had this letter through today

[emm4]

Thank you for your letter of 3rd march addressed to the group chairman. i have been asked to respond on behalf of the bank.

 

Whilst i can apreciate that no one wishes to pay bank charges unnecessarily, i feel that i should point out that we do offer a free, full banking service to those customers who remain constantly in credit. however, we do ask those customers who overdraw or who do not have sufficient funds in their account as and when thier payments become due, to make a contribution towards our costs in maintining their account. these costs are quiet considerable. if for example, all of our customers conducted their business in accordance with the terms and conditions of their account, considerable savings could be made. As matters stand however, we have to employ large numbers of staff to deal with all aspects of administration regarding accounts that become overdrawn without prior authorisation. furthermore, we have had to devolop and maintain the technology to allow us to carry out these within, in case of returned items, precise timescales laid down by the clearing process.

 

Notwithstanding the above, when you become a customer, we give you details of anycharges for the day to day running of your account. details of our charges are also available from our branch staff, telephone helpline or our website. while banking with us can be completely free, we apply charges if a customer does not have enough money in their account to meet payments they have requested us to make.

 

You incurred charges because you did not ensure funds were available in you account to cover the payments set up by you. it is your responsibility to operate your account within any agreed limits.

 

as a business we are entitled to set charges to cover additonal work. these charges are not hidden and are notified in the guide to banking charges leaflet we produce. we advise our customers to ensure cleared funds are available in their accounts to meet payments due. you will also note that in the front of each cheque book we request that funds are abailable before cheques are issued.

 

you acepted these terms when you opened you account and when you agreed your overdraft. we did not agree to pay your account in excess of the amount agreed without charges being made.

 

accordingly, i am unable to agree with your request to refund the charges. we do expect your account to be run in line with the terms and conditions of its operation. this means that you must ensure that cleared funds are deposited into the account the working day before any payments are due. if you do not feel you will be able to run your account in accordance with terms and conditions, we may have to consider withdrawing certain facilities, such as any debit cards, overdrafts and cheque books. alternativly, you may wish to consider seeking other banking arrangements elsewhere.

 

That was from Martin Orton at Birmingham

 

do you think its worth me putting a money claim in?

[Loula]

Hello emm4

 

Please can you explain what this was in response to?

 

Thanks

 

LOULA

[Spiceskull]

That really does sound like a response from a no-star contact centre operative - would the bank chairman really delegate his letter writing to such a non-entity?

to make a contribution towards our costs in maintining their account

Surely, by definition a 'contribution' is voluntary...

 

I'm not even going to go further in that letter - if it was to me I would be in the bank within 60 minutes, asking for a complete explanation of it's meaning, from a person that could be held to account for the explanation...

[PrincessAphrodite]

Thats a slight variation of the standard letter from Lloyds - and is a load of nonsense in my opinion.

 

Carry on with the steps of your claim.

 

Good luck!

[emm4]

it was after me asking for my money back, the standard letter from the library

[PrincessAphrodite]

Yes, but that is one of their standard replies to your request.

 

So carry on to the next step i.e. another letter with smaller timeframe / letter before action, etc.

[emm4]

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

- Consumer Action Group