Update: Lambeth didn't respond to the Claim, so after the necessary time it's been escalated to a judgement which was accepted in my favour by the Court. They now have 14 or so days left to respond before a Warrant can be issued... not holding my breath Interest over the period since my initial claim only amounted to about £1.10 , but I made sure I added it on! Really just hoping this is settled by the end of the year now, it will be a full year since the ticket was originally issued in a month or so.

Just to re-iterate what sparkeyrjp and pin1onu have said, I have no doubt that if I had followed any different procedure, I would have had the same lack of response. It wasn't "any old letter" I wrote, I laid out in no uncertain terms how I was owed this charge back - and to a certain extent it worked because Lambeth eventually acknowledged in writing that I was owed back this charge. The problem came when it came to them actually refunding me.

Very useful again, thanks! Inevitably I think it will get as far as the Warrant of Execution, but I'll see if by some miracle they respond to the action in the next couple of weeks... I'll update this with my progress Agreed, the letters I've sent have been formal and complaining enough, and it seems they don't have a procedure in place for cases like this at all, judging by the lack of response I've had so far. Yes I made sure I added that to claim, it didn't amount to much but every little helps I guess

OK I went through the online small claims procedure, and have got a notification that the claim was issued last week. According to the paperwork, they have until 22nd November to reply. Assuming I hear nothing from Lambeth between now and the 22nd based on their ignoring everything until now, what would be my next step after this? And in what sort of timeframe is a judgement made? Sparkeyrjp, how long did you wait before issuing a warrant of execution?

I paid by debit card, does this still apply? Could I just phone them up to ask for it back? It was back in January I paid

This is most useful, thanks very much.

Here's my story, if anyone can offer any help would be much appreciated. I got a parking ticket back in December last year from Lambeth council (I had parked my car overnight at my sister's, and parking was free overnight but after 8AM they started charging - I got to my car at about 5 minutes past). I was a bit strapped for cash then, so my sister said she'd pay it for me, all was good I thought. But then I got a reminder notice, saying that as I hadn't paid, I now owed Lambeth £120. I presumed that my sister forgot to pay for it, so I immediately phoned them up and paid the £120 they were asking. After this, I spoke to my sister, and she said she had in fact paid for it, and showed me her payment confirmation. So effectively, we had paid the fine twice, and Lambeth now owed me that £120 back. Trying to get this £120 back off them has proved to be a total nightmare. As soon as I realised I'd overpaid, I wrote to them, and got no response. I then phoned them up, and eventually after a few phone calls they confirmed to me that they had received my letter. By now it's early March. On the phone, I was told it would take 4-5 weeks to process my letter. After yet another follow up phone call, I eventually got a written response from them on 20th April. No apology, we were wrong etc, instead it simply stated So I finally had written confirmation that I was owed the £120 back. BUT I am still waiting for this refund. Can anyone suggest how I can take this further? I paid the £120 to them back in January, it's now October and I'm still waiting for a refund. Just recently, I spoke to them on the phone to follow this up, and was told that they would look into it, but again I've heard nothing back and feel utterly fobbed off. How should I take it from here? I've effectively been out of pocket for this amount for nearly a year. Can I start charging them interest? I've found dealing with Lambeth directly totally futile, so can anyone recommend any third parties I can take this too? An ombudsmen of some sort? Really I just want my money back, but I'm appalled they can do this and would be keen to take it further Thanks

I'm trying to reclaim my excess charges at the moment on my old Halifax card that I closed in 2007, and after sending them an outline of all the charges and asking for them to be refunded, I was suprised to have an almost instant response offering for the £224 total to be refunded, but on closer inspection I want to make sure this isn't too good to be true. The letter I received states It goes on to say The enclosed form asks me for my signature under this statement, also stating just above the signature box "pay the money to Credit Card 4049 xxxx xxxx xxxx". This is the part that I am slightly concerned about. As my card was cancelled some time ago, there is no way the payment could be credited to the account. When it says "no other method of payment will be issued", does that mean that they wouldn't send me a cheque for the amount if my account is closed? Is it possible they would only be willing to offer credit on an existing active balance? I am a bit wary of sending off my signature underneath this statement, so any input appreciated. Does anyone have any experience of reclaiming credit card charges on a closed Halifax account?

I had £72 deducted from my HSBC current account, it appears under my statement as "pre-notified fees & charges", despite never being notified about this charge, and I'm trying to work out how they arrived at this figure. I did go over my limit that month by a relatively small amount, and I've heard of informal overdraft arrangement fees being £25, so I still can't work out why the figure was £72. I'm in the process of trying to claim back my bank charges from HSBC, is there any way I can include this figure as part of the claim? Does anyone have a suggestion of how I can get a break-down of this charge, to see if a proportion of it could be used as part of my claim?

I have a HSBC credit card default on my credit file which is particularly heartbreaking as I was within days of making the required payment. I am desperate to get this default removed, and have been studying the wealth of material on this site, and had a couple of questions. My credit card late payment charges have all been at around the £12 mark, and I think there has been a total of around 5-6 of them over the course of a 2 year period. But with my HSBC bank account, the charges amount to more than £500 in the two years leading up to my credit card default (which I am about to start reclaiming). This would have more than covered the required minimum payment that would have stopped the account from defaulting. My payments to the card were always from this account, and it's been the only current account I've had since opening the card. So what I was wondering was, would it be possible to argue that the default should be removed given that I was unable to pay the minimum because of unlawful bank charges with the same company that held my credit card debt? Has anyone thought of doing something similar? Or am I clutching at straws given that these were two different accounts, even though they're both with HSBC? It does strike me as unfair that I would have been able to afford the repayment required, if I hadn't accumulated any charges. Any help appreciated.