Hello and welcome to the Consumer Action Group! There are a few things that you must do before sending letters off left right and centre. By following the steps correctly you save yourself and others a lot of work! Read the FAQs. Print them out and take 2 -3 days to understand what it is you are about to do…..you wouldn’t just jump into a lake for a swim unless you knew how to swim, would you?? Understand the process. Don’t try to start halfway through, it won’t work. Its time consuming but at least you won’t be making any mistakes in getting your money back! Read through the relevant forum for your bank claim. Here you will find others journeys, celebrations and queries, most of which will help you in your claim. Start a thread in your forum, and keep it in your favourites so you can find it easier. Call it your name v bank name for example. Here you can log your own journey, ask questions and most of all offer another thread for a newer person to read (see you are giving something back already) It’s your claim; you have to do the work! Its not easy, can be very frustrating and at times you will feel like throwing the towel and letting them get away. But keep on going, seek advice from mods / site helpers/ or anyone else who is on the forum, great place for this is the chat room, try it out! with regards to the 8 week rule, its your claim so you set the timescale. However i notice you only gave a further 7 days before starting legal action, this would sem unreasonable and we recommend 14 days. Check out the FAQs which demonstrates the correct process to follow Good luck

Hello and welcome to the Consumer Action Group! There are a few things that you must do before sending letters off left right and centre. By following the steps correctly you save yourself and others a lot of work! Read the FAQs. Print them out and take 2 -3 days to understand what it is you are about to do…..you wouldn’t just jump into a lake for a swim unless you knew how to swim, would you?? Understand the process. Don’t try to start halfway through, it won’t work. Its time consuming but at least you won’t be making any mistakes in getting your money back! Read through the relevant forum for your bank claim. Here you will find others journeys, celebrations and queries, most of which will help you in your claim. Start a thread in your forum, and keep it in your favourites so you can find it easier. Call it your name v bank name for example. Here you can log your own journey, ask questions and most of all offer another thread for a newer person to read (see you are giving something back already) It’s your claim; you have to do the work! Its not easy, can be very frustrating and at times you will feel like throwing the towel and letting them get away. But keep on going, seek advice from mods / site helpers/ or anyone else who is on the forum, great place for this is the chat room, try it out! With regards to your overdaraft and banks closing accounts, this is very unusual. Banks have been known to pay your charges back via cheque which must be paid into your O/D account which means it clears you O/D off. Not a bad thing in itself really. Although you can ask the cheque to be made out to you rather than your account, but thats far ahead of yourself at the minute. Good luck

HI and welcome As a rule of thumb always send the court papers to the registered address, however check over the forum (see link) and see if the address is there. You may also find it useful to start a thread in there of your own Good luck http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/

Thanks much appreciated

Sorry for rude hijack, but i notice you have access to accounts for IBS. Can you tell me where i would find accounts for other institutions? Specificly swift advances plc? Great thread by the way!

Quick update Request for further info disagreed with by Solicitors on the basis that I wanted this case to be heard in small claims and therefore the info i have requested is excessive and disproprtionate! they are insisting i can cross examine the witness on the day for further info and i will be given information for legal bills added to the account. So now the Judge is presently making directions with regards to CPR part 18 request as of 8 days ago. Should hear something later today or tomorrow. This is a list of what I requested: *True copies of solicitors bills in relation to all actions completed on the account *Thorough explanation, detailed accounts and process of arriving at the figures for the collection charges applied to the account *Where the charge is purely an administration fee applied under the terms & conditions of the mortgage, I request that you provide certified details of how this charge was set, and the calculations used in the process of arriving at this figure including that fee relevant to page 7 item 22 of Mark White Witness Statement. *Full and detailed explanation of letter producton and its relevant charges of between £35 and £100 per letter to include time spent and hourly rate of admn staff in relation to letter writing. *Confirmation that letters are pre written and saved in library type system on computers. Solicitor has writen to say some letters are automated!! *Details of the process between in house solicitors and administration. *How is access of the account gained? What adminitration action takes place when Solicitors already have full access to the system? *The system AUDDIS runs through the company, so how are the administration charges set, what data is used to set the charge? Detailed accounts of manual administration work on the account to be provided. *Process that is followed to check files. *Evidence of file reviews and notes written between members of staff as reported in witness statment page page 7 section22 continuing on page 8. *Evidence of bank charges for the charges Swift incurred through returned payments as in witness statement page 6 section 20 and 22 on page 8. *Audit report based on self financing dept of credit control. Evidence that the charges applied to accounts do not unduly enrich the Defendant or do indeed cover the costs of running the department. With regards to Barrypauls comments i have asked the Judge for the report they used verbally against you, I still believe they wont give it to me, however I have asked for disclosure so hopefully this will go for me if they refuse to show it. I am half hoping they continue to ignore the request for it then try use it in court or even better they deny any such report exists (but that is just big hopes lol) Have emailed Solicitor with response to comments on small claims and initiated another effort at settling this out of court with regards to overriding objectives in particular 1.1 (2)(a) Thanks got to Alan for that info! Quick query...in directions from allocation hearing it states defendant must send bundle to court not less than 7 days before trial, yet there is nothing about me sending mine or me receiving defendants bundle? Any thoughts??

Sorry Kate, just saw your post after i posted mine!

