Just checked my bank account and to my delight the £500.50 in charges has been refunded today. It is exactly 21 days since I sent my first letter asking for them to be refunded!! :D :D Well FD customer services have been very efficient and so I hope they dont close my account - somehow I doubt it now. I cant thank the good people who run this site and you fellow claimants enough for the information and support I have received. For those of you thinking of taking action I'd say "DO IT" and for those of you waiting for a result I'd say "Keep the faith - follow the FAQs and use the templates on this site - it will work for you too" Survey and donation next task on my list..... THANK YOU

BUT have received some interesting mailshots from them about their credit card charges. Apparently they have dropped them down to 12 quid now. Ha ha, think they're under pressure!! :grin:" Yes I notuced that and the same with other credit cards that I have. I suppose it is moving in the right direction. I still think £12 is far too much for an automated system where you often dont even get a letter or email or phone call. It would be interesting if it gets to court and they are forced to only charge the true and fair cost (probably £1!!) Good Luck with the claim - keep the faith!

Hi Sharmal I might be wrong but I dont think you claim interest at this stage. I think you only calculate the interest when you get to moneyclaim stage. However you might want to check the FAQs first. Good Luck with the claims - I managed to get my £500.50 back in two weeks with just two letters - I could hardly believe it. Bear with it

Hopefully FD have my acceptance of their offer today - its strange 'cos I can't access my online account!! I rang this morning to query it and they "unlocked" it but I have tried again just now and its locked again! Has this happened to anyone else? Are they getting their own back on me do you think?:?

I had just drafted my LBA ready to send to First Direct as my deadline of 24th July had just passed, when the postman came this morning. I opened a letter from Robert Kernaghan, expecting to be fobbed off with the s*d off letter and you could have knocked me down with a feather.... Full and final settlement offer of the FULL £500.50 claimed!!!! The letter basically said they were sure if it went to court that they would win but "mindful of the management time and irrecOverable legal costs they may incur in relation to such a claim" (not that confident then!!) blah blah "The offer will remain in place for 10 days" ...dont worry mate you'll have my acceptance in the morning post!! I was so surprised it was this easy - one letter asking for statements and one letter containing details of my claim. I'm really impressed with First Direct' customer service - hope they dont close my account!! I expect they settled so quickly because it was fairly obvious I was a CAG member (letter templates) and because it was a relatively trivial sum of money (for them - not me) (I have other accounts anyway) I would never have believed it was so simple and quick to get a refund. I expect I wouldnt have had the bottle to do it without all the advice and support available on this website. When I have the money in my account I will make a donation and complete the survey. THANK YOU btw - Have told lots of mates and several are encouraged to try to get back what banks and credit cards have taken from them too.

Hi Jordylass Dont think I can be off much help here. I presume you owed the debt to FD who have "sold" it to the collections agency? If so FD are unreasonable in not sending you the money it took unlawfully from you - it did not take it from the collection agency - if you get my drift. HOWEVER I dont know how a judge might see it. Perhaps Bankfodder could give you his/her views. If s/he isnt reading this perhaps you could send a pm - just this once. It is an important point of principle that will probably be of interest to other folks claiming in your position? All I can say at his point is GOOD LUCK

Hi I have claimed the overdraft fee and the excess overdraft fee. There is something elsewhere on this site about interest - I think if the unfair charges resulted in interest being charged then you can claim that back but not the interest you would be paying on your overdraft otherwise. However, if you get to the moneyclaim/court stage you add interest at 8% but only at that stage (when you also add the legal costs). Sorry I cant be more specific - as I say it is in here somewhere - but how you find it without reading for a week I dont know!!

jantay10 I wonder if the larger amount claimed has triggered a different response. Still carry on with the process - stick to your timetable and you should get that bigger sum back before too long. The fact that they have settled husbands claim is jolly good evidence should it get to court - which it wont of course!! Chin up! Good Luck

20% reduction is a hefty sum - why not accept it in the hope that the pool IS available by the time you get there or towards the cost of getting to the nearby pool or to the beach which the kids will love just as much if not more. Sometimes the pools at these properties arent as nice as you anticipate - relax, enjoy the holiday and spend the 20% on having an even nicer time.

Errr................. I would have moved my family out of that place - not settled/nested there. Whatever the £cost. What price peace of mind?

