I switched my account to HSBC about 18 months ago, whilst having difficuties with Abbey, because of their charges getting out of hand. When i opened my account i gave them a full list of direct debits i needed to transfer to them, they opened an account and gave me a credit card.I explained to the person opening the account that i would have my next pay cheque go in so that they had six weeks to sort the direct debits out. They offered me card protection which i thought was worth it for £15 a year. My empolyer duly paid my salary into the new account. However i found to my horror that they had shut the account as it "appeared dormant" and wrote me a cheque returning my salary payment and advised me to put the money into the Abbey to cover my direct debits. The results of this were that because the cheque took 3 days to clear Abbey charged me £490 for bouncing every direct debit that they had, i did get these charges back from Abbey before it went to court. HSBC the offered me £20 as a gesture of goodwill after taking about six weeks to investigate. I arranged an ovedraft with them for £750 as a buffer which i have started to excede so ahve subsently benn charged for. I extended my overdraft by an additional £500 in march,which i was led to believe would tie in to my existing overdaft which is to be reveiwed i December, howver this was rescinded a month later as apparentely they are only in place for 30 days? I had no correspondence to that effect,and was shocked to find that this had been withdrawn. Consequently the bank bounced cheques and direct debits. i have contacted them about this to little avail and they charged me £100 pounds for the pleasure. They cant do anything for three months about reinstating the overdraft for three months. But they could offer me a loan to pay back my overdraft, which i accepted and they cleared. When i went to sign the forms i was told it had been rejected, with no explanation other than that i had returns against my account, which were a direct consequence of them cancelling the overdraft. They have continued to bounce direct debits and have charged me £275.00. Where do i go from here? Do i move accounts again and try to claim the charges back or write to them explaining the above and copy this to the ombudsman. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as i am desparate.

i'm not sure i will read my particulars of claim, but i think that the account was defaulted before it went to court, it was quite early on.

I Took Abbey to court earlier this year and won, they put my account into default while it was going to court, even after i wrote to them several times to freeze my account until the case was settled.

Can someone please tell me how i can do this? Do i just write to them. Thanks

The £4350 includes interet of £622. They have paid me £653 as a gogw. Remaining balance of £3728, they have offered me £3150 which has had the gogw taken intoaccount. They calculated £3711 less £600 and came up with £3150, i think this a good result.

Had a call from Abbey today, they started off by mentioning the Lloyds case, which i said had no relevance to my case. I think they were trying to pressure me to accept an offer before going to court, i said i am very committed to going to court, however my claim is for £4350, they have paid me £685 as gogw, and they are willing to offer me £3150. I am going to accept tommorrow, so that this will clear my overdraft. I will argue the toss for the difference, but i am happy to accept this as full payment if it comes to it. :o

It had all gone very quiet, so i phoned the court, to be told that a court date has been set for 3rd July. Abbey have got till June 1 to file and serve full details of each and every charge in dispute levied, and the manner of calculating the cost thereof. I am so glad this has been going on for nearly a year now. Bring it on Abbey.

Thank you so very much for your help, i can not begin to tell you how grateful i am. Thanks Adrian

I would be very grateful for any help recieved, i feel i have taken on a bit too much here for someone else, that i dont fully understand, but it will be worth it!

