Thanks Mike, that gives me some hope that I can squeeze some recompense from the banks

Thanks Bob, I'll direct my SAR to GE Money

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I have decided to get the ball rolling on the SARs but would still appreciate the views of site members on the the likelyhood of success. I also had a loan with a company called Lombard who could now be defunct. If this is the case (anybody know?), I assume that I will have to claim directly to FSCS.

Following a relatively successful collection of bank/credit card charge claims, I would like to have a go on the PPI front, but there could be a number of issues.. I had loans from my three previous bankers Co-op, Halifax and Lloyds and various cards with the usual credit card suspects MBNA, Lloyds etc. I am pretty sure that most of them had associated PPI and I think I would have a reasonable claim for mis-selling as I was a self employed consultant during the life of the loans/credit cards. Problem number one is that the loans/credit cards date back well over 6 years, probably more like 16 years. They were all frozen into a debt management plan in 2002 which has recently been completed. The excellent SAR template requests full financial history but judging from some other threads, the banks/card companies seem reluctant to go back past 6 years with a familiar 'no records available' excuse. Problem number two is that I have no detailed documentation for any of the loans/cards so I would be entirely reliant on the SARs providing sufficient information to establish a claim. Again, I notice from some threads that quite often the info received was not complete and/or did no match the request so I am not optimistic that I would be able to obtain sufficient details to make a claim. Problem number three is that assuming I was able to pick the required info for a claim from the SAR, the banks/card companies probably would not want to play ball due to the age of the agreements. I understand FOS will not entertain claims prior to 2001 which would just leave the courts as the sole option. I would be reluctant to pursue the latter course as I have had previous experience with a bank charges court case against Lloyds which required significant work. My dilema is am I being too pessimistic and I should I risk a few ten quid punts on SARs when the odds of a successful outcome may be quite slim, or reluctantly accept that I have missed the PPI claims boat? Any advice or comments from others in a similar position would be much appreciated.

Fair enough Fred, it's horses for courses. I agree Halifax play it rough when the going gets tough - I had to close my account with them because of all of the charges they kept piling on on an almost daily basis. To their credit, Halifax actually pointed me in the direction of CCCS when I began having problems making payments on the credit card as they are the only third party agency that they recognise. The agreement that they would freeze interest and charges for a year was just what I wanted at the time. Now that Halifax are back in line with a similar 3 month renewable arrangement, I can't really complain. On the plus side, a couple of years ago I managed to get a full refund of charges of over £4000 on the bank account and over £600 on the credit card without going to court - every little bit helps ..... Brett

Fred I am not planning to withhold payments and I am reasonably happy again with the Halifax now that I am back on an arrangement with them, allbeit one which I have to renew every 3 months. Apart from one month when they charged reduced interest, they are charging zero interest which is good news. I have about a dozen creditors on my DMP with CCCS and they have all played ball from the start with the notable exceptions of Halifax and Lloyds TSB - it is no surprise that these two reprobates are now in bed together. Halifax have now redeemed themselves with this new arrangement so that just leaves Lloyds languishing as the bad guys in this tale. After several years of accepting my DMP monthly payment, Lloyds have decided that it is not large enough even though it was their fault that they received a relatively small slice of the cake in the first place. I am expecting my account to be dumped on a debt collection agency any day now but I am not overly worried as it just means my meagre monthly payment will go to a different destination. Brett

For anyone on a debt management plan with Halifax credit card through a third party (eg CCCS, CAB etc.), their standard policy was a one year agreement on zero interest and charges and then you were dumped back into being a regular card holder with standard interest, late payment charges etc every month and no way of extending the agreement. This policy was out of line with all of my other creditors who did not apply adiitional interest or charges, with the exception of Lloyds TSB who decided to start whacking on very reduced interest about a year ago. The result of this policy was that my monthly DMP amount to the Halifax fell well short of the combined interest and late payment charge and my debt was increasing at an alarming rate. When I was talking to one of their people in collections recently complaining about this silly situation, they just happened to mention that the policy was now changed and they were offering 3 monthly renewable agreements at zero charges and reduced interest. Needless to say, I signed up on the spot and my debt is now in remission again. If there is anybody else out there who is in a similar position and not aware of the change of policy, get calling .....

