BANK CHARGES

[madforituk26]

HELLO FELLOW HUMANS, i have a small problem with my bank account, in brief inever had an overdraft, i had 2 missed direct debits, hence i went over drawn, due to the debit not being taken i ncurred charge from the bank. i then stopped all direct debits and just left my account alone, 6 months later i am recieveing a statement for the amout of just short of 400 pounds, all these are from the banks own charges, all this debt is only what the bank has charged me and contains none of money i have spend, i have a few ideas what to write and how to write but thought i might like some advise if i may. thankyou for your time.
gaz

[miss trollope]

Hi Gaz

I discovered this website yesterday which was set up as a result of someone trying to claim back his unfair bank charges. There's lots of other useful info on there too. Good luck!

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/

[slimline66]

Hi madforituk26
You need to get all your statements together with the (unlawful) charges on and add up every one. If you don't have them then you should put in a SAR (Subject Access Request) for them, it will cost you a tenner.

[Your Name/Address]




[Bank Name/Address]



[Date]

Data Protection Act disclosure request


Dear Sir/Madam


ACCOUNT NUMBER: **************

Under the Data Protection Act 1984 and 1998, and including the right of subject access under these acts, please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since [xxDate as far back as you wantxx]. 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 £10.00 to access ALL data held by ( Bank/Credit Card co. name) about myself. You should be fully aware of your statutory obligations under the data protection act and that any failure to comply to this request could result in an investigation from the Information Commissioners Office. You have 40 days in which to comply.

Such submissions from yourselves that the relevant data is now only held on Microfiche in date order and can only be provided at extra cost etc is unacceptable as it implies that such data is nonetheless retrievable. In these circumstances, as opposed to copies of statements for the micro-fiched period, I will accept a detailed break-down of all charges levied to my account in date order.




Yours faithfully,




[Your Name]

Now the fun starts ...

[Your Banks Address]



[Date]


[Your Address]





Dear Sirs

[Your Account Number/Details]

Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I am now aware that you, { Banks name} have been charging me, charges, that are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) of the said regulations gives a non-complete list of terms, which may be regarded as unfair, such as a term that requires me as a consumer who fails in his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation.

I believe that your charges are disproportionately high and therefore they are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition I 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 It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss.

Furthermore if you fail to comply with this letter, I request without further notice a breakdown and proof of all costs involved, in regards to your actual or liquidated losses involved in any breach of contract to which these charges relate with yourselves, and that these charges reflect your true costs In relation to the said charges, and are proportionate to the charges levied on my account as defined in Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e)
I also hereby request a detailed report of which clause in your terms and conditions each charge has been applied against.

Your charges appear to be nothing more than a profit-making scheme. Therefore I require you to refund me at a total of £X,XXX.XX, representing the total, unlawful during the last 6 years. I hereby give you 14 days to refund the charges back on to my account. For the avoidance of doubt, if this is not done within 14 days, I will commence my claim in the courts without further warning. This action will inevitably involve you in additional costs.

Yours Sincerely




[Your Name]

Use both templates and edit to your requirements. If you've not actually paid the charges then tell them to remove them from the balance.

If they try to make a deal, REFUSE IT. If they don't comply with your demands then start court proceedings (chances are that you won't have to go! ... but not a certainty!!)

Put the account in dispute - which basically means that they cannot act on it until the dispute is settled ie. no debt collectors! (I've got letters for them too if they play dirty)

If no joy by the 14th day, send a "Letter Before Action" which is like giving them a second chance to redeem themselves ... and if it goes to court, shows that you have tried your best to resolve the issue before hand.

Here is the body of a letter I sent after starting proceedings showing the kind of wording that I used:

Thank you for your recent offer of £800 , I must inform you that I will not be accepting this offer. As outlined in my earlier correspondence I explained that the charges you have applied to my account are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Further or in the alternative, I believed 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 my original letter I informed you that a claim has been filed with the county courts, and as a subsequence interest pursuant to S69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum, have been added to the original amount. To avoid the addition of any further costs being incurred and so as not to waste any more of the courts valuable time, it is in your best interest to refund in full the revised balance of £2,379.78 forthwith.

