As I read it, they won't be making those charges of £30 or so when there are insufficient funds in the account. They are presumably doing this as they think they are going to lose the appeal over those charges. Leon

I see that the Open Office spreadsheet link is broken. I have modified the Excel spreadsheet for Open Office, and will upload it to my web site when I'm sure it is OK. Could someone please check with the Excel spreadsheet that I am getting the correct result? For £28 charged 30/03/02 (1853 days) I make it £11.42 interest up to today (26/04/07). I got a friend to check it, it was different by 1p from the Excel version. It may be downloaded from here: http://www.leonheller.com/Simple-charges-calc.zip Leon

Has anyone else thought it strange that the banks impose those very large charges for unauthorised overdrafts etc. which involve a minimal amount of work but only charge £5 or £10 for providing statements, which must take a lot more time to process? Leon

Just got the standard 'eight week' letter in response to my LBA posted 11 days ago. Looks like I shall have to go to court this time. Leon

I didn't get mine for two months, they had closed the file without making the payment. It took four phone calls over two days to get them to sort it out, I then got the money the next day. Leon

An RBOS customer sent the bailiffs in to his local branch (the bank slipped up and didn't pay up in time) and bemused customers saw them seize PCs, fax machines and a till full of cash: Customer sends bailiffs in to seize bank's computers | the Daily Mail> Leon

Don't take any notice of it. Wait until the the 14 days are up and send the Letter Before Action (LBA), which gives them another 14 days after which you start court proceedings, unless your letter was an LBA, in which case you can start court proceedings when the 14 days are up without any further notice. Leon

I had seven of them during 2002-2003. I don't know what they were for but I included them, anyway. Leon

I had those on my earlier statements as well, I just put them into the spreadsheet with the rest. I don't remember bothering about them at the time. Leon

Try using the phone number on the Royal Mail receipt. The web site didn't recognise my reference number today, but when I phoned (they use voice recognition) I found that the letter had been delivered the day after I posted it. Leon

I just checked on the courts web site, and no minimum period is mentioned. An example letter on there gives the prospective defendant seven days before court action is initiated! The court only gives a defendant 14 days, although it may be extended by a further 14 days if he needs more time. I also checked the CAB web site, and they simply say that the LBA should mention a specific time, like 14 days. I suppose that the period just has to be what a reasonable person would expect, as is the case with many legal matters. Since they already coughed up a few days after I sent in my first claim, I'll stick to my timetable. My attitude is that they are quick enough to take money from my account, so I don't see why I shouldn't do the same to them. Leon

Perhaps their people making the offers get a proportion of any money they save the company, to motivate them. Leon

It took about two months in my case. I didn't bother for a month and then phoned, and didn't get anywhere. I then rang three or four times over a couple of days a month later, and got the money paid into my account. They had closed the file thinking the money had been paid. I'll be asking them for interest. Leon

The BBC Money Programme web page suggests court proceedings after the 14 days are up, without further notice: BBC NEWS | Business | How to claim back penalty charges I used their template letter, which makes this clear. I'd have thought that 14 days was plenty of notice. Leon

I don't really see the point in sending a preliminary letter and an LBA, which gives them four weeks. For my first claim for 2005-2006 I used a template letter from the BBC web site which gave them 14 days before I initiate court action, and they accepted my claim for £1098 in a few days without any quibbling. I've just done the same with my current claim (for £2300) for 2001-2004. Leon