Muggings Welcome to the Forum. You will find all the answers and friends that you need to claim back all those charges. Take a couple of days out to read the FAQ sections, and other peoples posts and you will soon get the hang of it. Feel free to ask any questions, we are all here to help one another and please keep us posted with your progress. Neil.

Barbird, This means you write back saying roughly 'thank you for the offer, but no thank you, if i haven't received a 100% refund within xdays (time remaining of the 14 days) then i will commence with Court Action.' Simple! The money they owe you is YOURS, not half of it, not just some of it - ALL OF IT. Keep to your guns, and you will get it all back. Neil.

Some have had their accounts closed as a condition of payment (not neccesarily HSBC though), so it is always wise to have a parachute acount open ready and waiting, or even better, just switch anyway!!

Well done for staying your ground. Good Luck with everything, and keep us posted!!

Essjaydee, How much are you claiming back? I know that you are awaiting your DPA results, but roughly, is it more or less than your overdraft? If you are claiming more back, then just tell the next person who phones up, that they amount is in dispute and that you will not, under any circumstances be paying any of it back until the dispute is resolved to your statisfaction. If you claim is less than your OD, then tell them that £(your claim amount) is under dispute, and that you will settle the remainder at a rate of £x per month until it is cleared. Also, have you opened a parachute account yet? Keep us posted Neil.

Welcome to the Forum. Keep reading through all the different posts (in other banks sections as well) and you will soon get to grips with what can and will happen and how to deal with it. Good Luck, and keep us posted.

Stick to your guns Coalfire and you will get your money back. Keep us posted how you get on.

Well Done for keeping at them. Too many people i believe cave in too quickly or don't even bother in the first place. Keep us posted.

Always keep your communication polite and to the point. THere is nothing to be gained (apart from personal satisfaction!) of being sarcastic or rude. Just hold your ground, insist on 100% and nothing else, and eventually, you will get your money back. Keep us posted.

Keep us posted on your progress. Good Luck Neil.

Keep us posted.

Guadge, Congratulations. Hope that you have PM'd Bankfodder with details of your windfalls (and have you considered donating to the site to help keep it going so others can benefit as you have?!!) Well Done Again

Welcome to the Forum LondonPam, Keep us Posted & Good Luck.

I have read somewhere that you can get your statements via their online banking system for free!

If you going to send the LBA without knowing exactly what you are claiming for, then you need to ensure that you make it clear that the figure that you are claiming is an estimate. If they have not complied with the 40 day limit on the DPA issue, then you need to follow that up as well. There is guidance and forms for this on this forum (can't remember exactly where at this point in time!). If you still haven't received the DPA information by the end of the next 14 days, then post again, and hopefully someone else will know what to do!!!! Good Luck

Don't worry too much about charges that are still happening at the moment. Keep to your timetable about the responses from your prelim and LBA letters. It is most likely that they won't but stand your ground. Did you get the information you needed from the DPA request? If not, if they do not adhere to the strict 40 day time limit, there are actions you can take about that as well. You can adjust the amount from your prelim and LBA letters to a final amount to be claimed when/if you have to serve them with County Court Action. However, any charges after this point in time will have to be on a seperate claim. Have you opened up a parachute account yet? By doing this, you can cancel all your DD and SO's with Abbey, and set them up with your new account thus allowing you to have no more charges from Abbey (thus no need to worry about additional charges after you submit the CC action) but also allows you to 'start over again' with a new bank and giving you the opportunity to make sure you don't allow your new bank to 'have' to take these unlawfull charges from you again! Good Luck with your claim.

You are entitled to start proceedings AFTER today as you gave them up until today to pay you. The choice is yours whether you do this through Moneyclaim Online, or downloading the forms and taking them into your local County Court. I have seen Abbey use an excuse that they do not know the breakdown of the costs (usually as there isn't room on the MOL form to detail it all) despite the fact they have all our records and it was them that debit them in the first place!! So, i would see this as a good reason to download the forms and then you can as long as you can fit it in the box, you can put whatever information you like (there is a template in the FAQ section) and include the charge breakdown if you like. But this is just my opinion. Good Luck

Good Luck with your claim. Keep us all posted as time ticks on!

Good Luck one and all on this thread!! With regards where you post the LBA to, i would send it to the address on the letterhead that you have received. BUT, if it progesses to legal action, send the Court forms to their Head Office at Triton Square. Neil.

Seminole, That would be fantastic! I will PM when i get back from work later on today. Neil.

Righteo, 6 days and counting. The more i look into things, sometimes the scarier it becomes!! For instance, i found out the other day that if the Judge agrees to the stay of execution, he can immediately move onto hearing the case in full!! Not sure who would be more worried, me or the bank for actually having to present their case in front of a judge! It's made quite interesting talk at work, it's amazing how many people have heard about claiming back their charges, but not actually believing it! It's not until i start telling them about it (and everyone else groans, as they have all heard 20 times before) that they start to believe it, and understand how simple it is. So far, my office floor has almost disappeared under reams of papers that i have photocopied threefold (one for me, one for the judge and one for the Abbey's solicitor). Good old Viking - they're going to make a mint out of me before i'm finished!!

Having read the defense you have mentioned, i cannot see anything there that isn't being used by other banks, or very similar things at least. The main arguement they have here is that their charges are a pre-estimate of the loss that they could incur. They mention their overheads, the need to operate standard procedures... (ie. automated systems) etc. The law agrees to these pre-estimated losses as long as they are not deemed to be excessive. If you look at the overheads of YB, the cost of the installation of their automated systems etc and then divide that by the number of customers or the number of charges that has been generated by the system since it's inception, i cannot believe that you would achieve a sum anywhere near what they charge for going overdrawn etc. Therefore the charges are excessive and unlawfull. Also, remember, that no one has actually made it to court yet. Everyone has been settled out of court. IMO your mother will not be any different. Keep the faith, see it through, and you will be rewarded for your patience! Neil.

Go ahead with the legal action, the fact that there is a delay between your time frame, and the actual time frame you have taken will not matter. I have four other cases to fight, all have had DPA's, Prelim Letters and LBA Letters, and are now about 4 weeks after the deadline that i had given them. I am in the same boat as you were, that it was not financially possible for me to launch these other claims until i received the money back from my first (with Abbey). I am in court on Wednesday against Abbey's fight to put aside the Default Judgement that i have already won, and am expecting to see some money soon! So, the short answer GO FOR IT!!

Janey, First of all, WELCOME to the forum. Here you will find loads of people all in the same (or very similar at least!) boats to yourselves, and are getting their money back. Read the FAQ section and browse other threads, using the Search facility is also a very usefull tool. You should find the answer to many of your questions using these two tools. Please do ask any other questions, even if you do feel you should know the answer..... everyone here is here for the same reason, and you will find loads of people here who are more than happy to help others, like yourselves in the process. Good Hunting!

IMO, in the T&C's of your agreements, it should state which laws the agreements are written under/governed by. If it is the English Courts, then you should claim through the English System. If it is under NI Law, then through the NI Courts.