Hi all Was just wondering if anyone knew if we were in a position to claim back charges from a credit card that has now been settled? i think it was settled little less than 2 years ago. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for that, i will send this letter anyway and see where i get, i am expecting nowhere but at least then i have given them a chance? They have only got til this Thursday to send me my request, so i doubt they will do it anyway but hey ho lets see. Thanks for your reply.

Correction, must have sent the letter on the Friday as their letter back to me is date 18/10/09 which is the Sunday. I am now sending them the following letter, is this the correct one to send please? Dear Sir/Madam, RE: Account NO XXXXXX Thank you for your letter dated 18/10/2009 the contents of which are noted. In your letter you make reference to requiring my signed authorisation before you comply. I draw your attention to the fact that the Consumer Credit Act 1974 does not require that I supply you a copy of my signature before you comply with my S77/78** request. If it is for Data Protection purposes then I can happily supply you with documentation to substantiate my identity to you. However please note that to date you have happily sent statements and correspondence containing extensive sensitive private information to my address. I have to ask if you are concerned that you are corresponding with the correct person why has it taken so long to raise this? As you are aware, disclosing data without adequate checks of identity is contrary to the 7th principal of data protection, listed in schedule 1 of the Data protection Act 1998: 7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data. My request for a true copy of my credit agreement under section 77/78** was made on 17/10/2009 and the 12 working days for your compliance expire on 29/10/2009. I note that there is no provision that removes the requirements of the act to provide this information on time, even if you are unsure of my identity. I look forward to receiving the documentation requested. Yours faithfully XXXXXX (typed)

I sent a request for statement of account held by M&S only last saturday. Have received a letter from them this morning. which says: Under the data protection act, may I advise you that before we can provide a copy of this information, which will be forwarded to you by recorded delivery, we need your signature of authority. Please allow 15 days for the processing of this request, commencing from our receipt of you application and your signature of authority. If you wish to proceed with the request for a copy of this information please can you sign the enclosed form and return the pre-paid envelope provided. Then they have just put a bit about ringing them for advice. They have then inclued a Request for statement of account with my name at top and i can indicate which account i am looking for info on (I only have the one with them!) Then a space at the bottom for my signature but I am reluctant to sign. Any advice appreciated please. Thanks

Thank you. Will get the letters issued straight away and take it from there. i have been reading other posts and they seem to do the same to all their customers who have had difficulties in paying, even when they have made a mistake they threatened me with litigation!

in relation to claiming back fees from GE, for both mortgage and loan, am i asking for any paperwork from them? eg SAR ? can anyne advise how i initially approach them about the claim. thanks in advance

Forgot to mention that this meter has been credited by us with more than £800 in a year. I thought that this seemed a bit steep to say we were not paying off the debt?

Long story - sorry here goes, will try to keep it as short as poss. Last year we got into some financial difficulties due to my husband coming out of work. I got a bit behind with British gas for both gas and electric. i asked them to send the payment cards through so i could go to a paypoint rather than risking more DD being rejected. They never arrived despite requesting them several times. Over this period of time obviously my bills were mounting. Eventually, i reluctantly agreed to set up direct debit, however, they wanted £125 per month for each!!! there was absolutely no way i could afford this and the advice i was given that was they could not accept any other amount, I was shocked. The only other way round it she told me was to have prepayment meters installed and they would take 10 per week off each for the debt! so that was £40 per month, yet they wanted £125 per month direct debit??? Anyway, i had them installed last September. Since then , we decided due to the fact that they were not only taking £10 per week off me for gas but actually taking money off the debt each and every time i topped up, all in all gas was costing me a fortune! yet the electricity seemed to be manageable. We decided in January 09 to pay the £300 debt for gas in order to make this more manageable then we would only be payin for the gas we used, we wanted a normal credit meter back in but as we had been in financial difficulties they would not do this unless we paid £300 bond Well, they took £632 from my husbands account for the debt, which was 2 x the amount. We complained and got this back eventually and also the bnd waived and a credit meter put back in - result. However, not such a good result for the electric. We were managing just about with this, until July this year when all of a sudden they began taking £25 per week for the debt on top of what we used, so we were topping up and they were taking it all, often leading us to run out! and then be charged for using the emergency. I rang them and they put the fee back down to £10, they did without arguement. It came to light a couple of weeks ago whilst i was complaining about something, that out of the £500 or so debt i owed, i still owed just over £400. Now you can imagine, this was put in Sept 08, we were in Sept 09 and thats 52 week, 52 x £10 (debt) is £520! So I thought that I had paid it off or was at least very close to it, when he told me that I still owed £400 i hit the roof and asked him to explain. He rang me back the next day after leaving me crying with frustration. He informed me that they had made a mistake and that my debt had not been put on their meter until July this year! he said that they normally put it on within 2months and that he was sorry!? I am sat here thinking that my debt was cming to an end, yet it is going to take me another 40 weeks to clear it! I hope i have made sense, is there anything i can do?

