Hi Els, Thank you for your help. Sorry my reply wasn't quicker, I've been very busy recently and have been away. I'm not sure where to go next with this really. For me, any sum is worth chasing if it's rightfully mine and not theirs, but the total we're looking at is roughly £350, which I reckon is worth the gamble for the cost of a few letters. There are a number of transactions I don't understand - such as a paid item fee?? I've heard of an unpaid item fee, but not the reverse! On one particular day I was hit with £75 worth of charges which took the account over the limit and started the whole vicious circle of charges. I haven't paid any more into the account since I tried to settle the balance. As I say I'd undercalculated by just 13p and as such there are charges accruing yet again. With regards to your comments above, should I pay off the balance to stop charges accruing or should I make the bank whistle for it? Although the company has now been dissolved, I haven't been able to close the account because of the negative balance, so they don't actually know that the co. is no longer trading. Does this help my case? Also, if it is the company making the claim, not me, does the reverse apply with charges - i.e the company should pay the charges, not me? If so can they be written off now there is no company to charge? I'm definitely going to write to them as it's at least worth a try, but as yet I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle it K

Hi Els, Thanks for replying I still have the business account open (charges pending) and this is the only account I've ever held with santander. It was opened for a limited company which is no longer trading. My reclaiming successes were all with other banks

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a point in the right direction in reclaiming charges on a business account if this is possible? I've handled reclaiming in the past on personal accounts (with 100% success ) but this is my first attempt on a business account. I've used moneysavingexpert a lot, and from a forum on there, I understand that different protocols apply with business accounts and someone posted that there was information on here, along with template letters. I can't seem to find the template letters - can anyone help? What are the differences between claiming on a business acc and a personal acc? I'm with Santander, and closed the business in March, however I've been in a vicious circle of charges since before the business closed. I paid in enough to bring the account just into credit last month (so I thought) and had miscalculated by 13p, so I got another 'unnaranged overdraft' charge! Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

I'll scrap the idea for now.. Just called the IT helpdesk to find out what's up and a pre-recorded message informs that the site is having problems and users may be unable to log in. You'd think it would be sorted a bit quicker with it being the gov tho! Or not as the case may be.. Case closed then! If anyone else is having trouble you now know why

Still no joy. The link above is the same as I'm going to I just cut it shorter for posting reasons. I've tried all the usual clearing cache and cookies etc but it's only this one I'm having trouble with. Everything else not only works, but loads fast too. Is nobody else affected at all?

Hi Guys, Not sure if it's just me but I've been having trouble accessing my claim on https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/ for a few days now. It's deathly slow and when it does respond it tells me my user details are invalid. I think this is just due to a timeout problem though rather than my user details as I've always used them before with no problems. Even going down the 'forgotten password' route is not happening due to it being so slow! Every other site I visit is fine, both http and https Anyone else having any trouble?

Whoa!! hold on a minute everyone - surely the point is being missed here?! Ok it seems that Kev lost the case as the court ruled the bank was legally entitled to levy charges, correct? Well if you pay a bill with insufficient funds then the bank does have a right to charge for the 'service' of paying it with some of their funds, correct? What is being questioned by all of us is DISPROPORTIONATE CHARGES, not a right to or not to charge. For example, when I went overdrawn by £1.55 with my bank for less than 48 hours, I was charged £28. I'm not saying it didn't cost them the couple of pennies that they were entitled to charge - but they certainly weren't allowed to take £28 - what interest rate would that be?!?:o Wipe your brows and go have a beer (or cup of tea) with your feet up. Nothing's changed since yesterday

