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Well a big thank you to this website for providing me with some of the means to get a refund of my £39.00 which was unfairly charged after a £4.00 Direct Debit was returned. Totally excessive, of course. I crafted my own letter using parts of your "preliminary letter" and I also phoned a lovely woman in Customer Relations. The letter was very serious and threatening whereas I was very civil and friendly with the phone woman. It seems this has paid off big time; I received a reply to my letter stating something like "our charges are fair, now please bugger off", however upon seeing my statement tonight, I have been refunded the full amount! I would guess that the person receiving my letter was a grouchy old gowk, who probably slapped a standard letter out of his Microsoft Word software onto some paper, however the nice phone woman - I would think - probably took matters into her own hands and initiated the refund herself, as the letter-writing person would definitely not have done this! So my advice would be attack from two angles, and be civil and understanding if you're talking on the phone, friendliness can definitely pay off. One end may reject you and the other might help you. This is how it happened for me! I'm extremely happy, and thanks again to your great site.

I phoned my bank who said that I agreed to these fees when signing up. They will look into it further, and I have mentioned the website, but is there anything I can counter this excuse with other than the already used "yes, I agreed to them but not in gross excess" ? Thanks.

I did actually read the FAQs, it says they are non-applicable to Scottish law. Hence me asking here. Thanks.

Hi Russel. Can you please elaborate on this a little bit. When phoning the bank, who do I ask for and what do I say to them... do I say "the charge you have instated is not legal under Scottish law, and I cannot be penalised for insufficient funds"? Can I get ALL the charge back? Thanks!

Hi there. I am a student banking with Natwest. I purchased an item using Direct Debit from PayPal for £4.50 on the 22nd Feb, and the charge was not debited until the 28th Feb. During this time my funds became insufficient for this £4.50, although I did attempt to remedy this by being transferred £25.00 from a friend's account which I thought would only take 1 day. This £25.00 came into my bank on the same day that my £4.50 PayPal was taken out, although apparantely the £25.00 did not count as part of my balance since it has to be at least 1 working day in advance to count. So I was still "insufficient" for the £4.50. I have been charged £38.00 in total (I think that includes the £4.50) for this. Since I am in Scotland, can I contest this? Can someone point me to a piece of legal document which I can read to Natwest on the telephone so they are perfectly aware of what I am saying? Even the name of a document I can reference. Any help is SO much appreciated. Thanks!!!