Good day all

Just one question

I have emigrated to SE Asia. I wish to get all my charges back from the bank but I will need to SAR them.

I know it is 40 days from the date of posting but the post takes about 21 days to arrive from this country. Do the 40 days rule still come into it and when I request the SAR should I ask them to include the Proof Of Posting slip with the SAR to ensure they don't get more days than they should.

Might seem a little petty but the bank have been very petty with me over the years and I estimate around £3,000 of charges from Bank accounts, Loan Accounts and Mortgage

Many thanks in advance.

40 days from when they get your request, then whatever postage time it takes from them sending it

once completed ready to send

dx

Bank Charges (current accounts) haven't been reclaimable since the OFT lost a landmark test case on this.

As advised by Brig, you will be unable to reclaim current account charges, however you should be able to reclaim any added to your loan/credit cards and mortgage. Did you have any Payment Protection Insurance on your loans/mortgage that might have been mis sold ? If so, then you could reclaim that as well.

Hi,

I hope a really simple question.

Over the years I have had with Abbey National / Santander the following

Bank Accounts

Loans

Mortgage

Credit Cards

Now I wish to claim back all the PPI and the charges.

When I send the SAR request it will go to their Milton Keynes Head Office so will this be one payment of £10 or does each account require the payment (4 x £10)

Many thanks in advance

If the accounts are all with the same bank, then you need only pay one £10 fee. But you need to list all of the accounts in your letter.

Many thanks sir ... just saved me a few peso's

its always wise when you specify what data you are after

that you also make sure the SAR also states:

'but is not limited too 'just' the above required info - but ALL data you hold on me '

dx

Many thanks Dx. Will ensure that I put that in the request.

Hi,

First off apologies as I do not have a UK keyboard as I am now an ex pat hence the format of GBP

I am about to make a claim for the charges imposed on me by Santander. There are four accounts with a value of almost GBP3,000 although on one account there are only GBP12.00 charges which I understand are acceptable (can anyone confirm the GBP12 is acceptable please).

The accounts are ... 2 x Bank Accounts, 1 x Credit Card Account, 1 x Mortgage Account

The letter I have written for all four accounts are the same format ...

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ref: Account number: [xxxxxx]

I would like to request a refund of all the default charges that have been applied to my account.

Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 charges must reflect administration costs and cannot be punitive. I believe that the attached details of charges are unlawful as they do not reflect the true cost of going into an unauthorised overdraft.

You have taken GBPxxx.xx from me .I would like to request repayment of this sum plus GBPxxx.xx interest at xx.x% per annum

Please repay this money in full. If this is not done, I will begin a claim against you for the full amount, plus interest and my costs.

Yours faithfully,

Is there any changes that I need to make to this letter,

Many thanks in advance

OK stop

First off you need to create a thread for each account.

Overdrafts/Current accounts require different advice to credit cards and mortgage charges.

Credit card charges are reclaimable along with interest INCLUDNIG £12 ones

Mortagage charges may be reclaimable too.

Your first step is to gather information,. You MUST have the information on the charges to begina reclaim. First stage is to do a subject access request. Ask for everything (Do not use the word statements) Please visit the CAG library to get a template to adapt to your needs.

Then in the thread for the credit card/mortgage charge reclaim threads you shall create put in the appropriate info to gain the advice you seek.

Hope that helps

Third attempt as the other two attempts have not shown ...

Many thanks for the info SabreSheep.

I have already done the SAR and have the spreadsheets built and ready to post for all the accounts (total including interest almost 3K and almost at the six year period. I was looking for someone to look over the claim letter and say aye or nay but now you say that I need separate threads I will start new threads as soon as possible for the Credit Card and the Mortgage and retain this one for the Bank Accounts.

Can someone in admin/site team please amend the title to include Bank Accounts.

Many thanks

Hi,

First off apologies as I do not have a UK keyboard as I am now an ex pat hence the format of GBP

Please note that I do have another thread with reference to Bank Account Charges and was advised to start a new thread for each type of charge

I am about to make a claim for the charges imposed on me by Santander on my Mortgage Account To the value of GBPxxx plus interest of GBPxxx.

The charges are GBP40 a month for being in arrears and have been charged interest on these as well

The letter I have written but not yet sent ...

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ref: Account number: [xxxxxx]

I would like to request a refund of all the default charges that have been applied to my account.

Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 charges must reflect administration costs and cannot be punitive. I believe that the attached details of charges are unlawful as they do not reflect the true cost of going into unarranged payments.

You have taken GBPxxx.xx from me .I would like to request repayment of this sum plus GBPxxx.xx interesticon at xx.x% per annum

Please repay this money in full. If this is not done, I will begin a claim against you for the full amount, plus interest and my costs.

