Hi Guys, Thanks for the replies - It's pretty much what I was thinking, They have already had more time than the time scale states - so I think I'll just go ahead with court - that way I can claim interest too Yay!! Keep you all updated.... P.S. - Well done Caro!!!

Hi all - sorry for the new thread, I cant find the old one I started to continue on from it...?? A little bit of advice needed. I've already claimed Clydesdale for a small amount on a current account I hold - I'm now onto the next small claim with a Clydesdale mastercard. Have sent off the first stage - Gimmie my money back letter, and they replied with the usual letter of (paraphrased) - Your charges were applied correctly, we're not giving you any money back, if you dont reply to this letter within 8 weeks we will count your case as closed. I replied within the 8 weeks - recorded delivery, saying basically - "thats unnacceptable - if you dont respond now i'm taking you to court" However the letter has never been deemed as signed for via online or phone to Royal mail, So I phoned the number on the letter to confirm delivery - and Was told it had been delivered and was currently being delt with as of the 11th of Jan. The girl on the phone (noted her full name and date and time of call incase they backtracked saying they didnt have it) Told me they wouldnt respond in the 7days I had stated in my letter, but infact have 20days to respond. I put the phone down and decided to give them till the 31st to respond out of the goodness of my heart because they had told me they had recived the letter. Its now the 26th and today I recived a letter headed "re-opening your complaint" and it says "My understanding of the issues you have raised are as follows - initial complaint not fully investigated - no refund of charges levied. It then says he "hopes to respond to your complaint shortly. I will write to you as soon as possible, once I have had the opportunity to review the above" Its signed and dated 25th of Jan (signature indeciferable) advice quality unit - charges section. Personally - I think this is a stalling tactic. I want to avoid court at all costs, however I think they have had more than enough time to view and review my case, especially when they have taken almost up to the deadline to write to me, and now are not giving me a time scale for which to wait for a full response.... My inclination is to proceed to court, but wanted to check that first should I just write another letter reminding them they have had enough time, and I want an answer now? Any advice is greatly appreciated (for those looking for the address this has come from - Advice and Quality unit - Charges section, Third floor, Brunswick point, Wade lane, Leeds LS2 8NQ)

Hi Tom, You can claim for the £22.50 service charges because I have - I claimed £100 from one account that was made up of only £22.50 service charges - look for my thread YMcMurtrie V Clydesdale bank ***won*** I last updated in I think maybe November - so it'll be quite far down the list. I dont know about the other charges - however, in the FAQ's it says you can reclaim if the charges caused you to incur extra interest on your overdraft - so you'll have to have a good look at your statements and count this up. I have two more days before I can file a court claim against CB master card, so I'm quite a bit in front of you, so if you need any help - I'll do my best, Just holler Best of Luck, Yvonne

Hi Paul, I dont know if anyone has done this yet, However - they rejected my claim for money, so I'm about to write again with a more stern letter this time with the added "I will start court proceedings without further notice if I dont not recieve a full refund within ............" If they ignore that, and I expect they will, then I will be taking my claim to a small claims court. From what I have read on this site and others, the court officials are all really easy to deal with, and plenty of people on this site have had to go down that route. The only advice I can give you is if you are a member of a union, try speaking to your union lawyers to see if they can give you any advice - this, in the case of my own union, is free. So always worth thinking about. If not, try Citizens advice, and dont forget. There are plenty of people behind you here Best of luck and keep us informed

Hi Paul, I live in Scotland so will help you out where possible. As for the service charges, I know the question has already been answered for you, But if you look on my older thread "YMcMurtrie V Clydesdale bank" you will see that my first claim (I have three - one now won) was in Service charges only. I didnt have any returned direct debits on that account, but did have £100 worth of "service charges" at £22.50p a time, so thats what my first small success was for, and it took only 1 month to re-claim the money, from the date of my first "gimmie my money back" letter - to the date they put the full £100.00p in my account. So good luck, and dont let them tell you that you cant claim it back, because if you need proof, i'll edit the personal details from my letters and send them on to you Yvonne

Hi all, After a recent success at claiming £100 from a current account I hold with Clydesdale, I have proceded to claim Clydesdale bank Mastercard for £322.00p in late payments. I sent off the letter which included a breakdown off all the charges applied to that account in the last 5 years, including date and days since offence and how much the charge was. Today I recieved a reply to that letter basically telling me they are not refunding any of it, and the charges had been applied correctly. This happened before with my last claim, although last time they offered as a "gesture of goodwill" half the charges, and I rejected that, then the next letter gave me the full amount. Am I just being niave or are Mastercard harder to claim against? I'm, going to write off today telling them how dissapointed I am in with their response and quote the rules and regulations to them etc, But I just wanted some advice before I do so. Should I write now to the FO and tell them they are dragging their heels? Any advice would be great, because I have one more (much larger) claim to make agains CB for a different current account, and I dont want this to take too long because the longer I wait, the less I'll get back, and I didnt want to submit both claims at the same time incase they decided to group them together and force me into a non - small claims court claim. Thanks, Yvonne P.S. in their letter they keep refering to "6 years" eventhough I live in Scotand and am only claiming for 5 years. The letter arrived from Leeds, does this mean i can claim for 6 years instead of 5?

