Hi Lattie & Netty HAVE BEEN OFFERED FULL REFUND Goods news. HSBC have offered me the whole lot. Wating for it to go into our bank account. Thanks guys for all your help on this forum. See me get my charges back on the Lloyds thread. G

Cheers Netty. I suspect the bank are getting fed up with us but we'll show them. Here is my letter which will be faxed to HSBC on Monday. Thank you for your letter dated 31st January in which you offered us a partial refund for our bank charges. I respectfully decline your offer of £744.00 as Full and Final settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account which total £957.50. I will accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary. bearing in mind that should I take this to the small claims court there will be added a further £159.07 in interest plus £120 court fees, making a total of £1,116.57. As stated in my letter dated 1st February I do not want the hassle of going to the small claims court, but will do this if full settlement of £957.50 is not forthcoming. I know that HSBC does not want this either as per your quote “ we are however, mindful of the management time and irrecoverable legal costs that it may incur in relation to such a claim” and therefore look forward to a full refund of all charges on our account. We do not want the £957.50 deposited into our bank account and require a cheque for this amount to be sent to us in the name of *********** I look forward to hearing from you within the next 7 days before I take any further action. Yours sincerely,

I have now taken my first letter to my branch of Lloyds for £90.00. They refunded my last lot of charges after I went in there and hassled the manager, now they can give me all of them back. (They didn't like it the first time so they certainly will not like it now, but hey ho who cares. (I know Lloyds are nasty so have opend a Nat West account). So will let you know how I get on in the Lloyds thread.

Hi Lattie Good News. Received offer from HSBC. Bad news - it is just under £200 of what I am claiming and I want it all. £200 is a lot of money to me but only pigeon feed to the bank and I work very hard for every penny I earn. I Phoned them and spoke to a nice man, called Andy, who told me to write/fax in with a letter stating what I would accept. This was after I told him that as far as I was aware none of the banks had gone to court and that the financial ombusman had not had to settle any disputes!!!! So am going to write and tell them that I am looking to receive the full amount, bearing in mind that this will save them 8% interest plus court fees. I will give the amounts, so they can see that they will be saving money. (Don't want them overworking their brains:) ) Here is a draft copy of my letter. Dear Mr Landale, Ref *************************** Thank you for your letter of 31st January. Whilst I appreciate your kind offer of £744.00, my charges over the last six years amounted to £957.50 as per the enclosed list. I would therefore like the total of my charges to be refunded, bearing in mind that should I take this to the small claims court there will be added a further £159.07 in interest plus £120 court fees, making a total of £1,116.57. As stated in my previous letter I do not want the hassle of going to the small claims court, but will do this if full settlement of £957.50 is not forthcoming. I am sure the Bank does not want this either and and I look forward to receiving your offer of the full amount. I would be appreciated if you could refund my £957.50 by cheque made payable to ********************* I look forward to hearing from you Yours sincerely, *****************

Thanks. Meet Cassie. Lattie - she enjoyed her biscuit

Hi, Rang HSBC. Letter has been received. Got the impression that the girl on the other end of the phone was just taking calls and didn't seem to know what was happening. She did tell me that I would definately get a response. Told her the only response I wanted was all of my money back and would give them until mid Feb (as stated in my letter) before going to small claims court. Off topic how do I get Battersea Cassie's pic on my posts. It is now on my profile. G - Battersea Cassie

Hi, Letter went in the post today, so will have to wait and see what happens. I will ring them early next week to make sure they received it and remind them they have until mid Feb. Will keep you posted.

Will write and send letter tomorrow, between dog training and dog grooming. It would be rather nice to start a trend, so heres hoping. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Maybe that Mr Langdale will be nice to me says she hopefully ( ha ha). Cheers G - Battersea Cassie