Yours faithfully,

Is there any changes that I need to make to this letter,

Many thanks in advance

DX

Many thanks for the link. I will manage to read it in the next day or so. Currently only on a mobilke phone

Hi

Been lurking around whilst using a Galaxy Tab and the RSS feeds but not really able to do much else. I am unable to insert an attachment so have copied and pasted the Santander letter

I sent a letter to Santander and received the response below. Could someone please take a look and advise if I could win in court. The total is £4,500 plus for the following as I have every intention of taking this to court as long as I have a 51% chance of winning

Dear Mr X

Thank you for your recent letter about the fees previously applied to your account.

I have reviewed my colleagues previous response and I can confirm our decision is unchanged

I am unable to offer refund charges previously applied to the account. In accordance to the

Supreme Court decision on the 25th November 2009, iy was confirmed banks' unarranged

overdraft fees could not be assessed for fairness. Therefore there is no legal basis on which

the amount of fees can be challenged. The fees applied habe been charged in line with

the charges policy for the accounts in question

signed by Smirky and Smilley Bank man

Unpaid Direct Debits x two accounts - varies between £15 and £35 but usually the £35

Unarranged overdraft fee - £25

Instant Overdraft Fee - £35

Late payment charges - £12

Over The Limit Fees - £12

Interest on Interest

Mortgage Counselor visits - 1 x £79.99 ... £36

Mortgage arrears fee (monthly while in arrears) £40 monthly while in arrears

All except the Mortgage arrears fees the charges were imposed over a 6 month period on 2010 and it was these charges that were on top of charges that caused me to seek both mental and financial help

Many thanks for your help

Mtr X

Well they are completely right in what they say. The banks overdraft fees cannot be assessed for fairness simply on the basis that they are extortion or disproportionate. On the other hand, they can be assessed for fairness if there is some other reason for saying that they are unfair. I have always thought that a typical reason might be that an account is a basic account where no overdraft is allowed, the banks have merely bounced a direct debit and provided no service or benefit and yet because they have bounced the payment, they have applied a charge which is then put the basic account into an overdraft situation – despite the fact that overdrafts are not allowed.

However, this has never been tried by anybody.

I also think that charges and charges are unfair and I rather thought that somewhere – may be on the old OFT website, it referred to these. Maybe you can have a look or maybe someone else will come along and point us in the right direction.

The £12 charges presumably are related to credit card charges and in fact these were broadly approved by the OFT because they said that £12 was the maximum chance that they will tolerate without any specific justification.

The mortgage fees are more immediately interesting. Can you tell us more about the counsellor visit. Was this done by appointment? Where you there at the time? What was the purpose of the visit?

The arrears fee also looks excessive to me. How's it been justified? If you follow the mortgage link, you will see reports of actions by the FCA against various mortgage companies because of excessive mortgage fees and also because the fees were then added to the mortgage arrears. Incidentally, adding fees to the mortgage arrears effectively means that they are adding charges to charges.

I think you need to let us know little bit more about your account. What kind of account was it. In what circumstances did you incur the charges. I see that they were unpaid direct debits. It seems to me where direct debit is merely bounced, then that cannot be an unarranged overdraft fee and it seems to me that the bank is simply milking you for money for no kind of service whatsoever. On that basis I would say that there is a prima facie case for saying it is unfair. However, you won't get Santander to agree to this – and you won't get the FOS to agree with it either.

If you wanted to challenge this then I think that you would have to bring a BCOBS action in the Small Claims Court.

Satan's bank have coughed under bcobs several times here already

One is in the stickies here

DX100 Many thanks for the info, will look a little later

BankFodder, many thanks for yor reply reference the Mortgage charges

Counselor visits were made August 2010 and a further visit on September 2013

The first visit I was told in no certain terms that I had to see the Counselor or Santander were going to start re-possession proceedings (at the time I was clueless and not heard of this site) and I was not prepared to lose my home.

However I made the appointment under duress.

However having worked within a Mortgage arrears Counselling Company for 3 years I knew what to expect and I think he was shocked when he found out.

This meeting lasted about 45 minutes and I gave him very little information, no financial information and a bit of a runaround.

I was charged £79.99.

I did notice on his report that he made out the property was in some sort of need of repair which was quite obvious as I was awaiting a new window installation and every time I refused to answer his questions of finance I noted he put "Failed to answer"

I had a previous arrangement to pay £50 per month which failed due to the bank charging me £350 for the due direct debits the same day.

I called Santander a week later to try and make an arrangement but all they wanted to do was up my payments by £100 per month which I could not afford due to other debts, or Capitalize the arrears, which again was not affordable so they cancelled my original arrangement as well.

There was no mention of the £40 per month charge whilst no agreement was in place so I had no idea that this was being added to the debt.

The second visit there was no appointment and I only knew about the visit as one of my neighbors asked him what he was doing because he was acting suspiciously and was going to call the police. I had no communication whatsoever concerning this visit

Please note that Santander agreed to the initial agreement as I was being paid 4 weekly which meant that Santander got 13 paydays per year.

Admin, sorry, seems that I have placed it in the wring place, please move to correct forum