Hi Guys, Well, 2 months later and taking out a court action, they finally gave in and have paid me £1,249 which I was quite surprised. I used a bit of discretion as they actually owed me £1,400. But hey, I did it. Wished I could have done this back in the 70s and 80s. The letter I received was a bit snotty, but in places quite amusing, I quote "we are committed to complying with the Banking Code, which sets standards of good banking practice." Oh really, that's why they rip you off. Another bit I thought was quite amusing was "When we pay an item against an unauthorised overdraft or return an item unpaid, we incur extra costs regardless of the amount involved. We believe it is fair to pass these costs on to the accounts affected, as opposed to them being absorbed by other customers." I think what they really mean is "we incur costs, but because you went overdrawn we are going to line our own pockets at your expense." The girl I originally spoke to also told me that charges are meant as a deterent. So is a baseball bat to the kneecaps. I liken the banks to organised and legalised extortionists. When are the OFT going to slap these bullies down and bring them to order? Regards to you all and I hope the sharks get their cumupance.

Hi all, new to this game. However I started to make a claim against my bank (Halifax) at the beginning of December (the 6th to be exact). Yesterday 28th December on returning from Xmas with the family I found what I thought was the documents I was waiting for. Sadly it was not to be. Although it was from the Halifax it wasn't statements it was an Investors Account Report (????) which unless you are a financial bod meant nothing to me. So I rang the Halifax and asked what this was all about, they told me that they had sent the wrong information. They would send the right information straight away (we'll see). Anyway I asked if they would send a letter stating if there had been any manual intervention with the statements, the girl on the other end of the phone told me that all accounts are automated and the only time they manually intervein is if you change your address or you request them to. I gave the poor girl on the other end of the phone a bit of a hard time, and all credit to her she didn't waiver she stood loyal to her job. I'm still going for it. They are charging £39 per bounced DD and then £30 for going unathourised and then another £30 for going into the unauthorised unauthorised od and the same again. I incurred nearly £120 charges for going £14 over my overdraft. I think loan sharks are less scarey, they only bash your knee caps in.