Well, I wrote the first letter to Smile to ask for past statements and instead got a printout of past charges. I then wrote the next letter asking for them to repay the charges and I just logged onto my bank account and they have just credited most of the amount I claimed to my account - £945.00 - in less than 2 weeks since sending letter requesting charges refund. I haven't had a letter from them yet and don't know if they are going to close my account (although I don't have any reason to think that they will), but it would seem that they have acted well. I am more than happy with this refund. I have completed the survey and made a donation and just want to thank everyone who contributes to this site for giving me, who had little confidence in being able to get any £s back, the courage to go for it. When you've been talked down to by financial institutions for years, you do get to the stage when you believe that you are rubbish at managing money. I realise now that, while I may not have been the best at trying to manage a very tight budget, I didn't deserve to have this made so much more difficult by having my budget made so much smaller all the time. Cheers

Thank you for your messages of encouragement - it's amazing how many people there are who have been treated badly by their banks. I will keep the forum posted on how I get on. Cheers hillie41

Hi I am just starting the process of claiming bank charges from Smile bank and decided to join the community. I have read lots of the success stories as well as advice and am hopeful. I just wanted to say that I have felt really guilty for mismanaging my money for a long time fighting overdraft limits, etc. mainly due to punitive charges (even though I was usually trying to recover from banks taking money in charges that they wouldn't have allowed me as an overdraft!) and am just getting to the understanding that it wasn't just me - thanks to people like you guys ... phew! So thanks for your support already and hope to have good news eventually Cheers hillie41