Point me to list of "claimable" A&L charges

[XXneilXX]

I have so far successfuly claimed against two credit cards (A&L and MBNA) and at the AQ stage with my bank NatWest.

I am now helping my son with his charges on his Alliance & Leicester current account. I am having a little trouble with what charges I can claim back. After looking through many questions and answers on this site I am still confused especially with the "monthly OD charge". This seems to change from £5.00 per month to £25.00 per month. What exactly is the situation with this charge?????

[gizmo111]

Hi,

I am not knowledgeable about A&L's wording of their charges. But as it is a variable charge could it be interest on the overdrawn balance - I'm sure someone in here wil lbe able to help.

[XXneilXX]

Originally Posted by gizmo111

Hi,

I am not knowledgeable about A&L's wording of their charges. But as it is a variable charge could it be interest on the overdrawn balance - I'm sure someone in here wil lbe able to help.

Thanks for your reply Gizmo. The Monthly OD charge is not interest as this is shown seperately. I have seen on the back of the statements a list of charges. This says that the monthly OD charge is £5 per month for authorised overdrafts and £25 for unauthorised overdrafts and adding another £25 if this unauthorised overdraft is not cleared within five days.

My question is should I claim for both the authorised and unauthorised overdraft charges?

[XXneilXX]

I am now helping my son with his charges on his Alliance & Leicester current account. I am having a little trouble with what charges I can claim back. After looking through many questions and answers on this site I am still confused especially with the "monthly OD charge". This seems to change from £5.00 per month to £25.00 per month. What exactly is the situation with this charge?????[/quote]

Can anyone on here help me with this???

Which monthly OD charges are claimable?

[suziyh]

Hi Neil, I claimed all they charged me except the interest on the overdraft as the spread sheet does this ofr you. The overdraft charge is a fixed charge and if it is authorised it is £5 a month but for the unautorised part it is £25 for the first three days, then another £25 for five days etc. So I claimed all overdraft charges from the unauthorised overdraft ( not the £5) the returned fees for cheques, direct debits and standing orders, plus don't forget any letter charges although they hadn't charged me for the letters I had had. Hope this helps.

[XXneilXX]

Suziyh,

Many thanks for your input. I also thought that this was reasonable but what exactly is reasonable when dealing with banks.

I will take the same line as you and be very happy (or my son will as he had not expected anything anyway).

[sidtheranger]

Hi there,
I have claimed ALL charges EXCEPT the £5 fee as I understand it to be a service charge for having an authorised overdraft and the way I've read the 'rules' one can't claim for services.
Just to let you know, A&L went all the way to the last day before they had to offer a defence in court before they sent me a cheque.
Stick with it and good luck
Sid

[XXneilXX]

Originally Posted by sidtheranger

Hi there,
I have claimed ALL charges EXCEPT the £5 fee as I understand it to be a service charge for having an authorised overdraft and the way I've read the 'rules' one can't claim for services.
Just to let you know, A&L went all the way to the last day before they had to offer a defence in court before they sent me a cheque.
Stick with it and good luck
Sid

Thanks for the advice Sid. I sent my sons claim off today with exactly the same information. I removed the charges for authorised overdraft. Still left a tidy sum of £1,115 (without interest). Something my son never expected to see again.

We WILL win.

[djweeble]

Don't forget to use the spreadsheet and add the banks own "Unauthorised Borrowing" rate of interest, it'll increase your payout dramatically if the charges are more than a year or two old

[XXneilXX]

Juat a quick update.

Sent prelim application for payment letter on 8th and today received their stock reply (charges are reasonable....OFT referring to to late payments for credit cards only....yardy, yardy, yardy....).

I must say that A&L are responding much quicker than NatWest did.

Sent letter before action letter. Now wait for their second stock reply and off to the courts we jolly well go.

[XXneilXX]

Just received second letter from A&L.

Usual thing, "charges are correct and inline with T's & C's"....... unable to refund......and a new one on me, "you can avoid further charges if you behave better" (well not verbatim but that is what they are saying).

They are quick in responding to our letters, lets see how quickly they respond to N1 being lodged in County Court.

[Geekusdeekus]

My ovdraft charges are £10 during 2000 and 2001 and then are £5 for the other years, can I not claim the £0's or £5's then?

Please help as I'm waiting to send my claim off,

Thanks.

[XXneilXX]

My ovdraft charges are £10 during 2000 and 2001 and then are £5 for the other years, can I not claim the £0's or £5's then?

Hi Geek,

I have looked at my statements for the period 2000-2001 and on the back they show that authorised o/d charge (possibly legitimate) was £8 p/m. The £10 p/m was for unauthorised borrowing and is a penalty charge. Therefore if they were charging you £10 during this period then they were most likely penalty charges.

My statments after that period show that the authorised charge was still £5 and the unauthorised penalty charge was £25.

Regarding can you claim/can't you claim there seems to be two schools of thought here.

1) Claim only those charges that are clearly penalty charges, ie when you go into unauthorised overdraft, returned cheques etc. This is the option I personaly chose.

2) Claim ALL charges shown on the statements and let the bank come back to you and tell you you are wrong. Now, most claims are settled before court stage so this could be a good option as the banks may just pay up the figure you have quoted. However, you should always plan that your case could reach the court and if your claim is shown to be wrong in its detail you could risk loosing the whole claim.

The choice, as always, is yours.

[Geekusdeekus]

Hello Neil and thanks for your reply.

My statement are copy statements and so show nothing on the back. Basically I'm not claiming the £5 and £10 overdraft charges at all, But I am claiming the £25 overdraft fee's. Is this the safest way possible?

[XXneilXX]

My statement are copy statements and so show nothing on the back. Basically I'm not claiming the £5 and £10 overdraft charges at all, But I am claiming the £25 overdraft fee's. Is this the safest way possible?

Hi geek,

I think that the £10 charges ARE penalty charges and claimable. Reason being the bank have charged you for unauthorised overdraft yet also charged you higher interest rate on that unauthorised borrowing. I believe that the £10 is a penalty charge.

Yes what you are doing, by leaving off the £5 is the safest way and likely to bring you a less complicated payout.

[XXneilXX]

Have just received A&L's Acknowledgement of Service to my claim filed with County Court.

Interestingly, they enclosed another letter from their Litigation Team informing me that some of my claim is over the 6 year limit (which I was well aware of when I filed this claim). This claim actually goes back to March 2000.

However, the interesting part of this lettter is the last sentence. "Therefore only costs incurred from 23rd Of January 2001 are potentially recoverable".

Am I reading this correctly??? Are they admitting that these costs are potentially recoverable???