After reading the article on MSE I've decided to try and reclaim charges made by Yorkshire Bank.

Four years ago my partner and I split up, leaving me with 2 kids, a mortgage and only one wage coming in. Slowly, I started getting further and further behind and obviously bills still had to be paid [most of which were via DD]. I had an overdraft on my account, but this was regularly being eaten into, and on occasions I went slightly over and was being charged £8 a day and between £20 and £25 for them having the 'courtesy' of informing me. Each month my wage had a big chunk taken out of it to clear the charges and it became a never ending circle.

In December 02 I finally had to leave my full time job due to having no childcare [the company wouldn't allow me to work part time] and this took me further into debt. I found a part time job in March 03, but the 3 mths without a wage coming in meant that I was practically always into my overdraft [family helped out when they could] and it's obvious that if the charges hadn't been as high I wouldn't have got into such a spirelling debt. [Thankfully, the debts are steadily going down now!]

I posted the DPA Disclosure Request letter first class yesterday, so hopefully I'll hear something fairly soon. I'll keep you posted.

Wecome. Do keep us posted.

In December 02 I finally had to leave my full time job due to having no childcare [the company wouldn't allow me to work part time] and this took me further into debt.

Going off-topic here, but have you considered going after your previous employer? I don't know what your situation is (how long employed, age of children, etc), but the law was changed couple of yrs ago to help parents who needed more flexibility in their working hours, and employers are expected to have a good reason to say no, so you might want to look into that as well. Let me know by pm if you need some pointers.

Have a look at http://www.emplaw.co.uk for a free and very comprehensive intro to employment law

You should find all you need there.

Going off-topic here, but have you considered going after your previous employer? I don't know what your situation is (how long employed, age of children, etc), but the law was changed couple of yrs ago to help parents who needed more flexibility in their working hours, and employers are expected to have a good reason to say no, so you might want to look into that as well. Let me know by pm if you need some pointers.

I left in Dec 2002 [my sons were 2yrs & 6yrs at the time] after working there for about 18mths. They gave the reason of not being able to afford to pay 2 part-timers [tax & NI - though I didn't quite get how this would be more expensive!].

Anyway, my immediate supervisor started being really off with me after that [when she realised I was going to look for a part time position anyway] and with it being a really stressful time personally, I couldn't take it at work too, so I didn't really leave on the best of terms [lets just say I told her where to shove her job!]. I was just glad to get out of it - going after them was the last thing on my mind.

It was a nice thought though Bookworm, just to see the look on my ex-supervisors face lol

I've just come across a 'debit under advice' charge of £6.50 on one of the statements I still have. Can anyone tell me what this means please?

Thanks

Ask the Bank

I've just received the following letter from the bank today [pretty quickly too, I thought].

"We refer to your letter received at this office today requesting a Data Protection Disclosure regarding your account.

We are happy to provide you with this information but we require £10.00 fee in advance.

Alternatively you have requested Bank statements for the period. As we have already provided you with statements should you wish to request duplicates there is a £5.00 per statement charge which we would also require in advance.

We await your response."

I've no problems paying the £10 [my fault, I forgot to send it in the first place], but what information would be supplied in the DPC - would it have all the relevant information regarding charges [i read the FAQs [424hjfg34] but couldn't find anything on this.

I can't afford to pay £5 per statement as I get them monthly [for some reason??] and I need about 5 years worth!

cheers

The DPA requests details of transactions and charges - these will be enough

Thanks Richard. I'll post the cheque tomorrow and enclose another copy of the DPA request letter for their reference [in case they should have lost my previous copy lol]

Can anyone give me a rough idea how long Yorkshire Bank usually take to respond to these requests? The reason I ask is that I sent my £10 for the DPA request by cheque, and when I checked my internet account it came out on the 17th March, but I still haven't received anything. [Typical, I guess, that they keep me waiting whilst their gaining interest on my money lol]

Thanks

Pam

They have 40 days from the receipt of your cheque to comply with DPA request. Please read FAQs.

Patience. Your time will come.

Sorry Richard it's just that when I'm on a roll it's hard to be patient!

Consider my wrists slapped

I requested data held by Yorkshire Bank did not mention statements and included £10 cheque. They replied saying statements not covered by DP request wanted £5 per copy and returned my cheque.

