did not inform of new address and moved 6 months after meter was installed. Guy from scottish power called me yesterday to inform me that i would not be entitled to any refund and stated that they had sent me letters to take a meter reading and pass it onto them and that i did not do this therefore they could not adjust direct debit amount, i told them that scottish power had read the meter during this time and still did not adjust direct debit so both responsible but only me that suffers. the fact that i deduce from this is that s/p had the means to send me a bill and adjust direct debit as they had read the meter. i asked the guy to send me a letter stating all we spoke abt during or conversation and i will post this on site when i get it.

the bill i received jan 2006 was only bill i received.

got a bill january 2006, they gave me a choice set a d/debit of £160 per month or get a card meter, was no choice really as i could not afford direct debit. got the meter installed feb 2006 and moved house after that then served with writ 3 weeks ago, initial bill was £1,300, total cost to date over £2,000 as £300 added for elec charges and the rest for legal fees.

I received a writ for £1600 which was due in court on 24th Oct. I sent cheque to S/P solicitors on 19th and they replied that they will present cheque as payment but still require another £240 for legal expenses, £57 for outlays, £160 for 8% interst from date they billed me totalling £457 before they will stop court action. I investigated through the CAG site and found out about codes of practice, Energywatch and decided to contact S/P solicitor who stated i had to settle to avoid court so i grudgingly paid another £457. I contacted Energywatch who put me through to S/P, i told them i wanted them to review the bill i had paid as i had a direct debit set up to pay my bill at £43 per month from early 2002 till early 2006, i had my meter read regularly yet my direct debit remained unchanged. My argument is that scottish power were less than professional in not billing me properly and allowing me to build up a debt caused by their mis-management of my account, i am just worried that since i have paid the bill i am onto a loser, anyone been through this or got advice for me. will keep you informed.

(6) Where apppropriate, written details of overdraft charges, and debit interest inccured on the account during the previous charging period (i.e, the previous month) would be send to you at least fourteen days before the charges and interest were deducted from your account. I believe this is the bank saying we are going to apply these charges to your account you have fourteen days to come to us if you disagree with them, if this happened to me now i would visit my branch and ask for these charges to be waived as i now know these charges to be unlawful, of course the bank will charge you £25 for sending out the letter to tell you these charges are going to be applied p.s. what started me re-claiming bank charges was when i went over my overdraft limit the bank sent me a letter telling me they would be applying charges to my account, my pay went into my account, the bank took the charges, just before my pay was to go in the next month they applied charges for sending the letter sending me beyond my overdraft again and then they started to repeat the process. Taking the **** or just a coincidence that the charges for the letter were applied the day before my pay was to go into my account.

I have today posted my LBA to the bank. I thought I was finished thankyou all for the advice. Will keep you .posted

After waiting over 110 days for the clydesdale bank to send me my bank statements and over 21 days for a reply after my letter advising them of the charges i wanted re-imbursed i received a letter stating the banks terms and conditions as reason for not refunding my charges. The letter reads: Re Charges Claim I refer to your recent letter, regarding the charges applied to your account. During this time, the relationship between you and the bank was governed by the banks standard terms and conditions. Yhose terms and conditions provided that: (1) Free banking is available whilst your account remains in credit or within an agreed overdraft limit. (2)You must obtain the banks agreement before overdrawing on your account. (3) If the bank made payments from the account or paid cheques which were guaranteed by the associated cheque guarantee card when they were insufficient funds available, any overdraft created or any overdraft which exceeded an agreed overdraft limit would be unauthorised (4) If you drew cheques or authorised or made payments without sufficient money available in your account, taking account of any overdraft limit and allowing for uncleared cheques, the bank might return the payments and make a charge for doing so. (5) Charges and interest applicable to the account were published in the form of tariffs and up-to-date tariffs were available in branches and from time to time enclosed with bank statements. (6) Where apppropriate, written details of overdraft charges, and debit interest inccured on the account during the previous charging period (i.e, the previous month) would be send to you at least fourteen days before the charges and interest were deducted from your account. (7) If the account had an unauthorised overdraft, additional charges might be levied which would be debited to the account on the day on which the unauthorised overdraft was created. (8)If the bank increased a charge for a basic account service, the bank would give you at least 30 day's notice. I would note that the terms and conditions complied with all relevant requirements of the banking code. As i am sure you will appreciate, you are responsible for the running of your account, and for ensuring that sufficient funds are in your account to meet the standing orders, direct debits and cheques which you have created or drawn on the account. As stated on the terms and conditions governing your account with the bank, you have been made aware that charges will be incurred if insufficient funds are in your account on the dates the payments you have instructed are debited. The charges applied to your account were applied in accordance with the terms and conditions, as a result of your operation of the account. Further, the terms and conditions were fair having regard to the following matters: (a) The cost to the bank of maintaining administrative systems relating to unauthorised overdrafts, unpaid cheques and direct debits and abuse of cheque and debit cards for the purpose of keeping the level of overdrawing under review and controlled as far as possible. (b) The need to operate standard procedures and to set standard charges in order to avoid the substantial costs of individual assessement in relation to each particular case. Taking all of the above into account and having regard to the information you have given, I regret to inform you that i am unable to refund the charges on your account. If you have any additional information that you wish to provide please do not hesitate to contact us quoting the above reference. Yours sincerely Advice Quality Unit Charges Section Well that's the letter. I FEEL THE BANK IS MAKING THIS AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE, WHAT DO I DO NOW ? EDIT. Title edited to read "Unlawful charges"

I have printed out the Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request letter and have it in an envelope with £10 cheque, Do i just post it to the address held by the data commissioner for my bank? Do i address it to a specific individual ?do I send it recorded delivery? and finally can someone confirm i have the correct procedure in mind i.e. post this letter-bank replies with info requested- i send letter requesting refund of charges which i detail?