Found this site only last weekend and have spent the past week putting together a case against RBoS. But I could do with some help on a couple of points.

1) in either the FAQ's or a thread, it was mentioned that in Scotland the period for claims is 5 years rather than 6 years. Can someone help me out and confirm this either way?

2) on the front page of all of my statements it explains the "Basis of Charge" -

as in

"The charge is based on a Maintenance Charge of £XX

Plus a fee of £XX

Service Charge be applied: £XX"

The first point would be is this the infamous "Maintenance Charge" itself that is apparently unlawful? Or is it finessed somehow by being included as part of a "Service Charge"? And second point would be - does anyone have any idea what the "fee" actually is. Or is this another "charge" which, since it apparently has no explanation for itself, is unlawful as well? I'm only asking because I have yet to include any or all of this "Service Charge" in the total I plan to smack RBoS with. Which is currently standing at a magnificent rip-off of £6,932 of my cash sitting in a Royalties Gold a/c.

A secondary point to that would be that in the course of the statement itself it also regularly comes up with

"Charge to (date) - A/C xxxxxx" but the figure doesn't always correspond to what I thought initially was this "Service Charge". Again the question would be should this "Charge to A/C ..." be included in the grand total that I plan throwing at them?

And finally many thanks to all the guys contributing to tackling these bandits. Like so many others, I have bitched about these charges but didn't actually realise there was recourse or help out there. I'll keep you in touch with how I go once I have finally put some numbers together, but in the meantime, many thanks and please keep the help coming.

On the first point - yes Scotland is 5 years - although if your account is held in England then it would come within the English Court System.

The second point is a little more complex - but on the face of it I would say that it is just an attempt to try and justify the basis of the charge. However, if you pay a fee for having an overdraft - that is a service charge and cannot be reclaimed. If it is a penalty for going into o/d, or exceeding your o/d limit, then it is reclaimable.

If your account is subject to a service charge, as I would expect an account with the name "Rayalties Gold" to be, and they have lumped all the amounts in to one figure - then you would need to deduct that service charge.

Hope that clears it up. If you do need any further advice, or just have some progress to report, then please post to this thread.

On the first point - yes Scotland is 5 years

Can't find that in a FAQ anywhere, can you provide a URL?

I see lots of posts from folks in Scotland having issued letters to claim back the last 6 years worth of charges.

Does this mean their letters are incorrect?

I can't find it either, but would draw your attention to this:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3099&highlight=scotland+years

Hopefully one of our experts on the Scottish law will be along at some point.

really frustrating - because I found it last night shortly before I posted. And I've spent ten minutes now and still can't locate the sucker.

But it is there somewhere. Failing that, it's maybe on the Govan LAw site but I reckon it is here somewhere.

Thanks for the advice btw. I reckon what I am going to do is run with the total I have without this "Service Charge" detail for the time being. That in itself begs the question as to whether, if I am successful in respect of one period, I can actually return to it and claim more on it.

But at about 6 grand and counting so far, I just want to have some pay back to begin with.

found the link - I think!! - and fluked it at that

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=92

It's referred to in the "quote box" from BankFodder and a useful contribution from the Govan Law Centre.

And still doing the sums and presently sitting at £8257.66. Looks like I could be having an interesting Easter Monday and once I'm convinced my maths has done its job, I'll be headed for a registered envelope and looking to nail these bandits to any wall of their choosing.

Once again - many thanks for the help and I'll keep in touch.

Finally managed to get all the stuff together and highlightered the hell out of 5 years worth of statements and the letter went off this afternoon.

Couldn't believe it when I reached the final figure - of £7,716.92 including overdraft interest that these thieving bandits have managed to squeeze out of me. Or £8,457 if you add the previous (6th) year to it all.

And once that's sorted out, I can turn to the business a/c which has been shafted royally to the grand total of more than £9,000 over the same period.

And in the midst of all that, I managed to stumble totally accidentally across the fact that they've been stuffing my Royalties Gold a/c for 16.9% rather than the 14.9% that it should be on my Mastercard.

Now all I got to do is sit and wait for their response!!!!

Good Grief!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish you all the best, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. Please keep us updated on progress!

aye - that was one of the two word combinations that came to mind when the pocket calculator had got its breath back and divvied up the total. Really is an incredible figure.

I'll sure as hell let you know what happens - that's for sure!!!!

2) on the front page of all of my statements it explains the "Basis of Charge" -

as in

"The charge is based on a Maintenance Charge of £XX

Plus a fee of £XX

Service Charge be applied: £XX"

 

The first point would be is this the infamous "Maintenance Charge" itself that is apparently unlawful? Or is it finessed somehow by being included as part of a "Service Charge"? And second point would be - does anyone have any idea what the "fee" actually is. Or is this another "charge" which, since it apparently has no explanation for itself, is unlawful as well? I'm only asking because I have yet to include any or all of this "Service Charge" in the total I plan to smack RBoS with. Which is currently standing at a magnificent rip-off of £6,932 of my cash sitting in a Royalties Gold a/c.

If you have a Royalties Gold account then you'll be charged £12 each month (this is the monthly fee for the services provided by Royalties Gold and no you can't claim these back as they are lawful) plus £28 maintenance fee for being over your limit (you CAN claim these ones back). So you'll see these two charges appear on your statement accumulated together as "service charge, £40.00" or words to that effect.

Hope that helps & good luck

yeah - I took a swing at it and reckoned that it probably broke down that way and so in the calculation I finally made, I included only what was specifically described as a "Maintenance Charge". At the time I had just wondered whether of not the fact that it was in together under the umbrella of this "Service Charge" somehow made it a legit charge for them to administer.

Letter went in yesterday with "guaranteed" delivery before 1 pm today and I've given them 7 days to respond. I'll keep you in touch and many thanks for the encouragement and the help this site offers so far.

What about referral charges? When I had an RBS account the referral charges only appeared on the statement not on the front sheet with the maintenance/service charges. Do they still do that and if so, have you included them in your claim?

I just reposted my thread about charges now (in the RBS/BOS forum headed "referal charges / maintenance charges read here (RBS))

Hope this answers your question

re-read what I wrote..and see what you mean wp. But actually I meant that I had only used the Maintenance Charge element of the "front page" to my calculations and didn't include Fee part of the Service Charge.

In all, what I've put together are all "Unpaid Items" and "Referal Charge" in the statements themselves to come to my total. And also the Overdraft "Interest" element when it appeared.

Bloody staggering amount of money when I put it al together. It'll be nice to get it back

Just a quick post to say that RBoS reply came in today in response to my preliminary letter.

No great surprises in it. The usual bog standard form letter disagreeing with the claim and pointing out how terrifiically fair,reasonable and transparent they have been.

Interesting if nothing else that the reply seems to have responded at least to the OFT ruling and also uses the "OFT is in contact with us...." and how important it is that they "emphasise these discussions are limited to credit charges only". At least they are paying attention to what some people are saying about them.

LBA being put together now and will be sent off by Monday.

This topic was closed on 2019-03-08.

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