Hi dx, Thanks for your reply. I simply opened a current account with RBS. I wasn't on a particularly good salary at the time and just about covered my living costs. It started with a couple of Direct Debits being bounced, but then spiralled out of control. Sometimes I received bank charges of up to £275.00 a month. I had to open another bank account elsewhere to have my salary paid into as they were taking up to a quarter of my monthly salary. To cut a very long story short, the -£500.00 was from a current account (made up mostly of bank charges). The letter I received recently states: "This letter is sent to you by way of an introduction to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd. Acting on behalf of Royal Bank of Scotland (the "Bank") and in accordance with the authority granted by the Bank on 30/12/2010, we have been appointed to arrange repayment of this liability. Our records show that you are contractually responsible for the payment of all monies due." Do they have to inform me of the breakdown/full details of the alleged debt? If so, I'm sure they wouldn't be able to provide full statements as before. Milly P.S. What does SAR mean?

Hello Everybody...again, I successfully reclaimed around £700.00 from RBS thanks to the help of CAG. I panicked and accepted 'part' of the total charges, which left me with a balance of around £500.00 (at the time I feared they may take back their offer). The remaining balance of £500.00 has been passed from one debt collection agency to another (four in total). I paid these debt collection agencies faithfully, until I noticed they weren't deducting my payments from the outstanding balance. They would chase me, ringing me at work, at home, and on my mobile. When I asked them for a statement showing the payments I'd made, they would umm and ahh about it. I had to fax them evidence of payment, etc, etc. Then, a different debt collection agency would write to me. So far four debt collection agencies in total. Today, after a weekend away, I have received yet another letter, from yet another debt collection agency...and the balance is £559.36!!!! The debt has increased and changed yet again!!!! Please, can anybody advise me what to do? This has been going on since I opened the account with RBS in 2001. Sorry, but I'm at my wits end. Yours hopefully, Milly

Hello David Thank you ever so much for this information, especially the address for litigation in England ...I have been requesting this since early June 2006! I shall definitely take your advice, wish me luck lol... Best wishes Milly

Hello All The RBoS have made an offer of £445.00, less than half of the total amount of charges I am claiming. This is not acceptable and I now want to take them to court, can anyone advise me what to do next please? I requested the address to send the court documents to in England, but they keep supplying me with an address in Scotland, does anyone have an address for England please? I have also asked them to supply me with the total amount of money outstanding on this account, which I am still paying for monthly. They wrote to me on 31st July 2006 stating that they needed more time to assess how much I owe ...as yet they have not supplied me with the outstanding amount! They placed a default notice against this account in 2003, which they have since removed and admitted it was an 'error on their part'. The debt collection agencies (3 of them) were not deducting the amounts correctly from this account, this is also why they can't supply me with the balance of the account as yet (many thanks to the forum and letter templates for this default removal!). I'm now at the end of my tether regarding all this , please could anyone advise me how to take them to court and get my balance? Best wishes Milly

Oooppps Yvonne, I meant to say prelim ...jumping the gun a bit there lol. Milly.

Hi All, in particular Yvonne Unbelievably, I received my statements, as promised!! Thank you Yvonne for the telephone number you gave me, excellent !! Now onto the LBA lol!! Thanks again Milly

Hi All Thanks for the information! Rang Mark today on the number supplied (thanks to Yvonne and Towelie ). He said same thing, that I'd receive them by recorded delivery by Friday. Fingers crossed until then lol. Cheers Milly.

Hi All I still have not received my statements from HBOS. I rang today to ask where they were and was fobbed off with "it has been put on hold as we need to search the archives, but they should be with you in 7 days". I sent the Data Protection Act letter requesting the statements on 8th June 2006 and they have already cashed my £10 cheque. What can I do to get these statements? Best Wishes Milly

Hi All I still have not received my statements from HBOS. I rang to ask where they were and was fobbed off with "it has been put on hold as we need to search the archives, but they should be with you in 7 days". I sent the DPA letter requesting the statements on 8th June 2006 and they have already cashed my £10 cheque. What can I do to get these statements? Best Wishes Milly

Hello All I have just received a response from my LBA letter to the RBOS, which reads: "I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account. However, we believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff which, we are satisfied, complies with all applicable laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give to our customers about the operation of our products. However, if you disagree, please let us know the date(s) and amount(s) of any particular items that you dispute. We will be pleased to reinvestigate. . Unless we hear from you in this regard, the charges debited to your account must stand. It is diappointing to note that you are considering legal action against the bank. Whilst I hope you will feel able to reconsider, should you decide to go ahead, please ensure that any Proceedings are served on our Registered Office address, which appears at the foot of this letter. Blah, blah, blah..." They are asking me to serve the papers to an office in Edinburgh when my account was opened in England, is this correct? I still haven't received full statements from them yet and am only claiming up to when I stopped using the account in 2003! Any advice would be most appreciated. Best wishes Milly

