Consumer Action Group NEVER Charge

[caro]

The Consumer Action Group takes pride in providing a forum for like-minded people to share experiences and information to empower us all to claim back bank charges, and deal with other consumer issues.

It costs a lot to run a forum with over 160,000 users, and to fight the campaign against unlawful charges. For this reason we suggest donations when claims are settled, suggesting 5% as a reasonable amount, and we also sell a few recommended products to help with claiming, and help fund the site. You will not be asked for any money for your claim. The site is run entirely by volunteers, apart from 1 part-time administrator.

Now and again unscrupulous people contact our users by private message, and offer to do claims on their behalf for a fee, or directing them to other commercial websites, where you may not get the wealth of advice and support that you would from CAG for FREE. This is completely unacceptable, and against forum rules to approach you in this way.

We all know the dangers of giving out personal details and there is no guarantee that the advice is reliable. Just because you are paying doesn't mean that the claim will be handled by a professional or that the claim will be successful. Even if you are offered help on a no-win-no-fee basis, this only protects you from paying the ambulance chaser. It doesn't protect you from paying the banks costs if the case is lost. If you think your lawyer charges you a lot, you should see what he charges your bank, and you could be landed with the bill if it goes wrong!

If you are contacted in this way, please do not respond to the sender, and forward any messages to:-

admin@consumeractiongroup .co.uk

Many thanks for helping to keep CAG free of people looking to profit from the problems of others. There's not much point in getting the money from the banks to give to someone else, when you can keep it all for yourself.

	Bank Charges You should have started your claim for your bank charges by now. Don't wait. You should send your bank a Subject Acess Request asking for all personal data they hold on you - not just statements. You should calculate all of your bank charges and related interest as far back as 1995. You should send your bank a demand for a refund giving them 7 days. You should commence your legal action adding 8% statutory interest. If you wait for the outcome of the test case, you may not be able to claim like this. you may not be able to claim interest. You may only be offered the difference between the charge and the OFT "fair charge". The repayment scheme will try to limit you to refinds from 2001 only. A repayment scheme will not deal with any bank charges related defaults on the credit register whereas in a court action you can ask for these to be removed and to be compensated for the damage caused to you and your family by them. You should also write to the bank and to the CRA and put all charges related credit entries in disupte and warn them that you will want them removed from the Register when the test case is over. Warn them also that you are likely to be seeking compensation for these wrongful data entries. Full and final settlement Have you previously accepted a partial repayment of your bank charges in full settlement? You will still be able to claim the rest of your money back after the Test case is decided. Get all your information back to 1995 and put in your claim now.