I also mailed letters directly to my local branch. Visited the cash machine tonight and found that Clydesdale have refunded what I asked for (only £160 tbh). In total in took two and a half weeks from my first contacting them. I used the first two default letters from here: http://www.bankcharges.info/ . Clydesdale didn't provide the statements I had lost because they were apparently "not stored in a 'relevant filing system' as defined by the Data protection act 1998" so I'll have to decide whether the possible charges I could claim back from the statements they'll charge me for will be worth it...

I mailed a request to my bank (Clydesdale) for details of all charges applied to my account for the past five years but received a reply which read: Has anyone come across this before? It may be possible for me to retrieve my old statements but they'll take some finding. While I'm posting, from what I've read of the "charges" being claimed back they mainly seem to be charges applied for exceeding limits ie the large charges of £25-£39 but Clydesdale bank have operated a system for years whereby when your account is in overdraft they charge for every transaction made on the account (service cherges) eg 51 pence for a manual debit or 30 pence for an automated debit. Are these charges also worth pursuing for refund? Thanks for reading and my apologies if this is posted in the wrong place.