Good luck!

Stikky/Emma, I sent mine to Customer Concerns in Swansea and got the SAR back about a week later. The contents of the data was a bit messy and all over the place. VM only provide detail charge data from when they took over and all previous NTL/Telewest/Cable & Wireless reincarnations are only in a summarised format. However, with a little detective work and assumptions, I managed to pick the bones of non DD and late payment charges out of the mix. One unexpected bonus was the credit of my SAR fee to my account as a normal payment. I am now ready to continue battle with N1 when my budget allows for the court fee, hopefully at the end of this month. Brett

Hi Debbie Try writing to CEO at PO Box 238, Wythenshawe, Manchester M22 0WJ or calling them on 0845 234 0752 or faxing them on 0161 296 2725. It worked for me! VM screwed up my DD date on a recent package upgrade, resulting in a late payment fee and failed DD bank charge. I got zero joy from the distant lands of the 'customer service' call centre, precious little more from Customer Concerns, and just a verbal offer of a refund from the DD team which faile to materialise in black and white as a credit on my bill. To their credit, Mr Mitchel's flunkeys replied promptly to my letters and eventually came up trumps with a credit for both the late payment fee and the bank charge. Brett

I must have just struck lucky then. Surprisingly, I received my SAR within a week of asking, although it was in a bit of a mess and picking out the relevant charges needed a little detective work.

Just a quick note on Martin's stement that SAR is worth a tenner. VM actually credited my tenner to my account as a standard payment! I don't know if this was a one off or standard policy - if the latter then VM SARs are free, as is the case with some banks.

Martin, Like others, I am in a similar position of firing off a request for payment and LBA to CEO to no avail and am looking for a suitable text for N1. Webbscatering on another thread had a succesfull claim and promised to dig out his text but so far has failed to come up with the goods. Can you or anybody else out there supply an N1 template that has a chance of doing the business for both late payments and non DDs? Thanks, Brett

Hi again kev/webby It's been a little while so here is the latest SP on my claim. As expected, VM gave the same short shrift to my LBA as they did to the original requested letter and sent a big wad of terms and conditions to rub in their 'you can get stuffed' approach. Interestingly, the confused lady dealing with my complaint tried to link it with a completely unrelated complaint I had made in May when VM messed up on my billing (no suprises there!) following a service upgrade. In this latter complaint, I was successfully refunded a late payment fee and a failed DD bank charge (which of course I have also added to my pending bank charges claim). The VM lady amazingly stated that because I had received this credit, I was not getting any more! So now it's N1 time and I ask again, also requested by Jogs above, could you please let us have the wording of your N1. Thanks again for your invaluable help. Brett

Webby, as expected I received the standard rebuttal of my request for payment. A bored young lady from CEO phoned me and quoted the standard rejection script - T&C approved by regulated bodies blah blah, charges are fair blah blah, yawn etc... I politely cut her off in mid flow and requested the spiel in writing which I have now received. So it's now Let's Be 'Aving you time and the relevant letter is on it's merry way to Manchester Towers. In anticipation of receiving another rejection/no reply, could you please let me have the wording you used on your N1/MCOL. Thanks again for your help Brett

Hi again Sally I tried sea-side's link and got a web page not found, maybe I was unlucky with the timing. Like everyone else with claims on hold, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the banks won't prolong the agony and appeal - we should be put out of our misery in a couple of days. Good to hear that you have changed provider. I hope the new one gives you a better service, it couldn't be any worse. I am still trying to get my credit card debt switched to Blair Oliver & Scott. The latest timeframe I was given was another 3 months. In the meantime they are happily whacking on interest and late payment fees every month with the debt growing rapidly. At this rate, it will wipe out the charges I claimed back .... Brett

