Hi All,

Just new and starting off my claim against the Royal Bank of Scotland from scratch. Im just writing a letter to get my statement of charges for the past 6 years.

I plan to document my progress here in order to help any future claimant, e.g. learning from my possible mistakes and experience in pursuing the claim.

Anyway, onward and upwards as they say!!

Take Care.

Hello,

Best of luk with this, you've certainly come to the right place:).

Just a point of interest, do you have your statements, or are you requesting them?. I only ask because people are now begining to claim further back than 6 years. There is info on this, which if relevant to you, I can post a link for you to read.

Good luck

Louis

Thanks for your support.

Ive written to request my charges/statements over the last 6 years in order to calculate how much I have been charged in total.

Ive a feeling it could run into a substantial amount. Ive already opened up a parachute account with the Alliance & Leicester should RBS play hard ball.

Anyway, the letter went off in the post this morning recorded so the clock is now ticking.. Let the games begin.

Ok , I received a battered brown envelope in the post today containing almost all of my last 6 years statements, some pages missing but not too many. I've spent all weekend going through them and totting up the charges.

So far in just adding the "Unpaid charges etc, not including the overdraft interest I calculated £4780.

I think I will make a preliminary claim for this amount only as I think they will drag their feet over this.

Where should I post the preliminary claim to? My branch or the head office?

Deso, why not add the O/D interest, it wont make them 'drag their heels' anymore or less, and I bet it adds up to a tidy sum. If your concerned about the £5000, then only claim £220 O/D interest, after all, its your money (people have claimed over £5000 and been sucessful you know).

If you want to claim it, but are having trouble working it out, let me know and we'll work through i.

Louis

Thanks for your support Louis but Ive sent my prelim letter already and I will be quite contented if I get refunded the full amount.

Deso,

It doesn't matter that you've sent your prelim, you can still add O/D interest. Have a read of this, see if it makes sense, and consider seeing what difference it makes.

If you decide its not worth it, then so be it. But, it could be a couple of hundred pounds for a couple of hours work, and thats got to be worth at least looking at.

The principle of claiming O/D interest is this..

If you are £1000 o/d, and your charges total £1000, then you can claim ALL the interest charged that month.

If your charges total £500, then you can claim HALF your interest charged that month.

The way I done it was to have a running total of charges, and compared that to my current o/d (month by month). I worked out what % of my o/d was charges, and then claimed that % of my interest back. It’s a bit time consuming, but as it’s YOUR money, it’s worth it.

As I say, its not compulsery, but have a little look at how much it could be, If you need more help, let me know.

Whatever you decide, good luck

louis

Thanks again Louis but Ill stick to my original claim, to be honest I cant be bothered trying to work it out because I had various o/draft levels and I cant remember when they came into force so I dont know exactly what I was paying over the odds. Im only claiming for bounced cheques and unpaid direct debits. Atleast I can argue that these charges cannot be deemed lawful as penalties as opposed to service charges for going overdrawn. In view of Lloyds latest victory.

Ive received this which I presume is the standard letter dated 17th May but arrived today (23rd).

Dear XXX

Thank you for your recent letter regarding charges applied to your account.

We are currently considering your claim and will respond to you as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely

Sandy Watt

Customer Relations Support Unit

They have 7 days before I post my LBA. What are the chances I get a reply before then?

Not much I would imagine. Just stick to the timeline laid down.

I have moved this thread to the RBS forum.

Posted my LBA to the RBS yesterday. Im going down the FOS route so they have until 10th July to repay or refuse. After which Ill complain to the FOS

Interesting phonecall today, I was trying to sort out a couple of new charges that have been applied to my account. I phoned my branch and as soon as I mentioned the word charges I was given this number 0800 015 5035. The branch refused to discuss the matter so I called the number given and was connected to a lady dealing with charges claims.

I didnt even know they had a dept dealing with this, anyway I enquired how my claim was progressing and she said to expect an offer around the 12th of July.

I only wanted an explanation of charges that occurred on the last few days, but atleast its nice to know Ill be getting an offer soon.

Hopefully it will be for the full amount.:grin:

Well not heard buckshee! Mind you the postal strike doesnt help!

Anyway, Im filling in the FOS complaint form and Ive decided to claim interest. Ive used the complex excel spreadsheet and came up with the following:

Charges - £4988 ( they have charged me again since my initial claim)

Interest - £822.81

Sub total- £5810.81

Can I also claim judicial interest of £2929.28 at this stage?