I then asked for charges to be refunded by personal cheque within 14 days or full copy of all charges with the intent to initiate court action.Reply gave expected "customer aware of banks charging policy" excuse but no charges information.

Yorkshire Bank has done me a favour will now get extra 8% from court action that I will now begin!!

Wish me luck!!!

Geoff

Didn't you receive any info at all re the charges from them? If they don't send the info I'm buggered cos I won't have a clue what they owe me as I only have statements going back a year, and my charges where mainly in 2002/03!

I received the following letter from Clysedale Bank today [always had things on Yorkshire Bank letterhead up until this]

DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

I refer to your letter to xxx Branch requesting information held by the Bank under the terms of the Data Protection Act and note that you have paid the £10 fee.

Within the terms of the Act we have 40 days in which to provide you with the information we hold. I will forward the information to you as soon as possible.

Fiona Hutton

Network Support

Am I right in believing that they have 40 days from the time my cheque was received [which was cashed on 17 April so I'll work from this date], or from when Network Support at Clysedale received the details? I've got 27 April marked in my diary as the 40 days being up.

PJDudley - would you do me an enormous favour & tell me how you managed to get them to agree to send you the details.!?

I've been battling for over a month (my own stupid fault for not sending in the fee with my 1st letter - lesson learned!) and all I'm getting is the same line:

We'll provide you with details up until July 05 for the £10 fee, all details after that are subject to a charge of £5 a month.

PJDudley - would you do me an enormous favour & tell me how you managed to get them to agree to send you the details.!?

Report them to the Information Commissioner!

We had to take this step and ask the Commissioner to intervene, as Yorkshire refused point blank each time. They later backed down when the Commissioner got in touch with them, and the statements arrived through the mail! It took a while for all this to happen but it's worth the wait.

Good luck.

PJDudley - would you do me an enormous favour & tell me how you managed to get them to agree to send you the details.!?

 

I've been battling for over a month (my own stupid fault for not sending in the fee with my 1st letter - lesson learned!) and all I'm getting is the same line:

 

We'll provide you with details up until July 05 for the £10 fee, all details after that are subject to a charge of £5 a month.

All I did was send the DPA letter from the Library. I did originally forget to send the £10, but when they wrote to me saying they'd need this, or £5 per each statement, I just sent another letter enclosing the cheque, and a copy of the original DPA letter.

Hope you get your details soon. I'd report them to the IC though, if they refuse.

After receiving the letter from Fiona Hutton, I decided to send a reminder yesterday, letting her know that they only have until next Thursday to respond. This morning though, I've received a batch of copy statements. Only problem is, they are copies of ones I've still got, and only going back to August 2005. From reading Jmio's thread, it appears that they are only giving out info going back to July 2005.

My problem is that the majority of my charges [save £20] were before then, so where do I go from here to find out what they were?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

I've just phoned Network Support, asking to speak to Fiona Hutton, re only receiving statements from August 05. Fiona doesn't work Thursdays or Fridays, but spoke to a nice lady called Aileen who was quite helpful.

She said that Clydesdale info only goes back to July 05, but I should have received all the info I requested [going back to March 2000] from Yorkshire Bank. She said she will chase it up and I will receive the info in due course.

I did remind her that the 40 days in which to comply where up next Thursday, and she said it might take a bit longer to gather the info, but I told her it was fine as long as I get the required data - after all, they'll be paying the interest on it lol

My problem is that the majority of my charges [save £20] were before then, so where do I go from here to find out what they were?

It's unlikely that they will supply you with any further information now so, as I mentioned earlier, I believe that the only way for you now is to report them to the Information Commissioner.

We had to report them a couple of months ago as they refused twice to supply even a breakdown of charges, let alone copy statements. The Information Commissioner intervened and the statements followed soon after.

Update - I received a phone call at 3.40pm from James at my branch. He explained that when I submitted my DPA request it was sent to 2 different depts because the style of the statement had changed [round about last July]. The 'new style' dept sent the statements directly to me, and the 'old style' dept had sent them to the branch, which James received today.

I've just been to pick them all up [5 years worth!], so I can start with the highlighters now - if I start now, I might get it done by the end of the month lol

Charges all added up and amounting to £498 + £19.91 interest on these charges. My prelim letter for refund is all ready to go recorded delivery tomorrow morning.

More than you expected isn't it