My A&L Claim thread

[Peyote]

Hi,

I read the FAQ but am still a little unsure as to what I can claim back here.

I was recently at a company that was fighting to keep afloat and eventually closed its doors leaving me with 5 months outstanding wages and payments I did recieve came much later than normal.

During this time I racked up a healthy amount of DB failure charges through simply not having enough cash in the account. This meant that the charges also pushed me over my agreed overdraught limit, incurring more charges, and each month I was starting with less cash as I had to pay the existing charges. One annoying thing was I could pay most of the DB's and would only come up 10 pounds short, but when the charges were applied instantly it meant all other DB's for the month failed, incuring more cost when really only one could have been applied.

Some of my DB's couldnt be cancelled (well, they could but I was told I would have to settle the remaining bill in one go, which would put me in a worse position), so I had to basically take the charges and bear it.

Could I claim back these charges then, or do they only apply to wrong DB's and errors on the banks part and not for me jsut not having enough cash to pay?

Thanks,
A

[Spiceskull]

Claim back ALL the charges (not agreed fees) and interest going back six years. Whilst no-one on this group will deny that the bank has a right to charge something, the argument is that the charges are punitive and unfair, and do not represent the true cost to the bank of the actions they have taken. If the charges were a couple of quid, the group would not be here...

Claim a refund for all of it - if they think that it is wrong charge them to demonstrate how so - they cannot and will not.

You will get the money, but you must be prepared to state the claim to a judge in court...

[Peyote]

yes, my confusion is the agreed fees issue.

Is a banks outlined fee for a failed DB due to insufficient funds an agreed fee?

[Spiceskull]

Whilst not being party to your bank details, I would expect that your statement will identify the different charges.

A fee would normally have a code, identifying what it was for. 'Charges' as a generic term usuall refers to the charges we are claiming.

Find a poster who has a similar account to you - they may be able to explain the statement structure better than I could hope to.

Good luck.

[Bookworm]

Hi.

Can you identify the bank to us? It's hard to answer without knowing which bank you're talking about.

Get a copy of your bank's T&Cs, you should have a few lying around

Does it cost the bank £25, £30 or more to fail (or pay) your d/d? No? Then, it's reclaimable.
Is the bank within their rights to charge you interest on your overdraft? Yes? Then, it's not reclaimable.

Hope that makes sense to you.

[Peyote]

Yes, the bank is the Allience & Liecester.

[Peyote]

the thing I have found with A&L in the past (I have been with them for over 15 years) is that they never yield to pressure (or at least not from lowly customers).

Has anybody actually got some money back from A&L?

[Spiceskull]

the thing I have found with A&L in the past is that they never yield to pressure

The past is history - they will soon learn some lessons in customer service...if it's yours, claim it.

[Bookworm]

The thing you will find from them, like all the others, is that once they're faced with a lawsuit from lowly customers, they won't have much of a choice: pay up or try to justify yourself in front of a judge!

[Peyote]

I know I asked this before but I have seen a few A&L claims on this site that have got to the "we think we are right as we only charged you the published fees" phase, has anybody gone beyond that?

Are A&L more difficult in that respect than some others?

Thing is, I do like the bank to be honest, they give good service and nice online stuff as well as (usually) helpful 24 hr phone service. I also have a mortgage with them, and am worried if they always end up going to court they might just get stroppy and land me in a pickle. On the flip side, the charges I have incurred over the past couple of years will be quite high, probably > £2000 so I am deffinatly going to do something about it.

[Peyote]

Hi all,

well, here goes. I am starting my claim for charges against my account. Due to various reasons over the last few years I have probably built up a healthy amount of debit failure and overdraught charges.

I have applied for the Data Protection Act papers going back 6 years so I can work out exactly how much I am able to reclaim. I have most of my statements but not from that long ago, so might as well get the full set and do it properly.

Will keep this thread updated with any progress good or bad!

cheers,
Mr H

I have merged your posts as they are related, please keep to this so we can follow your story!

Good Luck!

Lou xx

[moonrakerz]

Originally Posted by Peyote

the thing I have found with A&L in the past (I have been with them for over 15 years) is that they never yield to pressure (or at least not from lowly customers).

Has anybody actually got some money back from A&L?

YES. YES. YES.

£1170. that was for one year, I am now waiting for the previous 5 years figures to arrive from A & L. That also included £200 for my costs !!

[mcuth]

Originally Posted by Peyote

Has anybody actually got some money back from A&L?

Oh yes indeed - we're thinking about setting up a Winners Club - or at least a Winners Enclosure (ok, not really, but have a look around this forum and you'll get the idea )

Cheers

Michael

[packjoker]

I won too! I'm now £823.69 richer. (sorry - can't help keep telling people!) Had they paid up in the first place, it would have only cost them £541.00 See this thread for details...

Alliance and Leicester - Progress to date:

It's all very straight-forward really....just follow the FAQ's and you can't go wrong...good luck!


PJ

[Peyote]

ok,

time to get the ball rolling. Got all my Data Protection Act requested info today from the last 6 years (like a yellow pages!). Adding it all up, DD/SO failures, unauthorized overdraughts etc it comes to just less than £2000. I have not added interest to that yet.

I will be sending the preliminary letter off now, will post back when that goes.

cheers,
P