I received this email today........ Unfair Bank Charges any takers...? No......I think the CAG can handle it...

Rob forget trying to reason with them (just read the posts to see what compassion they have) IE: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/48041-my-wife-l.html#post457694 If you know how much they have taken in charges send them a preliminary letter from templates library requesting refund. If they dont respond 'positively', follow proceedure, ie: LBA It is unlikely that they will be sympathetic to your situation, responding only to court action.

THE CONCLUSION.... http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/54827-alliance-leicester-denial-but.html?highlight=tonyevic

Recorded delivery works for most things but big organisations circumnavigate the system which really is negilgent of the Post Office. see link http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank/52725-post-office-have-lost.html?highlight=ROYAL+MAIL

Hi your account charges and harrasment by phone are two seperate issues and cannot be justified by either. If you are still having problems then you should seek redress, as this is un-acceptable. Halifax's response is negligent. Hilliards is correct in that you should send an S.A.R to confirm charges that have been applied to your account and that you seek to recover ALL the charges. Here is a useful site in tracking 08 numbers, and also avoiding paying their rates if you have a 'free call' allowance SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers IE: 08708 503 492 = 0113 2977895 BANK OF SCOTLAND

Well......... I consider it a great victory today, but in truth a travesty where common sense has failed. Alliance and Leicesters dogmatic approach and continual lapses of denial turned a simple breach of £16 into a farce of £105.02. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/48041-my-wife-l.html?highlight=tonyevic I received a letter today from Optima legal services along with a cheque for £105.02 in settlement. It contains many inaccuracies which I feel compelled tp reply to: Firstly it states that our client, Alliance and Leicester takes issue with your claim on a number of points: 1) The claim appears to be based on the argument that you should not pay any charges at all. Denial by A&L, I have never suggested that there should not be a penalty, only a fair one. If A&L responded postively at the outset all this could have been avoided. 2) Even if it were correct (which is not accepted) that the charges were greater than A&L actual loss in dealing with your account.A&L is still entitled to charge you something for the expense. I (and every other CAG member) have asked the banks for detailed informatiom about the way they charge.We have given them ample opportunity to produce this,. so that they may 'justify' the charge actually reflects the cost. THIS THEY HAVE FAILED TO DO and why, because simply they cant ( A&L dont actually send out letters of charges, you have to wait for the statement to appear) 3) However, our client is mindful of the further expenses of pursuing this matter through the court and has therefore decided in this instance to settle the claim in full. This obviously is denial again, its not the principle, but the cost. If the Banks really believed thier charges are fair, why have they settled so many?. I think that says it all. Today I will be going in to town to close the account and withdraw the £5.16 thats hopefully still there!? and depositing the cheque into the new account (which incidently told my wife they were not allowed to charge more than £12 for account breaches) Thanks to CAG again. Wishing you all a GREAT new year Tony and wife:smile:

Hi my advice is no matter how painful it is to move banks again..DO IT.. My experience of A&L cannot be described in words here, I have nothing but contempt for them. See thread My wife v A&L http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/48041-my-wife-l.html?highlight=tonyevic Regards Tony

Hi Dont be put off by the A&L or the fact its only £34. I found the A&L very obstructive and all pleas of common sense and deceny fell on deaf ears. They were not interested and would only quote 'terms and conditons'. When I threatened to take this further (they flagged this on the account) they insisted I listened to their terms and conditions and that their charges were fair and competitive. They finally agreed to refund one charge only of the four (£100 in total which stemmed from being £16 OD) DONT WASTE YOUR TIME PHONING THEM ANYMORE (I have instigated court action against them for £75+costs+interest) You will need to open another account because its a good chance that if you pursue the forrmal route they will close your account Send a preliminary letter requesting payment IN FULL from the templates library Follow the guides in the CAG

