Hi Bankfodder, Debt was originally to HM Customs & Excise with a few smaller debts added to. The charge to the property was put on by the initial trustee for the OR. However, we then heard nothing for years from anyone as we had close to negative equity at the time. When we applied for Home Improvement Loan to Building Society they stated that there was no charge on the property and this only came to light when our solicitor had to contact the Land registery. My main concern with this is that the Trustee and their solicitors are just putting numbers on a page for their costs and remuneration with no justification behind them to show what they have done to earn these. Haw can they rack up over £20,000 of costs etc when original debt only £11,000. They bear no relation at all, unless these guys charge £500 per hour! Am meeting with our solicitor on Monday for hopefully a voice conference with Hammonds, then off to see MP on Thursday. However, our solicitor is not a insolvency practitioner and when we went to see one approx 2 years ago, they said their costs could be up to £2,000.

Just want to know if others think I'm getting ripped off or delt with unfairly and if there is anything I can do? Myself and my wife were declared bankrupt in 1993. Until 2001 heard nothing about it until I attempted to re-mortgage my house and found I could not due to a charge being against from the Official Receiver (OR). I call the OR and offered to pay the debt from the re-mortgage if they could agree and was told that our details would have to be passed to a trustee (Tenon Recovery). When I found out the trustee appointed, they stated that the wanted to resolve this a quickly as possible (this was in August 2003). 2 years went by with me continuing to contact them and them being vague and non commital re: possible costs etc. Received a statement of bankruptcy in August 2005 requesting £45,000. Set up re-mortgage and requested final statement from Tenons solicitors (Hammonds). This then quoted £52,000. Questioned this and they have stalled up until end March 06, when they stated 2 figures of either buying out the trustees interest in our home or for a complete annullment. Just got statement through today with one figure of £55,601 and a threat that if this is not completed by 18th April they will commence repossession action for my house!!! The breakdown is as follows: Creditors: £11,973. Interest: £11,814 DTI fee on sum of £55,601: £8,340. Trustee Solicitors: £5,875. Trustee Disbursements: £294. Trustee Remuneration: £14,982. Costs to petition creditors: £1,376. OR fees: £933. I have a mortgage in place ready to go with to cover this but will leave nothing. They know that their total is just short of what my re-mortgage will generate. Is there nothing that can be done to sort these people out?? a very annoyed sunseeker.

Just an thought..... Would a flowchart of the step by step process to take from intital DPA/phone call request for statements through to going to court, including links to the letters, etc in the library at each stage be of any use? May help newcomers to the site now that it's growing so rapidly. Sunseeker

Hi DaveJ / Dave, Still waiting for my reply to my letter to Smile on 15th Feb! Given the encouragement that once the info comes through it may be a short process, I'm going to ring them tomorrow....again....as they said they would ring me back last Wednesday when I called them then. What is it they say about monkeys and Shakespear

Didn't have to as they had already sent me the info I needed! A*se and elbow springs to mind.

Hi Bankoff, I requested my statements over the phone, they sent them within a few days then 10 days later I got a reply from the Data Protection Office (Richard Cooke) asking me to fill in the form you are talking about and they were unable to apply the fee to my citi card account as: 'the charging of interest on the fee would exceed the maximum permissible fee of £10 under Regulation 3 of the Data Protection (Subject Access) (Fees and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2000.' Perhaps if banks, credit card companies, etc ask for more than the £10, we could use this quote to prevent them overcharging for once! Good Luck to your mate, though I'm sure luck doesn't come into it, as the charges are unlawful :twisted:

Just to keep everyone up to date... Received response from Citi basically stating, among other things: 'Our T&Cs stipulate that the minimum payment must be received by the due date shown on your monthly statement. If such payments are not received within this time, charges will be applied to your account' 'Please be advised that it is your responsibility to maintain the account within the terms and conditions and charges are applied when you fail to do so.' What they fail to get is that we are not disputing the levying of charges, it's just that the charges need to be an accurate reflection of their costs and not punitive in nature. Have penned the following to send out on Monday. Will not be telephoning as they have only given me the usual 0870 number. "Thank you for your response to my letter of 25 February 2006, requesting the refunding of charges made against my credit card account. I am somewhat disappointed in the response of a £25 refund of a late payment fee, and would like to give you a further opportunity to consider your position on the £575 of charges which remain levied. I consider the charges debited to my account to be punitive in nature, are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred, exceed any alleged actual loss to you and are not intended to represent, or related to, any alleged actual loss. As such, I consider these charges to be unlawful. At present, I cannot comprehend how a standard computer generated letter, or no communication at all, can cost your company £25 each time my payment is late or I exceed my limit. Furthermore, you are charging an interest rate of 26.4% p.a. on these excessive charges. To help in my understanding, perhaps you would be kind enough to supply me with a detailed breakdown of the costs which are incurred by yourselves when my payments are late or my account goes over limit. I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request for the refund of all charges remaining on my account in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive credit to my Citi Card Account. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period I will commence action against yourselves through the Small Claims procedure of the County Court system." Sunseeker

Quite efficiently Russe11. received statements today and have calcualted £600 in charges. Telephoned to make my monthly payment then requested who I needed to speak to to reverse the charges. Was dealt with by the same operator who refused to refund. First letter now sent with what i require and my timelines. Also stated that the timelines given showed that I was willing to resolve this matter amicably and without the need for litigation if they are willing to meet my reasonable timelines (apply the refund to my CC Account within 28 days).

