I thought that would be the case, but is this fair? If I behave illegally I am punished. They have been behaving illegally and all they have to do is give the money back, but they're not punished. Surely this just encourages them to break the law since they lose nothing but their ill gotten gains when they're caught, and get to keep their ill gotten gains when people don't challenge them.

My apologies if I am posting this thread in the wrong place, I'm a bit confused about what I should post where. I saw the BBC's Money Programme on Tuesday, which convinced me I should try to recleiam my bank charges from Abbey. This has been an issue which has made me very angry over the years, and earlier this year I incurred £340 worth of charges when I went a small amount over my overdraft limit which caused all sorts of payments to fail and snowballed with other charges. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and on a previous occassion I had talked to the bank and they had agreed to refund half of the charges, but on this occassion they wouldn't listen. I tried to explain that I was on benefits (which they obviously already knew), and had no hope of finding £340, and so the situation could only get worse. I got the usual response about me agreeing to the terms and conditions etc and no help whatsoever. I went through my bank statements for the last six years and was shocked to find that my bank charges added up to over £1,000 a figure I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't worked it out for myself, so I wrote to the bank demanding the return of these charges, and sent it recorded delivey the next day. I didn't have to wait long, and received a reply two days later. The letter thanked me for raising my concerns with them, and explained that since I was complaining about bank policy rather a specific charge the complaint would have to be referred to head office, and further, that if we could not resolve the matter satisfactorily they would send me a form with which to make my complaint to the banking ombudsman. This seemed to me to be a delaying tactic, as I am aware that the ombudsman is snowed under at the moment and would not be able to deal with my complaint for some considerable time, so I am now waiting for a response from head office. Whatever happens though, I have no intention of being distracted from my course of action. I will begin court proceeding 14 days after they received my letter as I advised them, and take things from there. As I said in my welcome post, I have suffered such worry and stress over this issue in the past couple of years that I am absolutely livid with Abbey, they can have no idea how much sleep people can lose and how much misery these things can cause, or they have no heart, and now I want to take them to court. I really want to put all this on the record and will be disappointed if they settle before the case comes to court. I suppose if they do offer to settle in full I am obliged to accept, and can't insist on going to court anyway. Is that true? I'll keep you posted on how things go. Good Luck everyone.

Thanks for your concern and offer of help Rooster, it's much appreciated, but Alec Trencher isn't my real name, it's a name I made up for a screen name. Maybe I should have picked one that would be more obviously fake. Best Wishes Alec Trencher

Hello everyone, I found this wonderful site after watching the BBC's money programme on bank charges on Tuesday. I though that it might be worth while checking my bank statements after twice having been really angry with Abbey over the bank charges they have imposed on me over the past couple of years. I'm on income support due to a back injury, and I went £2 over my overdraft limit earlier this year, and that cost me £340 du to the snowball effect of their charges causes many bill payments to fail and more charges to be imposed. I had to open a new bank account, transfer all my payments over otherise I would have just gone under. Checking back over my bank statements for the past 6 yearts has shocked me really, as I had no idea that the total amount of charges totalled over £1,000, which was more than my overdraft! I sent them a letter (the one provided on the BBC website - I hadn't found this site at the time), and today received a prompt reply, informing me that this was not a matter the branch could deal with and that they would pass on my request to HQ, and if they could not resolve the problem, they would send me a form to complain to the banking ombudsman. I won't be delayed by this tactic though, I know the ombudsman is snowed under and unable to cope, so I will simply issue court proceedings against them. I am so angry about this that the money isn't the the thing anymore. I feel I just want to take them to court no matter what. Anyway, thanks for a great website, and good luck to everyone. Alec Trencher