Thanks lateralus. I will have a look through all of these and come back to let you know how I'm doing with this.

Brilliant to know you are stilll watching this. I am on with "the other account" now so if you've nothing better to do tonight you might want to have a look at that one (again ). I've nearly give up the will to live with it.

They seem to be made up of various bits from what I have read previously. I have checked the statements we sent for and Total Charges is always for £27.50. I am assuming it is for the previous month for example on the 3rd July it says Total Charges to 11th June and it says the same for each month. The bank did end their letter by saying that they will arrange for duplicate copies to be sent, although there will be a fee payable for the work involved.. I think I will pen a letter asking them for a copy of the breakdown of these charges. I assume I will only need one copy as all the Total Charges have been the same. I 'm going to have a look at their website and see if I can get anything from there first. Thanks to all of you who have responded.

Sorry for the confusion lateralus. I have started the new thread and called it what you suggested. I will stick to only things relating to the business account here. The story so far. We sent for 6 years of statements and sent £10 to the HSBC. The statements landed and I highlighted all of the charges. I sent a letter to the bank requesting they pay back the charges and I included a schedule of the charges. They sent the confusing letter as their response. This is when I discovered this fab forum to help me sort out what types of charges I could claim back eg Total Charges. It's this Total Charges bit that I am stuck on at the moment. You have all been really helpful and I feel as though I am making progress now so thanks very much. Kat

I have started this thread so as not to confuse myself and others that I am helping my brother claim 2 different lots of charges. 1. Current account 2.business account. All is well at the moment with this account and we are waiting for the bank to reply to our second letter as they didn't respond to the first one. I will update this when we get some further news (hopefully with a nice cheque)

I'm back just to ask about the Data Protection Act - Subject Access Request Letter- List of Charges you directed me to earlier. This is similiar to the template we used from Money Saving Expert when we requested the 6 years of statements and sent them £10 for the priviledge. Is this the one I should use to ask them for a full breakdown of charges and do I need to send them another £10 or will an ordinary letter do the same job? Kat

Sorry lateralus I will go off and have a look and see what I can make of it all. Thanks again. Be warned, I have a feeling I might be on here a few more times yet, so I hope you're patient.

Hi Celicaman Thanks very much for getting in touch and thanks to lateralus too. This looks really helpful and I can see some of the charges we can reclaim (recall S/O-D/D0, although no-where near what we had originally claimed. Total Charges makes up most of the charges he is trying to claim. I'll get my brother to write to the bank and request they provide a full breakdown of charges which they have applied to the account. I think he will also need to ask for the Summary sheets as this will then keep us in contact with the bank within the 8 week deadline they gave us (4th July when they wrote to my brother) and also keep the claim going. I don't want to appear totally thick Celicaman, but what is the SARS stuff and where would I find the template? Do I sound as though I am on the right track? I am an absolute novice on forums so I could get lost quite easily but thanks for sticking with me. Kat

Thanks for getting back to me. The confusing letter is regarding the Business Account. I think I am confused becuse I have read other posts and realise that Total Charges are different when it is a Business Account. I have only got the statements we sent for from the bank for the last 6 years. I am not sure how the breakdown of these Total Charges is allocated and what we can claim back or what is a legitimate charge. Can I claim back in full the other items on the statement e.g. Recall S/O-D/D Stopped cheque Unpaid item Charges Thankyou for persevering with me on this. Kat

Good morning jowalshy. No, we only have the statements which we requested from HSBC.

Thanks very much for your response lateralus. I am helping my brother claim his bank charges back on 1. Personal current account 2. Business account. The letter above was the response from HSBC regarding his Business Account. I compiled the list of charges from the 6 years of statements that my brother requested from them (by post). I have sent the first letter to the bank ( I originally used the one from Money Saving Expert site) for his personal current account with a list of the charges taken from his statements. They didn't reply to this in the time scale so I sent the second letter telling them we would take further action by going to Court.(we posted this letter yesterday). I am not sure how to word my letter responding to the "confusing letter" for his Business Account, as it seems the bank are waiting to hear from us now and want us to tell them what we are trying to claim for. How do I find out what part of Total Charges we can claim back? I also claimed for the other charges on his statements which are Charges Charge Unpaid Item Total Charges Recall S/O - D/D Unpaid Item Are these reclaimable in full on a Business Account? The bank are obviously waiting for us to make the next move now and we have about 2 weeks left before they "will consider the matter resolved" What should be our next step? The links in your signature are great for a newcomer like me and I will carry on reading the other threads. Many thanks Kat

Thanks for your reply. I have been using the template letters from the Money Saving Expert forum and have sent off 2 letters (one for current account and the other for businesss) The current one was ignored so I have forwarded the second letter stating that I intend taking it to court. The business one received a lengthy reply about Total Charges etc which I couldn't make head nor tail of and many of the users on MSE suggested I come here for advice. I have posted this on the HSBC thread and hope I have done this in the right manner as I have to respond to them within the next 2 weeks. Thanks for your help.

This is my first post and I think I am in the right place with all you other HSBC customers. I have read similiar cases to mine but still very confused about how to reply to their letter. They sent it on the 3rd July 2007 and have given us 8 weeks to reply otherwise they will assume that is the end of the matter. The letter basically states that "we are not willing to review the claim where a transaction exceeded a pre agreed facility. This will commonly include Money Transmission (cheques and credits), facility fees (Arrangement,Renewal and Temporary), stopped cheque charges, acquiring charges and the monthly maintenance charge any of which may have been included in the claim. We will also reject any submitted claim that includes 3rd party fees, usually incurred in the submission of a claim as these may not be included either now or at a subsequent court submission. Before we can properly consider your request we must understand precisely to which overdraft charges you refer and if you want to pursue this please write and give a specific breakdown detailing dates and amounts of charges in question. Please note for the purpose of this excercise "Total Charges" as included with your schedule is insufficient as it comprises a number of various components which must be split out and itemised for the purposes of your claim. If you no longer hold details of these charges please let us know and we will arrange for duplicates to be sent for which a fee is payable. If we do not hear from you within the next eight weeks we will consider matters resolved." We do not know where to make a start with this even though other users seem to be experiencing the same dilemma. The majority of our charges are Total Charges,Charge for Unpaid Item and Recall Standing Order or Direct Debit. Does anyone know which of these we can still reclaim and what the Total Charges breakdown is? Thanks for taking the time to read this epic.

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum and trying to find my way around so will be spending the next few days reading lots of the threads. I am helping my brother claim his HSBC Business charges back but have come up against a block with a strange reply from the bank. I'm off now to look for the HSBC section.