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Hi, got a problem here that I haven't seen mentioned in the FAQ or in other threads.
Basically, I've had a look through old statements, and it seems I could claim back £530 worth of charges from the bank. Thing is, I've recently taken a job in South Korea and as such will be leaving the country in a couple weeks, for at least a year.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I should proceed? As I see it, I have a few options:
- The normal process as described on this site, I could get my parents to forward any letters from the bank to me. This would be a slow process though, with letters being sent back and forth across the world! Furthermore, if the bank refused to pay up, and I had to take some sort of legal action, would this be possible without turning up in person? I have seen the moneyclaim website, would this allow me to make my claim without having to be in the country?
- The normal process, but via email rather than writing. Again, though, I need to know if I would actually be able to pursue my claims from Korea.
- Sending a 'nice' letter asking for the money back. All the charges were incurred while I was a student; I graduated last year and my account is now back in the black. Perhaps, since £530 isn't that large an amount, it would be worth asking for the money back as a sign of goodwill, now that I am at a stage where I am earning money, rather than relying on a loan cheque every few months. If I were to appeal to them in this way, would it be a good or bad idea to threaten to move banks if they didn't pay the charges back?
The ideal solution would be to find a friend or relative in the UK who would be willing to have a look at this site and do the work for you while you're abroad. You'd have to give your friend a letter of authority for him/her to act on your behalf.
You can have them act as your "lay representative" if your case goes to court, but I think I've heard someone (Bankfodder?) say on this site that you have to attend the court as well. However, the chances of the case actually getting to a court hearing are very slim, as all the banks are settling without taking it that far.
I don't know what to suggest if you haven't got someone here who can help you - but I expect someone else will come up with something.
No harm in sending the bank a letter asking nicely for a refund, but personally I doubt that will work, so you might just as well start of with the preliminary letter from the library on this site (assuming you don't firstly need to send a DPA request to get details of all your charges). No point in threatening to move to another bank - they couldn't care less! In fact the advice on this site is to open a "parachute" account with another bank anyway - just in case your bank threatens to close your existing account.
I wouldn't bother to mention to the bank that you're going abroad. They might just realise that it could restrict your actions (eg if personal appearance in court is mandatory, they could use the fact that you're abroad to their advantage)
Cheers for the advice! I do have some other bank accounts anyway, so if they decide to close my account it's not a massive problem. And I certainly won't mention to them that I'm going abroad, although I suppose if they see my card being used in Korea, they'll work it out themselves
Moving Abroad - Advice Needed!
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Re: Moving Abroad - Advice Needed!
