Hi All,

Until last month I was completely unaware that penalty banks charges are unlawful. I'm a new Mum, and read about several success stories on websites such as NetMum and Mumsnet.

I haven't been the most organised person in the past, so have incurred charges. Now I am trying to straighten out my finances and clear some debt, the banks have certainly taken enough money from me over the years, so I think it's time they gave some back.

S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letters was sent to RBSon the 10th October 2006.

This is a great website and I really appreciate having access to this information for free. Thanks to all those who put it together, keep it up to date and those who respond with help and advice.

Good luck to you all.

I have received my statements following my S.A.R letter, and have calculated unlawful charges of £1,113.26 over the last 3 and a half years.

My preliminary approach for repayment letter is going in the post today, so lets see what happens in the next 14 days.

Before you send off your prelim, I take it that you are aware you can go back 6 years, and not just 3 1/2?

j

Yes, thanks weej. I have only banked with them for 3.5yrs. I was with Halifax befire that, so working on a seperate claim there.

Thanks

Good luck, as long as you stick to the tried and tested methods you will be fine, anything you need to know you should find in the links below

S

ps gorgeous baby foto

Thanks guys. I've been reading around the site and held off posting my prelim letter yesterday.

First thing I need to add is my reclaim of £10 for S.A.R, presuming that I can claim this now? I also did not include interest of any kind, as there is just the odd 20 or 30p here and there.

I am aware that the norm was to claim 8% interest only claimable when taken to court. After reading around (see A New Way of Looking at Interest- 1st successful Claim - N'wide initiated by Bank Fodder), I have realised that I may be able to claim a significant amount more if I include contractual interest.

The argument is that the penalties have been unlawfully taken, that this is the equivalent of borrowing by the bank, therefore the sum borrowed should attract a contractual rate of interest. As the levying of penalties was unauthorised, then one could say that the contractual rate of interest was the unauthorised borrowing rate (e.g. RBS unauth. rate of 29.84% :o ). This rate is calculated per charge, on a monthly basis from the date it was taken. This is all implied in the thread linked above.

Any experience of trying this with RBS? If I decide this is the router I wish to take is this amount added to my claim at prelim stage or just threatened that it will be claim should it reach the courts for settlement?

Is this just being greedy or do you think I should give it a go?

Queen G

Hi there:)

I didn't go for the contractual rate (unauthorised o/d and normal o/d etc etc) it was just too complicated for me but it is VERY possible (after having gained more experience, I may just have gone for it now!!!). I did however, get back the interest THEY charged on my o/d (as it was entirely due to charges) and added 8% interest to that, total amounted to £505 ish.....and I got it;) ....in the end:D

It's really up to you, if you really know what you are doing and are confident in the facts of your case, each charge individually worked out....then why not?

Go for it :>)

Wxx

I have all my individual charges and dates on a spreadsheet already, so to calculate the interest rates for each one shouldn't be too hard. I think I do need more confidence though, so I'll keep swatting up for now.

.·:*¨¨*:· CONGRATULATIONS.·:*¨¨*:· on your .·:*¨¨*:· WIN.·:*¨¨*:·

Thanks sweetie, it was an experience:rolleyes:

I wasn't as clued up as you AT ALL when I started and I did it, so you'll be fine:)

Just keep reading reading reading......lol, a glass of red helps also:cool: well, maybe not all the time:smile:

Wxx

What a coincidence that's exactly what's in my other hand at the mo. I've had a grumpy Baba all day so it's well earned and needed.

Gx

Hi

Can you spare a little time to help with my claim?

I am about to send my prelim letter to rbs, and would appreciate fresh set of eyes, to look over it to give me confidence that I'm on the right track.

My approach is to try and get all penalty charges and sar fee refunded, but if unsuccessful to claim contractual interest calculated using the following link.

Compound interest calculator

Thanks

Queen G

Oops, here's my letter:-). I can send spreadsheet of charges if anyone would care to have a look.

Thanks in advance

The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC

36 St. Andrew Square

Edinburgh

Midlothian

EH2 2YB

02 November 2006

Request for payment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam

ROYALIES PREMIER: ACCOUNT NUMBER – 10115767, SORT CODE – 16-2618

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account since it was opened in 2003. I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs. The bank may only cover its costs when charging their customers for any breaches of the contract/agreement, anything over and above this is deemed a penalty and therefore unlawful.

Additionally, it has been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner that complies with UK law.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary. I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

What I require

I enclose a schedule of the charges that I am claiming with this letter. You have taken from me £1,109.37 in penalty charges. I have calculated this amount and applied a compounded contractual rate (Comp. Cont. Int).of interest of 29.84%, which currently amounts to £1,961.49. I expect that you consider this a fair, reasonable rate, as this is unarranged borrowing rate that you currently charge customers. I therefore believe this rate to be justified under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity, as is based on the overdraft interest rate that would be applied under the terms of the above account.

I am writing to reclaim this amount. In order to settle this matter out of court, I will except a settlement payment of no less than £1119.37 (inc. penalty charges and SAR data fee.)

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive the settlement payment in full.

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

Should you choose not to respond to these letters, and fail to comply with my request, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim in the small claim court at the expiry of the second deadline. This claim will be for the full repayment of all unlawful charges, plus compounded contractual interest of 29.84%, SAR data protection fee, and all court costs.

I look forward to hearing from you in order to resolve this matter.

Yours faithfully,

good luck, I will be watching this with interest (pun intended)

j

Just received a response from Tommy McLean in Customer Relations.

_________________________________________________________________

Summary of letter

RBS stated that their charges are fair, reasonable and transparent, in accordance with our contract that also complies with all law and regulations. Do not accept OFT findings. OFT only investigated credit card fee and have not consulted RBS or industry in relation to charges on current accounts.

Differ with views in my letter, and will not refund any charges applied to my bank account. But thanks for the letter

________________________________________________________________

mmm....I already pay them £542 as I am a platinium account holder, and they consider taking another £1,100 over three years to be fair.

Time for LBA I guess.

Is this a standard letter of response? What is the standard response to LBA?

Interesting comments regarding OFT.

Queen G

Hiyah, don't worry, thats just a standard response you have received, press on and fire off the LBA next. The standard response to the lba is something along the lines of 'thanks for your letter, they're position stands and they have nothing further to add, and this is they're final response. blah blah'

So.... chin up and press on ;-)

Good Luck

S