"One morething, in other parts of the world if you go overdrawn without authority... unauthorised borrowing, it is an offense, on the same level as theft, and you will go to jail" Can you give an example of this please? "charges are generated automatically" Nice of you to admit this! "and not by the branch where your account is domicilled, so going in and shouting at the staff is not going to do you any favors. the staff have no control to answer to your demands of "give me back my money now or i will take you to court" doing this simply intimidates them" I agree, no one should be made to feel intimidated for doing their job. This behaviour is not condoned on this site, we advise all complaints be sent to complaints section at head office and not local branches. "when in a short time free banking ends in this country, don't complain about it. you sowed the seed for it and fed it well" Free banking will do one thing, take money from the poor. To openly tell the public that account which have less than £1500 per month put into them will incur a charge shows that yet again the average consumer will be hit and hit hard. Homes which have income of less than £21k per year will pay this fee, yet those with higher income will not? This will be the downfall of British banking. Each household will combine accounts in order NOT to pay the fee, meaning half the amount of accounts are in jeopardy. Those vulnerable (pensioners, benefits, adults with health issues) will pay.....and yet it was the Government who decided that the money these vulnerable people get should be paid into an account, so bring on the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and the right of appropriation, as this will be the next fight that i, with others, will personally take for vulnerable people. I really understand you thread title, and agree no one should take out their frustrations on staff, but please dont try and justify penalties by using the tax the banks pay to the Gvnmnt. Smokers pay huge amounts of tax to the Gvnmnt but that doesnt mean they can start asking for non smokers to pay penalties for wanting clean air!

I suggest you start at the beginning and read the FAQs. If youy have had charges which are penalties then these can be claimed, however before you do anything you must read up on the process and understand what it is you are about to take on!

Fantastic news Les, really pleased for you and you alnd your family really deserve this Congrats Mrsf

Well done, best this than finding your way into court (even small claims have the risk of costs)

Sorry masterchef, people have been really busy on here today, so ill pass the link to someone who can help with this and see if we can get an answer for you. Sorry but i just dont know the answer to your question

Hi HSM If 26th Feb is a trial date, then hold out for the full amount. You will no doub get a call the day of the trial with them settling in full. If 26th is allocation hearing then call them and tell them you have incurred reasonable costs to this point and you want them refunded on top of the claim. The interest is a different matter. you cannot force the bank to pay it, only an order from the Judge can do that. However there is nothign stopping you from calling them and asking for the whole amount. If they disagree then hold out till the court date.

You must wait the 40 days before you can do anything. In order to find out if the PO has been cashed i think you can just go to your local PO and ask them to check for you.

welcome Richard

Hi Maybe use wording around " i do not believe these charges reflect the true cost to XXXXXXX for my payments arriving late to the said bank" hope this helps

Zoot did you get the info on Swift i sent you? Tried PM but full, so sent it to personal address. Hope this didnt offend its just i didnt have access to save doc

Found this online today, may be of some interest for people on here, apologies if this is a repeat Fee for current account 'fairer' - AOL Money

Had reply to my letter i sent to MP andLord Faulkener. Mp has written to his legal team to ask for a complete breakdown of the issues raised and will see me with the results as soon as he has them. No reply from Faulkener

HI here is the update from Fri. Meeting went very well. My MP is willing to take on the case and seemed very impressed with the info we took to him, including case law and genuine cases that have already been won. I have another meeting 9th March to go through the next stage of the fight. He has taken all the info with him and wanted to read it thouroughly before making any decision on the exact course he is going to take with us. However he did mention a number of tracks that he seemed to feel was beneficial to us. 1. He will make a press statement to local / national press with regards to bank charges and the process to take. 2. Open links with local CAB and offer servicces to people accessing them with regards to debt etc and inform them of the proces / web site etc. 3. He is having a meeting with the Treasury ministers (once he feels ok with the law behind it) and get some feedback for us with regards to what they are going to do / how they feel? 4. He is going to talk with a number of solicitors who he thinks may be interested in taking a class action. If he is successful in findong someone he is going to contact me and let me have the details. 5. He has taken the web address and is going to browse the site and then inform anyone who comes to his surgeries of us and what we do. I was unable to talk in great detail with regards to the Social Security Act and the fact vulnerable people are having benefits taken from them to pay for charges, however he has taken my notes on this matter and we will be discussing this is full detail at the next meeting. He said he could tell I had researched the subject well and have an obviously good knowledge of the system, which I told him came from here and he went on to say he would have no objections when recommending this site. Roll on march 9th. I have a number of ideas including him possibly holding a function for us at house of commons in order for us meet MPs etc. This is possible as I have already attended a number of these functions for work reasons at HoC. Dont forget any things you feel needs to be brought up please let me know

First of all start a thread in the barclays forum, as you will get excellent advice from others in the same boat. You should have received a copy of the defence papers from bank or court, if you havent then call the court tomorrow and ask for it. You should have also received allocation questionaire to complete. You need to ask the court if they have got defence papers and why no allocation questionaire have been sent to you. Also i advise you print out the process you need to follow from thr FAQs (see link below) as this will give you each stage and what to expect

Sorry for hijack. Need info on how much do they charge for a failed item. Have meeting this pm with local MP and hope you can help.

Sorry for hijack but need info for a meeting this afternoon with local MP. How much is each charge with this bank? Need the charge for failed DD. Hope you can help

Sorry for hijack, but how much is the cirrent charge for failing DD with Barclays....meeting Mp this afternoon and need info...

Why dont you go to court with an offer to repay arrears??