Hi all.
Barclays announced that it is has made massive pre-tax profits of £7.14billion for this year, with the other 'big five' expecting similar grossly inflated profits. As usual, they are making vast amounts of money while unfairly taking money from their customers. While it is accepted that one should be careful with regard to one's finances and that it is best to avoid any penalty charges in the first place, this does not mean that your bank has a right to overcharge you when you do happen to incur a charge.
There has been a lot of coverage lately about the legality of bank charges and now there is assistance in claiming back your bank charges and any interest that would have been due on them, which is currently at the statutory rate of 8%.
Here are some links to information on how you can claim your bank charges back. Pass the links to everyone you know who has ever been stung by these charges.
Have fun and enjoy your money back.
[link= http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632 ]http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632[/link]
[link= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6170209.stm ]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6170209.stm[/link]
RE: Claim back your bank charges
I personally don't go into the red in my bank account but my son has many times.
We are in the process now of trying to wring money out of Abbey National.
My son up till now didn't even look at his account but when I looked because I wasn't be paid some money he owed me on which he had set up a standing order, I was horrified to see they had charged £165 for one months bank charges for being over drawn.
It is ironic that thepeople like him who are least able to pay are the ones that the bank target and make them get further and further into debt.
RE: Claim back your bank charges
Yesterday on the day it was in the news about bank charges I get a letter from my bank the Cooperative bank saying they had charged me £70 for going over my overdraft facilities!.
I rang them to give them a bollicking and told them they could have least had warned me and whats the point of charging me when I was already in the red.
He said it was in the bankcontract. I reminded him about the poublicity and he said the coop was looking into it.
Ive told him I will claim this charge back.
RE: Claim back your bank charges
Banks are notorious for this sort of thing - fleecing by stealth. There are ways of avoiding charges, such as:
don't have an overdraft/pretend that your overdraft facility doesn't exist;
never go overdrawn (banks 'cash in' from customers this way, more than any other way);
Open a deposit account;
One well-known High Street bank (whom I won't name and shame here) holds people in such contempt that it refuses to serve non-customers between 11am - 2pm, and if by some chance, non-customers get served, this bank levies a £5 charge on every transaction. Be warned.
Patsy.
RE: Claim back your bank charges
Hi,
Just thought I would let you know my experience with bank charges (well actually my son's).
He has a bank account with Halifax and they had sent him numerous statements to him via the online service. He was totally unaware of this and didn't realise that he had also got almost 20 letters sent to him online, saying that they were charging him £30.00 for overdrawing his account. (each letter was £30.00!!).
He went to the website mentioned and wrote a letter using their guidelines (or actually I did) stating that any charges should be in proportion to the amount overdrawn (he was charge one lot of £30.00 for £2.50 overdrawn). He also sent them a list of all charges and a total he was claiming back. (just under £700.00) and gave them 40 days to reply.
Guess what? They sent him a letter stating that they were willing to give him £676.00 back as a good will gesture!!
So if you have been stung, it is well worth claiming it back.
Good luck to all.
Crabapple
RE: Claiming Bank Charges - Very Useful Website
Hi All
I noticed this thread and thought I would let you know about a website my husband used when he was going through the 'rigamarole' of claiming back unfair bank charges.
He found it whie looking for information regarding claiming money back from your bank and about the 'Small Claims' process.
There is a forum with people all going through the same thing. It is very helpful and my husband said he probably given up if it hadn't been for this website, as the legal jargon and the processes you need to go through can be very complicated and a bit confusing for your avergage 'layman'.
Hope someone finds this useful.
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http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/
Hugs
Lminx 🙂
RE: Claiming Bank Charges - Very Useful Website
The links are very good but they dont apply to Scots Law, we have a different process up here, would be nice if the people writing them could also adapt them for people who dont live in England and Wales.
Very glad to see that people are getting their money back but it has already been said in the press that banks are already decreasing free services to claw the money back, such as an end of interest free overdrafts, one large bank is also talking of charging just to have a current account.
RE: Claiming Bank Charges - Very Useful Website
Hello All,
Banks make these charges not from greed, but because most of them are owned by huge pension companies. As we know, there is a massive deficit in pension funds, and raising bank charges helps to pay for pensions.
The best way to avoid bank charges is to not go overdrawn.
Patsy.
RE: Claiming Bank Charges - Very Useful Website
Thats correct but sometimes you get into situations where you have no option. I was bullied and seriously bullied in a job and I wont go into the story on here, but it left me in financial difficulty and I was expecting something to happen (not a lottery win) but something that should have in order that my finances were put right but that didnt happen either. I ended up going back to uni (unplanned) but it saved my sanity if not my bank balance, I ended up paying 3 thousand pounds for my degree, I worked all the way though but my wages were pitiful and I had to put most of it on credit cards.
That was 2003, I lived off my overdraft, even though I worked full time since and am in a much better job but so much of my wages went out to repay debt, I was basically overdrawn every month.
A policy that matured paid off a lot of it and I should be debt free by the end of this year.
Sometimes life overtakes you, it did in my case. I am not frivilous with money and even during this rough patch everything I spent was accounted for practically to the last penny but I needed my overdraft.
What doesnt help also is the 5 days or 6 days that your money spends in a holding account prior to being transferred to your credit card provider, there is no need for this and it earns the banks millions of pounds in interest every year.
RE: Claiming Bank Charges - Very Useful Website
Hi crystaltherapy,
During a period of economic stability, financial relations become increasingly perilous; banks finance theirlong term assets with short-term liabilities and 'Ponzi economics' is common.*This is why banks hold on to customers' cash - they are financing their assets with it. This can go on for years, but eventually the economy will slump ('deflation'.) It is easy to see why a small increase or decrease in interestrates can trigger this off. This is what happened in 1929, which led to the Great Depression of the early 1930's. The rules are different now, but the rise and fall in interest rates help keep inflation and deflation to a minimum.
Also, during periods of economic stability, people tend to increase their personal liabilities (debts) and the resulting cash inflows (wages) validate the debt. This is why today there is a booming market in credit - it's an indication of a stable economy.
Patsy.
*Ponzi was a fraudulent economist of the 1920's, who tried to boost his own finances using an illegal pyramid selling system.