I don't think I'd mind that - I hate Halifax so much it would be a pleasure!

Funny you should mention that - I rang them up on Monday and asked them why they hadn't sent them and they put me on hold before coming back saying I would definitely get them "by Friday". Well in my book "by Friday" means they should have been in the post this morning or earlier - shockingly they aren't and Halifax have let me down again. I'd give some leeway to other banks but not HBOS after the way they've treated me, they have to be the most incompetent "bank" going.

Good luck Penny - I've had a great deal of trouble from HBOS since 2002 - they really are the worst bank going - hope you get all your money back!

I had a letter from Barclays three days after posting the letter saying their investigation could take 4 weeks but in the case of complex cases it would take 8 weeks. I don't think so Poindexter! Saturday is when the 14 days are up so the next letter will be sent out then if no response is heard.

20 days after being assured that the statements ordered would be with me in 6/7 working days and I'm still waiting. Why am I not shocked in any way at all?

Thora's won! Just had a letter from FD - they offered £412 of the fees paid. I've accepted and will give them one more chance.

Thanks Pixie, Halifax are a disaster - worst bank ever!

Hi I've had a history of appalling customer service with the Halifax & Bank of Scotland ranging from charges to be harrassed by their call centres. On at least four seperate occassions in the past 18 months I've had calls from their call centres only for them to say they didn't know why they called the account was in order. Then they raised my credit limit, twice, despite my telling them previously that I wanted it lowered. Then there was incorrect information on my credit file which when I wrote to them in January they said they would remove, they did not, I wrote again and they said they had definitely removed it and yet it is still on there. I owe them £114 due to missed payments and they have called me 9-11 times a day - I said on the first call that I couldn't pay until I got paid a fortnight later and please don't call again - they called two hours later and have kept calling since. Twice now I've been woken up on Saturday and Sunday by them calling me. I've reported them to trading standards for this. I've gone through my statements and found that they have charged me £200 in charges but I was missing a year's worth of statements - I rang them up 11 days ago and they said they would send me the statements in 7 days - unsurprisingly nothing's come yet. I've drafted a SAR and spreadsheet and will change the figures once, or if, I get the final missing statements through. This bank has made my life difficult and has been a nightmare to deal with from day one. They are inefficient and often just ignore letters, their call centre system is atrocious - I've had 13 calls one day from them the staff are often clueless or just rude. Thora is not pleased! Thora

I know but the offer was only £37.50 and having £60 charges instead of £122 on the account next week meaning little real difference to the account. I'd be sorry if they closed the account as I have been pleased with them apart from the charges but I can't go on like this. I simply didn't realise the charges would be so high £400 in a month regardless of the way the account was managed seems very extreme. My new job will get me back on my feet but not if the bank keeps taking these charges.

Right guys, I had a good look at this site, the FAQs and the threads where people had taken on their banks and sent my letters and spreadsheets with all the bank charges and interest owing to Barclays yesterday - £2, 700 in total. I got my statements going back 6 years and applied to Barclays for the ones I had missing from my files. I had a rocky relationship with them in the past, I was bad at managing the account but they hardly helped. My finances crashed three years ago and they cancelled my debit card, direct debits and cheque book and the morning it happened I rang them up and spoke to a very nasty man who seemed to enjoy his work and told me it was all my fault and if I didn't repay the money owed (£200) they would take further action. Five years ago I took out a consolidation loan which was meant to be an advance on a former loan to pay off my debts, three months down the line I checked my statement and found that they had been taking two loan repayments out of my account at the same time - when I checked they hadn't repayed the first loan as they had promised leaving me with two loans. After a long complaint process they gave me £300 in interest charges and consolidated both loans £6k each into a large loan of £12k - so I had a bigger loan thanks to their mistake!

This was my fall back account from Barclays I've only been with them since July, I've written a semi polite letter to them and will use the SAR on them if they don't respond in a helpful manner.

Thanks chuck - nice to be ere

I had to do a job paying rubbish wages for a month and my bank account suffered - I went over my agreed overdraft and some items were bounced from the account. It was only when I went through the charges since 2nd October yesterday that I realised that First Direct had taken £400 in charges - including two £75 charges for going over the limit. I wrote to them and asked them to refund it and got a letter back asking me to ring them which I did. The Woman I spoke to put me on hold so she could, she said, check the notes on the account and after she was gone ages said there were another £120 charges to go on next week and as one of the charges had put my over my overdraft limit she would refund that. When I told her that was unacceptable she offered to refund half the charges yet to go onto the account - some offer! I told her that wasn't on and she just went on about me having to write in - which I did this morning and asked for the lot to be refunded. I don't want to get medieval on their ass just yet as I did like them before this but I'm going to be in serious financial difficulties if I don't get that cash back.

Hi gang Thora Trumpet 'ere! Just sent off my letters to Barclays and Barclaycard and will tell you more in a bit. Nice to make your acquaintanceship.