got my acknowledgement of service through the post this morning - bank intends to defend the whole claim apparently, have the dg solicitors address on the bottom, when you said send them a copy of my breakdown, is that just my schedule of charges, or do i need to send them the part on the claim form which says why im taking them to court - bank charges are unlawful etc? really starting to feel like im getting somewhere now! cheers

cheers lateralus, just filed my claim at the court, pretty scary stuff, am dead chuffed as they agreed to give me a remittance on the court fee whcih really helped. Rang the bank just before i went in to give them one last chance to pay up before i filed it - they said they had 60 days to respond and were still thinking about it! anyway, i said i'd see them in court so its all go now. Am gonna go sit in on a few small claims so i can see what im in for, plus am preparing my case still. on the notes on here about going to court its recommended to use the interview with Peter mcnamara - cant see whats uselful about his one, he doesnt really seem to give the game away as it were, think i'd be better off using a soundfile from the whistleblower program, as it actually has some stuff about the actual cost of bouncing dd's etc. anyway, guess i've got a couple of weels to think about that sort of thing. Am gonna get started on trying to get something done about the rip-off ppi on my personal loan!

hey there lateralus, am filing my claim tomorrow morning at the court, and so's im all ready to go im preparing my defense just in case hsbc decide to try and defend it. all looks fairly straightforward, just one thing which made me wonder. On the courts service website, where its describing the claims process, its talking about alternatives to court in settling disputes, and it mentions that ombudsman schemes are a good way of settling disputes. obviousley ive given the bank fair warning and the opportunity to reply to me with their side of the argument, but i havent made a complaint to the financial ombudsman myself as i know theyve already got a few people complaining! did any of you guys make a complaint to the ombudsman before filing your claims? if it does go all the way to a hearing then im guessing that me having made such a complaint can only help my case, but if i havent then it wouldnt affect my claim...? Cheers

i can see why, a badger can give you a nasty nip, im training him to go after bank managers.

im sorry to hear that

cheers for that, sorry to keep asking obvious questions! do you like my badger...?

hello again, been a while since i last posted on here, am still waiting on hearing anything from the bank bout my claim. when the 14 days from the 1st letter were up, i sent the lba, and rang the bank to say i was concerned that i had not heard from them, and they said that they would be working to an 8 week timetable. They also said that the had written me a letter about it which i never got. anyway, theyve got until 10/04 till i enter a claim at the court - which i'm totally up for doing - im just surprised that ive heard nothing at all, not even a rubbish offer, from what ive read most people at least got some sort of rebuttle?

thanks very much for your help;)

so as i sent the letter demanding the charges back on the 10th (the one which details the charges im claiming back and giving them 14 days to respond) even though i have no proof of posting etc. on the 24th i should send the letter which says that if i dont hear from them in another14days i should file a claim at the court? or should i send the first letter again so i can prove when i sent it?

cheers mate, will get the next letter all lined up to send!

hello again, starting to get a bit worried about the letter i sent demanding the charges back. Have heard nothing yet and the 14days are nearly up, bank wont say whether theyve recieved it or not, plus i couldt afford to send it recorded delivery (got charged another £50 this month) so ive got no proof i sent it. The address i used was: HSBC BANK PLC 8 CANADA SQUARE LONDON E14 5HQ this is the one i got off this site, but am thinking maybe i had to send it to a complaints dept or something like that? Plus saw that program last nite, and am still in a light miff!

Thats what i thought - unfortunately for them i found it really funny - just imagine, someone at some level there must have gone 'hmm... i know, we wont send him his statements, we'll b*gger it up a bit and send him some random ones twice, that'll annoy him!' its so childish and silly but inventive at the same time, wonder if they've done that to anyone else or theyre experimenting with new tactics with me! i hope so

Wow! Finally got my statements from HSBC yesterday and this morning -all in seperate envelopes - guess what? they've only gone and sent me random statements throughout the last 6yrs (not the complete set, not in any sort of order) im missing about half of them, but its ok, cos the ones they have sent me they've sent two copies! Brilliant! does this mean i can claim back some of the charges twice...?

yeah, thats really helpful actually, the advanced apreadsheet was hurting my brain a bit - not gonna bother with the interest is to little to worry about, plus dont fancy any sticking points with the bank. have printed off my letter and sent it off just now - just gotta sit back and wait! cheers

yep, that was a bit of a ramble wasnt it! anyway... am a bit confused about the interest im sposed to claim for in the first letter i send them. all the debit interest ive been charged is, i think, a mixture of interest on an agreed overdraft limit i had, and possible interest on the charges. so i dont think i can prove which of it i shouldnt have been charged, and how much that would be, problem is that my agreed limit has fluctuated so much in the last 6yrs, and ive no record of when this was - i could ask the bank for this info, but theyve taken so long over the statements themselve i reckon this would string it out even further... am quite happy to just claim for the actual charges themselves, as the interest would only make a small amount of difference. but then if im not claiming for this amount which im entitled to, does it affect my overall claim in terms of credibility?