Please find enclosed my amended schedule of charges.

Also, as of 24/10/2006 this account is in legal dispute until this matter is settled due to the continual harassment of your colleagues in relation to my overdraft (see attachment). Since you received that letter I have had yet another unlawful penalty added to my balance which will also be added to my total claim.

If this harassment continues while this account is in dispute you will leave me with no alternative but to report you to the appropriate authorities.

May I draw your attention (again) to the Office of Fair Trading Code of Guidance in which it states:
Putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive .
This includes: IGNORING DISPUTES ABOUT WHETHER MONEY IS OWED and REFUSING TO FREEZE ACTION IF THE DEBT IS IN DISPUTE.

Yours Sincerely

... and yes, I got ALL of my money back!!!

What does that tell you eh!

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk

[CheekyCherub]

Please be aware though they will try and use the current situation of the banks appealing the OFT's ruling that charges have to be fair, explained fully and so forth, so at present most accounts are being held in what they call a stay position, this means they won't act upon any new cases of refunding charges. However you can slap them with legislation if they have caused you financial hardship and or taken money for charges from an account that is predominantley state benefits. Template available for this on afore mentioned website and other places incl moi! lol
hugs
Tigs x

[angieb]

Hi, just thought I'd mention that I was 40p overdrawn and they charged me £15 for being overdrawn and an additonal £25 for not having an overdraft facility (which they won't let me have because I'm on income support) and because I didn't have the money in my account for them to take on the day they required ( I paid it a few day's later they knocked £15 off) they then charged me an additonal £27 which again I couldn't pay on the day and paid late. So now they want an additional £40 off me this month, when I called them they said this would carry on every month untill I paid them on time, couldn't I borrow the money, to which I replied no I can't so you will have to take it Court. The CAB advised me to write a letter of complaint to the bank, they should have quashed the charge and should have refunded me all the money. If I have no joy write to the ombudsman and complain that I have six months to do this because of the stay mentioned above. I think it is disgusting especially now that so many people will find themselves in this situation if and when they lose their jobs that the bank is allowed to do this to people on such a small income.

[CheekyCherub]

Angieb- you need to write off to the manager first, then if his response is crap, Head office, they CANNOT take money from your account if the bulk or all of it is from State benefits, it comes under the Social Security Act 92. Try this template unless you have written already!! apologies if you have!!:

Your Name and address

Date
Banks NAME AND ADDRESS

Dear sir/Madam


Penalty and unfair charges –Request for a refund For (your name ,sort code and account number)

I am writing to get my bank charges refunded. The social security act1992 states that banks cannot take charges from benefits a person needs to live on. I have been on benefits since Insert date benefits were first paid.
Therefore. I am looking for all my charges to be refunded back on my account as not one charge should have been administered.
Please refund all charges applied to my account within the next 7 days. I reserve the right to commence further my grievance on to the Financeal onbusmen service without any further notice, and to seek an additional award for distress and inconvenience, together with legal expenses.

Yours faithfully


hope this helps
hugs
Tigs x

[slimline66]

Good info there tigereyes

Here's another template and more info:
First right of appropriation

First right of appropriation

There have been many reported cases where Banks have taken charges from accounts that have benefits paid into them by DWP and Social security. This leaves many people without money to live on and pay bills with.


Below is a template letter to hand in personally or send to the bank.
It is important to let the bank hand/post this at least 7 days BEFORE you expect to have funds paid in by DWP or the Inland revenue.


A new letter should be handed or sent for each payment that you require protecting. You can edit the letter to suit your benefits and what it is you want protecting.

You will need to know how much benefit is being paid into your account and how much each benefit is for.