Hi everyone, despite the letter from Halifax last week (see link) they have today credited my account with £1417. I had claimed some account interest, which along with the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) fee amounting to £250.87 they were going to defend. I phoned them and agreed (rather than contest account interest charges), only expecting to receive £1167. So...... Thanks to CAG and its members, as far as this dispute goes there are only two things left for me to do 1) Donate 2) Fill in the survey I wish everyone a happy new Year and an easy track to reclaiming whats rightly theirs. Regards and Best wishes to all Tony:D http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank/32988-tonyevic-halifax.html?highlight=TONYEVIC 22/09/06 FIRST POST 25/09/06 SAR SENT 03/11/06 STATEMENTS RECEIVED 06/11/06 REQUEST FOR PAYMENT SENT (£898 + £208 account interest) 07/11/06 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT RECEIVED 18/11/06 OFFER OF £328 RECEIVED 21/11/06 LBA SENT ACCEPTING PART OFFER 22/11/06 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT RECEIVED REJECTING FULL PAYMENT 04/12/06 MCOL FOR £1417.67 £898 account charges £208 account interest £181 8% interest £120 court costs £10 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) fee 5/12/06 DEEMED TO BE SERVED TO THE HAILFAX ON 10/12/06 (RESPONSE BY HALIFAX REQUIRED BY 24/12/06) 21/12/06 SETTLEMENT OFFER LESS £250.87 RECEIVED 27/12/06 FULL AMOUNT CREDITED TO BANK ACCOUNT 27/12/06 DONATION AND SURVEY COMPLETED

Hi Jezza you havent mentioned what type of loans they are so I assume they are standard loans with normal terms and conditions which makes them irrellevant to your current account. Do any of the charges relate to the loans?, if not Its unlikely that it will make any difference Any retaliation of the banks due to action by you would not be well received. Do you have your loan agreements? Is this link any help? Terms and conditions Regards

HALIFAX PAYS UP....nearly all Hi Halifax have sent me a letter in response to MCOL They have offered the £898 plus £148.80 as interest @ 8% plus £120 court costs, Totalling £1166.80 of the £1421 that I was claiming. What they arent refunding is £250.87 which they claim I'm not entitled to, which is made up of account interest and £10 SAR fee. The letter also contains other standard stuff about Halifax being unable to recover court costs etc etc and its not an admission of liabilty and further breaches of account management will result in their service being withdrawn...... They have said they will file a defence against the £250.87 if I pursue that Im of the opinion that I would not be able to justify the re-imbursment of account interest, though inflated because of charges.

Hi it is evident that you are suffering from harrasment by the number of calls you have received. There is a link within CAG (in the information section.....some where!) that provides templates and advice. This is fine if you know who is calling you and where from.. My advice, and it normally works on the first instance is to first ask for the persons name who has called you (hard luck if you cant understand the bombay accent..sorry folks but its true) secondly you quote the following act, asking them if they are familiar with it and that it is an offence, Inform them that they may continue to contact you via mail but they must remove your phone numbers from their database or you will report them. Some creditors or their agents rely on debtors ignorance of the law regarding what a creditor can or can't do. Harassment by a creditor or their agent is a criminal offence under various Government acts. t The Administration of Justice Act 1970. Section 40 of the act provides that a person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under contract, he or she: (a) harasses the other with demands for payment which by their frequency, or the manner or occasion of their making, or any accompanying threat or publicity are calculated to subject him or his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation; (b) falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it; © falsely represent themselves to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; (d) utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not. Paragraph (a) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise legal) for the purpose of : (1) of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or (2) of the enforcement of any liability by legal process. It is also provided that a person may be guilty of an offence under paragraph (a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment. Hope this helps.

Thanks people..... Ive checked the interest again (8p) but as the charges were only levied on 23.11.06 and again due on 23/12/06 (yes you did read that as 23/12/06) the interest is negliiable! Believe you me.....if I could sting the *#^$~>? for more I would, given the way they treated my wife... they made me :-x:-x:-x:-x:-x Ps should I send them the letter to close the account? (after withdrawing the £5.16 in credit first) I reckon they wont close it beacuse of the impending charges due on the 23.12.06... Opinions/Options?

