Dunno, these are numbers I saw that came from charges...so could be anything but I would assume a large percentage of that money would be from unlawful charges. Mailman

Just make sure you are the first 20 on to the plane! Hope they fix the pool for you! Regards Mailman

Farken hell, banks make over ONE BILLION pounds a year from unlawful charges! Im even more "shocked" that so far, according to the poll on this website, only a mere ONE MILLION pounds has been handed back to bank customers! That is a massive difference! Quite clearly the Government needs to actually get off its arse and REALLY do something to fix this situation! Mailman

I guess you get what you pay for dont you? I used Ryanair in the New Year to go to Germany (Baden-Baden before the English invaded! ) with my two young daughters and the trip over was fine. We got to board the plane before anyone else. However on the way back people with small kids were asked to board first, which wasnt a problem BUT it was the bus to the plane we were asked to board first...by the time everyone else was on the bus myself and my two girls were right down to back so in effect we were last on to the plane! But not all was lost as people soon moved when confronted by two screaming children But lets be honest here...how hard would it be to introduce allocated seating? Not bloody hard at all I reckon! Mailman

You know Ive been thinking about this and I reckon we should all be reclaiming interest charged as well simply because of the fact of the numbers involved here. Obviously £1 or £2 in interest charged isnt a lot BUT when they are charging tens or hundreds of thousands of people then it all starts to add up, quite a nice little earner for the chairmans p1ss fund really. Mailman

Thats interesting, I had £50 taken in charges for this month but received now correspondence. The previous 2 times this has happened I got an email from the bank stating the amounts being taken and what they based this on...but this time not a thing. So it was on to the phone and 30 minutes later had the charges refunded and a note put on my account...but whether this note works is another thing altogether! Regards Mailman

They are a business mate, there to make money. If you dont like them dont shop there but you are a fool if you think these are the only guys who do this. Mailman

Rich, The easy thing to do is not just not shop there if you arent happy. Im happy with PC World, its convenient to where I am and more often than not the "thing" Im after is in stock. I could order online through someone else BUT I dont want to have to wait a week for my order to arrive (if it arrives at all). I dunno, I have come across some real losers at PC World BUT that is the exception and more often than not their staff are helpful. Mailman

Still be a good arguement though Mailman

It would be interesting to see what would happen if HSBC decided to close my account...mainly because Im a foreign national so getting a bank account isnt all that easy. Then again, if they did close my account how then would I pay my loan back Might ask Mr High Court to strike the loan off as the Bank obviously doesnt want my business Mailman

What they might do is put a naughty note on their internal records if you have claimed money back from them. Regards Mailman

So I got my charges refunded on the 20th of June BUT imagine my shock when I see more charges (£50) had been taken out on the 22nd of June! This put me in to "combat" mode straight away, on the phone to HSBC and got through to some lacky in the call center. "Sorry sir, we cant refund the charges as they are [insert usual bank rubbish here to support their theft]". So I got the lacky to put me through to a supervisor and I explained about the battle over the last 3 months and how the bank had lost and refunded my fees a couple days ago. They put me on hold for 5 minutes and then when they come back agreed that the charges will be refunded AND that they would put a note on my file saying not to take any more charges in the future! Whether this actually works or not is yet to be seen. Farken banks, honestly...I think we need to find a rich patron (Russian or Arab, Im not picky) to fund legal action through the high court to force banks to stop taking these unlawful fees from us! Mailman

The Government has to introduce a flat rate tax system so we can get rid of rubbish like this! Take the poorest out of the tax system altogether and bring the richest in (because it ends up costing them less to pay tax instead of paying for tax avoidance advice) and everyone becomes a winner! Mailman

Checked my account this morning and my charges were finally refunded. £205 in total was credit earlier today! In the end HSBc caved in like a pack of cards...just a pity it took nearly 4 months to get such a small sum back from the buggers! Now that I have got my money back is there anything I need to do with the county court action I started? Can I stop my claim on line or do I need to call them? Regards Mailman

Well the first payment has come out of my account so as long as I keep my end of the bargain then there shouldnt be any need for the liability order. If they do seek it then I shall unleash the hounds on the feckers! Mailman

