Thanks - please keep me updated as to how you get on. I'm going to write to them today to say i'll accept it as partial settlement but will be persuing the rest so it would be great if you could keep me informed as to how you get on with your MCOL. Thanks, and good luck!

Sent to prelim to Halifax last week and they have until Friday to reply before LBA. Received a letter from Lorrian Finn, Customer Services today.... Sorry to learn you're unhappy......I have forwarded your complaint to the specialist area for full investigation [the fact that they actually have a 'specialist area' amuses me!]. You will receive acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 working days [eh? Surely this letter is just that?!]. Your concerns will be dealt with as soon as possible, but if you need to speak to a member of our complaints team please contact 08457253519. Will ignore this and go ahead with the LBA on Friday. Wish me luck!

Do you know if banks as well as credit cards are doing this? I'm just nervous that as they're willing to refund the difference I won't have a leg to stand on, as the OFT says £12 is a lawful amount. Thanks for your reply

I hope I don't get a slap on the wrist for posting this here (in addition to posting it in the Capital One section) but I was hoping for a wider audience and also thought other people other than Cap One customers might be interested in this or even offer an insight??? I have a feeling other companies may follow their lead. OK, here it is.... I sent me prelim letter to Crap One last week asking for nearly £900 in charges - They have until Friday 15 to respond. Got a letter off them today..... "Sorry you feel this way....you signed the agreement which included the fees.... As you're probably aware, the OFT are not challenging the right of banks to charge default fees, but merely the level of those fees. Although we feel £20 is just a fee [just a fee? What on earth are they on:evil: ??!!] we have reduced our fees to £12 so that we're in line with our competitors. I appreciate that you have incurred charges at a higher rate and we'd like to address this [how nice of them!]. I've reveiwed your account and as a matter of goodwill i'd like to reduce the fees we've already added to your account to £12 each. So I can do these refunds totalling £328, please sign and return the settlement form i've included. Once I get this back i'll add the refunds to your account. ........Once again, i'm sorry to hear you've had doubts about our integrity but I hope i've restored your faith in us today[!!!!!! ]" What should I do now? I don't want to settle on this but i'm worried if I get to court i'll have to go all the way and if that happens its just my luck that the judge will agree with them that they've refunded the difference so i've ended up [eventually] paying a "lawful" amount. Any help would be most appreciated. Has anyone else had this sort of offer (not just a partial offer which I know a lot of people get, but one that consists of the difference between their old unlawful charges and the new lawful ones) and said no thanks I want it all, and actually won???? Thanks

I sent me prelim letter to Crap One last week asking for nearly £900 in charges - They have until Friday 15 to respond. Got a letter off them today..... "Sorry you feel this way....you signed the agreement which included the fees.... As you're probably aware, the OFT are not challenging the right of banks to charge default fees, but merely the level of those fees. Although we feel £20 is just a fee [just a fee? What on earth are they on:mad: ??!!] we have reduced our fees to £12 so that we're in line with our competitors. I appreciate that you have incurred charges at a higher rate and we'd like to address this [how nice of them!]. I've reveiwed your account and as a matter of goodwill i'd like to reduce the fees we've already added to your account to £12 each. So I can do these refunds totalling £328, please sign and return the settlement form i've included. Once I get this back i'll add the refunds to your account. ........Once again, i'm sorry to hear you've had doubts about our integrity but I hope i've restored your faith in us today[!!!!!! ]" What should I do now? I don't want to settle on this but i'm worried if I get to court i'll have to go all the way and if that happens its just my luck that the judge will agree with them that they've refunded the difference so i've ended up [eventually] paying a "lawful" amount. Any help would be most appreciated. Has anyone else had this sort of offer (not just a partial offer which I know a lot of people get, but one that consists of the difference between their old unlawful charges and the new lawful ones) and said no thanks I want it all, and actually won???? Thanks

Can you please give me the address to which you sent your letter? I sent me prelim to the 10 days ago and have yet to have a response from them at all!

They're on to us!!!.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5323468.stm

I used Surlybonds' template and sent the letter along with the stat. notice to Natwest to try and get my Default removed. Had a letter off them today basically saying I did default on the account and they have logged the default accordingly. In my original letter I asked them to supply me with a copy of the original default notice which they haven't done - do they have to send you notice of the default before they apply it? And do they have to send you a copy if you request one??

It seems this is what they are sending out now, to try and get away with refunding less, just offering the difference back. How do you think we'll get on with these?? I'm expecting a letter back from them any day saying we'll give you the difference and I reckon if it did get to the court stage we wouldn't really have much of an argument. This is because we did sign their T's & C's but want refunds as the charges were unlawful. However if they're prepared to give us the difference back I'm not sure if we'd have much of an argument. I'm not taking their side, this is bad news to me as i'm claiming nearly £900 so I was hoping for a big fat cheque through my letterbox soon!

