I am new to here! I am reading up on reclaiming my bank charges and am in the process of finding information!

Will the RBOS make me close my account? I know I will have in the £1000's of charges as I had a really bad spell a few years back so it should be worth claiming for that but I also have resulted in having a bad credit rating so won't be able to open a decent account if they make me close my royalties gold account.

PLEASE HELP!:o

Royalties gold - dear me, money for nothing. It's unlikely that RBofS will close your account as they make money out of it - so closing your account would be cutting their nose off to spite their face. There was a spate of banks closing accounts but that seems to have stopped.

However I would, just in case, open a parachute account. If your credit rating is bad you may still be able to get a decent current account (with no fees, unlike Royalties). I would only try and open a new current account once as if your dclined it affects your credit rating. If you are declined, opening a basic bank account is an option. The best one would appear to be Bank of Scotland as you get a debit card with it (most basic bank accounts you only get a cashline card). You can still set up DD's and SO's with a basic account but will not be allowed an overdraft facility and will not receive a cheque book.

I would consider moving from a Royalties Gold account anyway if you can even if they don't close your account.

I agree! Having been RBS royalties gold account holder for 10 years (no longer!) I have to question why I paid this fee (£12/month) for so long. I never used any of the benefits and often found when I tried to claim discounts on holidays, it would work out more expensive!!

Was seriously considering moving from a Royalties account anyway so no loss there! Will check out the bank of scotland.

As like many others I very rarely use the so called benefites!

Forgot to say that there are no credit checks for a basic account - so all you have to do is prove i.d.

We claimed off RBOS and they didn't close our account, but they did take our switch cards off us. We opened a second account with NATWEST- a step account gives us a debit card and online banking, but no cheque book. We left hubbies wage going in RBOS with all the direct debits for bills on, and mine into the step account as cash to use for food petrol etc. So far has worked well for us and I'd rather not have a cheque book as too tempting to write them "just before" payday and get ahead of yourself.

Go get your cash

ali x

Going to try for the Bank of Scotland Account first I think then will find a good draft letter to send re charges.

So let me get this straight! In Scotland can you claim for the full 6 years? AND My charges will surely be over the £1500 mark does this mean I wont get over that?

In Scotland you can only claim back 5 years (there is a way of potentially claiming back more but this is yet to be proven). As your charges will be over 8 weeks you will have to go through the FOS. This means that you need to wait 8 weeks after your initial complaint before getting them involved. The FOS allow 8 weeks for the bank to resolve a complaint. I would therefore initially send the bank a general complaint about the charges they have levied on your account, rather than wait until you have received the results of your SAR. This sets the ball rolling in terms of you having made a complaint. You can then firm up the complaint at a later stage when you have received the results of the SAR.

Sorry that first bit should read as your charges will be over £1500