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Yes, that's confirmed what I thought I'd be best off doing. And yes, I see what you mean about layout--it was very tiring on the eye, all those great wodges of text. Sorry about that. Now I get it. And on with the revised letters requesting info on manual interventions. I appreciate the help. Thanks!

Hello This is my first post, so to give a bit of background--I found this lovely site via Martin Lewis' moneysavingexpert website, and have been reading and reading for the last few weeks, so that I get the most out of the good advice being regularly doled out. I'm not very forum-wise, so it took me till a moment ago to work out how to post a new message. I have been with First Direct practically since they started up, but over the last five years or so, our joint finances have been under pressure, so that overdraft led to bigger overdraft led to loan led to bigger loan led to FD shrugging their collective shoulders. The thing is, they were very keen to lend, often suggesting it; I'm not shirking my responsibility for the mess, but they made it so very easy to think I'd sorted it, when in fact I'd just postponed the dreadful day. This went on for years; some months our bank charges looked like a charitable bequest to FD, and I started to feel like a cash cow for them. We stupidly had 2 cheque accounts with them (don't ask) and it was only the other day it dawned on me...WE WERE PAYING TWICE AS MANY CHARGES, with both accounts slipping into overdraft etc. Making it worse, we had a FD credit card as well as a HBOS credit card, and 2 storecards. Stupid us. Now, in the last six months, with much blood, sweat and tears and the aid of a redundancy lump sum and a remortgage and by following Martin Lewis' tips, all cards bar one paid off, and that last one reduced, and soon to be balance- transferred to a 0% new provider, one First Direct account cleared, paid off all charges and closed, the other account brought back into line into the black. I have opened another bank account to parachute into if necessary AND NOW I WANT MY MONEY BACK. For years it feels like I've been working for FD, blast them, under a horrible black cloud, a dead weight of foreboding.Though I have internet banking, sometimes I couldn't even bring myself to log on, to open an envelope, or even talk to them on the phone. But now--this site has made me angry at how I've been done over, relieved of my money they never should have taken in the first place. I never knew, just took it for granted I'd transgressed their byzantine rules and had to pay the penalty. I trusted in their integrity, more fool me.Still, it's made me hopeful also, given me back my power. I'm in charge of my finances, and intend to remain so, and now I've read the FAQS, and all the myriad pieces of useful stuff here, I'm ready to initiate proceedings. A cursory tally-up before getting all the statements showed HBOS charges at £764, and FD in excess of £3500. Hope I haven't rambled on too boringly, but I got a bit het up just writing all that down. It's been a struggle; between them, FD and HBOS have been like sharks in a feeding frenzy, taking chunks out of us for years. When the overdraft was exceeded by a few pounds, but sufficient funds were in the other account, they did nothing except slap on their swingeing charges.. and then those charges would eat into next month's income, and over time, the snowball became an avalanche. When it got really bad before Christmas, they advised me to cancel all my direct debits to avoid potential unpaid dd charges. They said I'd just get reminders in the post and could pay the bills more slowly that way...like a moron I did so, only to get hit by cancellation charges for companies whose dd's I'd stopped. This has been a long introduction; hope it makes sense. I have a question though...on 13/4/06 I sent off DPA request letters to FD and HBOS (CC) but I omitted to request details of manual interventions; the template I used (regrettably not the brilliant one from this site) did not include it. After some phone reminders, I have today received by courier Omega a full set of statements (bank and credit card)free of charge from FD and by post from HBOS 2 weeks ago, though in neither case are manual interventions even mentioned, I guesss because I didn't ask... Do I need to go back to FD and HBOS to get this information, giving them another 40 day deadline to comply, or can I just calculate charges incurred and proceed to LBA? I don't want to give the bank any loophole or miss out anything that might compromise my claim, however small a detail. As an ex-civil servant(Social Security appeals) I probably have an unhealthy regard for minutiae, but there you go. I have thoroughly searched the FAQS and posts for a definitive answer, but if it's there, I have failed to spot it. To conclude, thank you for running this marvellous and compassionate website and helping duffers like me to take on the bankers. I look forward to the next step...

I too found this site on http://www.moneysaving expert.com and it made me want to do something instead of just feeling like an (unwilling) cash cow for First Direct. I just phoned them (using the cheap geographical tel. no.-0113 2345678 rather than the expensive 0845 one they publicise, by the way) and I asked them for the last six years of charges on the two accounts we have, as I no longer had the complete record in statements. I was told this would cost me £10 for the letter they would have to produce. Hm. I suppose they are justified?