Zoe VS HSBC

[zedcee]

It just started off with the odd £20-£30 pounds a month but I've got to a point where the bank is charging me more and more each month and i cant even borrow money against mortgage to sort the situation out (also with HSBC - I'm a very loyal customer) because they have given me a bad customer rating. And all because of my spiralling bank charges.

 

Just added up total charges since the beginning of 2004 - cant believe how big they are £1882. I dont even know what some of them are for.

 

I have drafted a letter based on the one from the library here. Does anybody have any feelings about who it is best to send it to - head office, my local branch (where they know me), or the branch that my account with (at my old university).

 

Thanks

 

Zoe

[maverik1979]

it shouldnt matter too much who you send it to as it will got to the customer service team in leeds eventually via the internal post sytem, however it may be easier for you to send to your local branch any other q's fire away

[zedcee]

Thanks for your help.

 

This might sound stupid but I dont understand whether I should send the protection act notice and wheter it applies to my particular case?

 

Any help would be useful

 

Thanks

[maverik1979]

the dpa request is for people to obtain their old statements so they can calculate how much money they are owed, however, you already know this figure, so the dpa request isnt required, just make sure that you ust the complete template letter and just make the alteration to it regarding the breakdown of charges, remove this line as you dont need to send it yet

[zedcee]

I sent my preliminary letter off a week ago and today got a letter saying

 

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Thank you for your letter dated 27 June 2006 requestion a refund of your bank charges of £1972.00.

 

In order that we can consider your request please provide a full item ised breakdown of these charges to include date, descirption of the charge and the amount applied. Please also include any proposed new charges that you will have recieved a pre notification advice for.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Mr Colin Langdale

Senior Service Quality Manager

 

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A couple of questions.

 

Should i now send the letter before action or should I enter into a dialogue with this person.

 

I am also unsure of the reasons for some of the charges as they just appear on my statement as CHARGE. I know that there are some for bounced cheques but the majority are from exceeding my overdraft - mainly due to the spiralling charges.

 

I'd really appreciate any advice

 

All the best

 

Zoe

[maverik1979]

send off your lba now, include in it a breakdown of charges aswell, regarding the terms for individual charges, all you can do is put on the spreadsheet (or however you are recording them) what it says on your statement

[zedcee]

Thanks very much. I've just been calculating them from print outs of my old statments but I'll make a proper document.

[maverik1979]

use this one as it also calculates interest

 

http://www.bankactiongroup.helpwithmypc.com/resources/BankCharges.xls

 

dont have m-s excel?, use this instead its free and compatible with m-s stuff

 

http://openoffice.bouncer.osuosl.org/?product=OpenOffice.org&os=win〈=en&version=2.0.3

[zedcee]

Hi,

 

I've finally sent my mcol and for the first time in the process I am terrified. I really hope i havent made any mistakes.

 

Just a quick question. I'm on holidy from next Tuesday so will be away 14 days after I submitted the mcol. Has anybody else been in this situation? Do you think it will be okay?

 

Zoe

[zedcee]

i got back from the pub on thursday night and found this letter from HSBC. I thought it might be useful for some of you who havent got this far to see it...

 

----------------------

 

 

Thank you for your letter dated 7 July 2006 requestion a refund of your bank charges fo 2191.73.

 

In circumstance where you have authorised a payment that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or over an agreed overdraft limit, we have to consider whether tto make this payment. Afee is payable for this service provided by the bank, details of which are clearly set out in our published price list. The circumstance in which the fee with apply are clearly set out in our personal banking terms and conditions which you were provided withe a copy of when you opened your account. if your claim for a refund proceeded to court we therefore believe we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees.

 

HSBC is, hoever midful of the mangement time and irrecoverable legal costs that it may incur inrelation to such a claim. For those commercial reasons alone, and without any admission of liability whatsoever, HSBC is preparet to make a payment to you in the sum of 1850.00 representin the charges applied in full and final settlement of this matter.

 

If you accpet this proposal please sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter to us within 10 working days and we willarrange for a refund to be made to you. Please allow 7 working days for your account to be credited fro receipt by ourselves. If we do not receive your signed acceptance within this timescale we weill take it that you have declined our offer.

