This topic was closed on 03/06/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support their. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/06/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support their. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/05/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support their. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

At the moment I am trying to Financial Ombudsman route in order to reclaim my charges of around £1700. I received a complaints form from the Financial Ombudsman's office today. They had taken my details over the phone and the form arrived with the details filled in.. On the section entitled "tell us what your complaint is about" it says "unhappy with the penalty charges on her account". I had never referred to them as penalty charges - I just called them charges. I hope it is a good sign that the Ombudsman's people are calling them penalty charges!

My credit rating is pretty dire. I am in overdraft with the Abbey by around £1800 (more than a thousand of that is their charges). I opened two parachute accounts - one is Co-Op Cashminder and the other is NatWest Step account.

I have a store card with M&S. I was late with a payment and they sent me a letter saying so. On my monthly statement it states quite clearly: Letter charge £15.00. I suppose this charge will be added to my balance and I will be paying interest on the letter charge too.

I asked the lady in telephone banking if I could have my statements for the past five years. She said ok, no problem, but it will take up to six weeks because the details are held on their database. Have I done the right thing in arranging my salary to be paid elsewhere, leaving nothing in my Abbey account? Or should I pay some money into Abbey to keep me within my authorized overdraft? I find the thought of the Abbey big guns scarey. I am a nurse and have kind of got used to being squashed by people who hold the purse strings. Ding ding round two? Or should I just give up and pay up?

Thank you all for your input. I have opened a basic bank account elsehwere and arranged to have my salary paid into it so that Abbey cannot take my money for the overdraft and leave my mortgage and other essentials unpaid. I just assumed (perhaps wrongly?) that I would be threatened with legal action from Abbey and that I would have to pay all my overdraft back. I tried to cancel a direct debit today, but the kind Abbey had already paid it , even though I did not have the money in my account. They have charged me another fifty quid for their kindness. And so I am now over my authorized overdraft. But what do I do now? Should I wait for Abbey to send me a letter telling me that I owe them £1500 and more? Or do I send them a letter saying that I want them to refund my charges?

I am in overdraft (authorized) with Abbey of £1500. Over the past 14months I have been charged around £1000 in fees for unpaid direct debits and direct debits that were paid when there were "insufficient funds in my account" I would like to claim my fees back from Abbey as I suspect that the fees over the years will amount to more than I owe in overdraft. Am I right in thinking that I would have to pay back my overdraft before I could make any claim for a refund of Abbey's charges? If this is the case then I am stuck because I do not have £1500 to pay off my overdraft. Thank you

Thank you for your prompt reply. I will take my other half - he is a former police officer and is now a Magistrate. I had this awful vision of me bursting into tears and running out of the room.

If my dispute with Abbey goes to court do I have to go it alone or can I bring someone with me to speak on my behalf if I get intimidated by the whole process? I find the court thing a bit scary to be honest.

I have just contacted Abbey telephone banking and the lady there was able to tell me how much I have paid in charges since Dec 2004. This comes to the princely sum of £948!! I have requested my statements for the past five years, and she said ok, no problem, but it will take around 4 weeks for them to arrive. She didn't ask me why I wanted my statements, which is good. I have opened a bank account elsewhere which I have arranged to have my salary paid into so that Abbey cannot take the £150 charges which are due out on 1st March. I have an authorized overdraft with Abbey of £1500, so I believe that if I stop paying money into Abbey I will owe them £1500. My question is this: Do I wait for Abbey to take action against me for the £1500 that I owe them and then do a counter claim for my charges to be refunded. Or do I claim my charges back from Abbey and hope that they refund them, thus clearing most of my overdraft?

I have just contacted Abbey telephone banking and the lady there was able to tell me how much I have paid in charges since Dec 2004. This comes to the princely sum of £948!! I have requested my statements for the past five years, and she said ok, no problem, but it will take around 4 weeks for them to arrive. She didn't ask me why I wanted my statements, which is good. I have opened a bank account elsewhere which I have arranged to have my salary paid into so that Abbey cannot take the £150 charges which are due out on 1st March. I have an authorized overdraft with Abbey of £1500, so I believe that if I stop paying money into Abbey I will owe them £1500. My question is this: Do I wait for Abbey to take action against me for the £1500 that I owe them and then do a counter claim for my charges to be refunded. Or do I claim my charges back from Abbey and hope that they refund them, thus clearing most of my overdraft?

On December 29th I was charged £300 for unpaid direct debits and going over my authorized overdraft. On Jan 29th I was charged £150 for the same. At the end of February I will be charged another £150. I have now cancelled all my direct debits exept for mortgage, council tax and service charges for my flat. Does anybody think that these charges are a little excessive? And is there anything I can do?