Hi youngnfree, Great to hear from you, hows things? I have had a reply to my letter LBA saying only that they had responded to my 1st letter? Anyway needless to say its time to do moneyclaim, I am wanting to leave it for a few days yet - I have a lot going on at the moment and contrary to poular belief us girlies can't always do a million things at once! I will probably get my head together and do it at the weekend tho. They have stung me for another £60 since my LBA letter so i shall be including that in my claim - I only wish it was enough to get me out of the rat race and buy me a little hut somewhere nice and quiet! Will keep you posted as to events so until then take care.

Natweststaffmember is right. You do not go to moneyclaim online until you have sent 1/ prelim letter for repayment 2/ letter before action. Good Luck

Just send it to your branch address, from there it will go to the necessary dept.

What we need to remember is the first letter we send too them asks them that VERY question, "if your charges REALLY DO reflect my breaches then please supply me with a breakdown of the costs". (They do not because they cannot) If the OFT have admitted that costs run to more than pen, ink and paper then presumably they have done research into this to enable them to make such a statement. Thats great, now would they mind advising us of their findings to establish exactly where the money goes when such breaches are made - which again is what we are asking for in the very first instance? IF it is more than just pen and paper. I THINK NOT!!!!!!!!. I totally agree it is just another scare tactic and to be honest I think we should not be suprised now to be getting different responses from the banks as time goes on more and more people are claiming back charges and the banks realising that their SOD OFF letters. court threats etc etc are not stopping people are now ready to try new tactics!!!!!!! At the end of the day your bank charges today are as unlawful as they were yesterday and will be tomorrow. Ignore there scare tactics and persue what is rightfully yours. GOOD LUCK:oops:

UPDATE - Standard BOG OFF Letter received:o - 2nd letter ready to send!

Hello all, Unfortunately I am back persuing £68 in bank charges from A & L. After receiving all my bank charges back I had the normal ' we will be contacting you regarding your account as you clearly do not agree with our terms and conditions' letter. A couple of weeks went by then I got the we will be closing your account letter, in the meantime I had all the D/D, standing orders etc moved to another account, or so I thought - forgot one! Anyway, it goes without saying what happened next CHARGES. Yes, can you believe it? £68. So I have sent of the first letter to them for the second time asking for it back. I am hoping that in light of the fact I have already recovered previous charges from them, that they as a good will gesture will just pay up - if for no other reason than just to see the back of me! Will keep you posted.

Hi Maggie, Just a quick update - got a reply from NW to my !st letter, it was as I expected it would be just a get lost letter! Am ready to send my second letter. Here we go again.

The impression I get from reading around the threads is that most people when made an 'OFFER' short of their claim tell the banks they will accept the offer as an interim payment but will continue with the claim in full.

Well Done Kev, you and the missis go out and bloody well enjoy it - don,t forget to make a toast to CAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and of course a donation.

Sorry Jim, Realised too late that you already have statements!

Hi Jim, I waited about 5 weeks for the first lot (statements from 2000 - 2002) and then a couple of days later i received the rest (2002 - 2006). They arrived in brown A4 envelopes which were all torn and it was quite obvious to any one that cared to look that inside were statements with all my account details. GREAT - WELL DONE NAT WEST! The other thing is be careful when going thru your statements that none of them have been duplicated, I was merrily highlighting away when I realised that some had been sent twice so I was highlighting some charges twice! Here's hoping that you don't have to wait too long.

Hi Tweaker, Don't know wether this helps but I went to the Halifax to open an account and they said ' they are unabe to offer me a bank account with them' - so I went to the Yorkshire bank and opened an account there and then with no problem. Good Luck.

Bloomin heck - have just spent the last 30 mins reading this thread from start to finish and felt like my heart was going to BURST with all the excitement!!!!!!!! Every time i went on to the next reply i kept thinking 'THIS IS GOING TO BE THE ONE WHERE YOU TELL US YOU HAVE WON' I Think you deserve to get every penny back and you should also ask if you can be a site helper/moderater. I wish you soooooooooooooooo much luck. I am not even in this bank group I am in the Nat West one but I will be keeping an eye on your thread. Again my best wishes for your you.

Hi Maggie, Weaver here. Happy that you managed to open another account, would you mind letting me know which bank you went to and what response you gave them if they asked you why you were opening another account. Can any one tell me which is the best of all the *****ing crumby banks to go to for opeing a parachute account? MOD - ** No Libellous Comments Please **

I have my statements in front of me and the wording for charges differs - They say unpaid D/D, paid referal fees, unarrgd borrow fee, charges and referal charges. As far as I am concerned they are all charges so I have claimed them all back? Hope this helps.