Dear All I have requested my account details from 4 separate debt collection agencies who worked on behalf of RBOS. They (the DCA's) have forwarded my letters to the RBOS and refuse to give me the information I requested directly. The RBOS have intercepted these letters and are dealing with my requests themselves. This looks pretty shady to me as the account is in a right mess and I think they are trying to cover their tracks! Any advice? Milly

Absolutely!! I have been waiting since 1999 for a site like this Should I claim anything back from HBOS or RBOS I will definitely make a donation of 5%, seems only fair!! BTW, you can quote me on this ! Milly x

Hi Paul Thanks for your response, sorry for not being clear, I totally admit it's a huge mess . This particular post is for the RBOS only . (The 6K/7K is from all the companies: utility companies, mortgage lenders, banks, catalogues, council tax, etc., who have ripped me off over that last six years ...even my dentist charged me for a bounced payment due to the RBOS ffs - I omitted the last bit as my posts are too long as it is already and I am scared no-one will read them!!). I do have another post for HBOS, which I am now a bit more clued up on and that's hopefully going through correctly...i.e., step-by-step and that is the one I've sent the Data Protection Act letter to, not this one. This one for the RBOS is the one I've messed up...didn't look before I lept so to speak. I think I've jumped a few stages with this one and sent the LBA letter first. I just really need to know how to rectify it, currently awaiting the RBOS' response to this. I have most of my bank statements from the RBOS and know that they've charged me £610.00 (not including interest) since 06/00 up to present day. The account is in the hands of a debt recovery agency (Wescot Credit Services) at present, who are not deducting my payments from the balance of the account correctly. Originally I had a loan with the RBOS which opened this account, but paid this loan off in full within 6 months - I kept this account open as my main current account and the default is in relation to an overdraft on it - made bigger due to their charges. Since your response I have drafted 4 letters requesting account details from the debt collection agencies who were/are dealing with this account on behalf of RBOS, namely Unidebt Collections, Intrum Justicia, Moorcroft Debt Recovery and currently Wescot Credit Services Ltd. I have also drafted a letter regarding the "Default" placed on this account (as found on this website) due to all these debt collection agencies ignoring my letters and messing the RBOS account up...phew!!! Hope this clarifies matters and someone can advise me please? Best wishes Milly

Thanks for your response Mechs - btw, HBOS wouldn't be trying to pull a fast one by not cashing the chq yet? Sorry to be such a pain, but I don't trust banks at all these days (seeing as though they've screwed me for between £6K & £7K over the last 6 years ) and I am therefore v suspicious of them!

Hi All Sorry to be a pain, but does the amount you're claiming start from the date you send your DPA letter, it's just that my six years are nearly up? Best wishes Milly

Thanks to all who responded, I'll sit tight and see what happens

Hi, I've just found your post (above) and as I haven't received a response to my post (see below). Just wondered if you're still looking for people who want to claim 'modest' amounts? Please accept my sincere apologies if you're no longer looking and I've bothered you... Hello All I've been having problems with RBOS since 2001, read your site and acted on impulse (or out of sheer desperation ). Now I can't sleep as I think I've done everything wrong . Please someone read this as I am worn down by being bombarded by letters and nasty telephone calls 5 years later . I sent the following letter: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sirs Re: Account Number: XXXX, Sort Code: XXXX. Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I am now aware that you, The Royal Bank of Scotland have been charging me, charges that are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) of the said regulations gives a non-complete list of terms, which may be regarded as unfair, such as a term that requires me as a consumer who fails in his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. I believe that your charges are disproportionately high and therefore they are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition, I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79. along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963. It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss. Your charges appear to be nothing more than a profit-making scheme. Therefore, I require you to refund my entire bank at a total of £705.16, representing the total, unlawful during the last 6 years. I hereby give you 14 days to refund the charges back on to my account. For the avoidance of doubt, if this is not done within 14 days, I will commence my claim in the courts without further warning. This action will inevitably involve you in additional costs. Yours sincerely ----------------------------------------------------------------------- After closer inspection it is not £705.16 that they have charged me within the 6 year limit. They charged me £610.00 (charges, without interest charges), or £735.28 (charges, including interest charges). Although these amounts may not seem a lot to some people, it's over a months pay for me. Which one do I claim, with or without interest charges included? Or is it too late? My account was overdrawn and the charges just made matters worse and therefore snowballed (they charged me £1,500.00 over 23 months, which pushed me deeper into an overdraft). They have said that they will contact me in 5 working days regarding the above letter. The whole situation with them is very confusing, but here goes... 1. RBOS were taking most of my wage in charges so I had it paid into another bank. I then began paying the overdraft off with RBOS from January 2001 for 2 years via standing order, everything was fine. 2. Suddenly, RBOS got a debt recovery agency to start collecting the money in January 2003. The debt recovery agency did not record payments properly and therefore (according to RBOS) they (the debt recovery agency, not RBOS) put a default on my credit report, which now ends 23/05/09. 3. RBOS again changed the company who collects the money a further 3 times. 4. Even though I have been paying the overdraft off each month for fear of getting a CCJ, the balance in Sept 2003 was £1,346.36, RBOS say the current balance is £1,318.36. This simply cannot be the case, over 3 years I cannot have only paid £28.00 off?! 5. The current debt recovery agency keep contacting me to pay the 'debt' off at a reduced rate, in fact a day after sending the above letter they sent me a letter asking again! I have refused as I am on a very low income and cannot afford to pay it off, even at the reduced rate. 6. Over five years later I can still only get a basic bank account and have a default on my credit report purely due to the situation with RBOS - a CCJ now appears the better option! With sending the above letter I feel I have totally messed things up, I just want them off my back once and for all (possibly even get some of my money back). It's really getting me down after 5 years of fighting a losing battle with them...have I totally messed up? Best wishes Milly

