Is It Still Worth Claiming for Unfair Bank Charges?

[BelstarBomb]

Hi,

 

Having banked with cahoot for a number of years, we have had cashflow problems which has meant that over the last month, we have had a number of returned payments/dd's etc

 

There have been a number of anomalies with cahoot's system in that I can check the account in the day, and everything appears in order. Yet when you check it the following day, you will see that a dd wasn't paid, however it did not appear on the screen at ll the day before.

 

We have also had dd payments of £3 or £5 returned and have been charged £25 for these.

 

There is also the lack of consistency. One week, they will return a dd or cheque as refer to drawer. The following week they will return it as refer to drawer please represent. When this has happened, I had already made alternative arrangements to pay the money, but then incurred extra charges when the cheques were represented.

 

On one account, they returned 22 items last month, of which 20 were under £15. Yet they are levying charges of £550. It doesn't seem fair at all.

 

Are there any OFT guidelines or is there an upper limit as to how much that they can charge? If the cost of bouncing payments is around £2, I no longer even get a letter when a payment is bounced now surely I must have some form of redress?

 

I'd really appreciate your feedback on this.

 

Thanks,

 

Bel

[citizenB]

Bank charges are pretty much dead in the water since the Supreme Court decision made in favour of the banks.

 

I think it might be a good idea for you to cancel all your Direct Debits and substitute standing orders, that way you have more control over when the payments are made. This should be fairly easy for you if you have online banking.

[BelstarBomb]

Hi All,

 

Firstly, a happy new year to all of you.

 

Having just read the latest newsletter from the CAG, as these charges were levied post 2009 and at a time when it was obvious the cash flow into our account was pittiful, do you think that I have a strong argument to write them under BCOBS?

 

Bouncing 10+ direct debits of £1-£2 with charges of £25 is obviously going to bring them more money than simply paying them. In doing what they have done, they have charged £25 per unpaid DD, charged me unauthorised interest, an over limit fee and I'm assuming, interest on the fees.

 

Thanks guys,

 

Bel

[citizenB]

Did you also read the article where Charges were successfully reclaimed from RBS last year.. the letter used has been posted up as an example.. Nothing ventured - nothing gained

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?829-Charges-successfuly-reclaimed-from-RBS-last-year

 

If you would like more help moving forward, just ask

[BelstarBomb]

Thanks CB,

 

I think I will.

 

To start with, shall I get a copy of my statements back to January 1st 2009 or whenever the act came into force?

 

Is there anything else that I should ask for with which to use for writing my letter to them?

 

Are they likely to get stroppy and ask us to close our account?

 

Cheers,

 

Bel

[citizenB]

BCOBS only covers the period FROM 2009 ..

 

I am not sure what other information woud be valuable. Perhaps a ful SAR would be a good start, except that does take 40 days. I will ask and get back to you.

[depressed2011]

hello there

 

just a quick confirmation, is this account with cahoot or santander

 

if thats santandr and the charges took u less then 12 pounds overdrawn in total (before nov 2011) or £14 pound over drawn in total (after nov 2011) they have to give every charge on back on ur account.

 

you dont need to spend any money of SAR, sanatnder is obliged to give you statments for past 3 years free of charge anytime you want them. call them and demand.

 

plus if this the first tym u r getting charges on ur account after Nov 2011, phone them and ask them for first customer care as per new rules, tell them ur frnd works for them , you wud get them back :)

cheers

 

keep me posted

[BelstarBomb]

Hi depressed,

 

It's with cahoot not Santander.

 

Will that make a huge amount of difference?

 

Do you really work for them or were you joking?

 

Thanks,

 

Bel

 

PS. CB - did you get to ask about the SAR?

[depressed2011]

good morning BelstarBomb

 

if thats with cahoot then m not 100 % to be honest, there might be a varaition in policies but not too much, ( i believe) try phoning cahoot and just generally ask for there charges policy, do not mention ur account details, i am asking you to do that as u wud have a fair idea whts th policy like, in th mean time i will try to see if i can get any more info.

 

i have worked wth banco santander group in teh past

[BelstarBomb]

Oh thank you so much! That would be really good of you if you could - thanks Depressed.

 

Do you know what it is now with cahoot that why they don't even send a letter when they bung on a charge - they just send one letter on your statement date each month advising you, not at the time the charge was levied.

 

Also, do you know why you can check your account and everything looks ok and then when you check it after 6pm, you can see that they have bounced payments. In the past, it would clearly show that you had gone over your overdraft limit because of DD's, cheques etc and would even give you a little wiggle room to transfer funds across to cover them if you did it early enough in the morning. Now you don't have a clue until after the event so you can't even transfer funds across.

 

Thanks Dee (calling you Depressed is making me feel it! Sorry ;o))

 

Bel.

 

PS. I'm assuming your female!

[citizenB]

Hi

PS. CB - did you get to ask about the SAR?

 

Aggghhh, forgive me.. I did start out to do just that and got sidetracked.. Am on it now.. BRB

[citizenB]

IMHO, you need to request EVERYTHING they have in their data bases.

Make it clear that it isnt just statements you require, but everything they hold on you as a Data Subject in line with s7 (DPA1998)

Everything they as a bank have about you which would include details of all accounts ever held, all statements of all accounts and all screen prints of all accounts - a SAR is not account specific, it is data subject specific. A SAR is not restricted to the previous 6 years either - You want a copy of everything that they hold about you, no matter the date.

Principle 6 of the Data Protection Act outlines their responsibilities and also confirms that the data subject is entitled to be told of any processing, to a description of what it is being processed and why, a copy of all information held and given details of the source of the data processed . There is nowhere in the Act that states they are only to go back 6 years.

I think if you ask for pretty much everything you will be able to see any patterns of the way they have applied the charges.

HTH

[BelstarBomb]

Thanks CB, so I ask for a SAR and that's it or a SAR and also all infirmation they hold on my accounts subject to s7 (DPA 1998)?

 

Cheers,

 

Bel

[citizenB]

There is a draft letter in the CAG library, linked at the top of each screen.. amend one of those to suit your requirements.

 

As soon as you have the data.. then let us know and we can help you take it forward.

 

 

You should head your SAR..

 

 

FULL Data Subject Access Request

S7 Data Protection Act 1998

 

 

I have attached a rather comprehensive request below.. you can trawl through that and add/substract. You do need to add that you require statements from inception of the account

 

For Forum.pdf

[BelstarBomb]

Thank you!

[depressed2011]

banks tell u in teh previous months statment about the future charges, its a FSA regulation.

 

well if u put the fund same day (until3 pm) in account after the event, u still dun get charged, if u do, u get them back FSA again

 

 

Thanks Dee (calling you Depressed is making me feel it! Sorry ;o))

 

Lol no borthers you can call me J, thts the first letter of my name

 

 

PS. I'm assuming your female! yeh till men exist in this world, women wud be depressed,(i m only joking) u r right i m a woman

I am otherwise a happy go lucky person but when i joined the site i was in a situation making me depressed, i m coming over it, but not out of it yet, fingers crossed, plus i never thot i can contribute to the site as well

 

PLUS : with a SAR you can even ask them to give the notes they created on ur account after every call or communication, strangley the systme is so desinged in digital banking that they have log of all stuff for like years, like 6 years or so.

 

catch ya, i ll call cahoot tomorrow

[honeybee13]

Wrong thread. Sorry.