Hi Maggie, Just to wish you all the best. I am just a small step ahead of you, I have received all statements and sent out my 1st letter on the 14 Aug asking for my money back. Will be following you thread to see how you get on.

Hello all Just a quick update. Received all my last six years statement and was actually suprised that I had not incurred as many bank charges as I thought I had. . Needless to say though they still added up to £775,25 which is a tidy sum. Anyway, sent my 1st letter off on the 14th Aug (received by them on the 15th Aug) so am now just waiting for the 14 days to pass. Will keep you all posted as and when things happen - Tallie Hoe. Ammie

Hi Jonathan, Just a quick note to let you know that I got all my bank charges back from the A & L. DO NOT be put of by this letter!!!!!!!!! I had exactly the same the letter, its a standard letter you see? Its just scare tactics. Stick to your plan 1st letter giving 14 days, 2nd letter giving 14 days then court claim time. You will get back your money. I am now in the process of doing my second claim for bank charges from the Nat West. Fight on! Lynne

I agree with Glen, Originally you would have signed to agree the terms and condition of your bank, with that long gone any other terms and conditions ammendments/renewals/reminders etc have never been signed for or agreed to by you which surely means that you neither agree or disagree with them. You could even argue have you ever been informed/sent any T & C since signing the originals - do they send them out registered post, do they have a form attached which you have to complete to say that you have read and understand the terms. I think not. As far as I am aware any contract that cannot be proved makes the contract null and void.

Hi Clarky, I did the same as you and reclaimed all my bank charges from the A & L (which are now sitting pretty in my bank account) before I went in for the kill with Nat West. I sent my cheque of on the 4/7/06 and as of yet the cheque has not been cashed which does suprise me somewhat, having read around lots of threads i get the impression from most that the cheques are cashed pretty quickly, but hay ho, who gives a damn, I know they have my letter (bless registered post) and my 40 days are well on the way to running out. I am not going to worry about whats going on in their offices regarding proceedure etc. They have the 40 days and then letter 2 goes out wether cheque cleared or not! We must stick to the demands that we give them and the time schedules we allow them, this is OUR PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi again robswift, Don't wait to open a parachute account. I received all my bank charges back from the alliance and put the cheque they sent me back into the account that incurred all the charges!!!!!!!!! Sweet! Although they did write to me telling me that they would be contacting me regarding my account - terms and conditions etc the account is still open and that was about 3 weeks ago. I am sure they will close it but I don't think you should wait before filing your online claim.

Hi Robswift, Not sure that you have to wait until the cheque is cleared? If you think about it a cheque as far as I am aware is valid for 6 months once issued - the bank then could rightly so just sit on that cheque for 6 months inwhich time you could do nothing because you are waiting for it to be debited from your account! As far as I am aware the 40 days starts from them receiving the letter/cheque which is why its important to send it registered post so that you can track it and know exactly when they received it. The 40 days is 40 days including w/ends, bank hols etc. If this is not right I would really appreciate someone letting me know, I have read the FAQ and have understood it as that but maybe I misunderstood? I have sent my first letter/cheque to Nat West asking for my statements and started my 40 days countdown from the day that they received the letter/cheque, I had no intention of actually waiting for them to cash it! Is this right?????????

Hi David, Everybody who has joined this site has I am sure asked a million and one questions which is why it is really important to read the FAQ and read as many as the threads as you can, its amazing what you will pick up in tips and advise. When you send your letter to the bank ( The DPA letter) which is in the library templates section you need to enclose £10.00 cheque, this is I beleive the maximum they can charge you supplying the last six years statements. You will need to send it registered post (£1.00) so that you can track it, then they have 40 days from receipt of the letter to send you your statements. Every letter you may need to send is in the library templates section. I have just sent my £10 of so I am waiting patiently for my statements to arrive, what fun we are going to have going thru 6 years worth of statements!!!! Good Luck Lynne;)

Hi Flossy, I to had a letter from the A & L worded exactly the same. My advise to you is to ignore it, they are simply just using scare tactics. I had all my money returned to me. Just stick to your schedule and your demands. It will come out good!!!

Hi everyone, I was previously in the A & L bank group and am delighted to tell you that I got all my bank charges back so am now in the process of claiming them back from the Nat West aswell. Sent a Cheque of for £10 and a request for all my bank statements on the 4/7/06 and as of yet have heard nothing, oh what a suprise! will keep you posted as and when things start to happen.