Will be watching with interest! I got an acknowledgement today for mine :o

If you genuinely believe you are in the right - get your local MP involved! I haven't read all the posts in this thread but I thought I'd share my experiences of tax credits to see if it's of any benefit In Oct 2003 I gave up work to go on maternity leave. We'd started claiming tax credits in august and we were getting a payment through weekly. When she was about 8 weeks old I realised I hadn't notified them of my change of circumstance. I called and told them I was no longer working and gave my baby's birth date. They backpaid some money for me as I qualified for the 'baby element' and upped the general amount they were paying us. They also started paying us working tax credit based on my partner's income. As we had dropped over a third of our combined income and I'd given them the fugures I trusted that the amounts we were now being paid were correct. Little did I know what I was in for... When the renewal pack came in June/July 2004 I completed it accurately and returned it. In August they stopped our payments without warning and advised us we owed around £3000 back to them. I wrote letters of complaint and appeals but nothing changed. When my son was born in 2005 I didn't bother to notify them since they weren't paying us anyway. By then the local MP was involved and was handling things on my behalf. Life was pretty damn miserable. As well as looking after two very young children and money being tight, I felt I was being labelled a 'scrounger' by the inland revenue. Every attempt I made to resolve things was thwarted - they just didn't want to know. I found out at some point that they'd recalculated our income based on the wrong figures when I'd made the first call after my daughter was born. They'd actually put our COMBINED income from April until when I called, around January, as £2200!!! What did they think we did for a living?? There was a change of MP due to the election and a second MP handled the case for a few months. Then I moved house to a new area and a third MP took over. I was absolutely determined throughout that no way were they going to win against me when it was obviously their error. They finally admitted it was their error but then stuck to their guns saying I should have noticed. I started back at square one trying to explain that as I had dropped such a large percentage of our income I EXPECTED the money to increase and therefore didn't see the need in checking their figures when this did happen. I know this is a long-winded post, but the whole ordeal was so much more so! Eventually, some time around spring last year, they finally cracked and gave up. They paid me back every penny they had stopped from us and cancelled the outstanding sum. It had been 2 years of stress, hassle and tears, but I'd finally won. Do you know what I did when they called to advise me they'd ruled in my favour? I cried down the phone. If you're in the right, never back down.

I was dropping my daughter off to her afternoon playgroup session and was parked just outside the school gates. As I was going straight out afterwards I thought nothing of leaving my partner's new sat-nav system where it was on the dash. A fleeting thought told me to move it but I live in a nice area where there are about 3 crimes reported last year and just dismissed it. I was gutted when I got back to the car to find that the driver window was smashed and the sat he'd had for Christmas, barely even a month, was gone. We've got a fully comp policy with Direct Line and the first time my partner spoke to them we were told it wouldn't be worthwile claiming for it as there was a £200 excess ( in addition to the excess for the damage). They implied that we would be paying a damage excess and also a personal posessions excess. As far as I'm concerned we pay one policy, there was one incident, and therefore there should be one excess charge. However they segregate it at their end is their problem, not mine. I was disgusted with this response and he called them back and spoke to another adviser who implied that it wouldn't be a problem claiming for it and that there would not be any huge excess charges. When I called last week to find out where our claim paperwork was, I found out that no claim had been logged - despite this being our third call. The guy I spoke to said that as far as direct line were aware, the problem was resolved as the window had been replaced the same day. Nothing logged about the sat nav. He also said that as the sat nav was visible, it was not covered by the policy. I was extremely annoyed - what am I paying insurance for?! As far as I'm concerned, it was in a locked, alarmed and immobilised vehicle. It's not as if I left the vehicle unlocked and went on holiday! If my tv was stolen I doubt the insurance company would tell me they're not paying up because it could be seen through a window! Where do I stand on this? I feel cheated and I just can't stop kicking myself. Some **** have completely cancelled out the lovely christmas we had by stealing something my partner had looked forward to for months. Now we're empty handed and seething. Can direct line get away with this?

Pretty Please?

Doh! - As I'm about to start my second claim against RBS for another account, I've just realised that on the first there was no mention of defaults being cleared from my credit record when they agreed to pay up. Can I still get these removed still?? Also, I've misplaced my letter from RBS advising which address to send the cheque to to get my statements, and who to make the cheque out to. Can anybody help? Thanks in advance K EDIT: I got my refund through yesterday for my first claim - and I've started my xmas shopping early for a change!!

Oh yeah I'm feeling it :)

From talking to users in the chatroom, I have decided to take the offer of settlement and accept their terms. As far as I am aware taking this settlement doesn't ban me from claiming in the future, should the need arise, as unlawful charges are unlawful regardless of their T's and C's. Well I'm pleased with the outcome and wish you all the best of luck with your own claims. I do have another account to query, but I think for a lesser amount. Hopefully it will be straightforward as they have already paid a higher sum to me to avoid court. I'll keep this thread updated with case #2 once I have the statements! Good luck once again all Don't forget - 'be nice'! However frustrated and irritated you are with your claim, once the handbags start swinging they'll probably be more likely to dig their heels in - I know I would.

RESULT!!! Received a letter this morning offering the full amount of my claim!! No court - no threats - no hassle! I'm a firm believer in karma and throughout I have always remained calm and courteous and patient (despite not feeling this way for parts of it) - and it seems to have paid off :) There's the usual schpiel about not admitting liability and all future charges will stand, etc, but I'm not sure what to do about these terms. Has anyone successfully accepted the refund of charges without agreeing to these terms?

