Got half of my charges back :(

[domwonguk]

I sent them this letter below on the 21st sept (std letter). Just before the 14 days were up I recieved about 500 pounds bank charges back. How do I go about claiming the rest?



My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last six years.
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.
Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

Your responsibilities
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.
I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.
Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

What I require
I calculate that you have taken £ 942 plus an estimated £30 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £972 .
I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter

Additionally if you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default has occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account.

In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above, I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.


My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

[Armsoft]

Send them your 2nd letter, adjusting the amount now being claimed, and quite clearly stating that you accept the £500 as only partial settlement, and that at the end of the 14 day `Reflecting` period, if they have not agreed to settle in full, you will be filing your N1 form in court.

Hope this is of help

[domwonguk]

I dont think i sent a second letter,, it is now some months on and I kind of forgot about this being happy that I at least got £500 back. I have recently been billed a £130 bank charge due to come out on the 11th of May.

Is it too late to claim back the rest of my money along with the £130.

I did not enter any further correspondence scince this refund of £500

[Robdblynd]

You should check the wording on the letter that told you about the £500 refund of charges. If it says "full and final settlement" and gives you 8 weeks to respond and then they'll close file if they've not heard from you, you might have accepted 'by default', that is, you didn't reply saying it was only accepted as partial payment so they took it you'd accepted.

If they didn't actually put the money in your account or send you a cheque (whichever applies) then you can still reclaim all the charges.

Have you had any charges since their letter to you,cos if you have accepted full & final by default, I'm almost sure you can reclaim the charges paid since then.

Hopefully someone with more experience will come along and give advice but in the meantime, keep you chin up, things might be ok for you.

[bitingback]

Hi Domwong

And wise words for Robd above, the issue you need to address first is the terms of their initial offer, whether it was a "Full and Final" and what response you made to this. (Time to search out any copies of letters you sent methinks. If it was a full and final then they may deem your lack of response as acceptance, but worth looking into any correspondence you may have had with them.

There is no reason why you can't reclaim any charges that have been levied since but i would seriously consider opening another account as I have heard the banks can get upset with second claims happening on the same account.


Best of luck

BB