Next time the Halifax advert comes on Ive got some new lyrics for the CAG menbers to sing along to.......:rolleyes: Halifax stings you more charges than all the banks for sure A rate you will abhor So what you moaning for We charge you extra, 50 times extra Give your Halifax bank the boot Visit the CAG and take the loot It only takes the template route To get your money and give a hoot Its a piece of cake so don't delay There bank accounts, don’t like to pay What are you waiting for Come on walk this way They charge you extra (repeat to fade

14/12/2006 After A&L respone today and adding another £25 in charges I have issued a MCOL for £105 Charges £75 Court costs £30 8% Interest £0.02 I have asked them to close the account (see thread below) http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/52869-l-reduced-my-wife.html Should I send them a letter requesting that they close the account? ALLIANCE & LEICESTER PERSONAL CUSTOMER SERVICES BOOTLE MERSEYSIDE G1R 0AA REQUEST TO CLOSE ACCOUNT Dear Sir/Madam, ACCOUNT NUMBER SORT CODE: following your lack of positive action to resolve the dispute regarding the unlawful charges which have been levied to my account and the manner in which your customers services responded to my phone call on the 14/12/2006 I have no further wish to bank with you, therefore take this as notice that I wish you to close my account. Frankly, I’m shocked by the way you have managed my account and consider you unfit to hold a consumer credit licence. There will be no further transactions on this account, deposits or withdrawals Any further charges levied on this account or defaults issued as a result, by you will be dealt with through the courts.

My wife V A&L I have been waiting for a statement so that I could confirm what charges have been levied to my wifes account before continuing with court action. It was £75 but they refunded £25 as a goodwill gesture, what a bloody sauce..they have no compassion and certainly no goodwill.(see thread) http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/alliance-leicester/48041-my-wife-l.html?highlight=tonyevic As it is they have actually charged £100, this is because there wasnt sufficent money in the account to pay one of the previous charges. Having phoned them to find out why, they reduced my wife to tears. Because there was a note on thier screen intimating we would be taking further action I was given the terms and conditons and threats of account closure. We have already opened another account, but the A&L account has £5.16p in credit until the 23/12/06 when further charges of £50 will be added, making the account £44.84 in debit. I guess that this will incur further charges! I have asked them to close the account (it is in credit(at the moment) but I think they wont be doing this. (no further payments are being made into this account or withdrawls) MCOL ISSUED TODAY SEE ABOVE LINK

Point taken But if I pay for a service that doesnt do what its supposed to do (and all previous recorded delivery letters were signed for) and the post office dont ensure that when they deliver they get a signature, they are going to have to pay compensation because come 15 days, if it aint confirmed DELIVERD...Im claiming! Thanks for your advice. I will save my money and I will also save myself a trip down the frosty path to the post office too! (previous recorded delivey letter is proof of posting)

Yep.. 9 days latter and the ROYAL mail (maybe they should consider dropping the royal bit!) have failed to deliver a recorded delivery letter to Halifax notifying them of inpending court action..... Phoned them yesterday, amid profuse apologies and re-assurance it was being delivered today.. (like heck it is...) Phoned them today...."sorry sir, we dont know where it is, all we can tell you it hasnt been delivered,you will have to wait 15 days before we confirm that its lost!" Thursday 14th December Its a bleak overcast day that looks like rain (only guessing here) as I step out of the house, I pull my collar up over my chin as I make my way down the frosted path (guessing here too!). I nod at the milkman as the bottles clink when they hit the doorstep. I reach the gate, and wait for the milkman, turn then and drop the latch. Its still dark as the train sounds and pulls out of the station. In trepidation I make my way across the park and look up at the sodium light defusing the drizzle, as I turn the corner, there in the distance an illuminated sign..... THE POST OFFICE. You know the rest..I go in, hand over another £1 for recorded delivery and send it again......

