Secondly, Are unauthorised overdraft fees reclaimable? yes Ok and this is via the standard prelim letter this one "*My request* I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last XXXX years. I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs. Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary. *Your responsibilities* I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law. I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary. I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now. *What I require* I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX . I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter Additionally you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account. In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above, I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable. *My targets to resolve this matter* I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets. I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments. After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline. ***************" I would of left link but I can't open the prelim page in library

Hi. I'm helping my Dad out here claiming bank charges back. He's got every statement he ever had!, though I know we can only go back 6 years. A few questions. Is the 6 year date from date you start proceedings I.E Prelim letter? or when it gets to court. I ask because there is a charge 22/01/01. So The prelim letter will be sent and recieved (hand posted for effect lol) but obviously if it eneded up with a court case it would be outside six years. Secondly, Are unauthorised overdraft fees reclaimable? after all my Father didn't ask them to authorise the payments that made him overdrawn. Thirdly, the interest that arises after the unauthorised charges Thanks in advance

On going to the above said section. I can access the data request template, the letter before action template, but not the prelim template. Everytime I do try, it comes up with the log in page. No other sections of the forum do this. Any Ideas?

Friend took broadband total option 3 out. Now ever since it went live 15 days ago, it spends more time unconnected than connected through no fault of hers. She has been on tech line nmerous occasions. over a hour twice and no less than 14 times. She phoned up on her 14th day to state she wanted to cancel as she is paying for a service that isnt being provided. They said yes thats fine blah blah blah etc etc someone wil call u back after 12 onwards, we cant me more specific though (funny that isnt it?) No phone call anyway. She phoned up next day and stated the same..... they said she cant cancel without paying whole 12 month contract now! she said not what she was told, they wouldn't put her through to a supervisor... reason just NO. Now doesn't the 14 day long distance selling come into this? Also any advice on a letter to bt stating legal requirements? because surely this is blatant lack of service that was paid for? Any help appreciated.

I got this letter back this morning off Natwest saying ....... Thank you for your further letter of 2nd September 2006. I regret that there is little that I can add constructively to my last letter and note your proposed action. I have alerted our lawyers and litigation department accordingly. May I please remind you that the address to use when initiating legal documents is that of our registered office below Little he can add constructively??? How about answering my question for a breakdown of the charges? Does that mean I can go ahead with court action now or do I have to wait the full 14 days? Prelim letter sent 18-08-06 NatWest branch manager offer in full aslong as I give up future rights to question charges. Not accepted 22-08-06` Letter back to NatWest accepting offer but with no conditions attacthed. 29-08-06 Letter back from natwestcustomer relations offering no further action and have a nice day basicaly 31-08-06 LBA sent to NatWest 02-09-06 Letter off natwest saying go ahead.06/09/06

Bloody cheeky NatWest staff. Not only are they breaking the law by making these charges, they showed a complete disregard for the data protection act! My girlfriend went into my branch and the Manager (of all people!) entered my Acc number and upon seeing my name I presume asked "are you mr Herrings partner" my partner replied "yes". The manager then went on to ask do you know whats going on in regards for his claim against the bank charges" WTF?? "as I replied to his original letter and his second letter has been passed on to customer relations" My gf just said "no I haven't a clue" Now is NatWest treading a fine line here? Anyone want to give me a rough outline of a letter to send to them regarding this incident? Any money in this for me? All answers on a postcard to Natwest are a bunch of unprofessional @@@@@ Po Box 123 Bankersfield Theres a deliberate mistake in the spelling of bankersfield

Update in my case. Prelim letter sent 18-08-06 NatWest branch manager offer in full aslong as I give up future rights to question charges. Not accepted 22-08-06` Letter back to NatWest accepting offer but with no conditions attacthed. 29-08-06 Letter back from natwestcustomer relations offering no further action and have a nice day basicaly 31-08-06 LBA sent to NatWest 02-09-06 Answer awaiting

