Thank you for your wise words, I know in my heart of hearts it's the sensible thing to accept the offer, which is exactly what I will do. You're right, I have been so lucky that my claim has been so straightforward, I really expected it to go to court being over £5k. Hopefully my success story will give others confidence that they will get their money back from NatWest.

Yes it does, thanks. I think I'll take my money and run (after donating some to CAG of course).

Could I go back to them though and ask for the 8% interest?

Having sent my LBA letter 4 weeks ago and about to sit down this weekend to calculate contractual interest, I was very surprised to receive a letter this morning offering "as a gesture of goodwill" settlement of over £5000. This amount is £150 short of the charges I have paid, and minus the 8% interest I could recover if I took this further. (about £1400) I don't want to be greedy, £5k is a nice amount for a full time mum to put away for a rainy day and it has only cost me a bit of time and 2 stamps so far, and I'm not sure I relish the idea of the hassle and cost involved in going to court. Is anyone going to persuade me otherwise?

I am claiming the charges applied to mine and my husbands joint account (advantage gold). I can't find the thread which I was reading a while ago about joint account claims but can I nominate just myself on the N1 form as the claimant? Our account only requires one signature - not sure if this has a bearing? Secondly, my husband has a business account with Natwest with a business overdraft and business loan. What are the implications for him in terms of Natwest closing his account if I pursue my court claim? I understand fully the necessity of opening a parachute account to replace the current account involved within the claim but can a business account be closed too? The last thing I want is to be triumphant in defeating Natwest and then having to explain to my husband that he needs to find huge amounts of money to repay Natwests overdraft because they've closed his account! Any help would be greatfully received - this is the only thing that is stopping me from putting my N1 form in the the post today!

You're a superstar - thank you. just for info, just spoken to Cambridge County Court who inform me they have had loads of bank charge cases through, no hearings yet but a big batch to work on - wonder what that has in store for the cank charges survey?

I am confident with most of the N1 form in terms of how to complete it but am struggling to keep the 'Brief details of claim' concise. Can anybody give any suggestions as to what to put here please?? - other than the same as I have put in particulars of claim!!

Ok, I'll trust you on this one! There seems to be a lot of confusion about this subject, and a lot of opinion, but when you get to the stage of taking your bank to court, facts are imperative aren't they? Many thanks for your help.

Surely if I pay £250 my case will be fast tracked and exposed to the additional charges which I am trying to avoid - including Natwests court fees if I lose?

The interest accrued on my claim of penalty charges of around £4900, calculates to around £5,600. Can I still process my claim through the small claims court? Can anyone tell me please whether the claim in it's entirety needs to be under £5k or whether 8% interest and in fact the interest incurred on penalties charged remains separate? I do not really want to expose myself to the potentially high court fees of fast track - I'll stay in my comfort zone of £100 small claim fee I think! Many thanks

Thanks to both of you for your replies. I certainly didn't want to appear negative in asking the question in the first place - maybe had a touch of the heeby jeebies and was looking for some reassurance. Feel confident to proceed now. Thanks again

After having spent months chasing 6 years of bank statements, writing letters, compiling spreadsheets and calculating interest, I am now in a situation whereby I can proceed with my court claim. My problem now is one sceptical if slightly cautious husband who has baulked somewhat at my asking of £250 court fees (Crimbo round the corner and a baby who needs all sorts). He has followed the charges recovery process with me carefully but has raised the question "has anybody actually lost a court case?" Fair question from the man who works hard for his pennies! I know we are all upbeat and positive as we wrestle the big boys out of our hard earned cash but some facts and figures would be nice?? Can anyone help please?

I sent my preliminary request letter on Mon 16th Oct and receieved the same letter, word for word this morning. HE's been a very busy chappy this week hasn't he?!

Can anyone please tell me which address to send my preliminary approach for repayment to ? Searched the forum - so many addresses - more confused now than when I started out. There must be a clever cookie out there somewhere with insider knowledge who can confidently give a contact name and address. I really do not want to give Natwest any excuse for delaying my claim. Many thanks

Bless you sweetie! I will give that a go now and hope that my sleeping baby doesn't wake up - I'm really chomping at the bit to get this schedule off to Natwest and recover the £7k (ish) in time for crimbo. Thanks again - a huge help.

I have had trouble using the spreadsheet templates as I use a Mac. Having resigned myself to the painstaking task of entering each and every charge onto my own spreadsheet, I used the online interest calculator within the CAG site to check that the calculations shown on the example spreadsheet (for simple charges - English) were correct. The days passed tally but the interest charge differs. Not by much but that's not the point. I need to submit an ACCURATE schedule with my preliminary approach for repayment letter. How can I do this? If anyone can shed any light on this I would be very grateful.

I received my statements well after the 40 days but there was a year and a half worths missing - thanks for that telephone number, I spoke to Michelle Crew who assures me I will have missing statements in 7 - 10 days. The change over in 2002 is apparently the reason why Jan 1st 2000 - October 2002 were missing!

I have noticed that a few members have sent their Natwest DPA requests to an a ddress in Edinburgh. I posted mine accompanied with £10 cheque to 135 Bishopsgate, London - as indicated on the ICO's Data Protection Register. Which is the correct address to send it to please? It might be worth me sending the request with another sheque to Edinburgh ?!?

Thank you very much, that makes sense now. I do feel it is imperative to be as armed with as many of the facts as possible before venturing into these things. Thanks again.

Can anybody please explain to me what 'Manual Intervention' is in terms of the information disclosed in the DPA records. Can evidence of Manual intervention be detrimental to my claim? Thank you Aitchj