Just to let you all know, I have just recieved a settlement offer from the HSBC for £2,475.20!!!! I originally went for £3,406.18 (£500 of that was interest). They have refused to acknowledge that they are at fault blah blah. I am going to accept the settlement, it's funny but I only sent them the LBA and they have settled, I was so wrapped up with the continuing Abbey National saga, I paid little attention to the HSBC claim and was going to take them to court one at a time, the Abbey first as they have annoyed me the most. So this was a lovely surprise in my post box last night. I haven't been a big thread poster, but I have been watching others and taken the advice I've read and so I'd like to thank everyone on this site and say dont give up - some battles are easier won than others!

I sent my letter refusing to accept the £348 and I get a letter back by return of post that says they are very sorry that I am still not happy and that they will investigate further and let me know within 4 WEEKS! Ridiculous, they're just stalling. I will send back another letter saying that's again ridiculous and then start court proceedings. I have warned them that it will cost them more in the long run, but they obviousley dont care!

Hi I am sending out my rejection letter of their offer and would like to send them a list of cases won against them in the county court, is there such a list available for download on the forum? Thanks

How odd that it is the same amount, I thought mine was that becuase of the overdraft amount but maybe it is just a coincidence. PLease let me know what their next offer is and we can work out their game plan!

Cant believe I did that! Thanks, had top read the whole post several times before I noticed it.

Ha! I think my email rant could have had an impact. I received a letter as follows.... " Thank you for your letter dated 23rd February 2007 and subsequent correspondence about the charges to you bank account. I have now carried out a full investigagtion on your behalf. I'm sorry you are unhappy with the charges and I understand you would like these refunded. Although the charges were correct, as a gesture of goodwill, I am happy to refund £348. You account will be updated within the next 10 working days. I appreciate your feelings on this matter but we are satisfied that the charges do not contravene the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999. We also comply with the office of fair trading, in dealing fairly and openly with our customers. When opening your account you were provided with information detailing the terms and conditions. We also sent you regular updates and tarriff of charges, which details the amounts of our charges. I have enclosed a further copy for you." The rest is just blah. It is remarkable that the amount they are paying into the account is the amount of the current outstanding overdraft. As soon as the moeny is in there I will close the account. I have also drafted a letter of rejection to them thanking them for the offer and accepting it as a first installment and reminding them of the further costs to be incurred by themselves should I take them to court and win and giving them until 15th June to make a further offer. lets see what happens, quite excited now as I am taking the "gesture of goodwill" as a sign of submission and the scabbgy shall be beaten!

mooboo vbmenu_register("postmenu_782495", true); Basic Account Customer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: London Posts: 6 Hi So, following my previuos thread below whe I first received my 4 weeks fob off letter, I since sent in my LBA. At exactly 4 weeks after the initial fob off letter I receive another one that reads like this; "As you know, we are currently invetsigatinbg your complaint that you raised with Abbey four weeks ago. I am sorry for the delay you are experiencing and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continual patience. Our research is taking longer than expected becuase we want to make sure a full investigation is done. If we are unable to complete our investigation beforehand, we will write to you again in four weeks time to let you know how we are getting on. I am sorry that it is taking longer than originally thought and would like to reassure you that your complaint is important to us" Signed Richard Harris Head of Complaints Now - what Bull, I emailed this to him... Dear Mr Harris, I am writing in response to your letter dated 18th May 2007 explaining the delays to investigating my complaint. Firstly I wish to point out that my case is not a complaint and I am simply claiming back unfair penalty charges applied to my account. With respect Sir, you must think that I was born yesterday. Your letter is nothing more than a delay tactic employed by the Abbey to retain the funds longer and discourage those who are not fully committed to seeing through process to the courts to quit. I am very committed to this course of action and will indeed see this through. Your letter states that it is taking longer than expected to investigate, and could take up to another 4 weeks or longer. I find it difficult to believe that it takes this long to investigate the charges when it took me two hours to look through my statement, highlight the charges, enter them onto a spreadsheet and write my initial letter. It seems that your department’s excuses are as over inflated as your bank charges. So far I have been very patient, I was indeed hopeful of resolving this with speed when my statements were sent to me quickly and without complaint, however my patience is running thin and I wish to have this matter resolved within the next 7 days. I require repayment in full of this money by cheque made payable to **************. If you do not comply fully by the 1st June 2007 then I shall begin a claim against you in the county court for the full amount plus interest (from the date filed in court, not from my initial claim to you) plus my costs (time for preparation of the court bundle, lost working hours) plus court fees. This of course will add more money to my claim and I will not accept anything other than a settlement in full once I begin the court process. I would be willing to come to a settlement agreement with you within the next 7 days. I calculate that you have taken £3,290.50, plus £613.56 interest at the statutory rate under the s.69 County Courts Act, total £3,904.06. This amount is likely to escalate to over £4,200 once court costs are added as well as further interest. I look forward to your response, I was having a bit of a rant really as this last fob off letter really annoyed me. I will file at court next week if I haven't heard anything further, which I fully expect not too. I sit worth me continually contacting them or should I just stop now and file? Thanks in advance 4 weeks fob off letter thread: I sent in my Prelim letter to the Abbey on Thurs 19th April and they replied pretty much immediatley stating that they are very sorry about my complaint and that they are making one member of the team responsible for investigating my claim and this could take 4 weeks. As i asked for a response to my letter within 14days can I do anything at the end of this week, or do I just need to wait for them to get their act together and send me the outcome of the investigation? I really want to get this moving. Also can I expect a go away letter in 4 weeks - has anybody else had this letter? I've being looking through other threads but cant find anything similar. Thats a new one-making a member of staff responsible for your claim!!! If every bank did this then they could solve the UK's unemplyment problem overnight. You need to wait until your 14 days are up and then proceed to the next step-ignore rthe 4 weeks Thanks PPMAN159 Should I acknowlege their first letter when I send the LBA or just ignore it? Personally I would ignore it and carry on to the next stage in the process.

