Hello everyone, I need some guidance please with regards to Sky who, according to your forum, seem to be repeat offenders. I have been a sky customer for years. Last July I moved house. I told them that I would be cancelling television (because I purchased a freeview box) but keeping telephone and broadband. Upon moving, the engineer came around to set up telephone and broadband and I carried on with life. Because these organisations force you to go paperless and pay by direct debit, I never checked my bills. A year on, and we have to move again sadly. So I called to have my telephone and broadband transferred to the new property. Sky then ask me if Id like to speak to the television team and get tele moved over as well. I laughed and said, 'thank you but I don't have tele with yourselves'. Turns out I have been paying for it for a year at an additional £24.99 a month. (I know, I know... you're probably thinking wtf... how did you not notice? - I revert back to the paperless/ direct debit thing again). Anyhow, I have been going around in circles with them. They told me that I have it. I said, I don't. No engineer came around to do it and as far as I know, the previous property doesn't have Sky fitted; only Virgin. I said I needed to close my account. They said I could but it would immediately archive my file and we wouldn't be able to review it again. So until this is resolved, I have to keep paying. They said, 'do I have prove that I cancelled'. I said well, you have the audio recordings that you record for training purposes. Apparently they can't access them. I said you can have a look at my account and see there has been no activity for a year - they checked and said 'well we can see you haven't bought films but otherwise, we have no idea what you watch on tele' (that's laughable). I said, I have my freeview box that shows I have been recording things since last Autumn. They asked me if I had a cancellation notice. I said' not as far as I am aware'. I did however find my email to say that broadband and telephone would be set up. (I haven't told them this yet). I wanted your advice first. Surely this isn't right. I requested them to stop a service and they didn't do it. They have charging me ever since, and won't let me close the account. What rights do I have? How do I prove that I cancelled it? Any help would be amazing. I am so annoyed I am prepared to take them to Small Claims Court but I want to be well thought out about it. Thank you in advance, Kind regards Michelle

Hello, I have been with the AA (motor insurance) for the past year and a quarter and I pay roughly £31 a month direct debit for my insurance.Recently I found an insurance company who will do it for less. So I called the AA to cancel my policy. I expected that I would have to pay a cancellation fee;I did not expect what they told me. The lady first told me that I would get £150 (roughly)credit for my insurance for time that hasn't lapsed.Then she said for outstanding insurance I owe(again rougly)£274 which means if I were to leave the AA next Monday,I would owe THEM £124.00 a month to cancel! I was shocked.She explained that when you sign up (or in my case renew your policy) they give you a grace period of 59 days in which they don't charge you (which I didn't know) and now I owe them to leave. I don't have £124 to pay out to leave the AA! I'm a single mother on benefits with a run down car that doesn't have breakdown which I thought was included in my policy when I joined - but doesn't - and when I enquired about breakdown they want to charge me an additional £12 a month!!! So if I left the AA on Monday, I would have to pay that £124 and then the new deposit on my new insurance and one months insurance up front! That's rediculous! Moreover the woman (trying to be helpful) said that I could repay that money cancelling my insurance but continuing to pay my monthly repayments until the sum was paid off. However, the £124 would be more again because the AA see monthly direct debits as a 'loan' and therefore have the right to apply interest to my situation. Therefore to repay the car insurance,it would take until Christmas, incur more charges and I would be paying for two sets of insurance. I feel tricked and misled by the AA.I was never told there was this 59 day grace period.I never expected that I would have to pay out a cancellation fee of £124 to leave them. I feel trapped & obligated to them and their insurance doesn't cover the things I really need. If I cancel the direct debit and refuse to pay - they want £12 per missed payment and £12 for failure to pay. That's extortionate. How do I get out of this agreement? Surely I am not stuck? Please help. Kind regards Michelle Maurice

Hello, My partner commenced proceedings last summer to get his bank charges back. Following the second letter, he received one back to say that all claims were being put on hold pending a court review of charges (or something to that effect - basically to find out whether it is unlawful for banks to charge the way they do). Since nothing has been said about it recently, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the court case and what's happening with regards to this? And do we just sit and wait? Kind regards Michelle

Hi everyone, Can you please help? My partner has been reclaiming his bank charges and we got the following letter today from RBS stating that they have referred his complaint about bank charges for determination in Court citing that they believe that the charges are reasonable, fair and transparent. They went on to say that they will be applying to the Court for an order to stay the claim until resolution of the Bank's proceedings with the OFT. This means that the claim may be put on hold until the result of the proceedings are known. As I understand, proceedings are not commencing until next year with an end date much further into the future. Has this happened to anyone else? Is there anything we can do but wait? Michelle

