Thread: rrfcfan v Abbey

You can claim back for 6 years regarless of whether you moved in the meantime.

In Scotland their are slightly different rules and procedures, there is a Scotland dedicated forum in General.

Basically you can only claim up to £750 in 'small claims' any more would be under 'summary cause' whcih you would be liable for costs should you lose.

Have a look through the Scotland threads - you should get some more knowledgable advice there.

Thanks for the info, I have looked through the forums about claiming through the English courts whilst living in Scotland.

There are some threads I have read that suggests is doesn't matter where you live, should the matter go to court you can use the nearest court to the Bank's registered address. I'm just concerned about Abbeys T's & C's if any Scottish Law prevails (I dont have a copy of their T's & C's to hand)

As I have all my bank statements already, shall I total up all my charges and send an initial letter requesting these charges to be refunded?

Should there be anything else I should know before doing this?

Re Scotland - claiming in Uk courts - you have to have a correspondance address in the UK to do this (family???)

As you have all your statement then yes get adding !
send your prelim letter with a schedule of charges ( I found it easiest to use the 8% spreadsheet from the library (save it) then took out the last two columns regarding the interest to print it out )

Great, I will send the letter out tomorrow with the statement of charges, it is now nearly £3000 excluding interest.

Will it be wise to use an address in England for the correspondence with the bank, or use my existing Scottish address and use an English address when dealing with any correspondence with the courts?

I'm sorry about this , but I really dont want to foul this up just when I get the ball rolling?

I'd guess correspondance with the bank should be from your address they have on your account, for ID purposes -- BUT check with the guys in scotland as I really don't know.

Excellent!! I have gathered that using my exisiting address in Scotland when corresponding with the bank, and using an English address through the courts doesn't pose a problem.

I have sent my initial letter with the summary of charges, by recorded delivery today.

There is no going back!!

I'll keep you posted.....

excellent - good luck

Received letter from Abbey today (sent 01/08/06 , Oddly enough 1 day after they have received my initial letter with summary of charges) asking to pay in an amount to bring me back into the overdraft limit and to give them a call if I can't.

I didn't expect this letter to arrive, what are they playing at? I wouldnt be so much overdrawn if they hadn't charged me so much over the years. If I pay them any more money then I'll be accepting defeat.

I'll just wait until 14th of August to send the lba.

I have received no response to my initial letter, sent 28/07/2006 with summary of charges from 03/08/2000.

I will be sending lba letter tomorrow. Question is, I included bank charges from 03/08/2000 on the summary of charges, as this has now beyond 6 years, do I amend the summary to include bank charges from the day I send the LBA? Will ShABBEY dispute these charges from 03/08/2006?

Any help will be greatfully received.

No response whatsoever from my initial letter.

I have sent lba letter by recorded delivery, and checked on-line that they have received it today. Later this afternoon, I received a call from Milton Keynes asking to pay a sum to take it back into the authourised overdraft limit.This caught me by suprise as I have never received a call from Abbey since I have banked with them (nearly 12 years!!).

I replied that the amount concerned is made up of bank charges, I have a written a letter requesting the Bank to repay them back.

Have I said the right thing? Do I bring the balance back into the authorised overdraft limit? If I do this , would it be like accepting the bank charges are legal?

Any suggestions please,

Just received this letter this morning,

'Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your letter dated 27th July 2006, in reply to my letter of 11 May 2006. I am sorry that you still feel our charges our charges are unlawful.

I understand you are unhappy with my decision, and as a result I have reinvestigated your concerns further. I can assure you our charges are not unlawful and therefore I cannot agree to refund all of them. However, as a gesture of goodwill, I am pleased to confirm I have credited £622 to your account, and cancelled charges of £40 that were due to debit your account.

The regulations say that we must explain our charges in plain language and that we have to act in good faith, which, according the OFT, means dealing fairly and openly with customers.

I therefore reviewed the literature and information you received when you opened your account, including the terms and conditions. This explains that charges will be applied if you do not keep to the terms of the account. Because of this, I believe we have been fair and open in telling you about them. The charges were correct, because you did not have enough money in your account to cover payments requested from it.

I am confident that I have been fair and have taken into account all the points you made in your letter. I have enclosed a leaflet about the Financial Ombudsman Service, in case you are still not happy with my investigation or decision. If so, you should contact them within six months of the date of my original letter, enclosing a copy of it, as they would need this for their investigation.

I hope we can work together to help you avoid charges in future. Little things can help, like checking your account balance as often as possible when making Visa purchases to ensure you have sufficient available funds.

Your sincerely,

name and position incl.'

Is this a standard letter just to fob me off, as I have requested 3026 plus interest?

Abbey have until 01/09/2006 to refund in full, or I will submit my claim to the county courts.

This now means I have to re-calculate the bank charges on my Summary. They repayed 622 by means of 15 x £30, 7 x 20 & 1 x 32. How do I determine which charges they are refunding? The earliest ones or the latest ones, or a mix of both?

Thanks for your quick reply Lula . Looking at the statement of charges they have included all charges from 02.06.2005 missing out the 2 x £35 charges, so I gather the rest of the charges from August 2000 will be asked for.

These include many cleared transaction charges of £10 & exceeded overdraft limit charges of £16.50, I would like confirmation that I can still claim for these charges back.

Thanks and regards!

Thanks for the idea, when I do the calculations on the spreadsheet and deduct £12 from each charge, the refunded amount from shabbey yesterday is still way out approx £600 (thats including a - £2.00 charge for each cleared transaction charge of £10) if you know what I mean.

I think the refunded amount was a snapshot of all charges from June 2005, maybe that is only the list of charges they can obtain! Maybe shabbey are also having problems accessing the microfiche documents statements!!!!!

I will continue to press Abbey for the remainder.

Will it be a good idea, if I ask Abbey what the refunded amount represents?

Actually I am thinking that if we ask exactly which charges these early refund goodwill gestures represent won't Abbey just say the oldest ones to save them on the 8% interest at court ????

I think when they write we just leave it, and take the goodwill payments off of the most recent charges before filing the claim. If they dont write just submit the claim for the full amount. (of course when they settle they will account for it but you'll still get the interest on those refunded charges)