Thank you Powerful Rogue...well if that's all I have to lose, compared with what I have to gain...bring it on RBOS and HBOS !!!

Hello All If I took my bank/s to small claims court for bank charges for say less than £1,000 each bank, they turn up to defend themselves and win (worst case scenario), would I then be liable for all sorts of solicitors fees and court fees? Best wishes Milly

Hello All I've been having problems with RBOS since 2001, read your site and acted on impulse (or out of sheer desperation ). Now I can't sleep as I think I've done everything wrong . Please someone read this as I am worn down by being bombarded by letters and nasty telephone calls 5 years later . I sent the following letter: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sirs Re: Account Number: XXXX, Sort Code: XXXX. Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I am now aware that you, The Royal Bank of Scotland have been charging me, charges that are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Schedule 2 (e) of the said regulations gives a non-complete list of terms, which may be regarded as unfair, such as a term that requires me as a consumer who fails in his obligation, to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation. I believe that your charges are disproportionately high and therefore they are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Regulations 1999. In addition, I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79. along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963. It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss. Your charges appear to be nothing more than a profit-making scheme. Therefore, I require you to refund my entire bank at a total of £705.16, representing the total, unlawful during the last 6 years. I hereby give you 14 days to refund the charges back on to my account. For the avoidance of doubt, if this is not done within 14 days, I will commence my claim in the courts without further warning. This action will inevitably involve you in additional costs. Yours sincerely ----------------------------------------------------------------------- After closer inspection it is not £705.16 that they have charged me within the 6 year limit. They charged me £610.00 (charges, without interest charges), or £735.28 (charges, including interest charges). Which one do I claim, with or without interest charges included? Or is it too late? My account was overdrawn and the charges just made matters worse and therefore snowballed (they charged me £1,500.00 in total, which pushed me deeper into an overdraft). They have said that they will contact me in 5 working days regarding the above letter. The whole situation with them is very confusing, but here goes... 1. I began paying the overdraft off from January 2001 for 2 years via standing order, everything was fine. 2. Suddenly, RBOS got a debt recovery agency to start collecting the money in January 2003. The debt recovery agency did not record payments properly and therefore (according to RBOS) they (the debt recovery agency, not RBOS) put a default on my credit report. 3. RBOS again changed the company who collects the money a further 3 times. 4. Even though I have been paying the overdraft off each month for fear of getting a CCJ, the balance in Sept 2003 was £1,346.36, RBOS say the current balance is £1,318.36. This simply cannot be the case as I am still paying it off monthly, over 3 years I cannot have only paid £28.00 off?! 5. The current debt recovery agency keep contacting me to pay the 'debt' off at a reduced rate, in fact 2 days after sending the above letter they sent me a letter asking again! I have refused as I am on a very low income at the moment and cannot afford to pay it off, even at the reduced rate. 6. Over five years later I can still only get a basic bank account and have a poor credit rating purely due to the situation with RBOS - a CCJ now appears the better option! With sending the above letter I feel I have totally messed things up, I just want them off my back once and for all (possibly even get some of my money back). It's really getting me down after 5 years of fighting a losing battle with them...have I totally messed up? Best wishes Milly

Hello All I sent a DPA disclosure request letter to the Halifax and have received this response: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sir/Madam Completion of Request for a List of Transactions and Charges I acknowledge your letter requesting specific information on your account with us and confirm that copies of duplicate statements have been ordered and will be sent under separate cover. With regard to your request for information relating to manual intervention on your account, HBOS plc is under no obligation to record this information and therefore, I am unable to assist further with your request. Should you have any general account queries, please contact 24 hour banking on 08457 20 30 40....blah, blah, blah... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What do they mean they are 'under no obligation to record' manual intervention? What happens next? Best wishes Milly