Hello, I've reclaimed my partner's charges on our joint bank account already - this month, Natwest charged us again. My partner got paid on the Thursday and the D/D's were going out Monday. He online transferred from one Natwest account to another and because the money arrived on the Monday and the money was going out the same day, Natwest classed that as the money not being there and charged us £114 for bouncing 3 direct debits rather than paying any of them. I am infuriated. There was sufficient funds to pay the direct debits! The money was transferred from one natwest account to another!! Why did it take 3 days to pay it in??? I went into the bank on Saturday and paid in cash and that money didn't clear until the Monday! Where was that money? Who's collecting interest on our money when its "inbetween" accounts as in the 3 days to electronically transfer the money or when my CASH takes a Saturday/ Sunday and Monday morning to clear into my account??? Cash!!! Surely this is a bit dodgy of them? So how would Natwest take it if I tried to reclaim these charges again? What's the feeling here? Is it true that they shut you down? Not that I will mind - I'm fed up with banks and am going to switch to a building society. Please help! Michelle

Hello again, Just wanted to write to make sure this is what was supposed to happen - we got to the court stage and filed for our charges to be refunded. Natwest have now written us and refunded in full but accepting no liability. Is this the refund that I have been looking to achieve or should the court have refunded it for me? I'm quite happy to take this full refund? I'm just thinking about the onus of responsibility... Michelle

Hi again, Okay - all is filed with MCOL. I've looked at the timescales - it says that my claim deemed served 5 days after filing (27th April roughly) - The bank will have 14 days from the deemed date of service to acknowledge (11 May) - The bank will then have an additional 14 days in which to file a defence - (25 May) - I'm away out of the country (ironically) between 11-26th May. Will I be required to do anything during this time? What happens with this? Or is this all down to the banks to do the work? I'm not even here to accept an offer... Also, it says that once the bank has filed a defence, your claim will be transferred to your local court who will send you a copy of their defence and an Allocation Questionnaire which you fill in and return within 14 days - what happens if this happens whilst I am away? Am I at any risk of this being sabotaged? Am I over thinking this? Help! Michelle

No fair play to the lot of you! Thanks Deller - that's unbelievably helpful! Also, I can't believe how quick you all are in responding! If only Natwest were this quick!

Hi everyone, I'm at the MCOL stage and I've heard there are guidance notes on this site somewhere for completing MCOL. Anyone know where? Michelle

Stupid question - I've never seen a telephone number for them at Borehamwood. Can I just put it in yell.co.uk to come up with it? Since requesting my charges back, Natwest have charged me another £114 this month (potentially add another £38) - do I have to say goodbye to this money then? Do I chalk this up to a screw up on my part for poor bank management? Or can I add them to it? Michelle

Hello again, After six sets of charges (3 charged to my partner's personal account and three to our joint account), they FINALLY sent us our statements in the post - 6 weeks later. I think they must have confused themselves because they also sent us our joint bank account statements, which we didn't request (only my partners). However, in discussing my joint bank account - My first and second stage letters went out - no response. Tomorrow is the deadline and I have to file with MCOL. Now I'm confused. I've never been this far before... what now?

Hi, Natwest are being really [edit]! My partner and I requested his statements on his bank account on 13 March 2007 to which they charged him for the statements. We were told it would take up to 10 days to get the statements to us. Fine, we accept that. 10 days came and went and no statements. Okay, couple more days. Then we noticed on 30 March 2007, they charged us for the statements AGAIN!!! So we called to complain and asked where the statements were - they checked their records - "opps, looks like they are still in their statement department. They didn't realise we wanted them sent to our home." So we said, "okay, just get on and send them again please". So today 2 April - still no statements in the post. My partner chased them again and was told "someone forgot to put a post-in on the statements so they got destroyed because they were hanging around for too long in the statement room". So if we still want them, they will take another 10 days for them to be re-printed and sent out to us, which obviously we do want. Can someone please tell me - surely this isn't acceptable? What a [edit] -take!!! And they've charged us twice for this crap service!!! Is there anything I can do or say to them to speed this up?? Michelle

Hi again, I've been going through my statements and it doesn't seem that they charged me any interest charges - can this be right? Would it be on the summary sheet that they send first or hidden in amongst the activity? I just don't see anything saying charge or interest charge. Has anyone else encountered this? Oh yeah and if this is the case, does that mean that I can just use the simple spreadsheet with my claim? I feel like I'm not doing it right if I do. Michelle

Hi again, I've been going through my statements and it doesn't seem that they charged me any interest charges - can this be right? Would it be on the summary sheet that they send first or hidden in amongst the activity? I just don't see anything saying charge or interest charge. Has anyone else encountered this? Oh yeah and if this is the c Michelle

Hello everyone, I've got my statements and now I am confused about how Natwest represent their Interest Charges on the statements. Where do I find these? Are they in secret code? Also, do I use the basic or advanced spreadsheet for calculating costs, please. I look forward to any help that you can give. Michelle