Thanks for that will certainly look into it

Thanks coolchris, ours was also received last week so i will put that too:)

Hey thanks for this, goin to draft up for hubby. Can I ask though, the letter my husband received is not dated! so what shall I put where it says [date]? thanks in advance

Thanks again Mr Lex, will do!!

Hi all New to this forum this weekend, have already had some smashing advice re bank charges...however, I have had some serious problems with GE Money. They are bullies, and I will try and keep this brief, if anyone can steer me in the right direction I would be most grateful. I have a mortgage with GE money, and last year my husband came out of work, made it hard for us to pay anything back. Despite several communications with them it took them around 6 months to advise me that i could actually go on interest only, but the whole time i was in arrears previously they were charging me lots of fees, which i believe are now added to my mortgage...where do i stand with this. Unfortunately I also have a secured loan with them. This i am still trying to catch up on and I believe that they are charging me £40 per month every month i am behind. obviously this does not help when you are struggling anyway. Can I claim back on secured loans and mortgage? If you can help i would be very thankful, if i need to clarify anything further please ask as TBH i am so stupid when it comes to mortgages/secured loans as to where i stand legally, still trying to read up on everything on this site

Does this then mean you can go for the charges back without it being "stayed"? still learning lol I am so out to get these guys now. I cannot believe that i have paid out thousands and thousands to companies and never challenged them...until now. I hope that I do get somewhere with them all. Trust me to find this site 2 or 3 years later than i should have lol.....that's my luck!

I am going to look into the credit cards too, I have already asked them for all the information they hold on me, send them off at weekend, just a bit worried now as I didn't send them ones recorded. Nevermind, should I not received replies i shall send them recorded... Letter to HSBC going recorded today i have started now...there is no stopping me

Thanks again Mr Lex going to have a mooch at that too because their charges have bee extortionate too! with my SAR request,, would you recommend i send it recorded delivery so they cant say they havent had it?

Thanks again for replies. Next question lol can you claim for charges from credit cards? just i see major banks on here but not credit card companies. Can i also just say that, should I be successful with anything I claim, I will be sure to donate on here, as I think it is the best thing I have ever joined up to, and without this help I wouldn't even know where to begin

I too have also heard this in the past, and i know for sure that they have taken money from it, luckily it is only tax credits and very little of them....

thanks I have decided to ask them for all the info they have on me ... if i am going to claim, may as well do the lot ! so once they send me all the info i will be able to try and work out exactly what interest they have also charged me...i hope lol I wonder if on my statements it will show me what the charges are for, as on the ones online it just says charges/total charges but does not specify... thing i find funny, they chase you for £7 overdrawn, yet if they had not taken so much off me for charges then i would not be overdrawn at all! I have a fall back with accounts as my husband has his own, however he is also going to try and claim back from them. i have had defaults etc in the past, hope i can open another account somewhere..... Thanks for all your help so far x

ok thanks so i don't add the interest, just ask for the 4k of actual charges? am i right? lol Sorry to sound so thick but this is completely new to me

Thanks for that, although I have statements online goin back to 2001. as i have gone further back the charges got less and less anyway so i think i will go for the ones i have because as i have used the simple spreadsheet I have calculated over 4k of charges and with the interest its over 5k. i will be more than happy with this. So if i use the letter requesting repayment and send them the spreadsheet this is ok? i havent missed anything have i? Thanks x

Many thanks Lex, and thanks for the welcome. i am trying to look through it all and understand it. I have filled out the form for all the charges i have incurred, not so bothered about the interest they have overcharged to be honest. Does anyone know how long this appeal thing is going to take? and if i send in my request for my charges back will it still go back to 2003 if the appeal is not imminently going to have a decision? hope i made sense! lol Many thanks x

Many thanks nunnyrose, will go and look there now

hi thanks for the reply So do i need to put a SAR in? I have all of my statements online and have written down each and every bank charge back to october 2003? thanks for your help x

Hiya all Sorry I am new to this site so hope I am doin this right. I want to firstly say having browsed around previously before joining i have found the information here extremely helpful. I bank with HSBC and over many years have been charged bank charges which i feel are excessive, only last month I was charged £225 in one month and when they took this from my account, it then took me over my overdraft and they began ringing me to ask why i had gone over my limit.. ..i said i wouldn't have done if you hadn't have charged so much. All I have had from HSBC over the last couple of years is hassle! Just wondered what the procedure is to claim these back and can you still do it as I believe they were holding these until a case was heard? Can anyone advise please? Many Thanks