 

I trust that this matter has now been addressed to your satisfaction. If you are not satisfied with the bank's response ou hafe the right to refer your complaint to the financila ombudsman service. Further details abotu the Ombudsman scheme are set out in the enclosed leaflet and you hae six months from the date of this letter, within which to refer your complaint to them should you decide to do so.

 

thanks you again for taking the time to write

 

Colin Langdale

Serior Service Quality Officer

 

 

......................................

 

I am of course (having read this forum and learnt the drill) going to accept this as partial payment and continue to request a full refund.

 

the only question is does anybody have any idea of how long this is going to take as I am worried about getting more charges in the meantime?

 

Zoe (ps i know it's really sad to be in doing this on a saturday night)

[zedcee]

Hi everybody,

 

I have drafted this letter to the bank based on some others I have seen - what do people think? Is it okay to mention the court fee and removal of the default notice here?

 

------------------

 

 

Thank you for your letter dated 26th July 2006.

 

I acknowledge your offer of £1850.00 and accept this amount as a partial settlement of the £2191.73 as stipulated by my original timetable.

 

As stated in my letter dated 7 July, I will now require you to remimbuse the £120 court fee (this claim was made on 26/07/06 and has the claim number of 6QZ49341). The full payment now required is £2311.73.

 

I remind you that in addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.

 

I require repayment in full of this money and removal of the default notice within 14 days. If you do not do this then I will be forced to proceed to court.

 

Yours sincerely

 

---------------

 

thanks, Zoe:smile:

[sar011279]

Just a thought....

 

Thank you for your letter dated 26th July 2006.

 

I acknowledge your offer of £1850.00 and wish to accept this amount as a partial payment of my total claim.

 

As a satisfactory response has not been received within the timescale stated I have now issued a county court claim against you. I am now also pursuing my court costs of £120 plus 8% interest. The full payment now required is £xxxx.

 

May I also remind you that in addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that a mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Does your amount include your 8%????

DG Solicitors will be issued with your claim soon (if they haven't already) and will be aware of the timescales involved so I wouldn't add that bit.

I expect you'll hear from DG next, money isn't far off, keep going!!!!

[zedcee]

Hi Sar,

 

thanks for that - much better. And yes, that does include the interest so i'll mention that too.

 

I'm on holiday until the 14th. Do you think that's going to make a difference to my claim?

 

zoe

[sar011279]

Only prob might me if they make an offer and give you x amount of days to reply. Have you got someone that can check your post?, if not it might be worth writing to DG Siolicitors after you've filed but before you go away and just mention that you will be away from such and such dates. This way you cover your back if you return from holiday and find a letter on your door step.

To be honest though I would have thought that you would have heard from them by 14th anyway, it only took them a week to make me an offer when I got to this stage.

[zedcee]

i'm on holiday from this tuesday (2nd) so i'll probably be away when the solicitor contacts me. I' could get somebody to check my post though - maybe i can call the solicitor from abroad to tell them i'm away, or do you think i could write before i have any communication from them to let them know?

 

z

[sar011279]

Maybe get someone to check your post and call you if anything arrives??, take DG Solicitors number with you and call if you have to. 0121 455 2111.

[zedcee]

So I've put it in the post - it can't be long until i get this money back now.

 

Thanks for the conact number for the solicitors - Ill try and get hold of them tomorrow before i go away.

[zedcee]

So I got back from my holiday on Monday to find that HSBC had paid me the full amount. I'm delighted

 

I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who has helped me along the way and to the people who started and all those who mod this site, it's a wonderful thing.

 

- Just off to make a dontation to the site -

[sar011279]

Well Done Zoe!

Bet that made returning from holiday a little bit sweeter!

[zedcee]

Certianly did.

 

By the way - what has happened to the marks on your register. I mentioned this as part of the deal throughout my communication with HSBC but as I had to get somebody to deal with the final stage for me (while i was on holiday) i didnt check that this was part of the deal.

[sar011279]

Do you mean a default?

To date they haven't defaulted me or marked my credit history... I'm sure they will!