Just thought I'd add my experiences to the pot. I have had a current account with RBS since they took over Williams and Glyns Bank many years ago. In recent years I have suffered from depression, lost my job because of it and had serious money troubles. RBS has often 'bounced' my Direct Debits (often applying charges far in excess of the refused payments) and applied other charges so I decided to look at my statements and see what I could claim back. I found I had statements covering 25 months including £1831 of charges. I therefore skipped the DPA request stage, calculated they had charged me on average £73.24 a month and put in a claim letter for £5273.28 to cover the last 6 years! I gave this letter to my bank, by hand, on 11 May 2007 using a template from the BBC consumer website which gave them 14 days to comply with my request for refund of the monies or proof of the costs incurred by the bank. I was told by the cashier that these matters were handled by someone within the branch. However on the 14th of May I received a letter from Sandy Watt at the Customer Relations Support Unit in Edinburgh thanking(!) me for my letter and that they were considering my claim and would respond ASAP. I intend now to ring RBS to find out if they are taking any action as I have not heard any more and the 14 days has expired. I will be sure to drop into conversation that I have looked on the HMCS web site and found to my satisfaction that as I receive income support I should be exempt from the costs of making a claim in the county court. This might otherwise have been a problem for me as I am surviving on benefits. As RBS long ago stopped sending me debit cards and withdrew my internet and telephone banking facilities and I live 3 hours drive from my branch, checking to see if they have paid anything is a problem unless I wait another few weeks until my monthly statement arrives, which is my main reason for calling them. I don't want to start court action if they have already paid up - I know fat chance but it might have happened.

I would consider that the letter you have sent them is the prelim request for repayment of charges.

You will now need to send them the LBA(Letter before Action) which states that they have 14 days to reply-if they do not then you can issue the court papers via MCOL.

Always stick to the set timetables for these issues and do not be swayed by they banks saying that they need extra time to investigate the points that you have raised with them-they know the rules and will do everything in their power to get around them.

Good luck with the claim.

In fact my letter was effectively an LBA containing as it did the paragraph:-

"I hereby give you 14 days to refund the bank charges back on to my account. For the avoidance of doubt if this is not done within 14 days, I will commence my claim in the courts without further warning. This action will inevitably involve you in additional costs"

P. S. Rather than ring (and get stuck in a call queing system and have no proof of my call) is there anyone who has an email address for Sally Watt at the RBS Customer Relations Support Unit? I can't seem to find email addresses although there are plenty of snail mail ones posted elsewhere.

Hi Pudding,

I am having similar problems with delays. I used this link yesterday from RBS website to lodge a complaint about lack of action since their "we are considering your claim" letter which I received on 10 Apr. I have since sent LBA end of April, email yesterday and am now preparing N1 and getting the bundle ready for court.

RBS: Partners in your business - The Royal Bank of Scotland

Hope this helps you get a mail to the right place. I put in for the attention of Sandy Watt cut and copied the text and printed the page before and after sending just to keep a record.

Good luck with your claim

Allo...

This was sent to me by Loophole, so thanks to him if you could find his threads...Just 'tip his scales for him'...

[email protected]

I too am in the same situation, and will be sending an email to her tonight!

Will keep my eye on your threads to see how you get on...

All the Best..

Thanks Clakkers (and Tiggersmum who PM'd me) and both gave the same email address.

Hi Pudding,

sorry for not giving you a more accurate address for Sandy Watt. Tiggersmum also sent me the better email address this morning. Wishing you every success with your claim. Still if my link gave them one more complaint to deal with so much the better.

Sorry for not thanking you as well Alanalana - having two lines of attack is better than none!

Pudding...Please let me know what reply you get...

Cheers

Just thought id share with you a reply i received today from Sandy...

Mr Clakkers

I note that you have recently written back to our Unit, in response to our

acknowledgement letter of 9 May 2007.

Having checked our database record of your claim, there have been no recent

comments added to it, so I unaware of

the contents of your letter.

Against that background, I can confirm that we will issue our response to

your claim, within the set FSA timescales.

Regards

Sandy

Pudding,

ref post 9. No problem and good luck. If you check my thread you will see how the email got a response and I will post further news as and when the letter does or doesn't arrive (again)!