Hi, i'm really new to all of this, Just recently looked through all of my bank statements, and in the last 4 yrs they've charged me nearly £3,000 worth of bank charges . I would appreciate it if someone could advise me on the basic steps to starting my claim. . . Where do i start first? do i need to apply to the courts for a claim number? Where can i find the standard letters to the bank from, and spreedsheets? Which order do i need to send the letters out in? Any other advice on this would be appreciated. Many thanks Chiquia

Thats ok, i'm going to calculate all of the charges tonight, i think it might also be around the 1k mark but like you say it could be a hell of a lot more, many thanks for your advise and i will look into sending an S.A.R

Hi thanks for your response, reason being is that isjust one of many situations i've had with Abbey and they're are many more charges that i have had to pay out for. unitl i was told about this site and how people are getting they're money back i was going to just let it go, but now i'm going to find out how much i've paid out to them in total and fight them for it back.

I have been with my bank since the age of 12, i am now 25. I have a savings account, a basic account and a visa electron account with them. I have held my visa account with abbey for nearly 3 yrs now and they still refuse to give me an overdraft or an upgrade on my card! The reason being is that a little while ago i went overdrawn twice in 1 month, i believe that this was no fault of my own. . . I was due to get paid and i only had £3.50 left in my account, thats what the cash machine told me, i decided to use my card to pay for a £2.50 car parking charge, the day i got paid i rang up to see what had been paid to me and what had come out via direct debit, to my horror they told me that i had been overdrawn by £1.57 for the last couple of days and next month i would be charged a £35 fee for this. I asked them how that could of possibly happened as it was only the day before that the cash point was telling my that i was in credit. They said that i'd used my card earlier that week, but the amount wasn't taken by the company until a few days later. i argued and said that if i didn't have enough money in my account a) why did you allow me to use my card and b) why wasn't the information on the cash point correct? They said that if your purchasing a small amount like £6 for eg, some companies will allow it to go through . . .so its the company your buying from's fault and not the banks! As for the cash point they said that it might not of been updated! how is any of this my fault! I got charged £35 for being overdrawn by £1.57 surely that isn't a justifiable amount to charge me! And it didn't stop there. . .the month after, the charge of £35 came out of my account, only it came out the day before i got paid therefore taking me overdrawn again. I thought that because the bank took me over it wouldn't matter, however i checked my bank statements 2 months after this and i saw that for the last 3 months they were charging £35 for each time Abbey took me overdrawn, i couldn't believe it! I was so angry and rang them up, I eventually got refunded for their mistakes, however it still cost me money trying to get the charges refunded as it worked out i'd spent £10 worth's on my phone bill trying to speck to the right people. The worst part about all of this is i then said to my bank that i no longer trust you and i want an overdraft put in place just in case anything like this happens again, guess what they said. . .we can't as you've been over drawn for the last 3 months!!! Its a bloody joke i said, your the ones that took me overdrawn for those 3 months, not me! Abbey has been taking me for a ride for far too long and i am now putting a case together to take them to court, the stories above are one of many since i've been they're customer and i've now had enough, apparently i'll be eligible for an overdraft at the end of January. . .i'm not going to hold my breath!