[kiral1404]

There has been a lot of press recently about recovering bank charges.

Have any of you had any joy trying this.

So far I recovered over £600 for myself, £1500 for the wife and working on another £1500 from her other account (6 yrs worth).

Also advising a few friends.

Anybody want any tips please ask away.

Feels good to get money back from the banks!

Also, my parents are in the process of claiming back council tax that they were overcharged for being in the wrong bracket (dating back to 1991).

It's YOUR money, come on claim it back!

[Tosh]

Kiral, you're spot on, mate.

This stems from the Office of Fair Tradings investigation into credit card defalt charges.

They (the OFT) said that the admistration charges weren't adminstration fees, but penalties; and this isn't allowed in business contracts; or something.  You can't be charged a 'penalty' charge; only an administration charge and they said anything above 7 quid is unfair.

It costs the banks about 60p to send you a letter telling you that you've (for example) 'bounced' a direct debit; so why are they charging you 39 quid - plus interest - on any unauthorised overdraft fee?

Google for Which Magazine; they do a good set of standard letters.

[S.Carpenter]

so we just send them a standard letter and we get our money back?

[kiral1404]

Follow this link, it tells you all the steps, good luck

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bankcharges

[DaveWilkinson]

It was on watchdog on the bbc again tonight, looks good, they must owe me a fortune. Thought this was great.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/campaigns/bankcharges/article.html?in_article_id=416671&in_page_id=507

DAve

[Tosh]

Dave, it's been in all the papers too.

It's getting to be a standard thing; getting your charges back from the bank.

Banks are now going to bin 'free banking'; which used to be paid for by the 'charges' they levied when you went into an unorthorised overdaft or 'bounced' DD or SOs (which were really penalties; which is illegal under British contract law) and now are going to charge everyone for having a bank account; like they do in most civilised countries.

I must've had a German bank account for a least ten years.  They just charged me about 4 quid a month and wouldn't pay anything that took me into the red; but didn't charge me for it either; apart from the monthly standard charge.

That sounds fair to me.

Getting charged 39 quid for bouncing a life insurance direct debit of 10 quid is really unfair; but it happens!

[Pole2pole]

My sister received a letter from the financial ombudsman today. After about 8 months of to-ing and fro-ing and after being offered £1200 to go away, she has just settled for £2,500. About £300 short of what she was owed.
My mates misses got us onto it. She got about £6000 back. God only knows how much she owes on credit cards 

[C-Thru.]

Have a look at ' moneysavingexpert.com' he is the guy who started this whole campaign, on his site you can download a template letter to recover your money from the banks, over a million people have done so far with an average of £1000 each recovered, The record so far is £18,000 for one guy.

Good Luck
Goochie.

[Pole2pole]

It's times like this i wish i'd been stung with bank charges left right and center.

[arwyn evans]

HI FELLAS,
ONE THING IM WONDERING ABOUT,
DO YOU HAVE TO CHANGE BANKS IF YOU GO AHEAD WITH YOUR CLAIM,
HAVE THEY GOT THE RIGHT TO STOP YOU BANKING WITH THEM

[Pole2pole]

I believe they'll threaten it, but i aint heard of anyone being dumped by their bank. After all, they're still gonna want ya money to play with  . Today, tomorrow and evermore. Seriously, they won't drop ya. It's just something they gotta stomach. Don't worry, they are already dreaming up other ways to get it back off of us. Like starting to charge us for having a bank account, which is currently free. They'll be a few more being dreampt up as we speak.

[DaveWilkinson]

There has been a few banks turn around and close accounts, they say its because of "A break down of the working relationship" or in otherwords there in a huff.

DAve

[Tosh]

There has been a few banks turn around and close accounts, they say its because of "A break down of the working relationship" or in otherwords there in a huff.

DAve

But the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) have clamped down on this, citing it as 'vexatious behaviour'; so I don't think it's common practice; very rare in fact.

But when I did it for Wor Lass, one of the websites did advise opening a 'parachute account', just in case the banks did.

We never bothered though.