Bank of Scotland charges - Time for Business.

[daniel_r_clarke]

ok, do they not withdraw the offer if you accept then say you will pursue the rest? Have you had any experience of this yourself novernrob?

[visagephoto]

Seems like it, They offered me a 50% refund (I was asked to "meet us halfway") which I accepted, but this offer was immediately withdrawn when I said I would still be writing in requesting the other 50%.

[daniel_r_clarke]

just an update for you,

 

I called the bank today and told the really nice lady that i had no intention i would be accepting their offer and would be pursuing it further. I asked for the ladies e mail address but i couldn't get it. What is best to do now?

 

Should i just write a letter to her and see what happens? Do i send my letter to someone else or the lady who first helped me? Sorry to ask a really simple question but i have heard stories of people's letters not being acknowledged and the process almost stops completely. This must be another stalling tactic employed by the banks. Its starting to get serious now! I am determined to see this through and reclaim all of my money.

 

In addition, i am opening my new account with the Royal Bank of Scotland and will hopefully be getting my £100 for the pleasure!

[Rebel UK]

Daniel,

 

Don't concentrate too much on what the bank 'might or might not do' everything you need is in the FAQ and help sections here. It's understandable that you are a bit concerned about what to do if they do this or they do that! but you must dictate the proceedings on your terms. Ignore anything they say about how to deal with complaints, how and who to talk to etc etc.

 

Simply stick to the tried and tested format already explained and if you write to 'The Manager' Your Branch, it will find it's way to their legal department through their channels. You only have to be concerned about YOUR deadlines and their FAILURE to meet your deadlines. Stick to the Format ok

 

Rebel

[daniel_r_clarke]

thanks mate, again you are the voice of reason.

 

[daniel_r_clarke]

LBA letter has been sent off for the total of £689.50. 14 days and counting.

 

Will keep you posted on any developments. This happened at the wrong time i'm telling you! slap bang in the middle of my exams! Nevermind, hopefully i'll have two things to celebrate!

[daniel_r_clarke]

Not heard a word off them. I e mailed the lady whom i spoke to last time and asked her to forward the letter. This wasn't a problem last time but i have had no word back off her this time. i guess i wil have to just use snail mail to get my LBA delivered

 

Nevermind, i guess its just a delaying tactic!

[EKELSEY]

Think BoS are getting scared and ignoring e-mails now.

I had to send a letter too as they said they had no record of e-mail. I of course do so never changed date when I sent the letter- off to court on Mon to file another claim!

[daniel_r_clarke]

Still have had no reply to my e mail. Thats just bloody ignorant. Well, the letter is sent, no doubt they will get it on monday, ignore it for a week and then send me a letter saying ok, we will see you in Court! I hope they do because i would love to give them hell in the Court room.

 

I'll kepp you updated.

[daniel_r_clarke]

ok, no reply from the banks at all! I cant phone them because of my unsociable working hours so i sent them another letter via recorded delivery so they will have no excuse now but to reply. I'm well in the mood to fight them to the death. Not only do they over chatge me, but then they ignore me.

 

B*****ds.

[daniel_r_clarke]

Well that letter seemed to do the trick!!

 

I got a letter off the bank saying something along the lines of.....

 

"to attempt to come to an amicable solution to my complaint will you accept £332.00 (basically half of what i asked for). blah blah blah!"

 

Is this a new thing or does everyone recieve 2 offers? I'm considering accepting this offer because in all fairness £332.00 is a fair amount of money and after all the publicity this issue has received it may all go sour from now on!

 

Please, please advise me on what to to. I don't want to let the banks get away with it but also don't want to come across as the charges are not my fault.

 

Hmmm....

[daniel_r_clarke]

I've decided on the plan of action. I'm going to tell the bank an amicable solution would be a £500 settlement. This is because i believe the banks incur some costs and this reflects it. If they refuse i will press for the full amount but i want to give them a chance.

[daniel_r_clarke]

Is anyone else actually reading my thread or is it here for my reference only?!

