Thanks barney! You made it very clear for me. I don't think i will bother with the interest. It's already enough of a nightmare reading all the information on this site! I appreciate it of course. Just one question? What's the 'LBA'? I know i have to send a prelim letter asking for my total charges back, but is there something else i should be doing? I must have missed something. Thanks Glen

Thanks for the advice rdm2006. I've just spent the last few hours going through my bank statements. It's funny how now every time i turn a page i'm hoping to see charges! Wasn't like that before i can tell you!! Regards Glen

Hi, i'm very new to this. I've just spent all day reading this website and now my head is buzzing. Anyway, i am at the early stage of just having had all my statements (all across the floor as i type!) arrive. My charges are all 'Total Charges' due to the fact that as i live in my overdraft i regularly go over my agreed limit. The bank then charges me £25 each time i go over etc. Now i can just add up all these total charges and ask for them back. That's the easy bit. But how do i work out the interest that i've been charged when i've gone over my agreed limit? I don't refer to the 8% interest that everyone claims, rather the fact that they must have charged interest in part on the illegal charges they have put on my account. I'd appreciate a direct link to the correct spreadsheet! (Is it the one Vampiress has created or is there another), or just some advice. The bank have been very responsive to me so far (although they really couldn't answer my question about 'manual intervention'). Also when you put all charges and/or interest on the spreadsheet do you send a copy of that to the bank as well (when asking for your money back) or do you just send the total charges figure only? Or does it not matter which you choose? Thanks very much guys! Glen

Thanks to all who replied to my post. That has been really helpful. I'll make sure i keep everyone updated with my progress as i suspect i'll be claiming a lot. I've been living in my overdraft for years now and have a fair few times gone over the 'agreed' limit. Hopefully i can claim all this back. In fact only a few months ago i was charged £125 by my HSBC bank for going over my limit 5 times. I might add they only sent me the one letter informing me of this (rather than one for each £25 charge incurred). I complained and they sent me another letter saying that they made the correct charges and i should contact a financial advisor if required. However my actual complaint had been that they charged me the £125 and rather than be sympathetic to my situation they simply extended my overdraft to cover the fees (even though £125 is the limit they charge you) and retracted it the following month. Thus i was left to pay my charges and deal with the overdraft going back to the normal limit. In effect paying £250 the following month when i was clearly already struggling. I realise that i haven't managed my money well but they didn't offer me any way out. They could have perhaps taken the charges from me in smaller chunks. They basically caused me to go over my limit in the following month and it only stopped when i came into some money. Otherwise i'd still be in the same situation. That is just a recent example! Regards Glen

Hi, I'm Glen and i'm new to this! I've reached the 'Preliminary approach for repayment' letter stage. I have a couple of questions before i send this off. If anyone can help me it'd be much appreciated: 1) What is meant by including a 'schedule of charges' with my letter? Does that mean writing down each charge next to each date i received these charges so it's easy for the bank to see why i'm claiming for the full amount? Therefore a 6 year list of all the charges with my next letter. 2) Overdraft interest? I feel stupid for asking, but I thought that it was only the charges (ie in my case £25 each time i went over my overdraft limit) that were illegal. I thought i read that interest on an overdraft were legal? I'm a bit unclear about this. They put this info on my statements so it'll be easy to calculate if i am entitled to these charges as well. I'm sorry if i've not made myself very clear. I'm just trying to do this step by step. Also my bank refunded the £10 i gave them when requesting my 6 years worth of statements back. Have you found that your bank has done the same? Will this be used against me by the bank at some point in the future? Or are they just trying to remain 'friendly' with me? Thanks Glen