Hi,

Brilliant site this - theres millions of us being taken for fools every day and hardly anybody realises it.

I've been a royal bank customer for the last 4 years (since i was 15), and over the few years ive paid hundreds in charges. Up until last september i always had wages going into my account every month, quite a lot sometimes was working several jobs for a long time. I've got to admit im not the best at managing my money, and have dipped into the red by mistake a few times, not leaving enough there for direct debit's and stuff, hardly financial ruin as ive always had regular income. Still, the bank refused me an overdraft when i started uni in september, even tho its a student royalties account, i dont see any benefits in it - wouldnt even give me a hundred quid in case i dip in by mistake - so ive been scraping by. All of my student loan payments are paid into the account, a few thousand a year in 3 or 4 installments. I've been fined a couple of times and the fines seem to keep growing and growing. Just the other week i didnt leave enough in for my phone bill and another direct debit, so they came off and left me about £25 in the red. A few days later i paid in a cheque for £350 putting me well back in the black. today i logged onto my internet banking and it was a depressing site - a charge of £39.74 (why that amount ive no idea) and a 'referral charge' of £60 so thats £100 for being £25 under for a few days...

Needless to say i really can't afford this, its destroyed the money i was leaving to cover my payments this month. I know in the grand scheme of things its not huge money, but its enough to make a major difference to me. I have complained before to my branch and was told to clear off basically, even got a meeting with the manager and she just told me to clear off the charges are fair and square (in not so many words), she's a charming woman to say the least I'm going to go back through my statements and add it all up and send them the letter from the library on here (good letter )!

Fingers crossed eh. Cant deny it i've been in the wrong due to not managing my money, but the charges are ridiculous. It all adds up so quickly and snowballs like crazy. Just between me and a few other students i know they've had thousands of pounds.

Will set things in motion in the next few days, i dont see any reason why they should deny me it's definetely worth the try (dont know too much about law etc, just what ive read on here, FAQs etc).

Anyway, thats my rant over for the day, will post up on here if i hear from them or whatever.

cheers

Stuart!

Welcome and well done! Keep us posted.

Good post. I'm in a similar position, although mostly because they are charging for direct debits that I have previously cancelled and I'm currently fighting about £300 of charges. Will go into this fully in a seperate thread at a later date, but some great info on this site.

Some excellent info on this site too. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632#reclaim

Did you suffer anycharges before you were 18?

Are you still on the same acocunt as you were when you were 15?

Did you sign a new account contract when you became 18?

Did you suffer anycharges before you were 18?

Are you still on the same acocunt as you were when you were 15?

Did you sign a new account contract when you became 18?

I don't think i did get charged for anything before I was 18, no, as I didn't have any direct debits or anything. I didn't sign a contract when I turned 18, but i signed a contract when i changed from a route 21 account to a student acccount a few months later, so i think the paperwork is all in order.

I was home the other day and dug out all my statements, out of roughly 100 pages i have about 60 of them, and the charges on the pages i have (think its most of them) add upto £339.74 - over the last 1yr 7mths. £17.88 a month for the last 19 months, on average. The scary thing is how much the charges have increased over this relatively small period of time. Towards the end of 2004 i got a couple of fines for dipping under and was always charged about £10, which i never questioned because that's not so unfair. This 'Referral Charge' appeared sometime last year, on top of the regular charge, worst i've had is £120 in charges for going about £30 under, cant remember the exact figures off the top of my head. The only explanation I can see for this is greed - the bank's costs certainly haven't increased by 12x - if anything they will have reduced; a computer issues the charges, and computing power is getting greater every year

I've been very busy with uni winding up for the year and stuff, but will get round to having a go at them soon.

cheers, Stuart

well... finally!

yes its taken me a lot lot longer than expected (priorities - uni, work, and more work!) and it slipped to the back of my mind but im finally ready to go ahead, hopefully once its going itll all happen quickly enough. I sent the data request about 2 weeks ago and just got a copy of all my statements going back to the year 2000, so just need to sort through them all and sort out the schedule of all the charges, ive not finished yet but its looking like its going to be about £800ish. So, this should all be sent off to the bank on Thursday/Friday!

Now that things are in motion i should be on here a bit more often (i half thought this thread would have been deleted), reading and learning, will keep this updated if/when i hear from the bank.

Cheers for now,

Stuart

Stuart, it's great that you're back. I wish I knew about this back when you joined in March 2006 but I know how studies and work can be distracting. Don't forget when you've decided which charges you're eligible to claim for, to try and understand contractual interest too as the snowball effect you experienced with your mounted debts are the same snowball effect they have put onto your account! Good luck!

right, am ready to send my prelim letter asking for refunds to the sum of £697.74. Im not sure which address would be best to send it to, having read the list of contact addresses pinned at the top of this section. I was thinking send it FAO Tommy McLean, as this seems to be who most people end up dealing with at some point or other?

yep send it to him or sandy watt. i did everything thru (and again) thru email to [email protected]

sounds like a good plan. I think I'll do my subsequent letters to Tommy too!

