it was very easy, i phoned them, they asked me a few questions over the phone, like dates of letters etc, they sent me a form to fill in and sign which i did straight away, they sent me a letter saying it was being dealt with and about 4 wks later i received a letter from them saying that although a&l didnt accept that their charges were unfair they were going to pay up anyway, also they are paying about £500 more than my claim! it seems to be the amount the contractual interest would have been if i had claimed that. ring the ombudsman, it may be different for you as you have aleady started court proceedings, but i found them very helpful, and its free, also it stated on their guidelines that if i wasnt happy with the outcome from them i could still go ahead with the courts, youve got nothing to lose, keep me posted and good luck

hope you kept going with your claim, i have just heard that alliance and leicester are paying me up in full, so dont give in, i didnt take them to court in the end, i went through the financial ombudsman who were brilliant and got the money for me in about 4 wks.

alliance and leicester paid up in full !!!! i sent the usual letters requesting my bank charges to be repaid, it took a few months and they sent me the usual fob off letters and stalling letters. eventually they offered me about 1/3 of my claim, i was just about to start court proceedings when someone advised me to try the fincancial ombudsman first, nothing to lose so i rang them. they sent me a form to fill in, that was about 4 wks ago and today i got a letter saying the bank had not only agreed to pay up in full but that they were paying me about £500 more than my claim, this seems to be just about the amount that the contractual interest would have come to. needless to say i am thrilled. all you out there still going through the process , dont give up, if the alliance and leicester will pay up anyone will!!!

hi everyone, i posted this question (why is no one claiming the contractural rate of interest) some time ago. i have to admit i decided against it and went ahead with just claiming the charges intending to claim the 8% if it went to court. i got the usual fob off letters from the alliance and leicester and the usual stalling ones, eventually they made me an offer of approx 1/3 of my claim. at the time of this offer i heard from someone i work with that he was at that stage when he contacted the financial ombudsmen and the bank paid up in full. as i was at the stage of starting court proceedings i decided to contact the financial ombudsman. they were really helpful and immediately sent me a form to fill in. that was about 4 wks ago and today i got a letter from them stating that the bank had agreed to pay up in full!!!!!!!!! not only that they are paying me about £500 more than my claim, which i estimate to be about the amount the contractual interest would come to. needless to say i am thrilled to bits, and very grateful to this forum. i spent a long time reading all the posts i could and it really spurred me on. good luck to all you lot that are still going through the process. keep going, they will pay up,

just spent whole day reading all the threads, head now spinning, in the process of sending off claim for charges, but now dont know what to do about interest, even considering using a company so they can do the calculations, what is the simplest way of calculating the contractual interest and is it a good idea to claim it anyway? help needed please