I'm kinda reluctant to go through the Ombudsman as my understanding is that they cannot force a bank to give me my money back. I thought the point of going to court was that the banks have no leg to stand on when it comes to defending these charges in court and since they are undefendable, they don't turn up and you get the default judgement? As far as multiple claims go, I know the courts frown on it but in my 1st letter I specifically mention the charges are between date x and date y, plus I have read of someone on the forums who is going to Edinburgh Sheriff Court with their 3rd such claim in exactly this manner, so I know it *is* possible. That aside, can anyone shed light on what to do with the interest? Does that count as part of my £750 claim or is it tacked on top of my £750?

Sorry for not posting for a while - i've been away helping to put on Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Festival - hope you all enjoyed it if there were any local forum people there this year Bicmac: FOS? I'm not quite clear what you mean by that - I have had a look and it's not quite clear from any other threads what you are refering too. I can see stuff refering to raising a Summary Action if the amount is between $750-1500 but i'm not quite convinced this is what you are referring too. So, my plan is to raise several small claims actions in Edinburgh Sheriff Court for just under £750 - my first spreadsheet here is for £740. The thing i'm not clear about is this: Is this the maximum amount I can be paid (minus costs) or is that just the maximum I can claim? Basically, can I claim for £740 in my first action and then if successful have the costs and 8% interest tacked on top of this or must I claim for less than £750, leaving enough room to cover the interest? If someone can clear this up for me, I can send HBOS my first letter tomorrow morning by recorded delivery and get this show on the road!

Spoke to Legal and Trade - they want me to send them copies of what I send to the bank and they will speak to them about the dispute. Since i'm in Scotland, does this mean I will need to file three seperate claims since the total amount is over £750?

It seemed for a while that I wasn't getting any statements off them so I went in last week and bitched about it and of course, they had no record of my request. They sent the request again and when I got home today after a short holiday, lo and behold - there was a large envelope full of statements! I *think* this is the lot and after adding it up, there were 79 excess overdraft charges totalling £1580 - that's without me adding interest. Just for humour value I also recieved a letter from Legal&Trade actiong for the bank and trying to recover a debt of £2613.42 that I apparently owe the bank. Given that I live in Scotland, I think that if they go to court then I show up and tell the Sheriff that I dispute the debt and why and then they can't proceed, but do I need to tell them this first? Also, now that I have my charged amount, how do I calculate the interest? I take it once I have the ammount I should send them (HBOS) my first letter? Thanks in advance!

It was a fiver for the lot of them, not per statement so I figured I might as well pay them a fiver rather than giving them even more of my money. I know they aren't bound by the limits in the DPA but I will likely give them a few weeks and see what they send and if they don't play ball, I'll submit a SAR to them. Thanks for the reassurance folks - I was pretty certain it was the fact that I was charged at all rather than how I got into the mess that was the issue, but I wanted to hear it confirmed from some other people

Well, I went into my local branch today and paid them the princely sum of £5 for every statement from the account opening (2000) until present. I was told these would arrive in two batches - one from the Bank of Scotland system and one from when they were merged into the HBOS monstrosity. I guess I have a few concearnes, so I might as well be honest and upfront. At the time when the charges were being racked up (3 or 4 a week) I was systematically abusing my account really. I was at University and heavily depressed and was using my Switch card knowing that the transactions would go through and that I could get £50 cashback each time. Despite being ill, I knew full well what I was doing, thinking that when I got paid it would cover the charges but of course, they crept up and up and up until I eventually dropped out of University for a year. About a year and a half ago I was planning on moving to the US and I believe I told the bank that I was planning on abandoning the account although I am not sure as I was under a lot of stress at the time. I know this isn't really run of the mill "oops I went over my limit, silly me" type stuff and I do honestly want to settle my debt with the bank, but I figure that since my account is currently some £2600 overdrawn, if I was getting 2 or 3 charges a week at one point over a significant period of time, they might actually be the ones that owe ME money overall. I want to see this through but I am just scared that the bank will use my illness against me despite it having absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the legality of the charges. Anyone got any advice? And yes, call me a chancer if you want but I have had my head in the sand for a long time over this debt and I finally want to deal with it and close that chapter of my life forever and never have to deal with HBOS ever again.