Hi all What a shower of crap A&L are.. Since my LBA, they have refunded one charge of £25, of the £50 initially charged.(levied at the end of the month) But because the charges (of £50) put the account overdrawn (in the following month(before the £25 was refunded))a further charge of £25 has been levied. When I phoned and pointed out that the third charge would not have occured if they had not leveid the first two, I was told that I had been given two weeks notice of the prevoius charges in which to make sure there where sufficent funds in the account.....(to pay thier charges) I phoned again and asked which charge had been refunded, significantly, if it was a charge levied the month previous, the account would not be in arrears, making the third charge invalid? None of my questions where met! The time has passed for court action, but I have delayed further action as we have no written proof of all the charges to date. Will a phone call be sufficent..or shall I wait for a stat:-?:-?ement at the end of the month before filing a claim?

MCOL Status The court sent Halifax the claim on the 5/12/06, deemed to be served on the 10/11/06. They have until 24/11/06 to respond. Note: There is an interesting and informative thread..(if only I could remember where it was) regarding court process with regard to the defendant. If the defendant does not respond within 14 days, entering a judgement may not necessarily be the best form of action, as this may certainly invoke the defendants option to apply for a stay which will drag the process out further. will keep you informed....and let you know if I find the forum above..

Val you probably need to go here to download alternative program to open mac excel files. OpenOffice.org: Home

If its any help...heres the particulars of my claim on MCOL 1. The Claimant has an account …………..with the Defendant, opened July 2001.2. Since September 2002 the Defendant debited charges and interest in respect of purported breaches of contract. 3. Defendant is aware of all details as a list of charges has already been supplied. Another copy will be sent. 4. Claimant contends: (a) The charges exceed the Defendant's losses caused by the breaches; (b) The Term permitting the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and at Common Law. 5. Claimant claims: (a) return of the amounts debited of £1106.10; (b) Interest per S.69 County Courts Act 1984 of 8% - £179.88 continuing at 8% until judgment or settlement at a daily rate of £0.22; 6. Alternatively, if the charges are a fee for a service, then they must be reasonable under S.15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. 7. Costs allowed by the Court. The £1106.10 is the totat amount of charges including interest accrued from the charges, the £179.88 is the interest at 8% from when the charges were levied.. HOPE THIS HELPS AND DOESNT CONFUSE Oh Yes! £1106.10 + £179.88 + sar fee + court costs = total claim:roll:

How much longer will the Banks default/pay up I'm at the opposite end to you having just submitted my MCOL and wonder who is going to be the first unlucky one who has to make representation in court. Are the Banks making that much money that they can continue to ignore the CAG. The courts must be benefitting from the influx of fees this is generating. I wish you a speedy conclusion, and the refund of all YOUR money. Tony...watching ....

Halifax...your time is up.... MCOL submitted today Charges £1287.67 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) FEE 10.00 Court Costs 120.00 Total £1417.67 Copy of schedule x2 sent to County Court (with court manager template) Copy of schedule sent to Halifax, Leeds (with court action template) Will keep you informed of progress:-D

Candy you can request under the following act,that they remove your telephone numbers from their database and that they may only contact you through mail. Quote: The Administration of Justice Act 1970. Section 40 of the act provides that a person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under contract, he or she: (a) harasses the other with demands for payment which by their frequency, or the manner or occasion of their making, or any accompanying threat or publicity are calculated to subject him or his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation; (b) falsely represents, in relation to the money claimed, that criminal proceedings lie for failure to pay it; © falsely represent themselves to be authorised in some official capacity to claim or enforce payment; (d) utters a document falsely represented by him to have some official character or purporting to have some official character which he knows it has not. Paragraph (a) above does not apply to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise legal) for the purpose of : (1) of securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or (2) of the enforcement of any liability by legal process. It is also provided that a person may be guilty of an offence under paragraph (a) above if he concerts with others in the taking of such action as is described in that paragraph, notwithstanding that his own course of conduct does not by itself amount to harassment. hope this helps Regards Tony