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To cut a long story short I was overdrawn with A&L due to charges taking me overdrawn (approx £180). I started the reclaiming process claiming Financial Hardship. I received a letter telling me all was 'on hold' till test case blah blah. But they would look into the financial hardship aspect (i filled in all appropriate forms).
To my surprise i received a letter and a cheque from A&L refunding all my charges since i had been with them. Beyond what i had initially claimed for.
The letter informed me this would be the end of the matter and all was now deemed to be settled.
Now since the supreme court made it's decision, i receive a letter from A&L collections telling me my account is now £300+ overdrawn and i need to pay it back as all charges were deemed fair.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
They stand no chance especially if you signed a disclaimer and sent it back to them. If they think it is over, they have another think coming as in essence the court ruled that the OFT cannot determine what is fair but left it open to the consumer to challenge it.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
When they refund yur money, they normally ask you to sign a piece fo paper and send it back to them stating that you will have no further claims and that the refund was in final and full settlement or words to that affect. If not, I still would not worry as a they cannot claim back a refund on unlawful or unfair charges. It may be worth you while pointing out to them that if they do no behave, you will be contacting the fos and asking the FOS to investigate the refund plus any further charges that they may add for being alledgely overdrawn when they created the problem.
We had a joint accoiunt with A & L but because they managed the account so poorly we have dumped them. Twice they hit us with charges until I pointed out the error of their ways and twice they refunded the charges plus compensation. It must be the only bank where a withdrawal from an ATm takes up to 4 days to clear through your account. Also it was not unusual to find you have three different balances which do not tie up with payments or withdrawals only to find that you were right and they were wrong.
I am sure that if you are patient, others will be along to offer better advice than myself.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
This is hilarious.
Can you give us more details.
Can we see their letter and also do you still have the letter in which they agreed to repay you the charges.
Ta
Please don't pm me about specific questions unless you have posted and it has not been dealt with or unless the matter is confidential. Please include a link to the post you want me to look at. If you have received a defence, contact me.
Advice & opinions of BankFodder, The Consumer Action Group and The Bank Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
I can find out actual figures given time. Thing is i don't have the letter that came with the cheque anymore. I never throw anything out... but this time it got wet and i thought it was all over so i threw it out. Sigh. Bit angry with myself over that now.
Off the top of my head i was claiming just over £350 and they sent a cheque for just under £700. The actual overdaft was about £180 at the time of claiming. But should have been frozen... so if it wasn't paid off goodness knows where they've got their new figure of £300+ from?
I'm guessing they refunded me my charges and did not wipe the overdraft themselves expecting me to pay the cheque into the 'suspended' account.
They gave the impression all was sorted and slate wiped clean.
But i guess although i can argue any outstanding overdraft should not have increased... i'll owe the original amount.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
I would say yes, they refunded the charges just because the appeal court decided that the oft's case was flawed should have no bearing on your own case that they settled prior to this, I would tell them to take a hike
PGH7447
Getting There Slowly
---------
Advice is given freely but is in no way meant to be taken as Gospel
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
Originally Posted by enamae
If the cheque received was a refund of charges applied to the account, part of this should have been used to clear the existing overdraft.
You can not expect them to refund the charges in the form of a cheque and remove the charges.
So I would say that the original overdraft should be repaid.
Whether you now try for the additional charges will be your decision.
enamae
yes this is my point. i'm not expecting them to clear the charges AND give me the money for them. but... they gave the impression they had cleared everything and given me a refund for all the charges i've ever had with them (as the account was only about 18 months old).
therefore i'm now in a position with a debt, a default and the threat of legal action.
Pleas will you send me a scan of the most recent letter. Email it to the admin@ address.
Also, would you include a landline number so that I can talk to you about this.
If it is correct that the A&L are trying to claw back charges which they refunded to you - and the charges they are seeking are not related to new charges incruured since the refund then there may be an issue of importance here.
I'd be grateful if you would email me as soon as you can.
Ta
Please don't pm me about specific questions unless you have posted and it has not been dealt with or unless the matter is confidential. Please include a link to the post you want me to look at. If you have received a defence, contact me.