i know, kind of feel a bit cheated - but then i should really have expected that, when i first asked about it a while ago, was told not to expect anything, and then whatever i got would be a bonus, but surely it is a bonus?! ho hum...

bump?

just noticed a slight amibguity between my last two posts which makes me look like a bit of a mentalist - i originally printed out my statements using the printer at work (so's i dindnt have to use my printer!) and then left them at work - doh! was gonna let it ride but then ive already spelt my username wrong and i dont want you lot thinking ive got two personalities - one who has printed his statements off and one who hasnt - neither of which can spell properly, not only would that be a bit mental, it would be a very boring kind of mental! incidentally i still dont have my statements from the bank -i rang them up to complain on monday and they said they would 'fast-track' them to me. think they must have gone so fast they went straight past me and all the way back to the bank...

hmmm, interesting stuff - have just strayed from doing my bank charges and the NUD thread caught my eye as ive just come home from work in an NU call centre. Have to say i thoroughly agree with bengee about staff in india being pretty much just as good as the guys in the uk - and just as bad. Yes the fact that there's a bit of a language barrier is a problem, but having listened in to many calls which ive passed through to india, the biggest problem is that once a customer realises theyve been put through to india, it often sounds like they really dont want to understand whats been said purely because of the whole stigma which goes along with 'offshore' call centres, and as a result become abusive. Either that or they wont really try to communicate properly themselves because they assume they wont be understood anyway. I'm not suggesting for a minute any of you loverly people on here would do this, all im saying is if we spent all night on the phone being talked down to we'd all sound pretty indifferent and monotonous as well, which i think accounts for a fair part of why the customer service there is percieved to be not as good as that from uk centres - seriously, some customers ive heard seem to get a real kick out of upsetting people, and advisors in india take a lot of abuse, theyre also under real pressure from their managers to hit targets and from what ive heard they really crack the whip over there. The difference between the treatment i get at work and the treatment someone in india doing the same job as i get is monumental - alledgedly!(gotta cover my back a bit there -you never know...) Having said that, some of the customer service ive heard from india is also pretty shocking, almost laughable sometimes, on the whole tho, most of the workers over there are pretty with it. I will also say that the same is very true of workers over here, with some pretty bad cs at times. Apparently a lot of money is saved by using offshore centres, but i dont know where this goes cos the bonus i just waited all year for was rubbish! bah! Generally though - call centres are crap wherever they're based - if you really want to save yourself the hassle and a whole bag of cash, do your insurance online - you wont have to pay for a call centre anywhere! (most insurers will give you about 20% off for insuring online!!) and if youre getting ridiculous prices on qtes that generally means the company doest want to insure you anyway - companies all have certain types of risks that they want to avoid, but have to offer a qte for everyone, so if theyre not interested they'll just price themselves out of competition. The best sites are the big price comparison ones - they give you an indication of whos interested and who's not. Be warned tho - companies who dont have any call centres at all arent always that great - price may be good but when you get a bit confused theres no-one there to help you out...sometimes its good to talk to someone...specially me..

hello again! been waiting for my bank statements since my last post - nice lady on the phone said they were guaranteed to be here by friday just gone at the lastest, its now monday and i dont have 'em. First asked for them 12/01/07. think they may be stalling! I'm not that good at maths, but thats def over 40 days...i think...anyway, went online and wrote down all the charges and dates and stuff by hand, cos my poor little printer would never cope with the whole lot. have done the spreadsheet, which was great fun! Does anyone think if i just handed in the breadsheet and letter asking for the charges back without the actual hard copies of the statements this would be a very bad idea? Im guessing its not the best idea.. also i guess i could make a complaint about them breaching DPA for not sending them, but bless them, they had an 'error' and forgot to send them - should i be tough and go for it? will it look soft if i let them off? i just dont know...

cheers guys, nice to know ive got some help! will keep you posted...

Hi havent posted on this before as i decided in december to save myself the hassle of doing this all myself and signed up with a group of solicitors (who shall remain nameless) but after they took a month to actually let me know they had even sent the bank the first letter, and then seemed quite happy to wait over a month for any response form my bank - i have decided to do it myself. Rang up hsbc on 16/02/2007 and asked them if they had sent the solicitors any statements. Took over half an hour to get to the right person and then when i did, they acknowledged that they had recieved the letter from solicitors on 12/01/07, but there had been an 'error' and they had forgotton to do anything about it. Funnily enough this was not the first time i had rung them, first time i rang, they said they had got the letter and a special dept was looking into my case, next time i rang they denied ever recieving the letter, and several other calls were just as useless. Anyway, as i had told the solicitors not to bother with my claim anymore i asked the bank to send the documents straight to my home address. They said this would take a further 10 working days. Incidentally, i have internet banking - so have managed to print off my last 6yrs of statements from that and have already calculated that they owe me about £2,300 - does anyone know if i can use these printouts, will the bank be really fussy about which ones i use? if i can use these then presumably i can just go ahead and send them a letter demanding them all back? also - are there any charges which aren't deemed as reclaimable? they've been charging me on average £100 per month for the last year, so im pretty skint and could do with getting this moving fairly quickly! cheers!!