Abbey Charges - what next?

[spinks37]

Having followed the advice in here, and sent the letter complaining about their charges on March 8th .... got the interim letter that 'we are dealing with your complaint .....'

 

Today have had a reply from Abbey refusing my claim for £220 of charges back, stating "We don't believe that Abbey charges are unfair uder these (Common Law, Statute or recent Consumer Regulations)"

 

But it also states:

 

"If the complaint escalates into a claim in the County Court, we will review each case individually, and if we feel that our relationship with our customer has broken down completely, we may decide to give notice to close the account under the Terms and Conditions".

 

Now what??????

 

Need to keep my account, but cannot realistically afford to lose £220 to charges.

 

Any ideas????????

[richardc]

Open another account elswhere now The co-op and Natwest seem to be prefered options for ease of opening accounts.

 

This is the first time that I've seen Abbey write this. They are trying to scare you.

 

Obviously, this your decision and your money.

[nickmack]

"If the complaint escalates into a claim in the County Court, we will review each case individually, and if we feel that our relationship with our customer has broken down completely, we may decide to give notice to close the account under the Terms and Conditions"

 

Sounds like a thinly veiled threat to me. Bullying tactics

 

Need to keep my account, but cannot realistically afford to lose £220 to charges.

 

It's your call at the end of the day, it's your account.

 

If you want to continue your pursuit, If you can open an account at another bank now then you should do so and conduct your business there. You need to be prepared for the fact they may close your account.

[spinks37]

"If the complaint escalates into a claim in the County Court, we will review each case individually, and if we feel that our relationship with our customer has broken down completely, we may decide to give notice to close the account under the Terms and Conditions".

 

So do you think this is in response to the Court case last week against Lloyds TSB???

 

Or have they cottoned on to the fact that this site is fully behind Abbey customers complaining????

 

And would I have grounds to negotiate with Abbey, as I have the following accounts and products with them:

 

E-Saver A/c

My son has an a/c

Have a second saving a/c for son's care needs

Home Contents Insurance

Child Saving Bond

[Robertxc]

If your finances are closeley wrapped up with Abbey then you probably want to get alternative arrangements in place before getting your cash back. The amount you're after is small enough that they almost certainly won't waste any resources defending it, so they will probably just give you your money and close your account.

 

From the accounts you list, it would seem unlikely that they would, or even could, close any account in your son's name, because presumably the contract for service is with him and not you. Obviously, they can't cancel your insurance out of spite, as this will be governed by a seperate agreement. It looks like the biggest risk is to your e-saver account, in which case all you need to do is open a basic bank account somewhere (I use HSBC, because they don't have penalty charges on their basic accounts). Incidentaly, if you open an account with HSBC they automatically give you a savings account to go with it.

 

Having followed this forum for a couple of months now, it seems that Abbey in particular are constantly evolving their tactics to deal with what is presumably a massive increase in the number of people demanding their money back. This might mean that just because they're threatening to close people's accounts this week, doesn't mean they won't abandon that strategy and try something else next week.

[spinks37]

Have gone into my local branch of Abbey National, where they know me well ................ and they said to put the request in writing to the branch, and they will seriously consider writing the charges off, or at least consider reducing them. They said they 'consider I am a good customer'!!!

 

Am not hoping too much, but have faxed a letter to my local branch this afternoon and will await the outcome before taking any next steps!

 

Will keep this thread updated as and when

[BankFodder]

I can tell you that one of our Users has just had nearly £5000 returned after Abbey submitted their defence

[vixtrix]

Which user - I'd love to hear the story???

[spinks37]

Good news to this thread - went to speak to my local branch of Abbey about the matter, instead of the in-human Customer Services Centre's in Bradford & London.

 

My local branch was really reasonable, and the letter that I had received they said was something new to them too.

 

They have agreed to refund the charges ..... and today they were refunded to my account!!

 

SUCCESS

 

Very happy with the result.

[richardc]

Good news to this thread - went to speak to my local branch of Abbey about the matter, instead of the in-human Customer Services Centre's in Bradford & London.

 

My local branch was really reasonable, and the letter that I had received they said was something new to them too.

 

They have agreed to refund the charges ..... and today they were refunded to my account!!

 

SUCCESS

 

Very happy with the result.

 

Congratulations. Well done. Can you please complete the poll in the General Forum - it encourages others and have you thought about a small contribution to the Law book fund?

[spinks37]

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