Good Morning All I received a nice letter today from Natalie Coe in Customer Relations. Apparently she is sorry that I have cause for complaint and hopes to send me a reply in 10 days. She has kindly enclosed a copy of a leaflet "listening to your comments". Well thanks Natalie but I'll stick to my timetable - you will receive my LBA on 24th July - unless I have my money back by then. Yo!

Suggest you may find more info on that in the "Other Institutions" section of this forum- or you could ask this question there as this section is probably only read by people taking on HSBC/First Direct

On past experience - It wont go to court

Gosh that efficient!!!Ha Ha... I hope they do the same with me as I'm only claiming £500.50

I would right back saying you only accept a cheque made payable to yourself. Its your money they stole and its up to you to spend it where you need to or wish to. Or rather change the form to read "and will accept a cheque made payable to xxx xxx." Worth a try

I think you just stick to your original timetable and stick to the process as described in the FAQs. Of course there is nothing to stop you just writing back and saying that. Up to you.... Good Luck - my prelim request letter went off today!

First Direct(FD) have been reading my posts! My statements arrived yesterday! I have emailed them to say I'd still like the manual intervention notes under DPA but to ignore my request for statements. I just hope they dont charge me for all the statements. I spent a happy hour yesterday reliving my financial life thro my statements and highlighting unfair charges. I have prepared a simple spreadsheet with the date description and sum of each transaction which total £500.50. I have written the preliminary letter and attached a copy of the spreadsheet (as the "schedule") We are another step closer hopefully, to a little remuneration!!

OK first direct havent provided my statements in response to my nice little email ( despite their email reply saying they would) Therefore today I have formalised things by sending the DPA letter as per the template elsewhere on this website. I can be patient (even if I dont want to be!) Here we go....

Empowerment I mean. Isnt it great. We are all empowering ourselves and each other and not only to fight back on this issue. We are all learning as we go along. There is a great feeling of support from all the contributors to this wonderful website. Whatever happens in each case we are ALL learning from the experience. I am telling everyone I can about the website but I do feel sorry for all the banks' victims who might not have access to the website or dont know to look for the information (through library pcs or whatever) These might be the most disadvantaged to whom repayment of charges would make a huge difference and even be the opportunity to make a whole new start in their lives. Martin the MSE does a wonderful job on radio and TV. I expect debt counsellors all know about it?? Can we do more to reach these people? Is something being done? What do others think?

Good Luck Saints - I'm right behind you with my claim - once the satements arrive!

Hi MrChips I'm new here too but equally confident its time I got MY money back! By the way do you mean "Bitter bit" or "Biter bit"? LOL:p Good Luck

Hello bros Well Hi everyone - I have started my apprehensive jouney to reclaim unfair penalties FD have applied to our joint account over the last 6 years. They tell me the statements have been despatched and I will keep you posted on progress - today is day 1 to a more affluent future!! Good Luck to you all too.

Hi Our on-line bank has been generally very useful to us since we opened the account in 1997, and has got us through some tough years - however they have charged us highly when we've slipped a few pounds over our overdraft limit. For a few years we had an off-set mortgage and so the interest incurred was absorbed into the monthly mortgage interest payments. This is fair enough. However the £30 penalty applied each time has always seemed steep. In fact on a couple of occassions I asked for clemency and did get it refunded- not more than a couple of times though. I suspect we are like thousands of other people who are not well-off but were ashamed when circumstances conspired to leave us a few pounds overdrawn and so we accepted the penalty - is this a british trait I wonder? Recently we re-mortgaged with Nationwide and felt it was time we tried to reclaim all those unfair penalty charges which it now seems were unlawful. (We each have long held Nationwide Flex Accounts which have never gone over any overdraft limits so we have a "parachute") Having been a keen reader of moneysavingexpert for some time I found out about CAG. I have spent a few lunch hours reading the forums and am just amazed at all the wonderful advice and help/support available. I have also read the FAQs and am ready to start the journey towards refund! I did email the bank asking for statements going back 6 years and today received a response saying the statements have been sent. Hopefully this will save me going down the Data Protection route (but I will restart that way if I dont get the statements). Anyway I will join your First Direct Forum and report my progress. Many Thanks for a wonderful site.