Interesting. There have been quite a number of posts recently saying that FD are getting slow with their SAR responses.... looks like they will soon have the Data Commisioner all over them, as well as thousands of angry customers.

Back of the net! Got a response to my refusal to accept their initial offer, other than as part payment. They have settled my £1420.50 claim IN FULL, refunded a further £149 they took off me while we were arguing, and also waived a further £80 which they were thinking of charging me. 09/02 - DPA request 24/02 - Preliminary letter 07/03 - Partial offer £1210 received 12/03 - Sent LBA (accepting offer as part settlement) 23/03 - Full settlement, including waiver of some future charges. I have checked, and yes... I AM THE MAN! Bopo

Sent a rejection letter on Tuesday, stating that I will accept their offer in part payment but continue to pursue them for the rest. Also reminded them that they are out of time, based on the timescales I set originally, so they should consider this letter to be a 'Letter Before Action'. They ought to receive it by today at the latest, so worst case I'll be filing against them two weeks tomorrow.

Hey Harvest! My offer was from a Ms. Coe, of 'Customer Relations' - with the instruction to refer to Mr. Kernaghan - 'Customer Relations Manager', so I assume her boss - if I wished to 'escalate my [your] concerns to the next stage'. The only question is where to write the next letter to? Since both my letters so far have simply been to 'Dear Sir/Madam' at the standard 40, Wakefield Road address I'll continue to do that. I'll copy my next letter to Mr. Kernaghan, though, because a) It will look better later on, and it might cause some inter-departmental confusion to my benefit, and b) I'm nice. For the sake of a few more letters and another month or two I want the extra money they owe me. And if they are silly enough to push it so far they have to cough up the statutory interest (£300+) then I'm cool with that, too. Just about to write my next letter, accepting their offer as partial payment and giving them 14 days before I get all legal on them. I'll share the text if you want.

I've re-checked their letter, and they are actually refunding me £1210 of the £1450 I asked for, in addition to refunding £229 they haven't taken off me yet. So, they are 'only' £240 short of the mark. I'm thinking that I'll add that £229 onto my existing claim, and send back a dual purpose LBA, stating that I'll accept their partial offer and pursue them for the rest, or I'll see them in court for the full amount + statutory interest. Anybody else done this. Their 14 days from the preliminary letter is up on Monday, so the timing is right for partial acceptance / LBA. Also, should my next letter just go to the general reply address, or the famous Mr. Kernaghan - they gave me his name as a contact point if I'm not happy with their offer?

Quick update: just got a letter offering me £1210, no questions asked, no admission of guilt etc. This apparently also includes £149 they were going to take off me this month, and £80 they were thinking of taking next month. So... the offer is some way short of the £1450 I originally asked for (which didn't include all the extra for this/next month). Not sure about this, now. It's a lot of money, certainly, but I hate the thought that they are still about £500 short of what they owe me. If I write back refusing it, and giving them an LBA at the same time, is it good form to update my claim to include the extra charges from this month? (Note that my earliest charges from FD would still be within 6 years of my latest claim)

Nicely grabbed, Money Grabber! Just for the rest of us who are still following the process, would you be able to give the dates of your letters, how quickly they responded, and (if possible) what the amount was you reclaimed from them (or ballpark figure). Forewarned is forearmed, and all that. Good luck with your other banks, and enjoy the safari!

Tee hee. I love this story. Just imagine if you could educate the whole country to march into their local branch and tell the manager to give back the money they stole, with legal arguments, reference to case law, and reference to banking rules and regulations, every single time they did it. There be a queue going off down the street. Aaaaahh. [daydreaming]

Neither of my letters to FD (SAR and Preliminary Request) have been confirmed as delivered by RM, so I gave them a call today. After getting cut off once (Grrr!) I managed to get them to send me the signed sheets. No mention of a charge, either. Apparently, my letters were all part of a bulk delivery, as others have said. The latest ruse appears to be not dating the sheets, as RM told me the letters had been signed for but the date wasn't confirmed. However, I've just recieved two e-mails containing the signatures, and confirming the dates. Could just be estimates, of course, but it is in writing and it is from the RM, so it's good enough for me (and hopefully the Judge!!). Preliminary was received 25/02/07 (Sunday?) but no response yet, so I'm just counting down the days to LBA-day next Monday. Actually, my initial letter (SAR) was responded to, of course, but I thought I would make sure the paper trail was complete. Just in case, you know?

Woah! What a fantastic result... certainly looks good for us other First Direct 'customers'. I sent my refund request for about £1400 just last week. Fingers crossed that I get a result like this. This is going to keep me smiling all day! Cheers! And have a beer on FD!

'Signed for' seems pretty rubbish to me. My SAR letter has been responded to -see above - but the RM web-site still lists the status as "It's on its way" whatever the hell that means. My preliminary request for refund was sent 24-Feb-07 a.m., but is still not listed. The lack of status for my first letter doesn't bode well for the second one. I, too, will need to know exactly when the 14-day period is to start... While I am in 'Consumer Action' mode, I might make a complaint to RM, too.

