I've heard that the courts will still hear cases requesting repayment of bank charges if the person claiming is going through a time of financial hardship. I definitely fit this criteria and wondered how to go about reclaiming the charges using this as a reason for the courts to hear my case. I have already successfully reclaimed unfair charges on one account a few weeks before the OFT took the banks to the high court, and so already have all the information I need regarding the charges etc. what I need to know is a) is it still the case that I can still reclaim these unfair bank charges if I am going through a time of financial hardship? and if so, b) how and at what point do I mention the financial hardship I am going through? i.e. do I mention it on my first or second letter to the bank? how should I word it? and at what point in the letter do I put it in. c) what type of evidence of financial hardship should I gather to support my claim? and at what point ahould I present it? any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.....

excellent mate, thanks. I'll search out whatever tickets I do have and read the thread you linked. thanks again.

hi, I've been searching the forums for some practical advice as to what to do to claim back a few parking tickets from the last few years, but can't find any actual guidelines of what to do to get the money back. is there a thread already up that someone can link me to that explains this? basically, I've had about 3 or 4 tickets, both from the wakefield district council and NCP, a couple of which have escalated to hundreds of pounds due to court orders etc being sent to my previous address and me knowing nothing of the escalating charges. main problem is that I'm no longer in possession of a couple of the offending articles, is there a way I can get copies of these tickets from the council/courts? also, who do I approach to claim the money back? do i have to take them to court? or should I first approach the council/ncp about the matter? would be greatful for any help.

if you can prove you were in possesion of a valid permit, then I think you'd have a very strong case as you could say that the permit WAS on display on the time and the attendent administering the ticket must have made a mistake by not spotting it. surely, it would then be up to the parking attendent to provide some kind of photographic evidence that your permit wasn't clearly displayed. I'm no expert, just my tuppence.

bollox. I've just found the section that tells me everything I needed to know on the cpr response, but I already wrote a detailed response such as the one above. now I'm wondering if I've written the correct responses as I couldn't copy word for word obviously....

nice one paul, that's been a great help, I've copied your response and I'm now going to adapt it to my case...... I really can't thank you enough mate! all the best Jon

I've ballsed up my claim because I copied a template letter from the Daily Mail (don't ask why I was even reading that rag) parrot fashion and it didn't contain account number details or an attachment of the actual charges (there was no opportunity to do this on MCOL). now the bank has entered a defence stating that my my claim is no good due to the ommission of these details. I have until April 13th to get these details to them and the court.... They are asking for me to supply them with CPR Part 18 by April 13th with these details, but I have no idea how to go about doing this, do I need a special form, how do I word the response? any help would be greatly appreciated as otherwise I think this claim will fail. here is how my claim was worded:- "Between 09/01/04 and 31/07/06 the defendant applied a number of charges to the claimant's current account. These charges are unlawful because they do not reflect the true costs incurred by the bank for unauthorised borrowing etc. Furthermore, they are a breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 which state: "A term is unfair if it requires any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation." A charge is deemed to be penalty if, in reference to the case of Wilson v Love in 1896, it does not reflect the true cost of an item. I am entitled to claim interest at 8% per annum from the date when charges were first applied to my account until a judgement is made. The Claimant asks the court to enter judgment in their favour for the sum of £1561 plus interest." and now as their defence they say:- "1. ...............that the Particulars of Claim do not disclose reasonable grounds for bringing a claim against the Defndant to recover the bank charges (and interest thereon) referred to in the Particulars of Claim or any other sum(s). In the event that the claim is not properly particularised then the Defendant will apply to strike out the claim and/or foe summary judgement in respect of the same. 2. In the Particulars the Claimant states "The Defendant applied a number of charges to the Claimant's current account". 2.1 If the Claimant is to bring such a claim against the Defendant then the Claimant must (among other things) plead the account(s) to which the charges have been applied. 3. No admissions are made as to what charges have been debited to the Claimant's bank account. 4. The Claimant is put to strict proof of each and every charge the subject of the claim and must identify in respect of each charge (a) the date the same was debited, (b) the amount of the same and © the description applied to the charge." I understand that they basically want me to send them the list of charges and to what account they were charged, but just don't know how to word the response to make it legally tight, and also if I have to send these details to both the court and to Cobett's (Nat West's solicitors) or what... I realise now that some major points have been ommitted and I've really made a balls up, but any help in this would be greatly appreciated nonetheless.... thanks in advance Jon

shit, I think I clicked "yes"... do you think this is going to balls up my claim?

don't know whether to tick yes or no after this question on my online moneyclaim form... can someone please advise me about this so I can submit my claim? thanks in advance........

can anyone confirm whether or not this applies to natwest bank accounts too, or is just relevent for their credit cards? as I am in the process of reclaiming charges on 1 current account and 2 business accounts..

I was about to ask the same question, as I've just sent them a LBA for over a grand of charges on my current account.

this is no doubt going to happen to me too. I htink you just start the whole process again to reclaim the new charges.... but I'm not 100% sure

I know its tempting to accept the offer, but please keep pushing for the entire amount that they have xxxxxx from you.

Hi. I'm Jon, and I couldn't believe it when I heard the news about these charges being illegal. NatWest have been (and still are!) making my life a misery for the past few years and when they refused to help by extending my overdraft (because of the bad credit created by their own charges), I swore revenge on them. I'm really hoping this comes off and am taking my time to make sure I go through the process in the correct manner, so as not to balls things up..... anyway, good luck to everyone else in reclaiming the money the banks have xxxxxx from us...... peace. Jon

the banks have xxxxxx over £2000 from my current account in the last 6 years, plus another £1500 or so from my business accounts. I really hope I can get these xxxxxxxx back for this... Please do not use swear words.