Well, no reply from the bank at all so time for the next letter!

yep send it to him or sandy watt. i did everything thru (and again) thru email to [email protected]

Hi

Is it Ok to send your letter as an attachment to them. Would you advise sending recorded delivery letter aswell.

mmmm dunno. First claim everything was email, second claim i did half and half

i just sent the prelim letter thru the post, think i will follow it up with an email this time. the more aware he is of it the better i guess.

hi there

ive been intrigued by all of this i must it was my colleague at work who egged me on even though i read the independent each day who are running a similar campaign.

Im just another example of someone who went 1 or 3 pounds overdrawn and subjected me to horrible charges and then missed direct debits as well. I resorted to cancelling direct debits recently to avoid the dreaded charges are there issues about royalty gold accounts?

Richard:mad: :-?

Stuart,

When I was at Uni I found that the RBS, Barclays were not very good at giving student overdrafts... However, Nat West and Lloyds threw money at you... When I went to vist friends at another Uni... they said the exact opposite...

Basically, whether a bank gives you an OD or not is usually down to the branch manager... Talk to your friends and find a local bank that does give overdrafts...

J

I resorted to cancelling direct debits recently to avoid the dreaded charges are there issues about royalty gold accounts?

Hello,

If you are a Royalties Gold customer remember that there is a monthly membership fee for the extra benefits (travel ins & discounts on posh hotels, woohoo!) and as this is a valid fee you cannot reclaim it.

However, RBS have been sneaky and put the charge, which is currently £12/mth, together with a penalty charge. Try to find out which charge has been combined with the RG fee and deduct your RG fee from the charge to leave the penalty, mine appeared on my statements like this:

CHG TO (DATE) A/C 0014XXXX there is normally one interest one and two chg ones together on around the same date each month.

Make sure you let them know that you have gone out of your way not to claim the RG fee, even put them in bold print on the spreadsheet or asterix them if you are sending statements.

Hope this helps and good luck!

SM:p

And to add the Royalities Premier account is £15 per month ( or at least that's what they told me!!)

Well, got a letter from the bank the other day, just got home and opened it yesterday.

First page read basically as what i'd been expecting, trying to convince you that they are in the right etc, then the top of the second page...

"as a gesture of goodwill and without admission of liablity or error, in this instance we are prepared to offer the amount of £679.74 paid direct to your account"

I'd hoped for an offer, maybe a few hundred, but never expected them to offer the full amount - that is (to the penny) the amount i tried to claim. To be honest i was pretty worried about the whole idea of going to a court and setting legal proceedings going. Needless to say I signed the acceptance form and it's in the post, i know it will take a few days but who cares, i'm just over the moon that its done and ive got it in writing. It might look like a long time, seeing when I first started this thread, but the delay was purely down to distractions of my own, it took almost exactly one month from first letter to offer :o

I've scanned the letter and uploaded it (minus my address, the ref no, and the signature; think that's all that could cause any problems) if anyone considered it worth reading, i know its of no personal interest to nobody apart from me but if you're claiming from the rbs, it might be on its way to you!

Page 1

Page 2

Finally, got to say thanks for everyone's help, ive never posted much but i've spent a lot of time on here reading, both the advice given in this and in other threads, and theres nothing better than a success story to make you go and try for yourself. Also I fully believe that the letters i used, downloaded from this site, were crucial in helping my claim, as they are excellently worded and obviously have done the trick for me. I know a couple of friends are thinking about it and I will send anyone this way with no hesitation.

So, thank you very much! This should be the end of it for me, but im going to keep up following stuff on here, its interesting and makes a good read,

Cheers,

Stuart

(very happy :D:D:D)

Congratulations Stuart!!!!

Remember don't sign their form stating full and final settlement..... but instead let them know that you're signing against full and final settlement of THIS claim only (as you may need to claim in the future).

Congratulations Stuart!!!!

 

Remember don't sign their form stating full and final settlement..... but instead let them know that you're signing against full and final settlement of THIS claim only (as you may need to claim in the future).

Thanks!

The letter does use the words "full and final settlement" like you say, but it only ever refers to settlement of this complaint, and there was nothing else on the form that said it was anything more than settlement of this specific complaint.

Anyway, it's signed and in the post already And, touch wood, i never intend to be in a similar situation again!

Stuart

Stu,

DId you claim for the 8% interest on top?

Stu,

 

DId you claim for the 8% interest on top?

No I didn't. I figured that i'd have more chance of a decent settlement without asking for that as well, keep things simple i guess, plus as the amount I was claiming was quite small in the grand scheme of things I just left it out.

This topic was closed on 03/06/19.

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