Another update: just got my preliminary letter together using the standard template: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/671-2-letter-preliminary-approach.html I added a paragraph at the end to say that my wife was signing the letter too - it is a joint account - but she was hereby giving me full authority to proceed with this claim on her behalf and all correspondence should be to me bla bla bla. I just have this nightmare about some stroppy legal eagle phoning up Mrs. Mofo and talking legalese at her. Not that she can't cope (she's got legal qualifications!) but I've read this entire web-site and she hasn't... Anybody else added this kind of paragraph? Good idea or not? Also, I used the 'simple' spreadsheet to form my schedule of charges, and just hid the statutory interest columns for this first letter, as I've read that only applies when you go to court: http://www.cag-files.co.uk/barracad/Spreadsheets/England/Simple-charges-calc.xls Total they have taken off me is £1420.50... the worst thing is that this is my cash account used only for debit card transactions - shopping, petrol, train fares etc - no cheques or direct debits. Every card transaction is authorised by FD, then they have been charging me unauthorised transaction penalties. Work that one out? I don't put much money into it each month,but some months they have taken nearly 20% for themselves. Offto the Post Office tomorrow for some serious recorded delivery therapy. I'll keep you all posted.

...but as I said, I think the renewal fees are a fee for a service, so you can't claim those. I'm doing the totting up as we speak, and I will keep a couple of separate totals I think. We're only a few days apart, it seems, so it will be good to keep comparing notes. Cheers!

The OD fee is charged when you exceed your limit. The Excess OD fee is charged on each 'unauthorised' transcation. Oddly, these unauthorised transactions include debit card transactions, which they... ummmm.... authorised. Anyway, you are ok for OD fee and excess OD fee. The renewal fee ( I don't have this) sounds like a charge you pay for the overdraft facility itself, in which case it is a fee for a service rather than a penalty fee. Claim the OD and excess OD fee. [At least that is what I'm doing based on other advice in this forum]

Regarding your first question about 'manual intervention', my pile of statements had a front sheet which included all the notes which had been made on my account. Interestingly, the last note made was - you guessed it - a note saying I had requested all my statements. Looks like my card is marked.

£149 total in one month? I've had this quite a few times as well. I have seen on a number of my statements that they have credited some charges back to me. It seems FD have a policy of not charging you more than the £149 in any single month, bless them. They're all heart, aren't they? And yes, I am after them for my money back.

Just a quick update: got two parcels of statements today. Not checked them yet but I am assuming all is present and correct. Will update again when I've had my highlighter pen out and sent my preliminary letter. So far so good.

Update: Got a letter by fairly quick return from FD (16-02-07). They have returned my £10 cheque and stated that the information I requested (charges etc under the standard Data Protection Act request) is available on my statements. They have said they will send all statements free-of-charge for the last six years by courier (with the stipulation that I must be available to sign for them), but not given a time-scale. So... a quick and positive response, but the clock is still ticking. I believe all of the above is absolutely standard behaviour for FD. Looking forwards to my big pile of paper

Just taken my first steps to reclaiming the excessive fees taken against me by First Direct: today (09/02/07) I sent off my Subject Access Request letter - using the 'Signed For' service, of course. I checked my statements for the last two years - you can do this online with First Direct, but they will not provide details of charges levied beyond the last three months. You have to look at your individual statements. The historical statements are provided in bi-monthly form (ie 24 per year), which makes it a bit more difficult, but if you know that FD take their fees out on the 4th/5th of the month then you only have to look at one statement per month. So, in the last two years they have had over £700 off me, and I was minded to just multiply by 3 to get the 6 year total and claim this estimated figure (from advice given by another website). However, they would probably dispute this immediately, and I've not seen anybody else descibe this process on these forums. In the end, I've gone for the full S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) using the template here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/516-1-data-protection-act.html If it is worth doing, then it is worth doing properly. I'll let you know what happens.

Hi tomtom01, I've just sent off my initial letter requesting all my statements from FD so I'm a little way behind you. I'm interested to know what you have included in your claim. On my statements from FD I have two charges appear: one is called 'OVERDRAFT FEE', which is always £30; the other is labelled 'EXCESS O/D FEE' which varies according to the number of transactions they have authorised (on my debit card) and later charged me for. The problem is that I have seen advice in some threads stating that the 'OVERDRAFT FEE' cannot be claimed back, as it is something you have contractually offered to pay in exchange for using the overdraft service. i.e it is a charge for services, and cannot be construed as a penalty. On the other hand, with First Direct, this £30 charge is only levied if you have gone over your O/D limit, regardless of amount and the size of the transaction that put you over the limit. It is also the case (at least on my statements) that the payment was in every case authorised by FD before they charged me an 'Unauthorised' amount for it. Lastly, I love the way they use the word 'FEE'..... Sounds like a penalty to me. Which is illegal. Sorry to be so long-winded. I'm interested to know which specific fees you claimed: OVERDRAFT FEE, EXCESS O/D FEE, any interest.. etc etc etc Cheers, and good luck to you! [edit] I'll start my own thread and post these questions into it.

Hello all, My first post, having spent a good evening reading all the 'getting started' advice here. Just looked through my last two years statements from First Direct, and they've had over £700 off me. Last month alone they took me for £149 in 'unauthorised overdraft' transaction charges, even though they authorised each and every transaction. Anyway, I've just printed off my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) for everything from the last six years (which could total £2k) and I'm feeling better already. It'll be in the post tomorrow. As soon as I get any kind of reponse I'll start a thread in the appropriate forum. Cheers to everyone who has posted so much useful information. This site has finally persuaded me to get off my backside and get back what is legally mine. Here goes!