Second contact

[RussellRoberts]

Hi, just thought i'd share my most recent contact with my bank with you. I got two of these on the same day for two different accounts (one business and one personal). The letters are identical, right down to the centre managers stamped signiature apart from the account number. I do hope i'm posting it in the right place.

 

"Thankyou for your letter....." etc.

 

"We will forward to you copies of statements covering the period in question......"etc.

 

"We are happy to waive any fees for the production of this information and we return your payment"

 

"Although many of our systems are automated, "a manual intervention" by bank staff may be required in a variety of situations including; account opening, dealing with correspondence or telephone calls, when deposits or withdrawals are made over the counter at our branches and from time to time during account administration."

 

I presume the last paragraph is there to justify something and wondered if anyone had any thoughts.

 

Great site by the way, all for one and one for all. I'm looking forward to my 5% day!!

 

Russell

[HSBCrusher]

Hello Russel, and welcome.

Sounds like the standard letters to me, if you take a good look around you can tell what letter you will get before you even get it!

All the best with your claim, keep us posted if you will.

 

Crusher

[RussellRoberts]

Hi,

 

Thankyou for all the help i've recieved over the last few weeks much appreciated.

 

I have had 6 years worth of statements for 2 accounts, one personal and one business (sole trader) delivered to my door, 114 envelopes to be precise!! duplicates of duplicates of duplicates but hey. I've done the relevant sorting, putting in order and higlighting. £427.50p on the personal and £2664.67p on the business.

 

Now i want to go to the spreadsheet stage and have a couple of questions. I apologise if these questions are answered elsewhere, i have read extensively on the site, beautifully complete and comprehensive but:

 

1) Has anybody out there had problems with claiming charges back on a business account? are there any foreseeable problems claiming back charges for them processing cheques payed in by me? paying dd's etc,,,, to cut my question short, should i treat my claim any differently to my personal account claim??

 

2) Should i put my 2 claims together or should i treat them seperately? I've read of people having accounts closed after a second claim.

 

3) Can I claim back "arrangement fees" and/or renewal fees

 

Thankyou in advance for any advice you may have

 

Russell

[carlyt123]

Hi Russell

 

I have made two claims on business accounts. It works exactly the same except that the name of the claim must be the company name. So as you are a sole trader, whoever trading as whoever, must be the name you make your claim in.

Other than that just follow the process as normal.

You can not claim back arrangement fees etc, just charges from unpaid direct debits, bounced cheques etc and interest from where these charges have made you go overdrawn.

Hth

 

Carly

[carlyt123]

Btw, if you hadn't already worked it out, the claims will be separate as one is your name and one is your business name, so you will need to make two individual claims.

[lookinforinfo]

Don't forget that when you get back the business a/c refund to advise your accountant as the charges and interest may have been included in the years they were incurred, as an offset to your profits.

[RussellRoberts]

Thanks Carly and lookinforinfo ;-) , very much appreciated. Both letters in the post recorded delivery 5 minutes ago. 14 days and counting. I must admit this is the first time i've felt a little nervous, threatening a bank!!! what the f**k am i playing at, but on the other hand.....why not, it's my money:roll: Thanks again and I'll keep you posted xx

 

Ps would a mod please change the title of my thread to Russell v HSBC, (I'm a bit of a forum virgin and don't want to break anything) Thanks

 

pps I think i've made a mistake and could do with some reassurance:confused: In my haste and attempt to avoid stress levels reaching bursting levels I've sent the "request for repayment" template letter for my personal account and the "letter before action" template letter for my sole trader business account. Have i messed up?????

 

any advice would be most welcome

[RussellRoberts]

pps I think i've made a mistake and could do with some reassurance:confused: In my haste and attempt to avoid stress levels reaching bursting levels I've sent the "request for repayment" template letter for my personal account and the "letter before action" template letter for my sole trader business account. Have i messed up?????

 

any advice would be most welcome

[carlyt123]

HI,

 

Yes both the claims are just starting aren't they? If so both should have been sent the prelim letter.

Have you sent any emails?

I am not sure what someone more experienced on the site might suggest about this, but what I would do is send another copy of the prelim and an email of the prelim and pretend the other letter never happened. You're going to end up sending it out anyway!!!

The a/c that you have sent the request for charges letter is fine, that is the prelim letter.

 

Carly

[RussellRoberts]

Thanks Carley for such a speedy response and the advice,

I have jumped the gun a bit here i know, as you say though i would have been sending it out eventually anyway, I'll give it a day or so until monday (my post office will be open here again by then and wait and see what feedback i get from the site. Thanks again. I havn't used e-mail at any stage so far, do you think that might be a problem?

Russell

[carlyt123]

Hi Russell,

 

No I don't think it is a problem that you haven't been sending mails, but I did send all my correspondance by mail as well, to ensure it arrived one way or another. I just thought if you haven't yet sent any mails you could send your request for repayment letter(the prelim) by email so at least they have had a copy of it.