Advice & opinions of BankFodder, The Consumer Action Group and The Bank Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
Can you avoid paying this? If the situation is that they are trying to get back charges which they refunded to you and they are not realted to fresh charges, then I can scarcely imagine that they have a basis for claiming them back.
Contact me and we will help; you through it.
Please don't pm me about specific questions unless you have posted and it has not been dealt with or unless the matter is confidential. Please include a link to the post you want me to look at. If you have received a defence, contact me.
Advice & opinions of BankFodder, The Consumer Action Group and The Bank Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
OK i will scan the document for you this evening. I'm at work at the moment.
Have to say, upon reflection, maybe my thread title is misleading. They probably aren't trying to get charges back. They want the overdraft cleared with the money the issued.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
If this is a new overdraft then yes, your title is misleading.
I think that we need to get clear what they are asking.
If they are trying to recoup charges then this is an important story.
What I sense now is that they want some other charges paid off - and that is a different matter altogether.
Please don't pm me about specific questions unless you have posted and it has not been dealt with or unless the matter is confidential. Please include a link to the post you want me to look at. If you have received a defence, contact me.
Advice & opinions of BankFodder, The Consumer Action Group and The Bank Action Group are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Use your own judgment. Seek advice of a qualified insured professional if you have any doubts.
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
interesting reading this as i believe "something strangely similar" is occuring to me.
I received a letter from A&L last week requesting monies from my old account(suspended also) to the total of £775.50.
The letter reads;
"A letter was sent to you recently regarding your complaint to bank charges, which was previously put on hold under the terms of the Financial Services Authority's Waiver. That letter outlined the outcome of the test case on bank charges and confirmed our poisition.
As you are aware, your bank account is currently overdrawn by £775.5. When we received your complaint about your bank charges we temporarily placed our collections activity on hold. Now that the Test case on bank charges has concluded, we are resuming our collections activity and would ask you to contact us in the next ten days to discuss... repayment arrangements bla bla"
My belief is that the account including overdraft was paid off when my account was suspended which was definitely on Nov2007.
Another point to note is that I would of been paid by cheque my bank charges claim on approx May2007.
I plan to call A&L on Tuesday to ask fo rstatement during this period.
I called last friday querying this letter, and the lady stern as she was said the charges were regarding the bank charges and that you account was overdrawn. I questioned how my suspended account could be overdrawn if the monies related to the bank charge claim which i received by cheque as a good will gesture.
She said the money would have to be paid whether is OD or related to charges, Oh and it needs to be paid in the next 6 months. Thats 130/mth until this coming august. Ok now i can see no holidays this yr!!.
We agreed when I said I would get back to them Monday regarding this.... And I did, and also spoke to a more patient customer service rep.
She has said that my account was overdrawn and that I was supposed to have paid this back two years ago, and since then A&L have notified experian to notify them of my account status being suspended(ouch).
When I pressed about why the reference about bank charges she started reading from a hymnsheet about the recent overturned bank charges case.
After this she mentioned was I disputing the "bank charges" and if so will have send a letter in writing.
Our conversation ended at this point as we had a very bad line and she struggled to hear me(it was a bad line). I said I will be back in touch tomorrow.
My queries are;
Why has a decision regarding bank charges triggered a request for me to pay off a disputed OD which is apparently 26 month old?
Why would my OD have been put on hold because of the bank charges case?
If I have to pay this surely it can be spread over a longer period than 6 months?
When i call A&L to get statements relating to this disputed period, how much will it cost?
I have another post started on this topic on MSE, but the above is a more definitive detail of what has occured to date enlight of todays dealings with A&L
Thanks for taking the time to read the above, i know its long but i felt i had to be detailed to see if others are experiencing the same..
Re: Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
If they refund as a gesture of Goodwil then they cannoy claw it back however if the money was not used to pay off the overdraft then it is still owed to them. Strange handing over a cheque without deducting the amount outstanding. The question is whether the cheque they issued was for the amount you were claiming because if it was the full amount it means that they never cleared the overdraft.
Charges refunded. But they now want them back.
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Originally Posted by mystery1
