Hi,

New to the forum but just wanted to put forward my tale. I run a small business in gents clothing and as many do with a startup I have struggled along for 2 years trying to make ends meet. After all their initial promises of support and business managers on hand and so on and so forth I now find myself in serious financial difficulties. I have applied for loans through the bank but ended up having to go through seperate brokers, I applied for overdraft extensions which are then refused due to the condition of the account and so you find yourself stuck in a rut.

I have creditors who I have to repay and so after speeaking to them I set up repayment schemes over a period of time. All fine and dandy but also dependent on sales. I explained this to the bank and asked for some flexibility.........and got none. So everytime I now have a standing order or direct debit not clearing, or a cheque that bounces, I incur up to £140 a day in charges, so making my position even more difficult, leaving me feel as if my life is in a permanent treadmill of charges and debt. There does not seem to be an escape, there does not seem to be an answer and my business is going down the swanny.

Do I have a case to chase up all these charges even though they are of my making? It could end up as quite a large amount.

Yes. Please read the FAQs and around the forum. All will become clear.

Cheers Richard,

Went through the FAQ and thought "there must be a loophole I'm missing?" but if that is the way then that is fine by me. Going to get the ball rolling today and go from there. It will be nice for them to pay off the overdraft they would not extend for me!

Cover me, I'm going in

Initial process is under way. I would like to know if there is any purpose to sending an informal email to somebody like Margaret King, stating that I will pursue the case unles they look into and rectify my account.

Couild it work against me if we do end up in court?

Ok, I knew things were bad but having gone through the online statements since January, I have been charged £5000 in 4 months. This is just the start from the payment plans I have set up with a variety of companies who I owe to, where missed payments have compounded the problem. I could have cleared my debts with the charges alone.

As i have these invoices readily available can I put this claim in immediately and then go back later for the rest?

Sorry if this is covered in the FAQ, but I hear you live for this

I have only been trading for 3 years and the difficulties only really came about in the last 15 months, so that is what I am really interested in. Going on these figures I would say I will be looking at about 14K as it has been slowly escalating. It is the worst it has ever been currently so the further I look back the monthly charges will reduce.

Theyreceived the DPA request last Friday

£15K takes you very seriusly out of the Small Calims track. I would recommend that you sever the claim

I have not made the claim as of yet. What I was considering was making it as several small claims, all under 5K

Yes, I think that you will have to. Try £4,500 for the first and see how it goes. Do them completely separately one after another. Otherwise the bank may try to consolidate the claim.

Hi there, Hope this goes well for you, strangly I too owned a small gents clothing company and a RBS account, I too found them incredibly unhelpful and various cashflow and bank problems eventually caused me to call it a day. Who knows how much my company was charged by the bank - just wish i had found this website earlier. Keep us posted.

All the best.

Let us know how you go

Good thread, please keep us informed.

Received an email from the RBOS that they are now forwarding all my statements from the last three years to my local branch for collection.

Very nice of them

You may well find that if you break the amounts up to keep them in small claims RBS will get the message and do a deal to get rid of the whole thing. I must say though, £15k in three years is a hell of a lot of charges! I think it's important that you pick your moves very carefully, and don't agree to anything they propose without thinking long and hard.

Do you have an overdraft or loans which exceed the amount of the charges? If so, then you need to be ready for the fact that they will almost certainly terminate your account if they're forced to hand back that much dosh.

It's not clear from your posts which part of the country you're from. If you're in Scotland, the small claims limit is £750, not £5k.

What is the status over business cheques? Once bounced and then represented can the same charge be applied time and time again? If the bank continues to represent then they can just have field day with the charges surely?

The charges are unlawful, full stop. Doesn't matter if it's business or personal, or how many times it's presented.

This could be about to get nasty. i will let you know tomorrow.

What is the status over business cheques? Once bounced and then represented can the same charge be applied time and time again? If the bank continues to represent then they can just have field day with the charges surely?

Yes this can keep happening but cheques will bounce completely and be sent back after 2-3 attempts. Yes they are all illegal so claim it all back.

Any news tedblue?

Received a 10% refund of what I was claiming but then received a letter to find another bank.

Not good enough. Can you possibly give details of the "find another bank" letter?

Having reveiwed matters carefully it is clear that the Bank/ Customer relationship has broken down irretrievably and we believe it would be in your best interest to make alternative banking arrangements.

Then runs into a break down that I have 30 days to to make alternative arrnagements for my receipts and payments, and that my overdraft will be removed.

I don't think they can terminate your account just like that. You do have a contract with them and refusing to accept their unlawful terms doesn't entitle them to tear it up. I suggest you contact Bankfodder about this - he seems to know a lot about it.