I sent of my initial letter last Friday (10 March) recorded delivery to my branch of RBS. I received the standard reply dated the 13th, received the 15th.

What I'd like to know at this stage is that, in my initial letter, I'm claiming £900+ of charges, but being based in Scotland, if it goes to court do I have to claim this or could I drop this to the £750 small claims limit?

Read the FAQ's

What you are looking for is right at the top.

All that seems to tell me is that the limit for small claims in Scotland is £750.

What I'm basically asking is now that I've asked for £900+, if it went to court, do I have to stick to this or can I drop it to £750?

You can dro it to £750. Also we think that once you win that you can try to go in for the rest.

Suggest that your first claim is about £700

So are you saying:

if someone in Scotland has to claim, say, £2000 then they should claim £700-£750 in the first claim, and then another claim of £1300 or another 2 small claims of

ridiculous isn't it. Come and live in England

Well, received a reply from my branch today, Special Delivery. It goes like so...

Thank you for your letter of 10 March 2006 and I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account.

 

We believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accorndance with your agreement with us and our published tariff, which we are satisfied, complies with all applicable laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give to our customers about the operation of our products.

 

Against that background, we must differ to the views expressed in your letter. Accordingly, the charges that have been applied to your account must stand.

 

However, thank you again for taking the trouble to write.

I presume this is a fairly standard reply from RBS?

Incidentally, is the £750 limit the maximum you can claim or the maximum you can be awarded? (e.g. incl costs, interest, etc)

The max you can claim - excluding costs and interest

Sent of my final letter on Monday before commencing legal action. Haven't received a reply yet. I've yet to see someone stating that they've had a significant refund yet. Most of the success stories to date seem to be for amounts below £100.

you can use the next level of sherriff court action which is Summary Cause for claims between £750 -1500. You can represent yourself, or have representation, but might be liable for costs if you lose. Information here

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/sheriff/summary_cause/guidance_notes.asp

you can use the next level of sherriff court action which is Summary Cause for claims between £750 -1500. You can represent yourself, or have representation, but might be liable for costs if you lose. Information here

http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/sheriff/summary_cause/guidance_notes.asp

Thanks fruitycar but that's not what I was refering to. It seems like most of the posts posted to date for successful refunds have been for smaller amounts such as £70, £34, etc.

I haven't seen one for say £600.

Well, received a reply from my branch today, Special Delivery. It goes like so...

 

 

 

I presume this is a fairly standard reply from RBS?

 

Incidentally, is the £750 limit the maximum you can claim or the maximum you can be awarded? (e.g. incl costs, interest, etc)

I received an almost identical reply from the RBS, as the one below from mparter, stating that they believe their charges to be fair. I did receive £35.00 "as a gesture of goodwill, but any charges that accrue in the future must stand". I am planning my second letter shortly, although I am concerned about the lack of success from fellow fighters. I do not mind paying overdraft charges, but £28 for going about £100 overdrawn is appalling.

if you walk into a bank and ask for a charge to be removed, they will take one off as they offered you, this is standard practice. Anyone in the bank is allowed to refund 1 charge per customer every quarter..

Anyone in the bank is allowed to refund 1 charge per customer every quarter..

What bank r u talking about? This is definitely NOT the case at RBS.

In RBS branches only the manager can give authority to refund charges and even then is limited to £50. They also have a charge refunds budget to stick to which limits chances of getting money back further.

The branch manager regularly (daily?) looks at a log of what charges have been refunded & who has refunded them. We are absolutely not allowed to refund any charges without managers authorisation and if we did we'd be found out and face possible warnings or sacking.

What bank r u talking about? This is definitely NOT the case at RBS.

 

We are absolutely not allowed to refund any charges without managers authorisation and if we did we'd be found out and face possible warnings or sacking.

you work in a bank?????????

I know a friend in the Bank Of Ireland who told me this, and my experience with the BOS Branch staff, i was told this was correct, obviously they keep tabs on it but it is acceptable..

