A. Firstly, read the articles at The Bank Charges Decision -Where to now and at .FAQ - The New Bank Charges Position
Make sure that you understand them
Q. Ok I’ve read the articles. What do I have to do?
A. You will need to have written evidence such as Terms & Conditions or correspondence from your bank or court documents filed by your bank in which they represent their charges as reflecting their administrative losses or else being proportionate or as being fair and reasonable.
It is not worth beginning your claim unless you have collected this evidence.
Q. I have found some evidence but it doesn’t relate to the period in which I had the account. Can I still use it?
A. No you can’t. You will have to get evidence which relates to a time in which you held your account. However, we would be grateful if you would let us have good scans of what you have got because we hope to have a library resource where people may be able to get the evidence they need.
Q. What about the CAG? Can’t the CAG let me have the evidence I need?
A. If we have got it, then you can have it. We have excellent evidence for some years in respect of the Abbey Bank, Yorkshire and Clydesdale and also we have some evidence against Lloyds.
We are trying to build up an evidence library and so we would be grateful to receive scans of any relevant documents.
Q. OK, I have found evidence which applies to my bank for the relevant period of my account. What do I do now?
A. You write to your bank, tell them that you believe that they have misrepresented the nature of their charges to you contrary to the requirements of good faith. Tell them that you now understand from the disclosures made to the Supreme Court that their charges are not at all related to their administrative costs – or that they are not fair or reasonable, but that they are excessively high and that they are intended that way to cross-subsidise their other customers.
Tell them that because of this you have been treated unfairly and that you want the money back.
Q. Don’t you have any templates?
A. We don’t have any templates for this yet but we will produce some quite soon. We have two cases – one against Abbey and one against Lloyds going through the courts in the next week or so and we will update the position and provide templates once we know how these new allegations are received by the courts.
Q. What do I do until then?
A. Frankly, you should just write a letter in your own words. It isn’t complicated. It doesn’t need any special wording. Everyone is sick of templates – especially the courts and you should do your best to prepare your own documents as far as you can.
Q. But the banks rely on templates don’t they? They sent out standard letters all the time.
A. That’s true, but they don’t like it up ‘em.
Q. In my letter should I threaten legal proceedings?
A. Yes you should. If you don’t want to go to court, then don’t bother. The banks aren’t going to hand the money back without a court battle this time. However, a few victories and they will come tumbling down. We suggest that you give them no more than 7 days. Include a full list of the charges and interest you want back from them.
Q. What happens if I win in the County Court?
A. We are pretty confident that you will win. The Supreme Court gave a clear sign that reg.5 UTCCR was the way to go. We don’t expect the banks to take it lying down and we are sure that they will appeal and that there will be another test case. However, we don’t expect that the OFT will want to get involved again.
Q. So how will I cope if my case is appealed by my bank?
A. We will assist you and will probably try to raise a fund to get you properly represented. The outcome of an appeal will be crucial to the refund claims for everyone. There are billions of £s at stake.
We won’t let you down and we won’t leave you on your own
Q. Anything else I should do?
A. Yes, get yourself a good guide to Court procedure. You can buy one through us. We make a small margin. You might get it slightly cheaper through Amazon if you want – but we need the money more. The most important thing is that you get a Court guide from somewhere and understand the steps. You will feel more confident. We recommend the Small Claims guide by Judge Patricia Pearl
Q. Can’t I just complain to the Ombudsman?
A. Yes you can. We have no confidence in the Ombudsman. We feel that the Ombudsman is just another part of the regulatory process which has let consumers down all the way.
We know of Ombudsman complaints which have taken more than a year, lost documents, no transparency. We understand that they have targets and quotas of decisions which must be reached each week. They are under-resourced, their decisions are very often quite unsatisfactory because they use very narrow and conservative criteria for their decision making. They do not follow their own published principles for making awards and as a result their awards are generally very inadequate. If the Ombudsman office reads this, they can contact me to discuss if they wish.
Finally, there is so much money at stake - £billions, that I don’t expect that the banks would accept an Ombudsman decision against them and that they would insist on the matter being taken to court in order to try every avenue of escape.
So you may as well go though the court process anyway.
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written by BankFodder, February 25, 2010
Thanks
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written by kennyh, March 17, 2010
No you can’t. You will have to get evidence which relates to a time in which you held your account
refer to 'a' time in which.....
If account is held for 20 years can the t&cs be most recent (since they presumeably override all previous?)
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written by brownefamily, March 17, 2010
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written by BankFodder, March 18, 2010
You may have enough to continue your claim
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written by dfitz24, April 19, 2010
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written by del66, May 15, 2010
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I want to claim back my PPI charges on my higher student credit card from Barclaycard from 1998 to 2002. They have admitted owing the money but using Data protection act of 1998 in which they do not have to keep bank records for more than 6 years (a claim upheld by the FoS recently) which doesn't cover the years in question. I paid an average of £40- 80 a month for those years that i shouldn't have. Please help i want my money back (Barclayscard said if i provided the statements for the period they can work something out- i do not have the statements):mad : hELLLLLLLLLLLLLLPCAG
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