Had a letter from Co-op which crossed in the post with my letter before action - they've refunded my charges in full £1,650!! Surprised but delighted with this response. Will someone move this to the 'Success' forum or do I have to notify someone separately?? Baineth

Having followed all the previous steps and received only the usual standard responses, I've today sent a letter before action to claim back £1650 from Co-op. Will keep posting progress. I'm amused by how often the banks cry about 'transparent' charges and would be interested to know their definition. Before I actually started trying to get my charges back I wrote to the Co-op. I quoted the OFT "charges must be no more than reasonable reimbursement of the costs incurred" line. I therefore requested that they provide me with a breakdown of their charges, to show exactly how they reflected the bank's 'reasonable costs incurred'. Their response was that they are unable to divulge this information under the banking confidentiality regulations! This is transparency????? So it seems they think they can charge whatever they like with no requirement to justify the figure. I've been trying to verify their comment but I'm not sure who could confirm or otherwise. If anyone has any ideas, or there's someone out there in the banking community who can provide a copy of the relevant regulations, it could be an interesting point to add in my court particulars, especially if their witholding this information is legally questionable. Baineth

I'll see if I can explain by way of an example: The bank charged me interest for the period 05/04/01 - 03/05/01 of 0.35. During this period, the maximum amount of my overdraft was 55.23. BUT 14.50 of that was charges from the previous month (the first month I had any charges), so if they hadn't imposed any charges, my overdraft would only have been 40.73. The instructions on the spreadsheet say put the account balance for working out interest at the last day of the interest charging period i.e. 03/05/01 in this case. At that point, my account was in credit by 200.00+ so the spreadsheet shows zero for 'interest on penalties'. What I want to do (and apologies - I got the fraction upside down before) is work out roughly what the interest on the 'legitimate' overdraft of 40.73 would be and reclaim anything over that as 'interest on penalties'. So my calculation is: 40.73 _ x 0.35 = 0.26 (this is the interest they should have charged) 55.23 In this case I can reclaim 0.09p interest that was charged on the illegal charges. (I know these figures are small but I picked the earliest example for simplicity and it soon adds up over the years) In some later months, I would not have been overdrawn at all if they hadn't taken charges from my account for the previous month. Using this way of working it out would allow me to reclaim the whole amount of interest charged in those months. Hope this is clear - it's not easy to explain at a distance! Baineth

Yes, I had (and have) one loan with Co-op. I've only ever had one loan at any time from them but, because of the way their system works, I have to pay a loan off and take out a new one if I want to change the terms - e.g. when I wanted to extend the term, I could only do it if I paid off the previous loan and took out a new one for the same amount + 500.00 and when I wanted to pay off part of the loan, I had to pay off the whole thing and take out a new loan for the new amount. Don't like their method but as it seems they're the only people who'll give me credit, it looks like I'm stuck with it for now. Baineth

Hi and thanks for the spreadsheet. Because of the dates my bank uses to apply interest, my account is usually in credit on the date at the end of the period for which interest is 'due', so the 'interest on charges' column comes up as zero. Would it work to use a formula based on the maximum amount by which I was overdrawn during the period to which the interest applies? i.e. _____________maximum overdrawn amount during period________________ x interest (maximum overdrawn amount during period - cumulative charges to date) I think this would give a fair proportion of the interest as it's saying "If you hadn't taken the charges out in the first place, I would have been x% less overdrawn so would have incurred x% less interest". Also, do I need to provide the bank with an explanation of how I arrived at these figures to show that they are reasonable? One final (possibly dim!) question - I keep seeing references to a 'step by step guide' but I can't see it listed in the forums, just the template letters. Could someone point me in the right direction please? I'd be grateful for any advice. Thanks Baineth

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see if I can improve my credit over the coming months by following them up. Off to investigate whether or not I should start to pursue bank charges now! Baineth

Hi pmhread. Not sure how much you want to know but my credit report shows: "No electoral roll information available" for current address - don't know why because I'm registered as far as I know. 6 entries for "alias" - all just showing my maiden name. There seem to be that many because of the multiple requests for credit rating which the lending institutes (Barclays, Halifax and Capital One) put in when I applied for loans/credit card from them. I don't understand why they put in more than one request each. Then the credit account info: 1. Littlewoods Mail Order - Balance 0.00 - status history 000000000 2. Co-op bank fixed term loan - balance 0.00 - settled 02/03/04 - status history 000000000000 3. Co-op bank fixed term loan - balance 0.00 - settled 01/09/05 - status history 000000000000 4. Co-op bank fixed term loan - balance 4916.00 - status history 000 (this replaced previous loan and had only been running for 3 months or so) 5. Telewest Broadband - balance 0.00 - status history 0 (this is a monthly direct debit which has been running for ages so I don't know why they only show one month's history 6. Co-op bank fixed term loan - balance 0.00 - settled 02/01/04 - status history 000000000000 (the assorted loans with Co-op were because of the way their loans work. You can't renegotiate a loan or settle it in part, yuou have to replace it with a new one) Previous searches - 8 show up over the previous 2 months: 1 from Halifax when I applied for a loan, 2 from Barclays when I applied for a Career Development Loan, 4 from Capital One when I applied for a credit card and 1 from Experian (don't understand this one?) Linked addresses are my own current address, my 2 previous addresses and my brother's address which I used as a correspondence address back in 1999 for a few months. So there's nothing in there to suggest why I'm considered a bad credit risk, unless it's just that I'm not on the electoral roll?? No mention of bank charges on there either but I have exceeded my overdraft on occasions and had direct debits etc refused which is why I thought it might have something to do with it. Wouldn't it be nice if they made it easy for us to understand our own finances??!! Baineth

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been through all the jobcentre/govt training options including via my MP. I simply want to understand why I'm turned down for credit when there's nothing showing up on the report and I've never defaulted on any payment. I wondered if it could be related to a previous occupier of my address as it's only since I moved here that I've had any problem - but I expected this would be mentioned on the credit report somewhere if so. I'll see if an Equifax report can shed any light. thanks Baineth

Thanks for the quick response. I'll see if I can find out any more through Equifax. I initially applied for a Career Development Loan of 3,000.000 with Barclays - I'm 44 and unemployed and needed the money to get qualified to get a job. They turned me down so I applied for a personal loan with Halifax (who I had a small account with) and was turned down again. Not realising at that stage it was my credit that was the problem (I've never had a problem before) I then applied to Capital One for a credit card and was again refused. That's when I got a copy of my credit report from Experian and there is nothing showing up as defaulted on it. I pushed Capital One on this and they eventually, very grudgingly, gave me a card with a 200.00 credit limit. One other question - going through my bank statements, I find that when I've been overdrawn they've charged me interest, usually a "service charge" and often a "daily excess charge". Am I right in thinking I can only reclaim the two types of charges and not the interest? Thanks for your help Baineth

Hi and thanks to everyone who's posting helpful info on this site. I intend to pursue my bank (Co-operative) for refund of charges but I am not clear whether they have also registered a 'default' against me on my credit record. I was turned down for credit late last year and obtained a copy of my report from Experian. As far as I can see, I don't have any defaults showing and I'm wondering if bank charges would show up the same way as loans etc do on the report or is it possible there's some kind of 'hidden' black mark against my name. I need to know so that I know whether to include the paragraph about removing the 'default' when I write to the bank. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Baineth