OK, New version of my letter. Dear Mr Langdale, Ref************************** Further to my telephone conversation with your colleague, Debbie, regarding the full refund of my bank charges, I would like to confirm the following. I understand that due to a backloge of cases, my case is due to be looked at after 8th February and a decision will be made soon after that date. I note that HSBC has not actually taken any one to court and in fact all cases have been settled prior to the court date. I also note that the Financial Ombudsman Service have not made any formal decisions as per their quote below:- "So far, we have not had to make any formal decisions on disputes about bank charges – because the banks have preferred to settle the complaints brought to us, making offers to customers to repay disputed charges on a goodwill basis." I would therefore like to give HSBC the opportunity to refund my bank charges amounting to **** in full, thus avoiding court fees, interest and additional paperwork. This would appear to be the most sensible and adult conclusion and would save HSBC addiltional costs in both time and money. Obviously I do not want to go to the hassle of filing a claim in the small claims court, but if I do not hear from you with a offer of full settlement by mid February, I am quite prepared to do this. Please also be aware that excuses and delaying tactics will not deter me from doing this, but I would much prefer this matter to be settled in an amicable manner, which would save both parties from additional expense, time and work. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, ******************** (nearly typed my correct name there, but just stopped in time!!!) Your comments please. What do you think?

Hi Lattie & Netty, Have also been on the FOS site and read their quote about banks settling of thier own accord. Will quote that in my letter. My aim is to try and get HSBC to settle in full without having to file a claim with the court, but then again if I have to go down to the court it gives me an excuse to have a nose around the shops. (Wasted journey otherwise!). Will compose my letter, put in on here and perhaps you could tell me what you think - so watch this space Thanks again. G- Battersea Cassie

Thanks Lattie. I have read that and its very interesting. Will see what else I can dig up. Must be a report from FOS that I can quote. Will let you know. Must go and feed 4 ravenous collies now. Cheers G - Battersea Cassie

Hi, Thanks Netty and Lattie. I am the eternal optimist. What I will now do is put my conversation with Debbie in writing, so how does this sound? Dear Debbie, Ref************************** Further to our telephone conversation of today, regarding the refund of my bank charges I would like to confirm the following:- Due to the backlog of cases, my case is due to be looked at after 8th February and a decision will be made soon after that date. I note that HSBC has so far not taken anyone to court and an offer has been made on all claims before the court date. I would therefore like to give HSBC the opportunity to refund my bank charges amounting to £**** in full, thus ovoiding interest, court fees and further paperwork. This will benefit both myself and the bank. I am quite prepared to go to court and unless I hear from HSBC by mid FeburaryI will be lodging a claim in the small claims court. Please bear in mind that excuses and delaying tactis will not deter me, but I would prefer this matter to settled in an amicable way. Yours sincerely Your comments would be appreciated before I send this letter off - Thanks for all your help.

Hi, As I am now due to write the LBA letter, I thought I would phone up Colin Langdale at Arlington and suggest that he saves time and money and refund my charges now. Anyway, not surprisingly, Mr Langdale was not available so spoke to Debbie (can't remember her last name, so someone remind me). She said that they were not due to look at my case until after 8th February as they were inundated, and anyway each case would be judged on its merits. She also pointed out that the bank had 8 weeks in which to reply (according to FSA guidelines!!) I did tell her that they would end up paying more in the long run and I was only trying to save the bank money & hassle and avoid going to court. I refused to get drawn into a debate on the legality of the charges and informed her that the bank have always paid out and not one case has gone to court. The upshot of this is that I have now given HSBC up until mid Feb to offer me a refund of my charges otherwise it is down to the small claims court. This demand has been logged to to my file. The above conversation was done in a very friendly mannor by both parties as I cannot see the point in being hostile at this early stage and if I can get HSBC to settle my claim amicably then all the better. (Am I living in cloud cuckoo land!!!!!) G - Battersea Cassie

HSBC MUST THINK WE ARE STUPID Have just received my statements from HSBC and they have now changed the name from "charges" to "notified fees/charges" and on the summary sheet these have been listed as "arrangement fees". Arranging what ??? As far as I can see charges are charges and disguising them under different names does not make any difference. And Lattie, I don't know what is worst 4 border collies or 32 kids. mmmmmmmm - I think I'll opt for the collies.

Hi, Ring up the life company direct. They usually have a department which deals with mis- sold policies. I did that with the Pru and told them we were promised that it would pay off mortgage and have a bit left over. They investigated and then made us an offer. Not enough to cover the short fall though.

Am thinking of getting my dogs insured with Virgin. Any body had any experience with them. Thanks

Cheers. Will be sending LBA letter on Tuesday. Nearly OAP is not old, I only have 3 years to go before the big 60 and am still running round with 4 border collies.

