Is £100 Charge per o/d excessive/normal?

[harvest]

Just a quick question. Having read many threads on this website and all of the recent major media coverage I noticed the following:

 

Most people are talking about charges of £30, £39 in O/D fees.

 

Having gone through my statements for the last 6 years my charges were on average

 

£100 'Excess O/D Fee' (even though I hadn't anywhere near exceeded my agreed O/D limit) every month plus another £30 charge each time titled 'Overdraft Fee' on the statement.

 

Is this par for the course or does it strengthen my case? In once instance I had a charge for £122 'Excess O/D Fee' and £30 'Overdraft Fee' on the same day.

 

Grateful for any info.

[RETURNED TO SENDER]

Sounds like they owe you over seven grand then !

[harvest]

I know RTS. A bit frightening really that I never noticed these charges were adding up to so much money.

 

What annoys me is that I hadn't exceeded my ovedraft limit at all when these charges were first applied.

 

These charges just appeared out of nowhere. Inevitably, as the charges built up each month my O/D eventually did exceed its limit creating a further raft of higher charges.

 

The bank won't even enter into a discussion about why an excess O/D fee was ever applied so I have no option but to pursue a claim.

 

I would love someone on here to be the first to set a case precedent by forcing one of the banks into a court to defend a claim. It will happen sooner or later I think.

 

The legal system will not be able to cope with the sheer number of claims if this and other websites are anything to go by. I reckon a senior legal figure will want to compell a full defence (by one of the banks) and make a decision that sorts this all out one way or the other.

[half ax I]

I'd like to hope that the OFT or some body will tell the banks to repay any substantiated charges claimed on demand a bit like some are doing with mortgage exit fees. (or am I just dreaming).

[harvest]

Too right Half Ax I.

 

I'm sure it will happen eventually.

 

It's nice to think that everyoneon here, pursuing claims, are part of a vanguard to get things changed. Your knights helmet in your avatar will come in handy I reckon!

[BettySwollox]

I had two instances like this of £100+ fee and a £30 charge on the same day. I claimed for all charges and have had a letter offering me 85% back.

 

Hope this helps

[madhouse5]

I've had £119 and £30 in a month on two separate occasions. Ask for it all back.

 

Good luck

[harvest]

Thanks Bettyswollox and Madhouse. Yes, I'll be claiming these back. Looks like FD are one of the highest chargers then.

 

As soon as I've had my first reply to LBA, or 14 days has elapsed, I'll put a thread up harvest v FD with progress reports.

 

It'll be interesting to see if they have any new tactics as the number of claims gathers pace.

[Bopomofo]

£149 total in one month? I've had this quite a few times as well.

 

I have seen on a number of my statements that they have credited some charges back to me. It seems FD have a policy of not charging you more than the £149 in any single month, bless them.

 

They're all heart, aren't they?

 

And yes, I am after them for my money back.

[harvest]

Bopomofo - we should have a competition on here for who has had the highest single charge applied to their account in a single hit.

 

At the moment I think you're top of the league. £149, in one month? Imagine a bank, if a case ever gets to the stage where they turn up in court (unlikely I know), trying to justify that figure on the grounds that it's not punative or a penalty but a 'service charge'. They'd be laughed out of court (surely?)

[harvest]

Think I've made a balls up.

 

When I produced my charges I included the following as charges I was reclaiming

 

'Excess Overdraft Fees'

'Overdraft Fees'

'Charge Renewal Fees'

 

Having just looked at other threads and relooked at FAQs and guidance I've just had a horrible feeling that you can't charge overdraft 'fees' per se, just Excess overdraft fees?

 

These O/D fees were not something I agreed to as regular service charges. I agreed a one off O/D arrangement fee.

 

Have I F***ed up?

 

Be grateful for advice.

 

Thanks

 

harvest

[Bopomofo]

The OD fee is charged when you exceed your limit. The Excess OD fee is charged on each 'unauthorised' transcation. Oddly, these unauthorised transactions include debit card transactions, which they... ummmm.... authorised.

 

Anyway, you are ok for OD fee and excess OD fee. The renewal fee ( I don't have this) sounds like a charge you pay for the overdraft facility itself, in which case it is a fee for a service rather than a penalty fee.

 

Claim the OD and excess OD fee.

 

[At least that is what I'm doing based on other advice in this forum]

[harvest]

Thanks Bopomofo - really appreciated.

 

I just had one of those horrible / nagging feelings that I'd ballsed up the basics and FD/HSBC would pounce on my obvious schoolboy errors to put my claim at the back of the queue or worse write a sarcastic letter telling me I'm an idiot or something (got enough people to do that already without FD/HSBC jumping on the bandwagon).

 

Cheers again. Good luck with your claim Bopo

[Bopomofo]

...but as I said, I think the renewal fees are a fee for a service, so you can't claim those. I'm doing the totting up as we speak, and I will keep a couple of separate totals I think.

 

We're only a few days apart, it seems, so it will be good to keep comparing notes.

 

Cheers!

[harvest]

I think you're right Bopo about the renewal fee. I've checked on the FD website...seems even though they didn't tell me about it there is an annual thirty quid charge for having an O/D over £500.00

 

As you say, our claims are only a few days apart so I'll keep this up to date and check your thread regularly for updates.

[harvest]

Oh, forgot. One other thing....

 

This may be new I don't know but:

 

Going through my statements I found regular £2.50 charges for 'text message banking'. I've never used FD Text Message banking, never signed up for it and don't even know what it is. Can anyone shed light?

 

Has anyone else claimed back Text Message Banking charges?

[bookmark1976]

You can't claim those back as when you requested the text messaging service you will have agreed to pay the fee. When I first agreed to it, it was free. They then introduced the fee and I never got around to cancelling it. Maybe this happened to you??

[harvest]

Thanks Bookmark.

 

I asked FD about this and they confirmed that I'd never even had the free period of Text Message banking because you had to sign-up or ask for that when it first came out - even when it was free. I certainly never requested it at any time.

 

It's not a huge amount but works out about £30 a year.

 

Could complicate my claim so I've left them out