NEWS UPDATE! Received a letter from Tommy McLean this morn. Must admit I'm quite impressed he responded this quick! Seems like a nice guy too. The letter states 'we prefer to resolve matters with you direct [as opposed to going to court of course! ] and as an exceptional matter have agreed to meet your claim of £x in full' Only thing is, my full claim is not the amount stated, it's a few hundred less. Not sure if it could have been a genuine error though. I returned the copy of the letter with 'declined' in the space where you sign your name to accept... I've just emailed him as well explaining the declination of the offer, so he knows what the letter will say before it gets to him on Monday. Not sure how to handle the 'this is a goodwill gesture, no admission of error, any future charges will stand' issue though. I'm not accepting those terms even if they pay me double what they owe! Is it possible to, upon receipt of an offer of settlement in full, accept the money but decline their terms? Edit: For reference too, the date for my 'letter before action' is a week today (8th sept) and the case will be filed on the 22nd if not resolved before then. Haven't forgotten the timetable

Hi Andrea! I'm also dealing with Tommy McLean. He seems to be a very efficient guy! He received my latest letter and list of charges today at around 7.45am and he sent a reply at 7.55am. His reply included full contact details and the following; "Can you bear with me for a week or so while I investigate your claim? I will then write you with an offer. I am sorry that I can't investigate immediately, but as I am sure you can imagine from the media coverage, we are trying to deal with large volumes of this type of complaint at the moment. I promise I will revert to you as quickly as I can." I think this is perfectly fair. Empathy, apology and an approximate timescale. Customer service is actually much better than I was expecting!. I imagine they're inundated with letters like ours at the moment. At the end of the day it's important to remember that the individual is not at fault - it's just the company they work for. I'm more than happy to wait for a week if the response is an offer of settlement. Of course the likelihood is that it will be a partial refund, which will not be accepted, but hey ho, we'll see how we go. Cross that bridge when I come to it. Best of luck Andrea. K

DARN Cheek! They charged me £5 for the same thing. I'd query why it's £5 for one customer and £10 for you...

Hi all, Just a progress update. I'm planning on keeping this thread updated until the final outcome as an example case for other customers so as to let people know what to expect from this bank (note that each case is handled on it's own merit so outcome won't always be the same!) Well, it took a while for them to get the statements to me and I finally received them on Saturday 19th August. I hope the rest of the claim gets handled quicker!!! I worked out a sum of around £700 for one of my accounts not including the 8% interest and I've sent a letter with the charges summary. I emailed it so it should fall into the right hands tomorrow hopefully. I've also marked the 14 day intervals in my outlook calendar so I don't lose track of time this time round! I'll also be filing a seperate claim for my other account with them too. Need to obtain statements in order to do this [GROAN] but I will not be backing down. Had a situation with the inland revenue and their famous tax credits which I refused to give up on. The cause of the mess was them not me and they even admitted this, but still refused to pay up. It took me two years, every escalation point and two MPs, but I got every penny I was owed. Stick with it guys, don't give up! Get back what's yours!!!

I'm not a student, but found myself in a similar position. I'm currently on a career break looking after two toddlers and as such have no personal income at the moment. They tried to coax me into taking out a loan to pay off my overdraft - which was only £400 - hardly a huge sum. I asked the adviser how I'm expected to repay a loan to them with no income (and how I would qualify for a loan after they dragged my previously perfect credit record into the ground) and was told it 'would be the best option for me' Does this sound like a bank that is concerned about it's customers, or it's profits? Luckily I've paid it back anyway and am in credit so they can't touch me at the moment.

Don't feel as though they have the upper hand because they are a large company - they are the ones breaking the law not you. I'm glad you've decided to reject the offer. I'm at the same stage with my claim. Don't forget that if you accept it, you lose the right to contest any further charges to your account(s) as far as they are concerned. To anyone in the same situation, DON'T DO IT!

Interestingly although I live in Cardiff and my branch is Cardiff, my reply also came from this guy; Tommy McLean Customer Relations Customer Central Support First Floor The Forthstone 56 South Gyle Crescent Edinburgh EH12 9LE This was the second letter I received after I rejected their goodwill offer, advising me that their offer is not to be increased. Having some printer trouble though - does anyone know how I can get a letter to this office via email?

Fantastic I've drafted up a tailored copy of 'TEMPLATE 2 - Send if the 40 days has expired' to send off to them. I'll update this post accordingly with the progress. Many thanks for your help K

Actually, just looking at the Data Protection Act request letter, I did include it's text in my first letter to them

I didn't send anything templated requesting the statement - I just included the request in my initial letter (and repeated it in my second). I asked them to debit the cost from my account. Would this be sufficient for them?