Just thought I'd let everyone know how its gone. I got all my money back from first direct straight away, which was nice. and i just received a cheque for £245 from lloyds which isn't the full amount but i'm happy with that. as i'm living out of the country at the mo and can't get to the internet regularly its just going to be easier to settle. Thanks to everyone who helped me, the help is much appreiciated, now i'm well on the way to having my credit card and student overdraft paid off!! I have directed all my mates to this site too and told them to get started! Cheers x

Ok cool, thanks GaryH!

So after 14 days even if I don't hear from them can I start the money claim online? I've been reading through lots of other threads and this seems the right thing to do, just making sure! Oh also, I sent a prelim letter to first direct on same day, so should hear from them soon too but can I do 2 different claims through MCOL at same time or should I wait till after I've finished with Lloyds to start First Direct? :-? Kind of hoping as my first direct claim is only £170 that they might just settle up straight away.

BAck again! thought I'd just keep an update of how things are moving along. After sending my prelim letter on the 20th November I received a letter from Lloyds dated the 30th November, with the standard 'I'm sorry your unhappy....blah, blah, blah.... we're not giving you your money back...blah.' Today I'm sending the letter before action with schedule of charges attatched. Its not like my claims that big compared to some peoples, I don't understand why they don't just admit defeat instead of wasting my time and theirs!

woo hoo! okay cool, i'll get started and send the prelim tommorrow then. Thanks for the words of advice, muchly appreciated.

maybe i could send the prelim letter in March, then by the time i'm home things might be well on their way?...

Over the last couple of days I've been reading as much as I can on here before I start the ball rolling. It looks like most cases go to court so I don't think I'll be able to start trying to reclaim yet as I'll be out of the country from the start of December until the end of April. I was going to try and do everything over the internet and have my parents scan in any post i receive to email to me. But if it ends up being heard in court i won't be able to attend. Can i send somone else to court on my behalf? or shall i just wait till i get home to start doing all this? I'm scared if i come home in april the banks will have found someway round this and stopped refunding people money. Quite dissappointed now- really wanted to get started Any views?....

Okay, thanks for your help. The student account has no charges on it but hopefully if my claim is succesful i can use it to pay of some of that and i'll pay the 14p tommorrow! cheers!

originally posted by janquinny 'Because if enough people dump first direct now the other banks will have to find another tactic to get round this one, they don't all want to lose all their customers and despite what they say about not wanting customers with low deposits, they lose a hell of a lot of money without them!!!' fair point...

When i heard about this new £10 charge i called first direct straight away. the nice gentleman on the end of the phone assured me i was ok as i have a savings account linked to my current account. i'm going to stick up for them as first direct are the best bank i've ever been with, they have excellent levels of customer service as opposed to many other banks. and besides, all of them will do the same sooner or later, so to all the people who say they're going to close their accounts...whats the point?

an extra thought.... I calculated the interest on my charges using the spreadsheet on money saving expert site. my charges were £245, the interest total is £61.36, totalling £306.36. is the interest calculated to the present date? as i closed this account in December 2005 any thoughts?... any help would be greatly appreiciated as i am quite nervous about doing all of this. :?

Hi all, I've received all my statements back, calculated how much they owe me and am about to send the prelim letter off! I still have a student account with lloyds ( although i've closed the one i got all the charges on already) but owe them £800 on my student overdraft:( - does anyone think that matters or should i get that paid off before i launch into reclaiming my money?:? I also owe them 0.14p on my credit card so i suppose i'd better pay that off too- even though when i closed my current account last year i told them they could keep the 0.27p that was still in it! how rude...

I'm trying to get my statements from lloyds and by the sounds of things its quite difficult. Someone advised me to send the letter and £10 to my branch- was this the wrong thing to do? its been 14 days already and there's no sign of my statements. i'm confused i also sent a letter to first direct and they replied saying that they would send my statements by courier and gave me my cheque back saying the service was free of charge, which was nice. but i haven't received those statements either. Any words of advice would be muchly appreiciated!!