This would give me a total claim of £8740.09.

I would be grateful if anyone could check my figures as I wouldnt like to muck my claim up because of a miscalculation.

Any help mucho appreciated.

Hi Deso, with regards to adding debit interest at this stage.....if you were taking them to court, RBS could apply for your claim to be thrown out on the grounds that you are seen to be vexacious - i.e. adding additional amounts to your claim. Whilst you are going through the FOS, I'm not entirely sure how this would sit with them.....not sure if it makes a difference or not, just thought I'd make the point.

As for "judicial" interest, if by that you mean 8% statutory interest, then yes you should on the grounds that if you could afford to take them to court (that is the "story" I used) then you would be adding 8%.

If you want to see how my FOS claim is going, click on the Barclaycard link in my Signature.

Thanks for the reply T4FF. I think Ill just stick to the 8%.

Well, I received a reply from Ms Watt this morning offering £1458 as " a gesture of goodwill and without admission of liability or error".

Im looking for a polite way to tell them to stuff it as reading further down the letter she explains that "should I be unable to accept any future charges then they may need to consider if they are prepared to continue offering me my existing banking facilities, perhaps offering a simple account with no borrowing facility".

Veiled threat or what?

Never mind though because they dont know it yet but Im already moving to the A&L so bring it on!

There are rejection letters in the library.

This is a common response now, funnily enough I transferred to A&L shortly after receiving my payout too I definitely made the right move. Amongst other things, they don't chase you for more credit (disguised as a customer review) like RBS did.

Now Im confused. I thought I had it all understood until i tried to use the excel spreadsheets to calculate the interest I could claim.

If someone could answer these questions for me I would be very grateful:

1) What is the Claim date? Is it the date of the first charge or the date of the first letter you send (pre-liminary)?

2) What is the date of service?

Im trying to claim 8% judicial interest that would be awarded if I claimed via the courts (bearing in mind Im in scotland).

Any help on how to work out these spreadsheets would be welcomed.

Deso are you aware that if you are claiming over £1500 in Scotland then you will need to appoint a lawyer to take your claim to court, if you haven't already done so may I suggest you ready this :-

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/94302-updated-scottish-procedure.html

Have you actually rejected Sandy Watt's offer of £1548 but accepting only as a part of full claim using Letter 1 on here?

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/25716-rejecting-offers.html

If you have I suggest you hold fire until you receive another offer from RBS as this seems to be the normal pattern they follow, offer part of claim to see if they get a bite then offer full amount if that is rejected.

Unless you're determined to get the interest, which normally means going to court, you should accept your full claim if offered.

The above is only from my own experience and you may wish to follow your own way.

Hi Yanni,

Im going down the FOS route so im not going through the courts (unless i have to!).

Ive rejected Sandy Watts offer using the appropriate letter.Im just trying to get my FOS claim together incase the RBS drag their heels.

Hi Deso, just to let you know, I've gone down the FOS route and am quite a bit through the process so you can have a read about what I've done so far in my Barclaycard thread. If you go up to post #14, there's a link to it in my signature.

Thanks T4FF Ill have a read.

I received this letter form Sandy Watt today. I take it this is a standard letter?

Dear Mr xxxx,

Thank you for your recent letter declining our gesture of goodwill concerning charges applied to your account xxxxxxxx/xxxxxx.

We are currently examining your claim in more depth and will respond to you as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Watt.

How much time would be reasonable before contacting FOS? I had stated in my letter I would give them 7 days to respond (which they have done) So do you think I should press on and contact the FOS?

Any help greatly appreciated.

You can't really go to FOS until you have a final letter from the bank or unless they (i.e., the bank) are over the 8 week limit in dealing with your case.

I'd hold back a week or 2 yet.

Hi Yanni,

The bank have been dealing with my claim for over 10 weeks now. Ive already rejected their "goodwill gesture" of 30% of my claim and given them 7 days to respond with another offer. Im pretty sure they are stalling now, Im just asking if this is typical of RBS.

Not in my experience as regards claiming my charges back, first asked for them on 10th May and was paid full amount of my claim on 4th July after initially being offered about 73% on 4th June, just under 8 weeks.

I do have another complaint with RBS which will be a year old on 1st Aug but that is now with FOS.

If you've been waiting 10 weeks I would proceed to FOS altho they are also inundated with stuff but get your claim off to them:-

our complaints procedure and how to complain

and let Sandy know by letter backed up by email if you want.

Thanks for the info Yanni, Much appreciated.