Ok the 14days has come and gone after sending the LBA off, just need a small amount of help on the money claim website.... Firstly is this correct for the particulars of claim... "I am claiming the return of money taken by the defendant in the way of charges over the last 3 years plus the interest they have levied on those charges. The bank's charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law. Further, as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Para.8 and sch.2 (1)(e). In the event that the charges are not a penalty then they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15. I have repeatedly asked the bank to justify their charges but they have declined to do so. I will also be claiming 8% interest on the charges which is pursuant to s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984. The charges are £597.00, which with interest of 8% added equals £653.70." Also it says 'Does or will your claim include any issues under the Human Rights Act 1998?'... i assume this is no?! Thanks for any help you can give!

ok, update on how things are going.... received a letter back on the 9th june, saying how they didnt agree that the default fees were unlawful etc etc, and that they were reducing the cost of credit card charges (why they told me i dont know, seeing as my claim is nothing to do with a credit card). they offered me the huge sum of £25 as a payment... will be doing the lba today and posting asap.

thanks for that... under my own thread i had just asked about this very thing, so thats really helped me, i was a bit baffled by it all! cheers!

yeah thats def the best way, otherwise no doubt they'll do the 'oh we never received it' routine. anything to further aggravate you. good luck!

No idea what £5 a month is, ive never had a charge as low as that before. seems that their charges are £28, £30 & £39. as was said best to just ask them. good luck!

yeah u only include the 8% once its going to court. for now its just the charges. cant believe ur branch manager has taken such an interest. it would be nice if i could even speak to mine! sent him a letter over a week ago, and not a thing back yet! good luck with the claim!

Ok, have now been issued a letter saying i will get a default notice if i dont pay the outstanding amounts blah blah blah... thing is even if i do pay that back they still keep charging me more anyway! Have managed to agree to pay back £10 a month for the next 2 months which is pretty good. Also sent off the telephone harassment letter to them, thanks very much for that, sent a copy to trinity road, and one to my branch manager - who i still havent had a response from since i sent him a letter over a week ago. One final question before i send my LBA off to them. Ok so the charges amount is £597.00.... and i have worked out the interest amount to be £79.04, i know this is just going to be an approximation because of the spreadsheet, but should i add this on as well, as it shows i have attempted to work out the interest amount. Thanks for any help, and sorry for the continued questions! EDIT: ok after all that i was directed to another thread which said the only real way to work the interest out is to speak to the bank and ask what interest they were applying to the overdraught, then to work this out against the extras they charged on top of that etc, which is going to be complicated and time consuming, so i guess its best to leave it!

Hello thanks for the spreadsheet, just one (possibly stupid) question! Just entered the interest parts in on the right hand columns, and i take it that it is working out rough estimate of the interest charge which is the piece you would add onto your claim total? 19.62 interest.... balance of -1,441.44 at time of interest = 7.21 that i would then add to my charges to the bank? i also saw someone else comment about the spreadsheet not working if the balance you enter is positive? i think u advised to try to work out the average balance for the month - but what happens if the average is also positive? Thanks again!

Ok sorry to be annoying but i am really confused again now, just got the spreadsheet to total up all the charges and there are also columns for 'interest date... interest charged.... interest on penalites', and it appears that the totals calculated are a percentage of the original interest charged by the bank. (ie 2.19 interest = 0.30 interest on penalties) I am confused as to whether i now add this to my charge total, or as previously advised i dont add anything to do with the interest ive been charged!? Sorry 2 be a pain!

Ok yeah i think i get it now Soz to be a bit dumb there, thanks for the advice!

i shall definately be donating some money to the site as and when i get my payment back from Halifax (fingers crossed)!

Ok i see, so without the interest it goes down to £530. So from what you have said each months interest charge will be partly a standard charge for having the over draught and then some extra from going over the over draught limit?

Ok had an initial add up of the amount and its in the region of £800. quite a bit more than i had expected! Just one question... i do add on the interest that they've charged me each month dont i?? The interest i'm charged for going into/over my overdraught? Thanks!

Also forgot to say that i have opened another account with Lloyds. Did it all over the phone within about 10 mins, just gotta pop down to the branch once i receive the letter through from them. All very painless!

Sounds good mate good luck!

yay hooorah whoop whoop! lol sorry for the over excitement... but big congrats on getting YOUR money back always brightens up my day when i see yet another person taking Halifax (or any bank - but especially Halfix!!!) down!

Thanks for the replies guys! Will send off that letter template ASAP, good stuff! Just received my statements back today - 7 evelopes stuffed full... should keep me busy for a while! Will update as soon as i have worked out how much they owe! Thanks again everyone for the kind words and help you have given

yeah finally when i spoke to the manager she explained i could try to make an arrangement to pay off a 'token' amount each month and then they would freeze the charges for the time being, trouble is when i asked what a 'token' amount is they said well u have to say and then we will let u know if thats enough.... why cant they just say whats enought to begin with?!?! supposedly (as i was told by a friend who is a lawyer) i can offer £1 a month! might try that see what happens!

Good luck with your claim! i've just received a (swifter than expected) reply from the DPA letter. So fingers crossed they'll get their arse in gear for you too. keep us all updated with whats happening, this is a great place to get help, i was extremely uncertain to begin with, but thanks to everyone here i'm so pleased and confident in what i'm now doing.

ok latest update.... after many more harassing phonecalls did some research and found that under the Administration of Justice Act 1970 it is illegal to conduct such harassment and threatening behaviour, which i have reported to the Halifax but was told that this isnt true, so i shall be making a report to the financial ombudsman about this. have spoken to a manager (finally) who was equally rude and instead of listening to my complaints just told me what i had to do, or else this and that was going to happen etc (more threats). wrote a letter to my branch manager complaining further so fingers crossed will get a satisfactory reply. just received a standard reply to the DPA letter stating i will receive my statements no later than June 20th. Be looking forward to receiving them!

hi, if you have heard nothing and still wish to claim the full amount, it is best to push ahead if you have given them enough time to reply. not sure which letters you have already sent to them.... but i should now send the next appropriate document from the library section of the site. good luck

hi guys, would like some advice with regards to my last post. have now been called the last 5 days in a row early in the morning by the same person demanding payments being made or else a default will be issued and my overdraught will be cancelled in one go. on several mornings i wasnt here and as i still live with family when she was told i was out, hung up immediately on them. i finally spoke to her today in which she laughed at me on the phone, said she was not prepared to let me speak to a manager when i asked for one, refused to give me her surname also when i asked for that, and was just all round threatening to me, before slamming down the phone while i was in mid sentence. i am now waiting on her manager calling me back after making yet another phonecall to the halifax. just wondered if there is any action that can be taken against threatening and harassing calls like this?

ah well in the case that u can make an automated reply happen then i guess it would make no difference to send an email, ive read quite a few times of people sending emails. good luck whatever u decide to do

i would say that recorded delivery is safer, just from the point of view that even with an email with a 'read receipt' being sent back to you, they can still click 'no' when it asks them to do it, which ultimately just gives them the option to deny ever receiving anything.

had yet another call this morning from them. i'm not sure what i can do, but can this be referred to as harassment, they are now calling almost every day without fail threatening more and more each time. thing is last 2 times i have spoken to them they said to contact the citizens advice bureau about freezing the interest on my account, which i have done and am waiting for a response, yet they cant seem to wait and keep calling anyway which is really not good enough in my opinion - even today (saturday) - how do they expect anything to get done on a weekend for gods sake!? :-?