lent me some money . Would be tempted to ask for December and Januarys interest back from them if it was supposed to have been paid into a savings account rather than a current account which doesn't earn any interest!

 

I've started the ball rolling with this...will let you know the outcome as and when...!

 

As I understand, they have a lot of people sitting there looking at everyone’s overdraft and they choose to either charge you for it or not. They will look at whether you have money credited to the account that just has not cleared and so on. If they fail to meet the quota for bank charges that week they might be less lenient than other weeks. It might sound crazy but I think that really is how they handle it.

 

Me too and me too.

 

Barclays issue them automatically determined by your cleared bank balance at 18:30. Nice and personal.

 

Bank charge victim sends bailiffs

It's happened for the first time.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/campai...html?in_article_id=416671&in_page_id=507&ct=5

quote:

Bank charge victim sends bailiffs
James Coney, Daily Mail
22 January 2007
Reader comments (2)

A man who was fed up with paying massive bank charges decided to give one of the high street giants a taste of its own medicine.

When Royal Bank of Scotland refused to refund £3,400 charges that Declan Purcell believed he was owed, he sent in the bailiffs.

Stunned customers at his branch of RBS watched as debt collectors seized four computers, two fax machines and a till filled with cash.

The branch manager was told that the items would be sold unless RBS came up with the money owed to Mr Purcell. Only when the manager gave an undertaking that the debt would be paid did the bailiffs leave.

Mr Purcell said: 'I think the bank was pretty shocked when the bailiffs went in. But my view is that this is exactly what they would have done to me.'

The move, which will raise a cheer from millions of other bank customers, is part of a consumer fightback against bank charges, which net an estimated £4.5bn every year.

Every time a current account customer goes overdrawn by as little as £1 most banks will charge around £28, even though the administration cost is only about £4.50. Then every cheque, direct debit, or card transaction that goes through or is bounced incurs another charge of up to £38.

The Office of Fair Trading is investigating whether banks have implemented these charges unlawfully.

The Daily Mail's Fair Play on Charges campaign and that run by the Consumer Action Group have helped thousands reclaim charges in the past year.

Like other customers Mr Purcell, 48, from East London, had warned his bank that he was prepared to go to court to claim back charges he believes were imposed unlawfully.

In June last year he demanded the refund of £3,400 charges he accrued during the previous six years while running a motorcycle dealership. RBS ignored the claim so in October Mr Purcell filed an online application to get the money back through the county court.

After 30 days the bank had not responded and so on December 10 the court ruled in Mr Purcell's favour. It ordered RBS to pay the charges and £120 court costs. When RBS again failed to respond Mr Purcell got the court to give him a warrant of execution, allowing him to order debt collectors to reclaim items from the bank equal in value to the amount he was owed.

Finally on Monday, January 8, a team of debt collectors walked into the busy Camden Town branch in North London, demanded to see the manager, showed their court order and announced that they were repossessing items.

Mr Purcell, who now works for London Underground, said: 'I was dismayed by the bank's reaction when I made my claim for a refund - it was so rude and arrogant. They thought they were above the law, so it is great to know that customers can use the law in the same way the bank does to get money they are owed.'

A spokesman for RBS said: 'We are looking into this as a matter of urgency, but early indications suggest that unfortunately due to an administrative error, the bank failed to defend the claim leading to a default judgment being obtained on the branch and a resulting warrant. The confusion was cleared up at the branch.'

Marc Gander, who set up campaign website Consumer Action Group, which helps consumers get refunds from their banks, said: 'I am quite sure that Mr Purcell will not be the last person to send bailiffs in to his bank.

'The continued operation by UK high street banks of their unlawful charges regimes will see to that.

'The heavy-handed debt collecting approach is something that the banks have been handing out to their customers for years. Mr Purcell simply gave them a bit of their own back.'

end quote

It's good to see customers fighting back against unreasonable charges, though personally I think that banks should be able to reclaim administrative costs, but with out a profit element.

 

Why not?

They are a business with shareholders not a charity.

Big business exists to screw as much out of the customer as possible. To argue against that is to call for the end of capitalism because capitalism only works when peple screw each other.

BTW I'm all for the end of capitalism but it's no good tinkering with it, fannying around at the edges gets you the worst possible outcome in the end.

 

Oh and another thing.....

Lay of the charges complaints. That's my bloody bonus your talking about!

 

Just as an update. Barclays have written back to me, here are some snippets:

"May I say how sorry I am to learn that you feel the bank charges you have incurred are unfair... ...I must inform you, however, that we disagree with your view"

Note my view was not that I felt the charges were "unfair" but in fact to quote my original letter: "Over the past six years you have charged me for exceeding my overdraft limit on a number of occasions . It has come to my attention that this in unlawful at common law, and under statute and recent consumer regulations". A slight difference I trust you'll agree

They then go on to refer me to their T's and C's. But then continue:

"Despite my comments above in relation to your views, on this occasion, and without any admissions of liability, I am willing to offer the sum of £X towards the total amount you are seeking. This is with the cost and inconvenience inherent in a further dispute in mind and is intended as a gesture of goodwill, in full and final settlement of your complaint...."

I've written back restating that their charges are "unlawful at common law, and under statute and recent consumer regulations". They have 14 days to settle the matter before it gets a little more serious.

 

Er the subject of charity doesn't immediately spring to mind regards the Banks.

The reason why the charges can and should be reclaimed is they are "unlawful at common law, and under statute and recent consumer regulations".

 

Was their "goodwill gesture" anywhere near what you were after?

 

A round figure and about 45% of what I'm reclaiming.

 

The charges have only been found to be unlawful in their size, not in their principle.

 

Indeed. Did you think this was new info?