1. The defendant Lloyds TSB Bank PLc("the Bank") is a bank whose registered office is 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN. It is admitted that the Claamant has been a customer of the Bank at all material times until (date) and held a joint select account with*** numbered *** which appears to form the subject of these proceedings. 2. By opening an account with the Bank, the customer enters into a commercial arrangement with the bank for the provision of banking services. The bank is entitled, as part of that arrangement, to charge for those services. At account opening a customer is provided with details of the banks charges, currently in a leaflet a guide to our banking charges. By using the account, the customer acknowledges that the charges are incorproated into the contract. For personal cusatoemrs a number of services are provided for free, not withstanding that they ar an expense to the bank. Such services presently include, but ar not limited to, providing; cheques bank statements the facility to make payments by direct debit and standing order debit cards ATMs(cash machines) 3. By maintaining the account in credit, or within any time limit agreed with the bank, the customer may avoid most if not all charges. If the customer fails to ensure that there are suffiecient cleared funds in the account to cover payments, whether by cheque, debit card, standing order or direct debit, the customer makes a request for a payment to be made from the banks own funds. If the bank makes a payment, or returns the payment, it provides a service as specified in the leaflet and makes a charge in accordance with the terms of the contract. On page 1 of the leaflet, the bank explains "there are normally no charges for everyday banking at Lloyds TSB when your account is in credit. When you use an agreed overdraft, there is no monthly fee and we only charge interest on the amount you are overdrawn each day. Where you go overdrawn without an agreement or where you use special services, such as copystatements, we will make a charge. This guide explains how these charges work, and when they will apply. If you want ti use a service that we havent listed, we'll tell you the cost of that service before you give us the go ahead. 4. There is no breach of contract; the charge cannot therefore be a penalty, consequently there is no requirement that the charge be a pre estimate of the banks loss. 5. The customer is given advance warning of charges being imposed; statements show the charges, if any, the customer has incurred during the course of a month, and which will appear as debits on the following months statement. Cusotmers are warned by letter when they go overdrawn or over thei agreed limit without arrangemnts with the bank. If the customer fails to remedy the position, and payments such as standing orders and direct debits are refused then again the customer is warned by letter. 6.The charges are fair and reasonable, and it is denied they are unlawful. 7. The customer is notified of the charges in plain intelligible language at the conclusion of the contract, and on each monthly statement. The charges terms which relate to the price payable by the customer for a service provided by the bank, and pursuant to Regulation 6 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. are not subject to the assessment of fairness. 8. In the premises: 8.1 the charges are for banking services, and are not damages nor a penalty. 8.2 the bank is entitled by contract to impose the charges, which are fair and reasonable. 8.3 it si denied that the charges are unlawful or contraven any statute or regulation. 9. The claimants claim is denied in its entirety. It is further denied that the Claimant is entitled to the sum claimed or to any sum form the bank. 10. Further or alternatively, the bank is entitled to set off such sums as are found to be due to it pursuant to its Counterclaim below in order to extinguish, alternatively diminish, the claimants ckaim. Part 20 Claim 11. Paragraphs 1 to 10 above are repeated. 12. On or about the 21st May 1990, the claimant and **** applied to the Defendantat its Palmerston Road, Southsea, branch to operate a Bank account, namely a select account. 12. On or about the 21st May 1900, the Defendant agreed to open a select account in the name of Mr*** and Mrs ***. This agreement number *********** was made in writing. 13. As the claimant failed to conduct their account in accordance with the terms and conditions that govern the Select Account, the Defendant sent a formal demand in the 17th May 2006 demanding the repayment of the total amount outstanding. 14. In breach of the term pleaded in paragraph 13 above the claimant has failed to repay the outstanding sum of £317.80 to the defendant and such the sum of £317.80 plus interest is now claimed by the defendant. 15. As the claimant failed to make payment in accordance with the Defendants Demands, the select account wa closed on the 20th September 2006 and the outstanding balance of £317.80 was transferred to the banks consumer debt recovery dpeartment on the 26th September 2006. 16. The defendant claims interest on: (i) the sum of £317.80 for the period 26th September 2006 to 12th April 2007 inclusive at a rate of 8% per annum pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984 as amended,(198 days at a daily rate of £0.07p=£13.86) (ii) continuing at £0.07 pence per day until payment or sooner judgement. And the defedant counterclaims: (1) The balance due on the select account, currently £331.66 (2) Interest pursuant to section 69 of the county court act 1984 as amended at the rate of £0.07 pence per day until judgement or sooner payment. My parents in law live on disabilty allowance and income support, they have tried on numerous occasions by letter to agree a payment level, to pay this debt off. They have many other debts, which came from having to sell a pub business they had due to ill health. They have written repeated letters, all of which were ignored, apart form letters relating to bank charges and court action.

I am claiming £1580 plus interest at 8% and costs, they are counter claiming, £317.80, in an attempt to "alternately diminish the claimants claim" .

I have received a counter claim from Lloyds, claiming a quarter of what they owe me, in my defence i have considered putting that the monies they are claiming are because of there charges, is this right, or is there a template on what to write.

Can someone please point me to a thread where, i can find information to include in the AQ, this was pointed out to me last week, but i cant find the thread.

! am handling a claim for my mother in law,and i am a bit stuck. I have filled in Moneyclaim online, and have had a letter from the court, saying they have transferred it to my local court. They have sent me an N149, to fill in, i am unsure what to put as other information, is this the court bundle as per the sticky thread. Lloyds have also sent a solicitors letter claiming back the overdraft on ther account. In Lloyds defence statement they are claiming back interest, using the same formula as i have sent in my breakdown of charges. Can anyone please point me in the right direction, i need to post this off tonight.

I sent one for myself on the 8th, which has been processed and is being served on the 13th. The other for my mother in law was sent a couple of hours ago. Thanks for your help, i will email the details to them tommorrow.