Hi All, I am currently in the process of claiming back £640 worth of bank charges from Barclays. I have so far corresponded with them via several letters & phonecalls, which I've summarised below: 02.02.07 - initial claim letter sent (requested breakdown of costs and advising that I would commence my claim in court within 14 days unless refunded) 19.02.07 - reply recieved from Barclays, "we'll look into it & get back to you" 12.03.07 - another letter from Barclays, "we disagree.. but we can offer a goodwill gesture of £465" (of the £640 they owe me) I call up about 2/3 weeks later (I was slack in responding), had 2 telephone conversations with a couple of their 'managers' who advised that this would be their final offer. If I were to reject it I would need to write them. 16.04.07 - I write them a letter, see below: Dear XXXX, Thank you for your letter dated 12th March 2007. I note that you have offered £465 as a gesture of goodwill, I must inform you that I will not be accepting this offer. As outlined in my earlier correspondence I explained that the charges you have applied to my account are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Further or in the alternative, I believed that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963 Although in my original letter I informed you that I would start legal proceedings within 14 days, as a gesture of goodwill I will give you an extra 7 days, from the date of receipt of this letter, to refund £640 back on to my account. If this is not done within the 7 days, I will be forced to start legal proceedings; you will receive no further warnings. Furthermore I have also requested that you supply me with a copy of my original contract and a copy of your terms and conditions. To date I have not received either. Yours sincerely, 18.04.07 - they reply again. Letter below: Dear Mr XXXX, Thank you for your letter of 16 April. I am sorry you are unhappy with our offer of £465 and have requested that we refund all of the charges you have incurred over the last 6 years. After careful consideration, I regret that I am unable to agree to your request. Should you now wish to accept our offer, please sign and return the acceptance form enclosed with our letter of 12 March. However, if you do not wish to accept this offer and you now intend to start legal proceedings it would appear we are unable to reach an amicable resolution. Yours sincerely, NOW - my questions are: 1. Have I followed the process through adequetely? I've been a bit of a bonehead and overestimated Barclays doggedness and haven't been as strict as I should have been with my timetable, nor have I followed a single sites process/templates, instead sending letters/templates from whatever sites I could find at the time that I needed them. Have I missed anything out? which template should I now use? 2. Will the fact that I've been slack on my own timetable (i.e. I took no action after 14 days, despite advising otherwise) reflect poorly on me at court? 3. Other than my statements & copies of the letters sent and recieved, what other material should I require for the court claim? 4. Considering that even if I recieve 640+interest I will still be about 800-1000 in my overdraft, so should I just take the offer and run? I've perenially been in my overdraft literally 90% of the time its been opened, so although I know its very rare for banks to close accounts (especially Barclays from what I gather) - should I just be grateful for what I can take now? cos they have leverage over me (as I still owe them a tidy sum) and I've always owed them (!)? Would this make a difference in their decision making process do you think? If you think I'm in good shape to proceed, please advise me the next best step forward, i.e. which template to use, which way to start the claim. Also, how much will it cost me to pursue this in court and how long will the process take at the moment? from the initial proceeding (i.e. filling out the legal claim form) to my court date/when I get my money. Thanks in advance for any help that you guys can give me, I didn't realise it would get this far! I got my money from Halifax and Natwest very easily and foolishly assumed it would be much the same with Barclays... Kamheed

Hi guys, I've mailed off a template advising Barclays that I'm going to reject their goodwill gesture. Thanks for the advice and encouragement, it's given me the courage to push those [edited] back (!) Will let you know how it goes Kammed

Hi all. I've looked at quite alot of the threads (as well as googled the net) but I can't seem to find any concrete advice about my bank charges claim issue. I've got to the point with barclays where they've offered me £450 of the £650 I've figured they owe me - I've called them today and told them that unless they settle I'll take it to court, which they've told me was totally up to me. I've got no doubt I'll win, but my main worry is that they'll close my account. If they did close my account I would still owe them several hundred pounds, but worse still is that I'd lose the £3k overdraft that I'm relying on to fund my imminent relocation to London. What should I do?!?! Does anyone have any experience with Barclays re: Account Closure threats? From what I've read, banks are entitled to do that but what are the chances of barclays doing so? Also worrying, is what I've read about the Office of Fair Tradings imminent report into the bank charges issue. I've just seen a site that's advising people to make claims before the report is due to be concluded (EASTER!!!) as they may recommend that banks are entitled to charge upto £13 per charge which would seriously cut these claims down. HELP!!! WHAT SHOULD I DO????