St. James's Place Bank

[exwebjunkie]

I thought I would start a thread on St. James's Place Bank, a division of the Halifax.

 

I sent my first letter and scedule to them dated 19th August, and received a reply today (dated 23rd), so a pretty fast turnaround.

 

Here's the letter:

 

Dear X,

 

I refer to your letter dated 19th August 2006. Thank you for your patience while I investigated the matter on your behalf.

 

The issue you raised was in relation to charges previously applied to your current account.

 

As you will understand, like other organisations, we incur costs for every transaction made. When we pay an item against an unauthorised overdraft or return an item unpaid, we incur extra costs regardless of theshortfall involved. We believe it is fair to pass the costs on to the accounts affected, rather than absorb them into otherareas of our operations, penalising all our customers as a result.

 

We clearly outline ourcharging policy in the terms and conditions that apply to your account. In addition, we are committed to complying with the banking code, which set standards of good banking practice for banks and building societies to follow when dealing with personal customers. The terms and conditions of your account state that you must have funds in your account to cover teansactions. We cannot be responsible if you authorise payments against funds that were not available.

 

We are keen to help customers avoid any unneccassary charges by prividing various ways to keep track of their accounts. You can do this via telephone banking on 0845 602 6200 or by using our online banking

St. James's Place Bank - Home page

. Ultimately it is your responsibility to manage your account.

 

I acknowledge your comments in respoect of the charges, however, as you are aware, the chages were correctly generated and in accordance with our terms and conditions at the level detailed in the rates and charges publication, therefore taking the aforementioned into consideration, I am unable to provide reimbursement of charges previously applied to your current account.

 

I would like to thank you for making us aware od your dissatisfaction. St. James's Place Bank is committed to providing the highest level of service to all our clients and I would like to apologise that the service you feel you have received does not reflect this.

 

Should you require further assistance with this matter, please contact the Client Relations Team on xxxxxx or write to us at theaddress below.

 

XXXX

Client Relations

 

So it sounds like they are not interested in doing a thing, especially with their quick reply.

 

I'm worried about threatening the court action in the next step, but I'm hoping that they will cave in when they do this. I suspect they wont and i'll receive another reply saying no.

 

 

Any advice at all?

[BaldyBaldwin]

sounds like a standard letter, just carry on with your timescale and send off LBA.

i would start to get your head around instigating court action as you proberly will not get the results you want until you file your claim.

dont be to worried, as there are plenty of people here to help and guide you.

and once you have done it you realise its not as scary as you thought it would be and it becomes quite an enpowering experieance

best of luck

[exwebjunkie]

sounds like a standard letter, just carry on with your timescale and send off LBA.

i would start to get your head around instigating court action as you proberly will not get the results you want until you file your claim.

dont be to worried, as there are plenty of people here to help and guide you.

and once you have done it you realise its not as scary as you thought it would be and it becomes quite an enpowering experieance

best of luck

 

Sounds good - thanks for that.

[exwebjunkie]

Right - I got a second letter from the bank offering me 25% of the charges back. I will not accept this, so now I believe I need to file a claim against them.

 

I tried to do this online, however it seems that as they are located in Livingston (Scotland) I am unable to do it online.

 

Has anyone else come across this? I'll have a further look at the FAQ's but if anyone else in the meantime is able to give me advice on the next step (i.e. claiming locally?) then that would be excellent.

 

Thanks

J

[mechs]

You have to live in England to file online you will have to use your Local Sherrifs Court in Scotland

Have a look in the Scotland section

[exwebjunkie]

You have to live in England to file online you will have to use your Local Sherrifs Court in Scotland

Have a look in the Scotland section

 

Hi there.

 

I do live in England - the problem is that the banks address is in Scotland - it's a postal / internet / telephone bank, so doesn't have a local branch.

 

I'll pop over to the Scotland forum though.

[mechs]

why cant you use the trinity road addy then

[exwebjunkie]

why cant you use the trinity road addy then

 

Oooh - it looks like I can

 

Wonderful - thank you

[mechs]

Your welcome