Dear Mr Watson
Thanks for your letter on 26 June convcerning chaarges on your former account.
I have noted your comments that you believe the charges that have been raised on your account are unlawful. However, our charges are reasonable and are competitive with the charges made by other financial organisations.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has commented that they consider the level of charges to be unfair. However they were actually referring to late payment fees for credit card payments, which are quite distinct from a banks charges on current accounts.
As, yet the OFT have not entered into any discussions with the banking industry regarding current accounts. If that position should change in the future, then alliance & leicester will participate as appropriate. Given the above I cannot accept you have been unlawfully charged as you have suggested. I regret therefore, that I am unable to greet your request for a refund of the charges.
I am sorry if you are disappointed with my responce, but as the charges have been raised correctly in line with the
terms and conditions
of you account, and in accordance with out published tarriff they might stand.
I hope we will now be able to draw this matter to a closeand if I do not hear from you within the next 8 weeks, will assume this is the case. However in accordance with regulatory requirements, I am enclosing our leaflet which explains the steps you need to take if you should wish to pursue this matter further, including the ultimate availability of the Financial
Ombudsman Service.
If you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me
Yours
P Branning
Colin Watson v Alliance
The Consumer Forums
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Originally Posted by ColinJWatson