Yorkshire Bank, can we still claim back charges?

[dana_leigh]

Hi, in 2006 my boyfriend has a YB account. Unfortunately, he went overdrawn whilst working abroad in australia.

 

The bank charged him £8 a day, sadly unknown to him, as in his words, he was young, naive and didnt think to check via ATM and obviously didn't get relevant mail.

 

This went on for a good couple of month, along with a few direct debit penalties, unpaid cheque penalties and debit interest. The initial debt was £197 OD but the account was closed in oct 2006 after amounting over £500 in charges, thus leaving a total debt of over £700.

 

The debt of course went into default, although my bloke never thought to find out why his account had closed (he assumed because it had no money in) and consequently never challenged the charges.

 

We have looked into now as a debt collection agency has now come for the money. They have bought the debt from the bank, so the bank no longer have anything to do with it and we cannot challenge the charges to reduce the debt.

 

But my question is, can we still challenge the charges with the bank as being unfair? I understand that charges which are more than the debt are considered penalties and therefor illegal, but does that include total charges together, or just single charges for each item?

 

We have a bank statement with the list of charges on it for the months before the account closed, so have proof.

 

Can anyone help? Obviously recovering some of this money would then help pay the debt off with the debt collectors

 

thanks for help

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG. Sorry you were missed.

 

A test case back in 2009 meant that overdraft charges couldn't be reclaimed so I think trying that route will go down like a lead balloon.

 

As this debt is quite old the DCA might accept a low Full and Final settlement.

 

If you look HERE there are some letters which you can use to negotiate with the DCA (including the F&F letter)

 

If you happen to be in financial difficulties, and they refuse the F&F, only offer what you can afford. This is a NON priority debt.