Hi again Webby I fired off my SAR to Swansea towers a couple of weeks ago and was amazed to receive a bundle of stuff from the chief exec's office in Manchester last week. I was expecting banking type delays of a month or two. Admittedly the quality of the billing info was a bit iffy in places but I managed to pick out £120 worth of late payment and non DD charges. I noticed from your template that you added some strictly not legal interest at the payment request stage so I have duly followed suit and whacked on another £20 giving a grand total claim of £140. My request letter is now winging it's way to the CEO and I will let you know the response - more than likely to be now way Jose but I have my LBA at the ready ..... Brett

Thanks Webby, that's brilliant!!! :) I don't keep my bills so I will get my SAR out and keep you informed of progress. I thought only bank charge cases were stayed in MCOL and credit card charges/other stuff was still going through. Hopefully this stage may not be required if Virgin play ball ...

Congratulations Webbscatering!!! I have been thinking of claiming late payment/non DD charges against virgin on the riduculous for a while myself but have been reluctant to do so because I could not find anybody who had successfully claimed. I have a few questions where I would really appreciate an answer before I commence battle : 1) Did you follow the standard SAR, request for payment, LBA, MCOL route as per bank charges? 2) Did you use modified bank letter templates and if so, do you have samples? 3) What was the timescale between SAR and the final offer? 4) Did you address initial correspondence to the 'customer concern' chaps in Swansea? Thanks in advance for your help I can at least claim a recent minor victory with Virgin - In November last year they reduced the price of an additional set top box from £15 to £9.50 per month. Of course they did not tell any of their existing punters and continued to charge the old price. I only discovered this change when one of my friends added another box and told me the new price. I fired off an angry letter to Swansea Towers which drew a swift response in the form of a call from a nice young lady offering me a complete refund of the difference between November and now. This promised refund has now appeared on my latest bill so it's not all doom and gloom but I think it would be wildly optimistic to expect the same level of response on the more meatier issue of the dreaded late payments/non DDs ......

Emmaf, I agree there must be a similarity here between the Virgin ridiculous charges and bank chrarges ie they are a penalty and not a fair reflection of actual cost. The template letter needs wording very carefully. I am not a hotshot at legal/consumer stuff and so I feel I can't volunteer my services. Maybe a moderator would like to take this up or even the mighty OFT after they have put the sword to the banks in court? Brett

Clanger, I must admit that I had forgotten about this one, what with Chester Towers coughing up a full settlement to me last year and the current OFT high court circus shanigans. Battleaxe/Cornicopia, what's the latest SP? Brett

Congratulations Sally!!! Brett

Hi Karen, the only way you are going to get past this standard rejection letter is going to court and I can understand your reluctance to do so with no precedant of success. I hate to say it but this looks like a dead end. Based on your and other threads, I am not going to attempt to claim. Brett

Hi again Sally. I am also now being charged a late fee in addition to interest and receiving letters asking to bring the account up to date. Having remonstrated with them once more on the phone protesting that my cccs payment was fixed fairly and I couldn't pay any more, they let slip that my account would be defaulted in the next 3 monthly review and transferred to debt collectors Blair Oliver & Scott. I know that you are fighting your default notice but I say bring it on in my case! Blair & co are aleady one of my cccs creditors from another bank and I know from experience that they play fair and square with no interest/charges and ready acceptance of the cccs calculated monthly payment. Also, my credit rating was already shot to pieces years ago so another default added to the pile makes little difference.... Good luck in court, assuming it's not stayed again Brett Brett

Malaga, just an update to say there is no progress. I have heard zilch from the court and finding it very difficult to get through to the right person by phone to tell me what's going on. I've pretty much given up on the stay lift now but it would be nice to be told of a decision. I just hope the admin improves post OFT court victory next year as we all stuggle to get our claims settled .... Brett