This is the case in RBS at the moment. Couldn't speak for other banks though sure their policies are all slightly different.

Well, today is the 7th working day since I sent my second letter to RBS. I received what appears to be a stalling letter from their Group Customer Relations department, which goes like so...

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding charges on your account, which has been passed to our office for investigation. In view of your comments, we have asked for a full briefing from those involved. Once this received, a formal response will be sent to you.

 

We will aim to get a response out to you as soon as we can but we also want to make sure that a thorough investigation takes place. If, for any reason, there looks like being a delay, we will, of course, write to you again to explain why.

 

If you have any queries in the meantime, please fell free to contact us.

"we have asked for a full briefing from those involved", don't they mean a print-out from their systems as it's mostly automated process nowadays is it not?

I presume this is them trying to slow things down. Should I respond with a "thanks for your letter", "I'll give you x days to reply"?

I too received an identical letter from RBS this morning. Must have a standard letter - keep your letter for over a month then just churn off a standard one.

They had taken over a thousand pounds in six years but we have never been over for more than a day at a time. The latest was a few weeks ago when I was due to go over just over a pound. I realised just in time and paid in £5 although at the time I didn't have the right paying in book I paid into my other account and went home to transfer the payment through online banking. 36 hours later and the payment still had not shown up on my account and I was not able to transfer the payment. Consequently I had £60 in charges taken from my account.

On the other hand, two years ago I sent an international transfer through RBS (a regular monthly transaction I made) to our bank in the USA to make payments on mortgage and expenses for property we own. Three weeks later the payment arrived back in our account minus some charges and a loss on the exchange rate. We queried this and it transpired that the bank had keyed in the wrong number. They eventually refunded the charges and made up the loss on the exchange rate and despite the manager promising that we would be compensated this was not forthcoming. After further letters - the person who dealt with it had left etc. etc. we got nowhere. The delay in getting money to our US account had caused us enormous problems with excess bank charges, mortgage late fees etc. Also it had triggered the HOA to apply for a lien on our home as they had not received payment on time.

~They would not accept our late payment without solicitors fees etc., amounting to over a thousand dollars. We contested the action but a lawyer required $5000 down payment to sort it out for us. Consequently, we had to sort the matter out ourselves and this involved a considerable amount of time studying American law on the internet etc. The bank never even apologised without us asking.

This is only the latest in a long line of problems we have had with RBS stretching right back to 1990 when they overcharged us £3000 in two years on our home mortgage. They lost us two sales of our property by delaying sending our deeds to our solicitor and then denying that they had received the letters.

Not sure whether to go to Ombudsman again or to County Court - any advice.

Received another letter today from the same department as yesterday, Group Customer Relations department.

Basically re-iterating all that's been stated to date, their charges are fair, etc and if I'm not happy to go to the Financial Ombudsman.

Looks like it's small claims time.

Do I have to submit a claim straight away? Is there a perceived limit as to how long since the last correspondance I can wait before initiating court action?

Well, got my Small Claims court paperwork filled out and my statement of claim details attached. I've also included the Excel spreadsheet with the list of charges.

Should I include the 8% interest details or just print it out and hand it over without this?

I'm handing it in today, wish me luck!

Filed my claim today, got a court date of 9 June, giving RBS until 2 June to respond!!

Received a letter from RBS, offering me the full amount plus costs Although they still stressed that their charges were fair and that I stood no chance in court!!

Good result ! Did they ask you to sign in full and final settlement?

I hope HBoS are as co-operative with my claim.

Good result ! Did they ask you to sign in full and final settlement?

I hope HBoS are as co-operative with my claim.

Yes, but only for this claim.

hi mark and well done.

How did you know you had a court date? Did the court inform you?

Our moneyclaim has been acknowledged by rbs with intention of defending but theres no mention of court dates. As far as I can see you're the only sucessful rbs claimant so far.