Today is the 19th April and I have sent my prelim. letter to Abbey Business. They have charged me £132 in fees which might not be alot compared to what some folk have lost to these people, but I want it back Thanks, Nick

I sent the data protection letter yesterday by recorded delivery. I have checked and it was delivered this morning so I am starting the 40 day clock running as of now. However is that 40 working days (i.e. 5 working days a week so 8 weeks) OR 40 consecutive days (i.e. just under six weeks)? Thanks, redn1ck

Hi, I am sending my first letter to abbey for data protection information. Date is 15/02/07 I will update thread as I make (slow) progress! Thanks. ****************************************************** Data Protection Manager Data Protection Team Regulatory Compliance Abbey House 201 Graftons Gate East Milton Keynes MK9 1AN 15/02/07 Data Protection Act 1998 Subject Access Request Dear Sir/Madam ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 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. Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you. If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response. I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 Data Protection Act subject access request fee. If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable. I would be happy to collect the Data from my local branch. Yours faithfully, redn1ck

Hello, I have received back from Lloyds all the charges that were unfairly taken off me. I had requested this under the data protection act. Most of the charges were from before 6 years and in fact started in about 1989. I have read the FAQ and looked at the section regarding claiming charges that are over 6 years old. I have 3 questions. i) Is there a thread on this where a user has taken on Lloyds for charges 6 years and over? ii) This £12 figure mentioned in the FAQ The OFT by their investigation has announced that at least all charges more than £12.00 can I claim for £5 charges which I incured when taken out money from a cash machine. iii) Drat. I did have a third question but I have now forgotten it. I will edit this post when I remember it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, redn1ck

Hi Guys, I have been going through my Abbey Business account and I have seen that they have taken out about £120 in unlawful charges. I would automatically want to claim these back BUT I am worried that the bank might close down my business account. The reason for this worry is that for all there faults the business account is free for me to use and I believe that this is the only bank which offers free business banking. Has anyone taken on Abbey over there business account (I have read some threads but did not see this mentioned). If you did what happened to your account? Kind Regards redn1ck

Hi, Just got a refund for £290 (£260 charges and £30 court fee) and a letter saying that although they believe their 'charges to be fair and transparent' they have creditied me my £290 back!!! They also say 'To avoid charges in the future you must ensure that your Smilemore current account never exceeds the agreed overdraft facility'. Does that mean if I just accept the refund and do go overdrawn I will not be able to claim? Should I write to say thank you but I only want to be charged in accordance with the OFT ruling? Also I will be paying more than 5%. I had no idea this site even exsisted until I read someone posting on the redissue football site. I think everyone who used this site heaviliy should seriously think about donating more. Many thanks to all who helped/

I initiated the court action online and have receivied the following by secure message from smile: Hello redn1ck I'm sorry you feel you have to resort to court proceedings without following our complaints procedure as laid down by Financial Services Authority. You can send your claims form to us, and we will forward it on to our Legal department. Team 314 smile PO Box 600 Delf House Skelmersdale Lancs WN8 6GF Regards Jayne Jones smile Complaints Team For full details of our complaints procedures, go to Redirecting to Smile Production Site, click on 'Talk to us' and then click on 'Complaints' on the right hand side. What annoys me is that I did complain last Christmas but was fobbed off by someone in the customer diserverice centre. Oh well just have to wait until I get my court papers and then forward on the correct stuff to smile. Regards, redn1ck

Just for seven (7) days.

Hi, Been through the FAQs and just started inputting my information on Money Claim then I realised that 14 days from now I will be on holiday. Should I wait until returning before submitting the money claim or should I continue with it now? redn1ck

Ok. I knew it would come to this. 14 days have passed since my LBA was sent to smile. Therefore I am going to go the next stage. Just going back into the FAQ for a good read before doing so. Any advice? Kind Regards, redn1ck

Just receivied the following secure message and sent the following back by secure message: Withouth prejudice Court action pending You wrote: Hello redn1ck I'd advise you to have a look at our website where you can have a look at our complints procedure, we have up to 4 weeks to send our response to your complaint and then a further 8 weeks to send our final response. I've checked your account and it apeears that our complaints team are still looking into your letter sent on the 24/08. Regards Jade However my letter stated 14 days and I will be sticking to this. I therefore need to start the process of making a claim on line this week. Could you let me know the correct address for smile that I should use in this claim. Kind Regards,redn1ck

well done. good news keeps us all going. redn1ck

Just sent the following by secure message: You wrote: Hello Mr redn1ck We have received your letter before action. We have been inundated with letters of a similar nature. Many of them involve searching through 6 years worth of bank statements. I apologise if our response is taking much longer than you anticipated. You will receive a response from us in due course. Many thanks Dorothy My Response: My original letter was received by you on the 7th September (date taken from Royal Mail website). You have 14 days from then in which to settle this claim otherwise I will begin legal action as stated in my letter. Kind Regards, redn1ck Boy did that feel good!!!

I have just read your thread and well done. I will be looking at what process you took and I will be following that. Regards, redn1ck

Sent out the LBA. Got the following reply by secure message: We have received your letter before action. We have been inundated with letters of a similar nature. Many of them involve searching through 6 years worth of bank statements. I apologise if our response is taking much longer than you anticipated. You will receive a response from us in due course. Many thanks Dorothy My initial rection is to reply to tell that the 14 days will not be extended. Some advice please. Should I reply to them to tell them I am not extending the deadline or Reply and give them one more week or Wait until the 14th day and then start court action. Kind Regards, redn1ck