Hi, I'm quite new to all this but this site looks great and very helpful. My housemate is with Lloyds TSB and is a student and has been for 2 years. He was told that because he was a student he shouldn't be paying interest on his account and would have his £1500 overdraft interest free. He has been paying interest ever since and has only just realised that the charges on his account were for overdraft interest. Is it possible to get all the interest paid back, from at least the time he was told his account had been changed to a student one? How should he go about it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Michael

Follow this link - it has bank letter templates to send to your bank in claiming unnecessary bank charges back. http://www.which.net/campaigns/personalfinance/bankingcharges/whatyoucando.html Hope it Helps Michael

If you follow this link, it has templates for letters you can send to financial institutions re. Bank Charges. Apparently, the most anyone should be charged for going over their arranged overdraft limit is £12. http://www.which.net/campaigns/personalfinance/bankingcharges/whatyoucando.html See if it helps

I work for a mobile phone company myself and I deal with upgrades. All calls are recorded but only tend to be for "training purposes" - however, with legal matters these can also be used to defend the company. If they cannot prove their side of the story, then if you were to take legal action, surely they would be in trouble. They should also be FSA Regulated - which basically means you can't get tricked into things over the phone. You should still have been sent a copy of the airtime agreemt with the phone - these days a verbal signatire is taken, a piece of info like your place of birth is normally taken. Hope that helps!

Has anyone else been unfortunate enough to have their car finance with GE Money (formerly GE Capital or GE Capital Woodchester)? I, unfortunately, am one of those very unlucky people who, when I visited the Vauxhall garage to purchase my new car was signed up through GE Capital for financing my car over a 5 year period. The first problem I had was when I initially signed the Agreement for GE Capital to take the monthly payment on the 4th of each month (logically, a few days after I get paid). GE Capital then tried to take the first payment about 2 weeks before they were supposed to - perhaps a simple admin error - anyone can live with that. However, it was a nightmare to say the least to make sure that this was corrected, my bank charges were refunded and the admin fee that GE Capital charge was waived. Recently I changed my bank account - every company I changed my Direct Debit details with made sure this was free and extremely straightforward. However, in GE Capital's evil money-making world, where they don't seem to care who they rip off, decided to charge me a £25.00 Fee to change the bank details. How on earth does it cost someone £25 to change their Direct Debit details. It wasn't as if I was late with a payment. Maybe it was just a great inconvenience to GE Capital so they have to penalise you for making them do more work than they want for their money. As bad as the situation already is, when I was sent the mandate form for changing my bank details, I was asked to pay the next month;s instalment by cheque as the Direct Debit wouldn't be set up in time - fair enough - so I sent a cheque with my mandate form as well as a letter stating my frustration at being charged a ridiculous fee. I then received numerous phone calls - I've been charged another £30.00 for a late payment fee! A sad voice at the end of the phone tries to tell me that the cheque must have been lost in the post - funny how only the cheque got lost and not the Direct Debit mandate which they said they had received - they were both in the same envelope. I was told that there had been no letter received from myself either - maybe they lost that too. Again, a numerous amount of phone calls have been made - the cheque is probably just being processed - the £30.00 charge will automatically come off when it clears... Ok the cheque must have been lost, cancel it and just send another one - I wonder if they will lose this one as well? Wouldn't surprise me seeing how they like to charge £30.00 per cheque that they lose. I've now threatened GR Money with legal action against fees charged to my account for their mistakes - and as for the £25.00 charge for changing Bank Details - Direct Debit doesn't seem to be the most efficient and cost-effective way to pay - for the consumer anyway. I am awaiting a reply to my 3rd letter... hmmm.