And thanks Al for the 'applying for Income Protection Cover' idea for the Contract

Superb spot Pat...a good article which begins to make me feel a bit more bullish over this now. RD

Many Thanks for your responses to date guys. To pre-empt any move I do make are there legal firms who specialise in this particular area that could clarify the position before I act or maybe even the CAB or other such bodies? Presumably I will need to obtain the Contract to get any further. Kind regards, RD

Hi Guys, I work for a small, niche Software Reseller. We sell a specific brand of Microsoft Software and there are only a few other competitors with the same skillset as ours. However my company is moving in a direction I am not comfortable with and I want to leave. The obvious move is to one of the above mentioned competitors; a couple of whom are fairly local and I believe would be interested in taking me on. There is though, apparently, a 'restraint of trade' clause in my contract preventing me moving to a direct competitor within 6 months. I say apparently because I can't find my original contract and to ask for it now would I believe reveal my intentions to jump ship. In reality how enforceable is this clause for an ordinary Joe like me? I work in Sales on a reasonable but not fantastic salary so not exactly a fat cat, so can't imagine a court would make this stick. I have a large mortage and young family to consider. Any guidance gratefully received. RD

Hi Guys, Can I just run the below Nationwide repsonse past you seasoned veterans?? It is Nationwide's reply to my Pre-lim letter requesting refund of charges incurred: "Thank you for your recent letter about charges incurred on your FlexAccount" "Feedback from members is valuable......etc etc" Then it goes on about their offer to help me 'manage' our account etc. It then gives me 56 days to respond or the 'complaint' will be closed. Is this the standard 'fob off' letter and I should proceed to the LBA? Is their a Nationwide specific LBA or just use the standard one? In the meantime we've actaully had further charges applied....I take it I should re-calculate the new total I'm claiming? Any guidance welcome. RD

Thanks for your response Volcano and congratulations on your success......you didn't detail this but at what stage did FD offer you 100% and approximately how was much your refund. The 'CAG way' certainly does seem to have worked in your case but judging from other FD threads it doesn't always appear so straightforwrd.

I've recently accepted an offer from First Direct for 85% of my charges and the whole thing was quite straight forward. My next target is Nationwide but it seems from the general tone of the forum that they maybe a harder nut to crack? Quick question therefore guys.....did you receive any offers (however paltry) before you reached the court action stage or was it a flat refusal from N'Wide all along? Many Thanks

Thanks for your comments Alan & Bookworm. I do not mean to belittle the trials and tribulations that others have suffered in their attempts to get bank charges returned but I suspect that there are many people out there like me who didn't want to go 'all the way' and go to war with their bank. I merely wanted to highlght to those people, following my experience, that you can tip your toe in the water and get a nice result with minimum hassle. I suspect if I did persue a 100% rebate I would now be entering more choppy waters but I was happy with an 85% refund and retaining the status quo with my bank. I'm certain that many others out there would be satisfied with that too. I now take the view that for 6 years worth of banking with First Direct, where to be honest I have been guilty of poor management at times, an approximate cost of £100 for total charges is a much more fair reflection of the overdraft facilities I've enjoyed. The CAG has been a very useful resource for me and I intend to make a donation but, and it is merely my opinion, that I do not believe you need to be quite so rigid in your approach as is often suggested on here. Hope everyone else is as 'lucky' as me in their dealings with our high street friends!! Rorksdrift

I've been closely watching the recent Bank Charges Rebate frenzy and in particular have been using the CAG forums for research before launching my strike against First Direct! I have to say that after reading numerous responses on the forums by self styled refund 'experts', I was expecting a white knuckle ride with many twists and turns leading to a lengthy and stressful fight with the big behemoth that is FirstDirect!! I've often seen forum expert's on here put the fear of God into refund seeking newbies like myself with phrases like, 'you don't enter into this lightly' and 'you must follow the process rigidly', with the various letter templates given their own naming conventions and terminology! Utter Rubbish!! My experience has been completely different and for those slightly cautious people out there who are told this process is 'all or nothing' and 'you can't just dip yout toe in', I did just that and have had a swift and easy conclusion to my enquiry. The issue I had is that I actually quite like First Direct. Their customer service is superb snd though their charges are high and their current account interest rate is not that competitive, whilst I wanted a refund of my charges, I didn't really want to stop banking with them. So initially I sent a polite, non template letter (2nd class) requesting details of my charges over the last 6 years (without a £10 cheque, which seemingly wasn't required). In good time statements covering that period arrived and I set to work with the highlighter. I totalled up £700 of Bank Charges and sent another 2nd class letter on 31st March (again a much more polite and simplified version compared to the templates here) and then went on holiday to Portugal. I came back yesterday (16th April) to find a nice letter from FD offering me £600, which I am happy to accept. Ok, so its approx 85% of what I requested and doesn't include additional interest but I think the offer is fair enough and for the sake of two letters, a couple of hours on the calculator and two 2nd class stamps, well worth the effort. What's more...despite me setting up a parachute account incase, I am still a (reasonably) happy FD customer! Job Done! So for those afraid to dip your toe....remember! *You won't get your Bank Account closed unless you push it them to the limit, so therefore no need to apply for a replacement account *You don't need to send letters recorded/registered *You don't need the lengthy letter templates on here and various other websites *Relax and enjoy a nice windfall for very little effort. I Thank You, Rorksdrift