[Roy Bonner]

Hi, yes there are others reading this thread, I have just read it in it's entirety, and it occurs to me that if you put a little more effort into reading the FAQs and other folk's threads, you would have far less questions which have already been answered on this site, and a lot more confidence in what you are doing. I for example have spent over a week just reading all the threads and FAQs while considering my next move, while you have been asking questions which are all answered in the FAQs. This site is basically a self help group, these good folks donate their time to help us all, but they can't do it individually, so I'm afraid you just have to sift out the information you need yourself. If the information you need is genuinely not there, I'm sure they will be first in line to assist, but meanwhile please don't 'hog the trough' , give the rest a chance too. I'm not trying to be nasty or 'holier than thou', but I recognise in you all the symptoms which I suffer from too and have to work hard to avoid.

Any way, best of luck with your action, I'll look back to see how it turns out.

[edinburgheire]

I've decided on the plan of action. I'm going to tell the bank an amicable solution would be a £500 settlement. This is because i believe the banks incur some costs and this reflects it. If they refuse i will press for the full amount but i want to give them a chance.

 

This is a bad idea, once you go along the lines of negotiations you've had it...

[daniel_r_clarke]

Really? Why? The letter i got off them seemed to imply they had to recover some costs. Has anyone else had any experience of negotiations going wrong?

[daniel_r_clarke]

Hi, yes there are others reading this thread, I have just read it in it's entirety, and it occurs to me that if you put a little more effort into reading the FAQs and other folk's threads, you would have far less questions which have already been answered on this site, and a lot more confidence in what you are doing. I for example have spent over a week just reading all the threads and FAQs while considering my next move, while you have been asking questions which are all answered in the FAQs. This site is basically a self help group, these good folks donate their time to help us all, but they can't do it individually, so I'm afraid you just have to sift out the information you need yourself. If the information you need is genuinely not there, I'm sure they will be first in line to assist, but meanwhile please don't 'hog the trough' , give the rest a chance too. I'm not trying to be nasty or 'holier than thou', but I recognise in you all the symptoms which I suffer from too and have to work hard to avoid.

Any way, best of luck with your action, I'll look back to see how it turns out.

 

It is easy to say read the FAQ but i have been doing this for a few months and when i started some of the issues needed more clarification in my eyes. As for saying i should have more confidence from reading the FAQ's and then acting on what is said, this is a very easy thing to say but when you are living on the breadline and any money coming in is a bonus, it soon becomes an issue of taking what you can!

 

Your post is very much written in a style which is meant to rile people. I do not want to be helped the whole way through but some guideance is always appreciated.

[Roy Bonner]

Sorry friend, I was not intending any agravation whatever. I know all about the financial problems since I also have them, following my heart attack last year when I had to close my business, I have been supporting myself and wife and £9000 overdraft on incapacity benefit of around £65 a week. Also since my illness means I tend to sleep rather a lot, I am only properly awake and alert for about 4 or 5 hours a day. The point I was making, was that I have only so far found one thing that I haven't been able to get coverage on in the FAQs and threads, and my case is a scottish business account which is not exactly standard. Any incongruities I have found so far I have been able to resolve by further research in the threads, and the basic procedures and letter templates are surely pretty well documented. I think that the basic key to success in these ventures, is confidence. Basically the banks are playing a game of call my bluff, and if you don't have the confidence to call their bluff you will lose big time. I'm aware that some people find this learning curve simple, unfortunately I'm not one of them, but I won't let it beat me, I'll keep going through this site until I have it all straight in my mind if it takes a year, and then I'll nail the bu**ers. Longer it takes, the more the interest piles up, so who cares! I do respect the right of the operators of this site to have a life of their own however, so I feel quite strongly that we should only start questioning the moderators and admin personnel when absolutely certain that the answers aren't already here. Having hosted a computer service website for some years and also serving as a resident expert on computers at the AllExperts.com website for many years, I'm quite aware just how much a few questions can eat into your time and patience, especially if you have already taken the trouble to post the answers on your site.