Dear Dizzy, I used the Martin Lewis template and received the last 14 months statements within a couple of days and then the remainder as photocopies of the microfishe records with no problem or hassal, so I dont think it's the letter. Reading through this site though many people are having lots of different problems and I think it's all about where you send your letters in the first place and who opens them. I get the feeling that there is no set way for the banks to deal with this and if you get a person on the wrong day then it can be much more difficult. I would also expect them to monitor sites such as this to determine what's getting all of our knickers in a twist and make it worse in an eternal bid to hold onto our cash! I am not an expert in this but I would send another letter detailing exactly what you want (again) and letting them know that they cannot withold the information requested and that they have acknowledged the receipt of your cheque. Good luck x

Thanks PPMAN159 Should I acknowlege their first letter when I send the LBA or just ignore it?

Hi I sent in my Prelim letter to the Abbey on Thurs 19th April and they replied pretty much immediatley stating that they are very sorry about my complaint and that they are making one member of the team responsible for investigating my claim and this could take 4 weeks. As i asked for a response to my letter within 14days can I do anything at the end of this week, or do I just need to wait for them to get their act together and send me the outcome of the investigation? I really want to get this moving. Also can I expect a go away letter in 4 weeks - has anybody else had this letter? I've being looking through other threads but cant find anything similar. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for that Livelylad. I have just been looking at some other threads about DPA's and it seems lots of people are having trouble getting their statements from the Abbey. I didn't have any trouble, I sent my first letter, but forgot to put the cheque in, so sent another the next day with a cheque. I immediatley got a reply asking me to fill out a form and send back with a cheque (which I didn't do I waited to see what would happen with the second cheque sent). About three days later I got a letter saying that the lasy 14months statements would arrive in 5 to 7 working days, but they were in the same post box as the letter. The letter also stated that the rest of my statements were saved to microfishe and that it would not be possible to print hem and send them, however they would send me a list of transactions on my account between 2001 and 2005 under a seperate cover. I recived these approximatley 14 days later. Maybe I got in there just before they got snowed under, but I got the feeling that they have no choice but to send the information. I hope this news helps someone.

Hi A quick question, if the Banks have the power to close your account, can they demand full repayment of any loan, mortgage or credit card with the same bank and close those accounts? Just about to send my first letter to the Abbey to reclaim £3290.50 in charges.

I am going to start with the Abbey National. I have read a few forums and it seems like they are quite formidable, has anyone had any major nightmares with them? I have all of my statements as I'm self employed and have to legally keep them for 6 years, so I'll go home tonight and start to work out how much money of mine they have! Next will be HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds TSB the list is endless.