Ive even been in a pcworld shop where the guy has used one of the terminals to go to the pcworld website, order the item and click on "collect at shop" to generate the "code" and then got the discount. Sometimes their staff can be plonkers but more often than not Ive found the staff to be very helpful Mailman

Thanks for that. You are a true champ So Im just going to sit on this letter and do nothing with it. However you know when I was talking to the council people I offered to pay off the arrears in one lump sum and then set up a direct debit BUT they refused this and said that I can only set up a direct debit for the council tax (being £1100 divided by 9 months). I thought this strange but didnt argue the point. Certainly I would have prefered to clear off the outstanding £300 and then just pay the normal £90something pounds a month from there! Well I guess there is nothing more for me to do but to run for council and then when in power abolish this insidius tax! Regards Mailman

There are various laws of physics that are against short people with no muscle tone who have been hired for their looks, namely "Mailmans law of shorties" which states that all things being equal, a short person cannot lift an object of any particular weight higher than a taller person. Sorry...Mailmans Law is absolute! Mailman

One suspects that based on the size of cabin crew that they are hired more for their looks than their ability to move fatties should something happen! Mailman

Guys, I entered in to an agreement with Tower Hamlets over paying my council tax through a direct debit. At the end of the conversation I double checked that no further action would be taken by the council through the courts (as I had received a summons for non-payment) and they concured that no further legal action would be taken by them. Now, a couple weeks after agreeing to pay CT by direct debit I got a letter in the post from the council and a form headed "Special arrangement for payment of council tax arrears" and in it Im asked to provide my employment details. Under that is the following; This arrangement is made subject to the following conditions; 1. This form must be completed and returned when the first payment is made. 2. It is understood that the authority will obtain a liability order, if it has not already done so, including court costs, but will undertake to withhold further recovery action provided the above payments are made as agreed. Further down the form right at the foot of the document is this; "Under regulation 36 of the council tax (administration and enforcement) regulations 1992 you are legally obliged t suuple the above information when a liability order has been greanted. Failure to suuply or suuplying false information is a criminal offence which may result in a fine of up to £1000.00 and a criminal record registered in your name". Now I take great offence at having to complete this document and having to give them my employment details...not because I have anything to hide BUT because as far as I can tell there is nothing in the law that allows them to collect this information unless a liability order has been issued against me (to date I believe that no liability order has been issued against me). I guess if they did want to get that liability order issued then I could get an injunction or something like that to stop the order being raised (as long as I keep meeting my payments on time). To me this form seems grossly confusing. On the one hand they are demanding information and on the other they are making out that they have a legal right to get this information EVEN though a liability order hasnt been granted. Anyway, I guess after this long rant, should I just ignore this letter or complain or raise an injunction, run for office or call a jihad on their behinds! Regards Mailman

The thing that really gets me is that 99% of the women hired as cabin crew look like they would have trouble opening a can of coke! Most cabin crews seem so small and petite (ie no muscle tone what so ever) that Id just love to see them trying to move someone of even average weight!). Mailman

Ask the solicitors if they have a local branch so you can go down and withdraw your money through them Mailman

Well I received another letter on the weekend, this time from their solicitors (DG Solicitors) offering £205 with a confidentiality clause. However I have since sent them a letter advising them that a confidentiality clause is a non-starter and that I expect the full amount to be paid free of any conditions. So lets see how this one goes. Im picking them being prepared to drop the confidentiality and just paying out as it probably costs them a heck of a lot more an hour to engage their solicitors to defend such a small case Regards Mailman

You could be right BUT they only way you will get banks to stop making "unlawful" charges is if you drag them through the high court. THEN and only THEN, when there is a legal precident in place, will banks stop making these unlawful charges. Now, anyone got some money they are willing to pony up for this law suit? Mailman

Saturday morning I received a letter from HSBC saying if I sign here everything will be forgiven...however the only problem is the sum mentioned £458 is far more than what I claimed (£205). And that if I signed they would give me £380 and be done with me (because the cost of defending the claim wasnt worth it rah rah rah etc). So is this just more dirty tactics from HSBC or perhaps, this is what Im hoping, they have gone through my account and added up ALL charges I have paid! The dirty *******, is there no end to the dirty, dirty games they will play! (MODERATED: Language please!) Mailman