This topic was closed on 09 March 2019. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Thanks for the encouragement folks. I think I'll go ahead and see what happens. I'll keep you posted on any developments. Cheers M

Hiya I've gone through the preliminary and LBA letters with Capital One, and received what sounds like their very standard replies of offering a "goodwill gesture" of refunding the difference between the charges and the new £12 figure. I had a successful claim against the Coop some time back, and all charges were refunded long before it got near the courts, but then the charges I claimed back were on my current bank account, not a credit-card account like I have with Capital One. There doesn't seem to be a similar £12 figure "suggested" for bank-charges, so they didn't have that almost-reasonable sounding argument to fall back on. I've read through a lot of the faq's and threads here, and people seem equally optimistic about winning back the full amount from credit-card companies in the small claims courts. My waiting periods are up, and I'm about to start a court case. However, never having gone to court about anything before, I keep getting chilly thoughts about the possibility of not winning it and having to pay their court costs, which would completely scupper me. I worry that, with a new and sort-of official £12 figure having been set as a reasonable charge, Capital One's offer of refunding the difference may sound like a reasonable offer to a judge. All faq's here do warn that losing your case is, of course, a possibility. Is this possibility really that remote? Has anybody actually lost one of these cases and had to pay the costs? All the best M

Thanks for the reply. That's more or less what I've resigned myself to. I can see now that legally it probably fell to me to get in touch in the first place to check the situation and rectify it. Just seems a bummer to have to negotiate all these new schemes and tarrifs these big co's come up with to sort out their own problems, with no mechanisms in place to monitor the ongoing effects of these schemes on people who aren't aware of them existing in the first place! Cheers M

Hiya I moved into private rented accommodation around 8 months ago. There is no gas supply, only electricity, and the only heating comes from convector heaters fixed to the walls. There's a prepayment meter with a little dongle I recharge, which I've never encountered before, but I went with it as it seemed smart to keep up with my bills and not face that shock of a big bill landing on my mat every 3 months. However, a statement from British Gas arrived recently, addressed to a long-gone previous tenant - the first such statement to arrive since I moved in. This was the first that I knew of the account being in someone's name, and that there was a particular tariff attached - I rather niaively thought it wasn't effectively in anyone's name and that you just put some money in and some power came out. I decided to check out rates and discovered I could save a fortune by switching to a normal meter. So...I called British Gas to change over, no prob's there. However, I also discovered that the tariff that had been running on the account was completely inappropriate - it had cheaper rates for night-time use (aimed at users of night-storage heaters) and consequently the most expensive rates for daytime use (the only time I use it). The flat I'm in has never had night-storage heaters, and any analysis of the meter-readings by BG would surely show that electricity was never being used during the cheaper night-time. So...my query is: Do I just need to write off the hundred or so pounds (!) I've paid over the odds as bad luck, or do I have any come-back as having been overcharged on a system I know nothing about, with no communication from BG about the account for over 8 months and with no indication on the meter about who owns it or who to contact regarding the tariff? Thanks in advance. All the best M

Hi folks, Just to contribute to the "stick in there" lobby - the Coop just refunded me just over £1,500 of charges which they'd taken from me over the last 6 years! I sent them a letter in February (using a template from the Govan Law Centre and adding my own slant to the grievance) and kept getting "we're looking into it" letters. However, they gave it back to me without any further questions. So - stick in there!