Guide to reclaiming bank charges

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Revision as of 00:52, 20 June 2007 by Me01273 (talk | contribs) (Step 6 - What Next?)

(Scottish Claimants should read Scottish Step by Step)

Introduction

This guide will help you to recover YOUR MONEY, which has been unlawfully taken from your account.


If you are having doubts about claiming YOUR MONEY back then look at the Survey Results - to date the Banks have paid out over £11 million to 7748 people across the UK (and that Is ONLY those who have taken the trouble to complete the Survey - it is probably three times that figure or more).

We would like to expand this winners club so if you would like to become a member just follow the steps in here.


IMPORTANT: Read 'Things you really need to know', before commencing.



Preparation

Remember When Your Mother Used To Say

"Forewarned Is Forearmed" Well - It's True.

Make sure you read all the Frequently Asked Questions and understand what you are about to do. This may seem a little horrific to begin with but don't let yourself be put off by this.


We are all your friends now and we have all been in the same boat (read some of our threads - this will also help you).


Also study the letters in THE LIBRARY to familiarise yourself with them.

Reading the TUTORIALS is a must - If you want to be fully prepared!!!

Step 1 - Getting your list of charges.

Send the Subject Access Request letter asking for a list of charges made on your account for the past 6 years (or for the time you have had the account if less than 6 years).



We try not to use the phrase "copy statements" since these are not technically covered by the Data Protection Act. The Data Protection Act covers your transaction records. Banks, however, find it much easier to supply you with copy statements. Earlier information may be supllied on Microfiche printouts.



Remember


The data should be supplied within 40 calender days, ONLY complain to the Information Commissioners Office if the 40 days has expired and not before.

If the bank doesn't comply within the 40 days, you can send a further letter giving 7 days, and then apply to court. There are details how to proceed with this in the Templates library.

What Interest Do I Claim?

There are different methods to claim interest on your refund.

1) Overdraft Interest paid by you on the charges This is the amount of interest the bank charged you for being overdrawn. You can only claim the proportion of interest charged on your charges, as opposed to any charged on spending. The Advanced spreadsheet will help calculate this amount. The Overdraft Interest figures should be included within your Preliminary letters to the bank.

2) Statutory Interest under section 69 of the County Court Act. This is the standard interest applicable to your claim. It is awarded at the discretion of the court and should not be added to your claim until you file the claim with the court. The current rate is 8% PA. You can claim this on TOP of the Overdraft interest (1).

3) Contractual Interest

There are a lot of discussions on the methods and reasoning behind applying contractual interest to a claim. However, this should ONLY be considered if you fully understand the legal arguments, and be warned that you would be increasing the chances of having to justify your claim in court.

Things You Can And Can't Claim For

For those that have looked at their statements and may be wondering what they can claim for and why are the descriptions confusing, or whether overdraft interest is claimable as well...Wonder no more.


You can claim for anything which is deemed a penalty charge,

which includes:-

  • returned direct debits
  • card misuse fees
  • unpaid standing orders
  • unpaid item fees
  • exceeding your overdraft
  • referral fee
  • overdraft interest (see below),
  • total charges (see below)

See List of charges by bank for a more detailed list (thanks - Michael Brown)

You can NOT claim for: -


  • ATM (cash machine) usage fees
  • an agreed overdraft fee
  • account "service" fees

- i.e. where you pay a fixed monthly amount but receive benefits such as free insurance or travel discounts etc


Overdraft Interest


This is the single most confusing part of most people's claims and one of the most frequently asked questions.

Overdraft interest is applied to your whole overdraft. However, if some of your overdraft is made up from unlawful charges, then a proportion of the interest has been wrongly applied and is therefore reclaimable.


Example

You have a £400 overdraft, you purchase something that day for £200 so now you are -£200 on your current account balance, but on the same day £200 of charges are placed on your account, which means that your current account balance is now -£400 and the bank will charge interest on the whole £400, but as we are contesting that these charges are unlawful, then the interest should not be placed on the whole amount, only on the amount that you have actually spent. Therefore, in this example, you can claim back 50% of the interest, however these calculations have to be done daily to truly reflect the amount which can be reclaimed.


Total charges

Again this is another issue which many people aren't sure about.

Total charges are reclaimable, they are a separate issue to the other afore-mentioned charges (card misuse, returned d-d's etc), and are not simply all of these charges added together each month. So they are also claimable on top of the other charges.

"Total charges" refers to the charge they put on your account for going over your overdraft limit, this charge is calculated daily, and they can charge up to a maximum of £125 in one month for this, it is then debited from your account on a set date every month.


REMEMBER! On the Advanced Spreadsheet Use the Charges and Interest tab. Do Not use the 8% Interest tab until you file your claim with the court (if you reach this stage).

Spreadsheets

SPREADSHEETS to assist with your claim

If you send the bank a letter before you have given them time to pay up (and are not claiming contractual interest), demanding the statutory interest of 8% APR they will know that you do not know what you are doing and this will more than likely end up with you NOT getting your money back.

YOU SHOULD send a SCHEDULE OF CHARGES with your preliminary and LBA letters. We suggest using the interest calculation spreadsheets, and removing the interest column (if its not for contractual interest) before printing to send.