I just think if you did end up going to court it would be better in your favour if you could prove that you had followed all the necessary steps. As it is you have skipped one, so by sending a mail on Monday you have then complied with the first letter and can send the second LBA by post and email.

At least you have something to show the judge to prove you gave them the inital 14 days before sending the LBA.

Just my opinion though.

 

Carly

[RussellRoberts]

Yabbadabbadoo!!!! I came to the computer tonight to print off my letters before action for both my personal and business accounts, checked the mail and lo and behold I have a letter from HSBC offering me £40 short of what I'm claiming back on my personal account, sorely tempting to be honest!!!! No feedback for the business account from the bank yet but as these 2 claims are running concurrently I expect an offer for that in the next day or so. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again all for all your help

[RussellRoberts]

Hiya, I'm still holding fire on the lba on my personal account while I add charges that I have received recently, however today I received a letter from HSBC in relation to my business account. The letter is a total refusal and contains several passages that concern me a little and may be of some interest:

 

"The bank does not agree with your contention that the charges which have been applied to your account constitute a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable".

 

Is this a problem?

 

"You have refered to the office of fair trading investigations into the level of default charges made by HSBC.......The OFT statement to which you refer is the view of the OFT and relates solely to credit cards not business overdrafts".

 

Is this a problem?

"The contract between the bank and its customer is governed by its business banking terms and conditions. In respect of overdrafts, I would refer you specifically to clause 8. Our fees and charges are stated in our published pricelist and the circumstances in which these charges apply are clearly set out in our terms and conditions.........."

 

Is this a problem?

"We are therefore unable to agree to your request.If you wish to escalate your concerns to the next stage, you can write to our customer relations department.....enclosing a copy of this letter".

 

Should I just carry on with the LBA as planned?

 

I do feel I'm being a bit "Woosey" about this but any advice or support would be very much appreciated at this stage.

 

Thanks

[angela1606]

i got the exact same letter keep to your timetable

[wendy69]

Hi Russell

 

I can't help you with this but I am keeping an interest as I too will be claiming the charges back for my business account - but as of yet still not received my copy statements.

 

good luck to you, sure it will be ok.

 

wendy

[RussellRoberts]

Thanks angela, I will keep to the timetable and let you know how I get on.

 

Thanks Wendy for your reply, this whole thing is putting the willys up me a bit but the support network here is fantastic!! and if I can help in any way at all just ask.

ps clear a space for the statements! when they start arriving you think they're never gonna stop!! x

[wendy69]

Thanx Russell, I started off very angry now very scared. But nothing to lose.

[angela1606]

its v sim to my letter appart from the first part about credit cards but the rest is the same fob off letter that normal customers are getting

[RussellRoberts]

A Quick question please. I note from my internet banking that HSBC are going to debit £50.00 from my account on the 30th August for going over my overdraft by £6, can i add this £50.00 to my list of charges i am about to send an LBA for or should I wait until they take it and then send the LBA??

[Dani]

Its fine, I put down charges that hadn't been taken out of my account at the time of sending the letter.

[angela1606]

what is the date of the first charge you are claiming for as long as it doesnt exceed 6 yrs then yes

[RussellRoberts]

Congratulations Angela:D :D Sounds like you've spent it twice over already!!

 

I hope you don't mind but could I run my latest letter from the bank past you?

 

"Thank you for your further letter dated 12th August 2006 requesting a refund of your overdraft charges of £2762.39.

I am sorry that you have found it necessary to write again on this matter. Our position has not changed however since we last wrote to you and I have set out policy again for you below.

The bank does not agree with your contention that the charges that have been imposed constitute a penalty and are therefore unenforceable. The contract between the bank and its customer is governed by it's Business banking terms and conditions. In respect of overdrafts, I would refer you specifically to clause 8.12. If you authorise a payment that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or over an agreed overdraft limit the bank considers whether or not to make this payment and a fee is payable for this service.

 

Our fees and charges are clearly stated in our published pricelist and the circumstances in which these charges will apply are clearly set out in our terms and conditions, a copy was provided to you when you opened your account.

 

Whilst I accept that this letter will not provide the response that you hoped for, I trust that I have been able to clarify the Banks position. If you are not satisfied with the banks response you should now refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, as this represents our final response on this matter.

 

Yours sincerely

 

pp'd by somebody who looks like Birch

 

Colin Langdale

I do have concerns about this being a claim on a business account, but as i remember your dealings were with a business account?

 

Regards

 

Russell

[angela1606]

hi sorry not me hun just normal account but i believe the process to be the same but run it by a mod good luck

[carlyt123]

Hi Russell,

 

I have sucessfully claimed against the Abbey and Natwest on business accounts and have a claim in process on a business account with Barclays.

It works exactly the same way, so don't worry.

 

I hope that reassures you,

 

Carly

[RussellRoberts]

Hiy Carly,

 

Thanks for the reply and the reassurance, starting to fill in the MCOL makes my ass twitch a bit, I'm not a big fan any sort of confrontation with a suit, but in for a penny and all that.

 

Did you claim in the name of the business or the individual on the Money claim online form?

 

Russell