Hi just want some advice for my second letter to NatWest. On 18-08-06 I sent the prelim letter in the libary. Amount claimed was £76. No schedule of charges needed as I have every statement for last 3 years and thats as long as I've been with them. Got letter back today 25-09-06. Seems pretty standard apart from one bit, the bit in bold. irst I'll type the letter up so you can see for yourselves thank you for your letter of 18th august 2006 and I apologise for any dissatifaction caused by the application of charges to your account. we believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. we consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied with your agreement with us and our published tarrif, 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 our customers about the operation of our products We have considered and responded to the OFT's statement of 5th april 06. We do not accept the OFT's findings in relation credit card fees. We are concerned that the OFT has publicaly called into question the setting of charges applied to other other products including current accounts. The OFT has restricted its investigation to credit cards and made no attempt to consult with RBS or the industry in relation to other entirely different products. Consequently against that background we must differ with the views expressed in your letter. Despite this we have taken the opportunity to review the charges that have been applied to your account and as a exceptional matter we have agreed to refund you £76 as a gesture of good will. (1)Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to our charges. how ever our T&C's will continue to apply and any charges that accure in the future must stand. if you agree to accept our offer on this basis, please sign and return this in the enclosed prepaid envelope. once returned arrangements will be made immediately to credit you account how ever our T&C's will continue to apply and any charges in the future must stand. thank you again for taking the trouble to write and i hope that your concern is resolved to your satisfaction Branch manager (1) They offer me my money in full as long as I sign my rights away. LMAO yeah right. Do I send the second letter back, or does it need a alteration to request no terms attacted to settlment? Also I forgot to claim for 2 other charges as I wrote the letter at some untimely hour in the morning and just forgot to list all the charges duh. So I would like to finish this one off and go for the other 2 after. I did ask for a £50 over draft 2 months ago. I got refused because they couldn't offer me a current account and step accounts don't offer any credit products. Now I wouldn't of had a unpaid DD problem if I had this service. I would like to try and use this situation as a leverage point in getting an overdraft for £100 to avoid furter situations. To sum up I would like to ask if the stand second letter is the one to send back or does it need to be altered? and secondly anyone word part of the letter to ask for an overdraft stating I've already asked for one and if i had one it could stop any further problems. Thanks for your help, Simon

My branch. I would suggest thought the address on your recieved letter would be the best to reply to. Simon

Hi just want some advice for my second letter to NatWest. On 18-08-06 I sent the prelim letter in the libary. Amount claimed was £76. No schedule of charges needed as I have every statement for last 3 years and thats as long as I've been with them. Got letter back today 25-09-06. Seems pretty standard apart from one bit, the bit in bold. irst I'll type the letter up so you can see for yourselves thank you for your letter of 18th august 2006 and I apologise for any dissatifaction caused by the application of charges to your account. we believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. we consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied with your agreement with us and our published tarrif, 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 our customers about the operation of our products We have considered and responded to the OFT's statement of 5th april 06. We do not accept the OFT's findings in relation credit card fees. We are concerned that the OFT has publicaly called into question the setting of charges applied to other other products including (1)current accounts. The OFT has restricted its investigation to credit cards and made no attempt to consult with RBS or the industry in relation to other entirely different products. Consequently against that background we must differ with the views expressed in your letter. Despite this we have taken the opportunity to review the charges that have been applied to your account and as a exceptional matter we have agreed to refund you £76 as a gesture of good will. (2)Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to our charges. how ever our T&C's will continue to apply and any charges that accure in the future must stand. if you agree to accept our offer on this basis, please sign and return this in the enclosed prepaid envelope. once returned arrangements will be made immediately to credit you account how ever our T&C's will continue to apply and any charges in the future must stand. thank you again for taking the trouble to write and i hope that your concern is resolved to your satisfaction Branch manager point one - I have a step account not a current account. If that makes a difference Point two - They offer me my money in full as long as I sign my rights away. LMAO yeah right. Do I send the second letter back, or does it need a alteration to request no terms attacted to settlment? Also I forgot to claim for 2 other charges as I wrote the letter at some untimely hour in the morning and just forgot to list all the charges duh. So I would like to finish this one off and go for the other 2 after. Thirdly, I did ask for a £50 over draft 2 months ago. I got refused because they couldn't offer me a current account and step accounts don't offer any credit products. Now I wouldn't of had a unpaid DD problem if I had this service. I would like to try and use this situation as a leverage point in getting an overdraft for £100 to avoid furter situations. To sum up I would like to ask if the stand second letter is the one to send back or does it need to be altered? and secondly anyone word part of the letter to ask for an overdraft stating I've already asked for one and if i had one it could stop any further problems. Thanks for your help, Simon

Hi just a quick question. I have a car finance loan with the above mentioned companie. Due to a bank error (yes they do happen SNIGGER) it was paid late. Now I have a 20 pound charge for a letter telling me about my bank not paying the D/D. Based on the bank charges section and credit cards, doesn't this fall under the same section of unfair charges i.e I can tell them where to go with the charges? Thanks in advanced.