If I were you i'd accept it as partial settlement but steam on ahead for the rest - they charged you for it so you're entitled to it back as it was unfair. Its not right that they are only allowing the difference back. Nice try, Crap One. If it gets to the MCOL stage then you can add the interest on too! Good luck with your claim - i'm in the same boat, sent my prelim off last week, waiting for my fob off letter any day! They owe me nearly £900

Does anyone know if an account that shows up on your credit file as "settled" can be a factor in having a bad credit rating?? I have two of these and I'd love to know what they're doing to me! Anyone had any luck of getting these removed (note: they are not defaults) or can anyone point me in the right direction. I have a feeling that just asking won't get me very far! Thank you tons - this site is so helpful R

Read through the FAQ's on this site and most importantly keep to your timescale! Did you send them the £10 statutory fee? I wrote to halifax asking for a list of all charges on my account and gave them permission to deduct the fee from my account. I then got a letter back saying "do you confirm that you give permission for us to take £5" so I was like, oh well that's a fiver less than I expected so I wrote back and said yes. I was then sent an "investors Account Report" which was clearly sent to put me off - it was gibberish to me and something only someone working in a bank would understand. I also noticed the information was incomplete as it only went to Oct 05. I found a thread on here with someone's details so I rang him - Mark Kellett - and he was great, really helpful. He even apologised for my inconvenience. Anyway, they never actually took the £5 fee so it turns out I got the info for free. I told him i'd received the IAR and he said they're really hard to figure out so he printed off my statements there and then and also got his mate to print off a list just with the charges info on it! He sent them special delivery and I got them the next day. Ring if you aren't getting anywhere but try to keep most of it in writing as evidence, and always get proof of posting. I worked out they only owe me about £288 but i've send my prelim so waiting to see what happens now. Fingers crossed - good luck with your claim!!

Hi, My car is on finance with GE Woodchester and I paid an installment late a few months ago and they charged me £45! Couldn't believe it, daylight robbery or what?! Has anyone had experience of claiming from them, not just the GE store cards? Thanks everyone - love this site!

That's a great help, thanks.

Hi, A little advice needed please! I've received a breakdown of my charges and it comes to a total of over £800. I've looked in the templates library and understand that my next course of action is to send them a preliminary letter asking for the charges back, and to enclose a schedule. However, in the guidance it says not to add on the 8% interest at this stage, but on the schedule template this is already on there. So should I just delete this section? When is it that you actually add on the interest? And I heard something about adding on 0.0022 or something at some stage for interest? Any help gratefully received!

I'm not sure if its in the template library to be honest, I found a link to the template I used in the "Default Hell" thread. Hope this helps

Hi, Found a template letter on this site and sent it off Recorded Delivery to Natwest on 24 Aug to have my Default Notice removed. Also want statements to see if my default (because of an unauthorised overdraft) was a result of unfair charges, cos I want these back! Got a letter from Customer Complaints yesterday saying they need 10 more days to look into it as they need more information. Fingers crossed!

Hi, I have a pretty rubbish credit rating due to a default from Natwest in 2003 (which is as a result of unfair penalty charges so i'm claiming for them back and to have the default notice removed:mad: ). However, I need to apply for a mortgage in the not too distant future and i'm not confident that a high street lender would consider me for one. Does anyone know of any lenders that could help? Also another question - 2 old (closed) accounts on my credit file are listed as "settled" with a balance of 0. Does this have a negative impact on my credit rating?:? Thanks v. much x

No unfortunately that's what it said. I have heard of other people being asked for £5 per statement. But I specifically told them it was in accordance with the DPA and gave them permission to deduct the £10 fee from my account. Seems they're trying to put people off claiming to me.

Hi, Wrote a letter and e-mailed halifax with the following: Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my banking history with your organisation. Alternatively, a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable. This is in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Please note I am unwilling to pay £5 for each statement but I hereby give consent for the statutory DPA fee of £10 to be deducted from my account for the charges information I require. You have 40 days to comply with my request. They wrote to me saying I can have a list of statements at a charge of £5 each! How annoying after I specifically stated I was unwilling to pay this fee. Any ideas??!! Ta

OK i've read this thread from start to finish and just want to clarify a few things. I have one Default issued by Natwest in 2003 (£141) which is settled. What are the best steps to take? I will try the sympathetic approach although I doubt i'll get anywhere with this. Then if they refuse to wipe the Default from my credit file what is the best course of action? Should I be writing to Natwest or the CRA's or both and which are the best letters to use? I don't want them to stop processing all of my information, I just want the default notice removed as it is hindering me from obtaining credit and the rest of my file is ok. I know these questions have probs already been answered but please forgive me - i'm new to all of this and it seems there are a few different points on this thread. Thanks to everyone who have already posted very helpful info on this subject!

Hi, just after a bit of advice please! I received my credit file recently and it has confused me a bit! I had an account with Natwest a few years ago which was closed when I was charged for bounced DD's (I think - it was a long time ago), putting me into unauthorised overdraft which resulted into them demanding payments etc and it was eventually closed when I paid up. This is now on my credit file as "Default" and I have discovered that this is as bad as CCJ's (which I don't have). If I manage to reclaim my charges will this be removed? Also, I have two other closed accounts on my credit file which are listed as "Settled". What does this mean and is it degrogatory to my status? Is it possible to get these removed? Thanks very much!

Who did you get your mortgage with?

Hi, New to all of this so please bear with me. After reading all about claiming back unfair bank charges I am interested in seeing if I can claim anything back from Natwest. I am going to write to them to ask for a breakdown of the charges that were applied to my account (which was closed in 2002) to see if this is in fact the reason i became badly overdrawn. I incurred a fortune in interest from an unauthorised overdraft and basically i'd like to know if anyone else has had any luck in claiming this interest back as well as the penalty charges?? I paid up in full and I have since discovered this account is listed on my credit rating as "default" so my rating isn't very good. I want to know if I am entitled to this money back i.e. if the interest was a result of unfair charges and if I do get it back I want the "default" listing on my credit rating removed.:? Thanks ......