All charges and dates are ficticious, but here are some spreadsheet templates to help you calculate the interest. Simple versions will calculate the 8% APR only, to be used when filing court claim. Advanced spreadsheets will also help you to calculate the overdraft interest you have been charged by your bank, which you can request at the preliminary stage.

Please choose the spreadsheet relevant to your claim - there are different versions depending on if you are in England or Scotland, which spreadsheet package you use, and also whether you are claiming for a bank account or credit card.

Bank Accounts

England Simple:

Excel

Works

Open Office

England Advanced:

Excel

Works

Scotland Simple:

Excel

Works

Scotland Advanced:

Excel

Works

Credit Cards

England Simple:

Excel

Works

Open Office

England Advanced:

Excel

Works

Scotland Simple:

Excel

Works

Step 2 - Preliminary Request For Refund.

Send the PRELIMINARY APPROACH FOR REPAYMENT LETTER together with a copy of the completed schedule of charges spreadsheet above.

If you obtained your statements online you will not have asked for details of manual intervention as this is in the DATA PROTECTION ACT LETTER, so it may be useful to add this paragraph to this letter.


Allow 14 calendar days before the next Step.


If they do not reply with a full offer, do not reply at all, or reply saying they are investigating and will contract you in 4 weeks, then STILL move to the NEXT STEP after your 14 calender days.

Step 3 - Letter Before Action

Send the Letter Before Action together with a copy of your schedule of charges spreadsheet again if you have not heard from the bank or they do not agree to refund your charges.



Again allow 14 calendar days before the next step.

Step 4 - Making Your Court Claim

Are You Exempt From Court Fees?

Court fees and do you have to pay them?

If you have difficulty paying the court fees, then you may complete and file an EX160, which can be found here EXEMPTION FORM.

Some people do not have to pay court fees by law, this is an exemption. Others do not pay the whole court fee because the court has decided that if they paid it, they would suffer financial hardship. They are allowed to pay a reduced fee or sometimes no fee at all. This is a remission.

Exemption speaks for itself, if you can prove a particular set of circumstances then your fees are waived. For example, if you are receipt of certain benefits you will automatically be exempt from paying court fees. The courts do not lose out as the notional fees that are waived are added to the cost of a successful action, so that at least defendants do not benefit from their opponents' lack of funds.

A remission is at the discretion of the court staff and it may be partial or total remission. The court staff do have a great deal of discretion and if you can demonstrate that paying the fees will cause you financial hardship then you should file an EX160 and take it to the court with you along with any evidence that you have that you feel may be useful, such as bank statements for example.

At all times the staff must ensure that they meet the statutory obligation contained in S92(3) of the Courts Act 2003 of protecting access to justice.

"(3) When including any provision in an order under this section, the Lord Chancellor must have regard to the principle that access to the courts must not be denied."

In order to qualify for remission you need only demonstrate that if you paid the whole fee you would suffer financial hardship.

Therefore, even if you are not exempt from paying a fee but you think you would suffer financial hardship if you did pay it, you are entitled to apply for a remission.

You cannot use MCOL and also apply for a remission or exemption however, this must be done at a court using an EX160 form.

The exemption and remission applies to all fees, not just the fees for the N1, but also the AQ, N244 etc

Filing Your Claim

It is best to use the bank's registered office address for the court form so look at the Banks section to obtain it.


Complete the CLAIM FORM


Copy and paste the Particulars Of Claim onto your claim form *remove things that don’t apply* (this probably won't fit onto the claim form so cut and paste each paragraph separately and put anything that won't fit on a separate sheet).



Things to remember: -

  • At this point you claim the 8% interest, so don’t forget to include this in the Value section.
  • If you have any debt with the bank and you do not want them to pay this off with your refund then state that the payment is to be made by cheque.
  • You will need 3 copies for the court (1 will be copy returned to you with a court seal).
  • Don’t forget to include 2 copies of your schedule of charges with the 8% interest calculations


Or


Register your Claim on line (MCOL). (Use this as a Template)


You cannot include your schedule of charges here, you should post 2 copies of your schedule to the Northampton Bulk Processing Centre the day you issue your claim, so that the schedules can be served with the court papers.


You can only use the online version if your claim is for "money only" ie if you are claiming for default removal then use the N1 form.

Step 5 - Notice Of Issue

Once you have made a claim at court you will be sent a Notice Of Issue


You can find an example here: -

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/wirral/countycourt/n205a.pdf

Step 6 - What Next? The Court Process

Once your claim is issued it will be SERVED on the bank (DEFENDANT) within 4 days.

The Defendant then has 14 days in which to ACKNOWLEDGE your claim.

This is just them returning a form to the court acknowledging receipt and expressing their intent to DEFEND.

Once the Defendant has ACKNOWLEDGED the claim, the time limit extends to 28 DAYS FROM SERVICE of the claim, for them to enter their DEFENCE at the court.

You will be sent a copy of the DEFENCE by the court, and probably a copy from the banks solicitors/legal department.

If you do not receive a DEFENCE within 28 from SERVICE of your claim please make a post on the forum and we will be able to advise you of your options.

Step 7 - After The Defence

Step 8 - A Court Date

How To Deal With Offers

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