Quite efficiently Russe11. received statements today and have calcualted £600 in charges. Telephoned to make my monthly payment then requested who I needed to speak to to reverse the charges. Was dealt with by the same operator who refused to refund. First letter now sent with what i require and my timelines. Also stated that the timelines given showed that I was willing to resolve this matter amicably and without the need for litigation if they are willing to meet my reasonable timelines (apply the refund to my CC Account within 28 days).

Sorry Dave...I was getting carried away!

Sorry Dave...I was getting carried away!

Telephoned these today requesting list of all charges since 2002 (when I got the card). They had me on hold for about 10-15mins then came back and said that they cannot seperate the charges out and would have to send me copy statements at £1 each. Agreed, as they will charge this to my CC account where I can claim it back with my next letter/court costs. Just to be on safe side, sent DPA letter as back up by registered post outlining what had been agreed on the phone. Will keep you posted, though the operator did not appear to know about the 40 day rule at first. Sunseeker.

Telephoned these today requesting list of all charges since 2002 (when I got the card). They had me on hold for about 10-15mins then came back and said that they cannot seperate the charges out and would have to send me copy statements at £1 each. Agreed, as they will charge this to my CC account where I can claim it back with my next letter/court costs. Just to be on safe side, sent DPA letter as back up by registered post outlining what had been agreed on the phone. Will keep you posted, though the operator did not appear to know about the 40 day rule at first. Sunseeker.

Hi all, May not be the right forum, but over the last few weeks the number of registered users has nearly trebled. God help the banks, credit card companies and mortgage providers if we all proceded with action over charges within a week or two of each other. Perhaps they would have to out source the handling of these letters to overseas to reduce the costs Would not be the first time.

Hi all, May not be the right forum, but over the last few weeks the number of registered users has nearly trebled. God help the banks, credit card companies and mortgage providers if we all proceded with action over charges within a week or two of each other. Perhaps they would have to out source the handling of these letters to overseas to reduce the costs Would not be the first time.

Let them have it

Let them have it

Hi annadibath, Understand your issues. Smile recently stopped all our DD's and Standing Orders as they were of the belief that 'we were not running our account correctly', as we kept going slightly over the OD limit. Due to this the charges rack up. This includes when retailers take a debit card payment then only debit the account 7-10 days later. I stated to Smile that the money was in the account when the transaction took place but they have stated that the retailer has up to 6 months to claim the cash (similar to a cheque it seems) so if you do not have the balance to cover this then that's not our problem and 'if you continue to run your account this way we may have to recall your cards and we do not want that to happen'!!!. They then told me not to rely on the balance stated at the cash point but to log on every day and possibly to call them also to determine the value of transactions yet to be processed!! Phone bills would run into hundreds as the last 2 times I have called I have waited 25 mins and 15 mins. This is an internet bank for crying out loud. Surely their systems for processing payments and dealing with customers can work faster than in the middle ages. Send them the letter in the library. I have and await their reply though have been away on a break for the last 7 days so unsure if they have replied yet. Hoping to recover over £3,500 from last 5-6 years. Will keep all informed. Sunseeker.

Hi annadibath, Understand your issues. Smile recently stopped all our DD's and Standing Orders as they were of the belief that 'we were not running our account correctly', as we kept going slightly over the OD limit. Due to this the charges rack up. This includes when retailers take a debit card payment then only debit the account 7-10 days later. I stated to Smile that the money was in the account when the transaction took place but they have stated that the retailer has up to 6 months to claim the cash (similar to a cheque it seems) so if you do not have the balance to cover this then that's not our problem and 'if you continue to run your account this way we may have to recall your cards and we do not want that to happen'!!!. They then told me not to rely on the balance stated at the cash point but to log on every day and possibly to call them also to determine the value of transactions yet to be processed!! Phone bills would run into hundreds as the last 2 times I have called I have waited 25 mins and 15 mins. This is an internet bank for crying out loud. Surely their systems for processing payments and dealing with customers can work faster than in the middle ages. Send them the letter in the library. I have and await their reply though have been away on a break for the last 7 days so unsure if they have replied yet. Hoping to recover over £3,500 from last 5-6 years. Will keep all informed. Sunseeker.

Now that beggers belief :?

As there is a lot of questioning around banks closing accounts once action against them is taken/completed, thought I'd ask the following If I take action against charges on my current account, win and the bank gets a bit narked, can they close the current account and the loan account I also have with them. Would rather continue with the monthly payments than give up all refunded costs to pay off the loan account Trying to think ahead as O/D and loan will probably equate to the refunded charges. Cheers all, Al.

Make sure key assets are in your partners/wife/relations name incase the worst comes to the worst. I went bankrupt in 1993 for £13,000 (to HM Customs and Excise). Have only just received costs, etc from Trustee and face paying out £53,000 from re-mortgage. Lukily have enough equity and can afford the new payments but bit of a b**ger as was never informed by original trustee of right to purchase interest if -ve equity in property (which there was in 1994)

Letter signed off and posted. Will keep you up to date though expecting the usual and so will have to wait for them to send details of the charges. Would quite look forward to going to court. Reason being that as we have recently had rejected DD's and Standing Orders (Xmas and the like do mean you spend a bit!), smile have now blocked all DD's on the account, won't let us set any other up, and only re-issued an Electron card for my wife, though I have a bit of breathing space as my debit card expires in September. Payback time now. Encouraged by this site to now lock and load with Capital One and Barclaycard. Could possibly include mortgage company also!! :twisted: Cheers all, Al.

Cheers Dave.

Letter ready to be sent off to Smile requesting refund of charges and details of charges under DPA. One question though, if anyone can help. Do I address to Co-Op bank in Balloon St, or Smile in Skelmersdale?