You will need to know what you have to pay each week, so you can enter it onto the template to suit your circumstances.


Your address

Banks name and address

Date

RIGHT OF APPROPRIATION

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx

I am writing to inform you that I am due to have a enter benefit/s payment of £enter amount, paid into my account on insert date, and I wish to use my first right of appropriation under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 for this money, for the following purposes;

Rent £xx
Utilities bills £xx
Housekeeping money £xx
edit this to suit your needs!!!

I will withdraw the money on the day that it is deposited for the above use, and I would be grateful if you would ensure that any other payments out of my account do not interfere with this withdrawal.


Yours faithfully

signature

print name

Please note that items in red are for example purposes only and should be changed to suit your own requirements.
NOTES

Some banks do not understand this process since it is not very often used. You might need to explain it when handing in the letter.

Also, whilst we can try this route, there are some possible problems;

1) Ideally, you should give the bank 7 days notice. If they are aware, they could disregard the request.

2) They may just disregard it anyway and swallow up the money. You would then have to complain and if you are not happy with the outcome you would then have to involve the financial ombudsman service (FOS), to get it resolved. This could take a few weeks and would not solve the immediate problem. see below for more information on the FOS.

Banks, building society or credit card companies which has signed up to the Banking Code must act fairly and reasonably in all its dealings with customers. This includes how it should deal with a customer in financial difficulties. If it breaches the Code, you can complain using the bank or building societies' own complaints procedure, if you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman (FOS)

If you cannot reach an agreement with the bank or building society, find out if it is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Ombudsman can investigate the majority of banking complaints, but there are some exceptions such as where you are questioning the bank's commercial judgement. You must have followed your bank's or building society's complaints procedure, and have made your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months of receiving its final decision. You cannot use an Ombudsman scheme after taking court action.

The Financial Ombudsman Service
Your complaint must be brought to the Ombudsman within 6 months of the deadlock letter. The Ombudsman will try to deal with your complaint informally but if this fails will make a preliminary decision. You and the bank or building society can make comments on the decision, which the Ombudsman will consider and then make a recommendation or a ruling. The bank or building society must comply with the ruling, but if you are not satisfied, you can take court action. However, if you do so, the court would take the Ombudsman's ruling into account when deciding your case. You can contact the Ombudsman on 0845 080 1800 or visit the website at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.


We would strongly recommend that you open another bank/post office account and inform the benefits agency that you have changed bank.
Also explain to them that the banks have taken your benefits to pay for charges. It has been known that the benefits agency will sometimes contact the banks and demand the money paid back into the account.

Social Security Administration Act 1992
Miscellaneous
Certain benefit to be inalienable **

187- Subject to the provisions of this Act, every assignment of, or charge on-
(a)benefit as defined in section 122 of the Contributions and Benefits Act;
(b)any income-related benefit; or
(c)child benefit,
and every agreement to assign or charge such benefit shall be void; and, on the bancrupcy of the beneficiary, such benefit shall not pass to any trustee or other person acting on behalf of his creditors

[angieb]

Thanks Pepe's for your help I've not written yet, will get it done first thing, as soon as they said they were going to take the money I stopped my benefits going in and my direct debit payments being taken out because I knew that would incur even more charges, which has caused me real inconvenience and extra charges for having to have invoices sent so that I can pay my bills with paper. The only reason they got any charges out of me was because I had to pay a couple of bills with my debit card and had to pay the charges to do so. Its' brought to my attention how everything is geared to using the banks it can be quite dificult to function without one ie: extra on your bills. T Mobile will not accept cash payment in their shop so I'm going to have to go into their bank to pay the bill so I've been charged £3.00 for having to be sent an invoice and probably be charged again in their bank. I'm still getting paid by giro, all I want to do is close down my account and never have a bank account again. CAB said the post office can pay direct debits but I will have to get a letter from DWP. O845 numbers that's another story.

Thanks again for your help Ange xx