Barclay V Woolwich

[twisted-pixel]

hi folks,

came across this site by accident (not sure how) but like a lot of people I have been subject to massive charges from the woolwich over the last few years.

I recently lost my job (it's ok, I've got another one already) but thanks to the extremely unhelpful people at the woolwich I'm some £300 overdrawn...ALL bank charges (how can they not pay a £4 DD but charge me £35 for not doing so) Not to mention the fact that they are charging me £3 per day for the privelege of being in a position that THEY put me in.

I got very annoyed once to find that I was £160 overdrawn (due to bank charges) and when I applied for an overdraft so that I could avoid the £3 per day they refused to let me have one....if they refuse to let me have an overdraft how did I get £160 overdrawn???

So, I'm going to spend some time reading through this site and see what I can learn. I suspect that I've paid close to £1000 over the last few years in charges. Not as much as some people but it's a lot of money to me.

If anyone has any tips for me..I'd be very grateful to receive them.

thanks

[bottomburp]

deleted

[twisted-pixel]

Ok,

I've ready to get started and am preparing my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter.

just one quick question...who do I make the £10 cheque payable to? Barclays or the Woolwich?

thanks

[paddym]

your sending your request to woolwich ? so when i did mine i made it payable to the woolwich !

[twisted-pixel]

well, I WAS going to send the request to the hea office of Barclays (as given in the addresses section of this site as being Churhcill Place, London)...should I be sending it to the woolwich instead? and if so..at which address? the bexleyheath one?

thanks

[paddym]

yes bexleyheath will be fine wollwich dont hand over to barclays until after LBA stage so if iwere you i would keep it simple for now and just send your S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to woolwich in bexleyheath and take it from there !

[twisted-pixel]

well....it has begun.

S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter went by recorded delivery today.

I must admit that I am a little nervous, I have visions of woolwich saying that these charges were clearly stated and I agreed to them when I opened my account. But reading through this site I am lifted by other peoples success.

I guess I'll know my next step in 40 days time.

[bottomburp]

Well done twisted-pixel - it takes a little nerve to get started but it'll be worth it. Just think of what you'll be able to do with the money you get refunded. Please post if you have any questions/need support/whatever.

Best of luck!

[paddym]

yes they will say all those things but hey stop there take a look at the other threads they said the exact same things to all of us guess what we stood our ground and didnt back down and we won so remember your here for the long hall woolwich take it right to the wire but you will win in the end so good luck while your waiting keep reading that way you will know what to expect as we have all been down the road in front of you and rest assured you have nothing to be nervous about any problems just ask someone will be here to offer you advice or help !

[wewonitfivetimes]

Hi twisted-pixel
Be positive and keep reading up - offer a little support to others along the way by.
Follow paddym's advice
Good luck my friend

[twisted-pixel]

morning all,

I received my first reply from the woolwich (Barclas) this morning. I'm sure it's the standard reply but for anyone that has never seen one...it says...

Dear Mr Barclay

DATA PROTECTION ACT

We refer to your letter of 8 February, which was passed to this departent for comment due to your request for certain information under the terms of the Data Protection Act ("the Data Protection Act").

As requested, a schedule of charges is in course of preparation and this will be sent to you shortly by the Woolwich; there will be no charge for this service. As the Bank is providing this information on a complimentary basis, your payment is returned herewith. (first time the bank has done anything complimentary)

As regards your mention of "manual intervention", the Data Protection Act does not oblige the Bank to comment about internal policies and procedures. Furthermore, in the context of managing day to day transactions arising from out of order accounts, the Bank does not hold the information you requested in a form that would be covered by the DPA. Whilst aggregated information is retained for statistical purposes, this would not constitute "personal data" under the DPA and therefore would not be covered by a s.7 DPA subject access request. For the avoidance of doubt, the fact that we do not generally record information in a way that is caught by the provisions of the DPA, is in no way an admission that there was no such manual intervention.

Yours sincerely

pp looks like A.M Mokell ??

Peter Townsend
Manager, Barclays Data Protection

so, the ball is definitely rolling

[amandaardley]

well done tp

thats not the same letter i got tho, now im wondering if i sent the wrong thing in,

amanda

[twisted-pixel]

as everyone on here is very fond of saying (and it's true). Don't panic!!!

I'm sure someone will come along and point you in the right direction, and tell you that it's all ok.

The letter you sent asking for details of the charges is what everyone else has sent (just in different formats and wordings I suspect). I used the template provided by this site as it seemed to be the 'standard' that everyone else was using.

[twisted-pixel]

I'm still waiting for my new job to start (1st March) so I had a little bit of time on my hands (7 weeks of doing nothing now...getting a bit bored)

I logged onto my open plan account and just out of curiosity I thougt I'd see how much my bank charges have totalled up to over the last year (the maximum you can go back online is one year)

At the start of this thread an guestimated that I had paid £1000 over the last few years...how wrong was I!!

I've paid £1493 in charges since last january alone!!!

£1500 in a year!!...mostly for missed DD as they refused to give me an overdraft then continued to charge me for being overdrawn etc. and I wouldn't mind so much except I still have to pay the DDs. They don't go away!! so a missed £4 DD suddenly becomes a £40 charge!!

I can't wait to get my statements and see how much they owe me....it looks like it's going to be a lot more than £1000...hopefully under the £5000 though as anything over this seems to bring its own complications

[twisted-pixel]

finally got my list of charges today (40 day limit is up tomorrow). luckily (or maybe not) it's not as much as I thought it might be. Up until the beginning of last year my account has always been fairly healthy.....but...they owe me a fraction over £2k.....letter asking for it back will be going out tomorrow

[clairec]

Good for you go get em! Remember there are loads of people and advice on here, I'm nearly at the last hurdle thanks to this site before you know it you'll be there too.

[twisted-pixel]

I'm amazed at just how long the banks are dragging this out. for every day that they delay it must be costing them thousands in interest, staff charges, legal bills etc.

my LBA went out 5th April and today I received another 'standard letter'..we are sorry about your dissatisfaction etc etc, we aim to resolve by 15th May (yeah right...you've got until 21st April before I start court actions mate!!)

so far everything I have received from them has been at the last possible moment. and just for that, I think I'm going to go down the contractual interest route.....just to be bloody minded!!

[silentnight]

Well done with where you are at so far. I also sent my LBA (on the 16th April) I am now waiting for their next stalling tactic letter. I am also going down the compounded contractual route and am interested to see what results you get!

Silentnight

[twisted-pixel]

well, I've had a result...of sorts.

I started this back in february I think and followed all the instructions. Some of you may have read another thread (going to try a different approach) where I sent a letter saying basically, let's reach a compromise and asked then to pay 95% of the charges and I wouldn't take them to court. I was all ready to file the N1 etc, but then had an EXPENSIVE month (why do bills always turn up at once??) so I delayed until the end of this month to file the N1 and, on friday they responded..offering me a compromise...

instead of the usual 75%, they offered me 85%

so..total claim was about £1900, I asked for £1800 (95%), usual offer would have been £1400 (75%), they offered me £1600. Which I think I'm going to accept. I know that if I went the court route I would get it all plus the interest but to be perfectly honest...the money would really come in handy right now!!...really!!

Just like to thank everyone here for their help and advice. Donation to this site will be forthcoming as soon as I receive the cash.

Good luck to everyone and thanks again