Hi, today I received an acknowledgement from HSBC stating that they are investigating and will get back to me. Do I now sent the LBA letter (due Tuesday) together with another list of my charges. I have been reading the forum a lot lately and am most impressed by the help you have given and it is sites like this that have spurred me on. I am now going to claim £90 bank charges from Lloyds but as they appear to be the nastiest of all the banks I am in the process of opening a new account with Nat West and transferring my money across, so Lloyds have no ammunition to intimidate me. Laterus I didn't realise you were female. You are doing a fantastic job with all the help and encouragement you are giving. Thanks. G - alias BatterseaCassie ( a very nice blue merle border collie).

Hi, My prelim letter and list of charges went by recorded delivery yesterday. I have just realised that I put a wrong acount on my list of charges, should have been £36.00 and not £72 and half was refunded. Still can change it when the LBA letter goes out. Also the charges show on my statements as "total charges" and are not listed separately for each month, but they are for being overdrawn. Hope this does not cause a problem with HSBC. I am going to enjoy this and once I get my teeth into something I won't let go and am certainly not going to let HSBC intimidate me. G - alias BatterseaCassie

The only charges I have put on my list are the bank charges. The 8% interest was taken off before it was printed off. I havn't put down any overdraft interest as the overdraft was an agreed overdraft and it wasn't the charges that caused us to have the overdraft in the first place. I will be posting this letter by recorded delivery on Monday. Thanks for your help.

Hi, Received a letter from HSBC today. Stated that they could not supply an analysis of my account as I did not include a list of my charges. Also returned all the photocopied bank statments and SOMEONE ELSE'S LETTER TO THEM. I will be sending them the prelim letter with a list of my charges, not including interest and do not expect to receive a reply. With regard to the wrong letter that they returned to me, I have sent that back to the original owner with a letter of explanation, so they can see how inefficient HSBC are! Hope I have done the right thing. Have looked at your spread sheet and with the help of hubby have had calculated all the iterest on my charges, (it is amazing how much they add up!!!) but will send those at a later date. I am determined that I will get all my money back and will fight to the end, and will not be deterred by threats and intimidating letters. G alias BatterseaCassie (who incidentally is a very nice blue merle border collie).

Hi, Wouldn't surprise us either. Bit confused about the overdraft interest. We have had £2500 agreed overdraft which we are quite happy to pay interest on, so I assume that any claimable overdraft interest would be interest we have accrued as a result of going over our o/d limit as a result of the addition of bank charges. Would like to claim the interest on our bank charges, but not sure about overdraft interest. Thanks. A very confused Batterseacassie girl.

I do not know if this is relevant. but my husband applied on line for a m & s credit card so we can transfer our balance over with a very low rate of interest. This was turned down. The only reason we can think of is because we wrote to HSBC demanding our charges back which was logged on their system on 5th Jan. The M & S card is managed by HSBC. Have they put us in their bad books? For your information my husband has been in same job for 6 years, has a reasonable salary, we have a mortgage, no outstanding debts, apart from a small agreed overdraft and a balance on our Sainsburys credit card. Anyway the more I read on these forums the way the banks have treated their customers and the bullyboy tactics they are using, the more I am determined that they will pay us back our money. The LBA letter and summary of charges will go out on 19th January.

So, what you are saying is that I should, after 14 days, send the LBA letter to my bank with a summary of my charges and interest. (I will probably only ask for the interest on the charges and not the overdraft). After 14 days thenI can put in a claim with my local court. That will give my bank a total of 28 days to acknowledge my letter. Thanks for your help, I will keep you informed of any developments.,

Thanks. Firstly all my bank statements for the last six years are nicely filed away in a folder in order so I am quite well organised. The letter I sent included copies of all my bank statements and stated that if I did not hear within 14 days I woud go to court, which I am prepared to do. ( I copied this letter from the BBC website as that is the one that I accessed first). I can do this by going there in person as my local court is not that far away. Our claim is for £965.00 without interest but will probably be more as there will be more bank charges added at the end of the month. It seems I have skipped the preliminary letter but does it matter. It seems from what I have read on the forum that HSBC keeps stalling anyway, so why give them the opportunity. Am I right in assuming that my court fee will be funded by HSBC when they refund my bank charges.