I switched to A&L from HBOS and well am I now starting to wonder if it might have been a case of better the devil you know...anyway due to the way A&L seem to process transactions - eg they showed a cheque drawn on my account on their internet banking screen on Weds - showed that the money had CLEARLY left the account and that we had £x amount left to withdraw - but when I went in again yesterday the figures had all changed, they said the cheque hadn't cleared and I have been charged £34! I am furious. The guy on the phone last night was really cheeky and said "you should have got a clue when you went to withdraw money and couldn't" er well we COULD and did withdraw money. They also didn't cancel a DD I asked them to meaning we ended up paying our council tax twice and went OD cos of that. Anyway I have £167 of money to get back from them not a lot I suppose compared to many others but I am so furious at them I am not letting them away with it. Do they threaten to close accounts frequently? I have accounts elsewhere so couldn't give a monkeys whether they do that to me or not - indeed I'll just take the £700 a month of other business I give them elsewhere. Got details of all the charges so sending prelim letter now!

I am over the moon I have now received repayment of over £2500 of charges on 2 accounts! I have now cleared all my overdrafts which is a fantastic feeling. I didn't even have to raise court action I just phoned them when they made the initial offers telling them if I didn't get the lot I'd file court papers and hey presto! Matthews Dad's case is still ongoing as he did raise court actions so he's still waiting for the 2nd one to go through. Can you believe how stupid the bank are though I was slightly over my limit and the bank were phoning up until yesterday asking me to pay that - my response of why would I pay you that when you owe ME £1760 on that account seemed to be met by confusion on their part I will be sending a cheque in support for this site. MM

I have a few storecards (Evans, Debenhams, House of Fraser) that are all run by GE Money. I reckon I probably have a few late payment fees although they aren't as high as bank charges - around £14 - £15 each as opposed to the level of bank charges. I hadn't really considered claiming them because the amounts weren't as high but is it possible I still could? And also would I just do it as one SAR/claim to GE money or would I need to do it as 3 separate ones? Thanks MM

OK so I FINALLY have an offer from BOS they are offering me £1403 - my total claim on my account is £1980 and £869 on my joint account so there's no way I'm accepting that in F&F settlement. So what should I do now - just reject and raise the court action, or give them a phone and tell them the only way they can stop me proceeding with an action is by paying up the lot now. Thanks MM

OK so the bank have paid the amount detailed in their offer into my H's bank account which is great. But they still won't be drawn on giving him a figure for the interest. Should he still pursue this on Friday in court? I can't believe they will risk getting decree against them for a couple of hundred quid as I am sure they are not going to turn up to defend it. Or should he forget the interest and concentrate on trying to get them to stump up for the other court actions he and I are going to raise? Thanks for any assistance MM

Thanks AD I am confident enough about taking it a bit further as I've done a couple of summary cause cases for work. How far are they likely to take it though?? I'm guessing they won't take it to proof?

Hi am looking for some advice. My hubby sent his LBA however by the time he got a response to that (offering just over half the total claim) he had raised a court action. The calling date is next Friday and the court action was for £912 plus interest at 8% (which would bring it up to the £1500) and expenses. Today he has received a letter offering £912 plus the expenses ie no consideration for interest. What should he do? Should he take that offer and then still proceed with court actions for the rest of his bank charges (another £700 or so) or just phone them up and tell them to pay the whole lot of the charges ie not just the ones in this court action but for other actions pending as well? Thanks MM

OK now is this offer Halifax made you just over the phone or in a letter ie extra judicial, or have they lodged something with the court detailing the amount? If the former, then I don't think they will be able to argue that at court. If the latter, then I would probably consider the offer. I think if you have raised the court action you should also be pressing for the 8% judicial interest, this is the advice I got here when I asked a similar question.

My husband has raised his court action against BOS however he received an offer for just over half the amount claimed for which he rejected. Following some threads on here I advised him to call the number on the offer letter and basically the bank said they will refund all the bank charges. However he's raised a court action so am I right in thinking he should press them for the interest + expenses as well? The first calling of the case is next week - the bank haven't lodged a defence yet. Also if it settles prior to the court case will he still need to go to court to have the case formally dropped, or will it still rumble on and allow decree to be granted against the bank anyway? Thanks MM

Hiya matthew's dad is now at this stage with his claim, he had raised court proceedings already (hearing next week) after he got the offer letter he phoned them yesterday and they basically told him that they would refund all his bank charges. He is pressing for an amount for interest too as he has issued proceedings but he had no problem getting them to up their offer to the full amount!! Re the interest - if you're settling extra judicially then I don't think you've got much entitlement to ask for the interest. The only reason I have advised matthews dad to press for this is because he has already issued proceedings

I am at LBA stage, had previously got a letter promising I'd have a reply by today but nada. Matthews dad is at court action stage, but just after sending it off he got an offer for just over half his total charges (which he has now rejected) his calling date in Paisley Sheriff Court is 2 weeks today. When can he be expecting them to cough up the lot? Thanks eta actually just read another post which is really helpful - going to get matthews dad to phone them up and get them to up their offer! MM

Thanks, I had hoped the threat of involving the ICO would encourage them to pay up, but it seems not so far!

I sent my SAR to BOS, they responded with my docs well after the 40 days had elapsed, also they had as far as I am concerned breached the DPA with regard to sending me the statements, they sent one lot to my parents' house and in my maiden name (thankfully it is only my folks who live there and not a house I sold!) where I haven't lived for 7 years and another containing MY bank account details to my correct name and address - but addressed jointly to me and my husband! In addition the envelopes weren't strong enough for the weight of the statements and they were tattered and torn and poking out. I was furious and wrote a para in my initial approach for payment saying that if they didn't cough up I'd complain to the ICO. No response from bank and am now doing LBA (have to do spreadsheet all again as laptop crashed with it on it argh!) so should I mention the DPA again or just go straight to the ICO? Thanks MM

I sent the first request for payment of charges to BOS and they have coincidentally been "reviewing my account" and noting that I've not had my salary paid into it for some time - funny that eh. They are saying I need to make a payment within 14 days or they will demand repayment of the overdraft - I can't afford that. Are they just trying to scare me into dropping it? And today, I have just received, entirely unsolicited, through the post an "investor's report" of my account. It's obviously something they use in the branch for their own purposes and they've sent me a copy. Any idea what this is? Please help. There is no covering note or anything with it.

Hmm, well it is over the £1500 (just)so you'd either need to (a) split it or (b) restrict it to the £1500 and write off the £23.