I grant you that in trying to be all things to all people, this site manages to hide the information we need pretty well, but it is there, just rather hidden at times. The problem being that the people who have the knowledge know it themselves too well, and sometimes leave out parts which they take for granted, but which leaves us floundering in the dark. The missing parts can be found of course by reading related articles where the authors have left out different parts but included the bits that were missed out in the first article. This is I admit a chore but is also necessary, if you need help with anything of that order feel free to ask me, but be advised that I'm no Einstein when it comes to this subject. I'm good with computers, but not with money and the law, but I am learning. Probably too little and too late, but I'm getting there:cool:

[daniel_r_clarke]

i appreciate the long and highly detailed response. It would however be easier to respond to if it was split into paragraphs rather than one large piece of text. All your points have been taken unboard but still feel my points throughout the thread have been valid, if not a little repetative.

 

This however is for my reassurance and reference as it is about my account, if i feel i require any guidance i will ask for it. Thanks again for all the support throughout the progress of my claim, i feel the claim may well press on now with the full amount in mind rather than the £500 as it is what the banks fully deserve for their manipulative and dishonest behaviour.

 

Dan

[Roy Bonner]

If you check my thread at the end, there is some discussion of calculating interest charges. Any charge that was levvied say 5 years ago is obviously going to cost you extra interest every month since then if you are in overdraft, since ever since your balance has been low by the amount of that charge. If like me, your bank moves to a higher rate when you exceed your O/D limit, ie from base + 5% to 29.5%, then the cumulative total of the extra interest charged by the bank if the charges of old have put you over your limit can actually amount to far more than the original charges. The older your charges are, the more interest is charged pro rata, but in a worst case scenario where most of your charges are old and your account has been permanently up and down around the O/D limit, the interest could easily amount to far more than the actual charges.

See what happens to your account for example if you remove the unlawful charges. If the balance drops below the high interest level and stays there until further unlawful charges kick it over the top again, then it is quite possible that wrongfully charged interest could be twice the cost of the charges, don't forget also that these excess interest charges also boost your deficit even further so attracting even more high interest. There is a spreadsheet noted that trys to calculate a rough interest amount, but the only way to do this accurately is to sit down with paper, pencil and calculator and a list of the bankrates for the last 5 years. That may be a bit much even for me, but if many of your charges are old ones, it could be sound financial sense.

Sorry if I seem to be hi-jacking your thread, I won't do it again, but I thought it could be useful to you.

[daniel_r_clarke]

I am settling for the £330. I do not have the time to press for more as my new job offshore requires me to be away for long periods of time. As soon as the money is put into my account i will be filling out the survey. Thanks to everyone for their support.

 

Dan

[daniel_r_clarke]

The matter has now been concluded and the money has been paid into my bank.

 

Cheers!

[angelface69007]

Dont bother trying to converse with them, just send your LBA Letter Before Action, giving them 14 days to respond, then go ahead with a claim.

 

Rebel

Have you been offered any settlement yet Rebel? would be interested to know. RBOS seem to be defending the claims.

[Rebel UK]

I've settled with Barclays, just awaiting the money into my account. The thing is not ONE bank or Credit card has gone through the court door, they will put in a defence and you may be pressed to return the Allocation Questionnaire, but believe me, NONE of them will go through a courtroom door.The simple fact is, they see it as paying out a few hundred claims is far less costly than losing in a court and paying out millions once the papers get hold of it. The fact they actually OFFER you a settlement of 40 to 50 % before even getting to a court claim, is basic admission in itself that they KNOW they are acting unlawfully, think about it, If they were in the right and you asked for your charges back, You'd get an FOP immediately, NOT an offer of 50% etc (FOP - F&*& Off Pill)

 

Press On, you'll get your result Before you step through a court door BUT... be ready for it should you ever get that far.

 

Rebel

[Firey]

Hi,

I see that you are persistant in your appeal. I have a b of scotland business account and I think they have taken 5,000. or so off me in the past 6 years for silly amounts over my limit. Now they are trying to reduce my overdraft by 50.oo a month till I don't have one and I don't understand why. I just need to get tough I guess and send the data protection letter and start to get my money back. I am not a very in your face type of person and I have a hard time convencing myself that I can do this. I don't seem to find anything on the forum about business accounts either. I would feel quite foolish if they came under different rules. Thing is, my business has partially failed because of an accident and I could really use this money. Any words of encouragement for a slightly shy person?

 

Firey