A&L What Can I Claim For.....

[swampy2363]

Hi,

I have at long last got myself into gear and started the ball rolling for my claim.

But need some advice on what i can attempt to claim back.

 

Alliance & Leicester used to charged £10 a month for using there O/D facility which then went down to £5 in Jan 02.

But if you went over the agreed O/D the monthly charge was £25 a month.

Am I correct in assuming that I can only claim the difference between the £5 and the £25 ?.

If I can claim for the full charges eg the £5 and the £25 over the last 6 years then this would add up to £400.

 

Also i assume that I cannot claim for the interest that was charged as most of this would of been the charge for the agreed O/D.

The charges that I think that i can claim for are the daily charge over the agreed O/D which was £3.50 a day and add up to £245, and the charges for failed transactions which add to £353.50.

I know this is not much but this is the account that i thought would only have charges of £200 Max.I am still waiting for the statements for the account that had the bulk of charges.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Regards Swampy2363

[MimiJane]

Hi,

 

I've just asked the same question ... hope this reply helps :-

 

For your info, here is a list of charges that were applied to A&L accounts, taken from bank statement Tarrifs and Charges and the period that the charges applied to:

 

1 Jan 00 to 11 Oct 01

 

Authorised OD Charge - £8.00 - Cannot be claimed

Unauthorised OD Charge - £10 - Can be claimed

Daily Unauthorised OD Charge - £3.50/day charged upto max of 15 days per month (£52.50) - Can be claimed

Failed Item Charge (Cheque/SO/DD etc) - £27.50 - Can be claimed

 

12 Oct 01 to 7 Jan 01

 

Authorised OD Charge - £8.00 - Cannot be claimed

Unauthorised OD Charge - £10 - Can be claimed

Daily Unauthorised OD Charge - £3.50/day upto max of 15 days per month (£52.50) - Can be claimed

Failed Item Charge (Cheque/SO/DD etc) - £27.50 - Can be claimed

 

8 Jan 02 to 1 Dec 02

 

Authorised OD Charge - £8.00 - Cannot be claimed

Unauthorised OD Charge - £25 - Can be claimed

Daily Unauthorised OD Charge - Nil

Failed Item Charge (Cheque/SO/DD etc) - £29.50 - Can be claimed

 

2 Dec 02 to 31 Jul 04

 

Authorised OD Charge - £5.00 - Cannot be claimed

Unauthorised OD Charge - £25 - Can be claimed

Daily Unauthorised OD Charge - Nil

Failed Item Charge (Cheque/SO/DD etc) - £29.50 - Can be claimed

 

 

In a nutshell, looks like most charges can be claimed for EXCEPT the £5 monthly OD charge.(which I've inadvertently claimed for )

 

Good luck

[godfreyrat]

Hi Mimijane

You sound sharp. I am at letter three with A&L and they have replied with a refusal letter and a leaflet "Your guide to complaints".

Her is their letter to me. I shall check my claim against your specs but I am sure it will still be the same. Anyway here is what they said:-

Thankyou for contacting us regarding fees which you feel were unfairly debited to your account.

While I understand your concerns, please be assured our fees are reasonable and competitive with those made by other financial organizations.

The Office of fair trading has commented that they consider the level of late payment fees to be unfair, however, they were actually referring to late payment fees for credit card payments., which are quite distinct from a bank,s fee on current accounts.

Discussions are ongoing between the banks and the OFT regarding current accounts and once the outcome is known, Alliance an Leicester will review its position as appropriate.

As well as making customers aware of our fees when opening accounts, we also continue to do so through our website, our branches, by telephone and on the back of statements. In view of this, I do not feel that you have been unfairly charged and regret that I can not agree to refund your fees.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of our response further, please contact me on the above number. The enclossed leaflet explains the steps we take to deal with complaints. I will keep your file open for 8 weeks and if I have not heard from you by then, I will consider the matter closed.End.

What now? I don't suppose they would reconsider and pay up on the basis of a telephone appeal against their descision?

[MimiJane]

This is their "standard" letter and they're hoping to frighten you into not claiming:rolleyes:. Don't be fooled and start court proceedings. Best not to enter into telephone discussions ... you'll get nowhere and you want everything in writing.

[godfreyrat]

Thanks for that. I wont. Are they still closing accounts when they pay up? So as you end up with your claim less any OD you may be running.

[MimiJane]

Alliance & Leicester and Nat West are the biggest culprits for closing down your account when they pay up. However, the possibility exists for any bank to do this, and they are:rolleyes:.

 

As for your second question, not sure about this, but I would have thought the court claim would be treated as separate to anything else, so you'd probably get your money back through the courts and the bank would treat the OD matter separately, depending on whether or not they decide to close your acccount.

[swampy2363]

Hi MimiJane,

Thanks for the info,i don't intend to make any phone calls to them,it will be all letters.As for them closing the account i am not bothered at all as i have been trying to get the wife to close this one for years,she has her wages paid into it.

Will update you on the progress of the claim.

Regards Swampy

[MimiJane]

I'm actually claiming for a relative ... she already has another bank account and is in the process of switching all her direct debits and standing orders over. I've not read of a case yet where A&L have paid up and NOT closed an account:rolleyes:

 

Good luck

[merlin42]

Regarding the letter of refusal, I have just received exactly the same letter. This was from a M Parker, Customer Services, which is the same person who supplied the copy bank statements after the 40 day wait. Strange that this M Parker doesn't mention their gendre. I repied to Mr but next time it maybe Miss!

 

Peter

[godfreyrat]

Mine was from . J Fallows must be a big department. I have an Abbey account to parachute into. But would I be better off choosing another and start from scratch. I only have two payments made into it A&L wages and benefit regularly and no dds, to damn expensive. I have £5000 debit on my marbles HSBC cc that would be cool to have intrest free for twelve months. Would I be better to go to a new bank get a loan and re-schedule or keep hopping about intrest free for as long as on the minimum payments? Questions questions. Thanks for the replies all comments gratefully received. I will keep you all posted LBA going out Monday.

[younganfree]

Mine was from . J Fallows must be a big department. I have an Abbey account to parachute into. But would I be better off choosing another and start from scratch. I only have two payments made into it A&L wages and benefit regularly and no dds, to damn expensive. I have £5000 debit on my marbles HSBC cc that would be cool to have intrest free for twelve months. Would I be better to go to a new bank get a loan and re-schedule or keep hopping about intrest free for as long as on the minimum payments? Questions questions. Thanks for the replies all comments gratefully received. I will keep you all posted LBA going out Monday.

Hi, godfreyrat.

 

It certainly makes sense to use interest free credit cards while you can get them, but these may dry up eventually, or if the cc companies latch on to what you're doing they may not accept you in the future, so why not try to pay off slightly more than the minimun each month? That way you'll clear your debt earlier.

 

Good luck with the claim. I read somewhere today that one forum member is not having their account closed, so maybe A&L are having a change of heart on this one. Fingers crossed that's the case.

[swampy2363]

Could somebody give me some advice on what I should do next.

On the 16/03/07 I sent a cheque for £10 requesting a list of all charges that where made to my old Alliance & Leicester account, I should say that I was not sure of the account number and gave them two that I thought were correct,but it turns out neither were but I have since found the correct account number,also this account was closed around 4 years ago.

So far I have heard nothing so wondered what my next move should be.

Regards Swampy

PS The letter went of yesterday for the request of repayment of £863.50 and £60 interest for my joint account. Will keep you all informed.