Hi, This is a question for my partner. She has a NatWest account - her Branch is in Cheltenham and always has been, However she has lived in Scotland for 6 years. I am about to write asking for her statements - but wondered if she can claim for 6 years under English procedures including small claims limits - or 5 under Scottish procedures claiming only £750 via small claims court (If the need arises) Any help on the subject will be greatly appreciated. I have read the FAQs and myself successfully reclaimed against Clydesdale bank under Scottish rules so will look further into English rules if needs must. Thanks in advance and good luck to all in the process of claiming Yvonne

Yup - got the letter telling me I was getting the £100 as a "gesture of goodwill" so checked online banking and it had been put in the day before as two £50 "adjustments" Credit card claim letter written and ready to post today

Next update - the small claim I made is now in the bank. Initially recieved £50 offer as a gesture of goodwill, Rejected that, and stated in my letter that I would only be dealing with the bank from now on via letter after I recieved a phone call from the branch asking a few questions about my claim. Admitedly I wasnt asked any personal information about my account,But I stated my reason for not wanting to talk to the bank via phone was because I hadnt been asked at any time to verify my identity, I stated this was a breach of security. In the banks reply (which said they were giving me the full amount as a gesture of goodwill) they said they did not need to verify my information if the clerk speaking to me was familiar enough with my voice to be satisfied of my identity - or if they were not asking personal details of my account. Although I see their point, the clerk that called me from the bank couldnt possibly know me well enough to confirm she was talking to the account holder, and although no specific details were asked - I.E. account numbers and transactions etc, I share a house with another female - who could have taken that call, also, for those who live with parents or partners of the same sex etc, they may not have disclosed their intention to reclaim bank charges - therefore, the bank yapping to whoever answers the phone is a breach of security - because it could have quite easily opened a can of worms? Am I just being sensitive because of the recent "banks dont shred our information" expose by watch dog? Anyway - good news on the small claim win - now onto fight number two for £322.00p from clydesdale mastercard.... Will keep you all posted. Yvonne

Latest update - Yesterday I recieved a letter from the Clydesdale regarding my smallest claim. Above I have put £90, But its actually £100. These charges are for "service" charges, not returned direct debits (there arent any returned direct debits on this account) Clydesdale are offering me £50 as a goodwill gesture, Obviously, I am going to ask for the rest - Letter (paraphrased) as follows... Your complaint has now been fully investigated and I have come to the following conclusions - the service charge has been correctly applied to your account with reference to the terms and conditions of my account etc As a gesture of goodwill I have today credited your account with £50 (no she hasnt!!!) This being a refund of two of the service charges previously debited from your account. I have enclose some bumff on our complaints procedure... If we do not recieve a response from your within 8 weeks of this letter, your complaint is classed as closed. Basically, what I think has happened is the person dealing with my request phoned me the other day to ask the dates for which I was claiming - even tho I put them in my letter. She told me she could only see as far back as Feb on the system - and thats why I think she has only refunded two charges (two were after Feb, two before) Incidentally - she's the very same person I put in a written complaint about last week because she hadnt done something I had requested her to do - coincidence? hehe Are there any letters in the list asking for "the other half of my money thanks" Or shall I just write a "thanks but I still want the rest" letter on my own? Also, I am going to photo copy the statements - highlight the charges, and send them with the letter, also doing the same for my next two claims, so that I dont have to go through this again - Just a tip for anyone at the same stage as me Any input greatly appreciated Yvonne

I wrote my own letter - However I did state the charges by date - cost - and type of charge applied, I even gave them the statement number, and wrote that the first charge applied was for being only £6 something overdrawn for about 5 minutes then I made a transfer via my online banking to rectify the error - only for them to slap the charge on and make me overdrawn again for 10 days, and charge me again.......not sure if thats why they have decided to investigate instead....Will write out the LBA now in preparation... Thanks

Hi All, Due to trips to hospital etc, I have only just got around to dealing with this claim.... Anyway as previously stated, I have three accounts with Clydesdale - 2 are current accounts, and one credit card (mastercard). Charges currently are - Credit card = £322.00p (All late fee's) Current account 1 = £90.00p (unexplained service charges) Current account 2 = £1819.95p (Mix of returned DD's and service charges) I decided to start off with the lowest - So I wrote to the bank claiming £90.00p with a break down of statement numbers and dates of charges applied. These charges were "Service" charges, not "returned direct debit" charges, and the only explination I have, is that I had went over my agreed limit (this account has no overdraft facility as I use it for Direct debits only) When I say I went over my limit, the largest amount I went over by was £2.19p I sent the letter recorded delivery on 12th of September, and still cant track it via Royal mail today. However, I have recieved a reply from Clydesdale thismorning... Usual rubbish - very sorry you are having problems, I enclude a lovely little brochure "addressing your complaint" and so on. I sent the claim letter to my branch manager - but the reply has come from Carol Ferguson customer relations team leader (20 Waterloo street, Glasgow G2 6DB - Phone number 0141 242 4137) Basically It says that the financial services authority requires her to inform me they have 4 weeks to inform me of the progress of my "complaint" in writing. It then goes on to say "However if the investigation is not complete within two months we will write to you again setting out the action availible to you" My question is - whats my next step? Basically, from what I read - they are telling me they are stalling for two months, then in two months time they are going to tell me they have investigated it fully, and its all my own fault - I signed up to this when I opened my account, blagh blagh - Call my mystic Meg - but I can see this coming! So - should I put in my other two claims now if its really going to take two months to even "think" about it - or just deal with one at a time as I origonally planned - thinking start small, then refer to the smaller claim success when making my larger claims....because I really doubt they will allow £90 to go to court? Any help greatly appreciated! Yvonne P.S. on a seperate matter - I phoned royal mail yesterday to find out why I cant track my letter - this was before I recieved my reply, and they said that it obviously still hadnt been delivered, so after 15 working days had passed - I can claim two free books of first class stamps as compensation for "losing" my letter - so I'll wait another few days, and If i still cant track it - might aswell claim my free stamps and use them to send to the bank heheh!

Cheers DavG - I'll do that right away Best of luck

Hi All - Have been missing in action for a while - but wanted to update you all. My statements have arrived - I'll update the charge list in a minute, but wondered if I could get a bit of advice. I'm claiming the Clydesdale Credit card - and two current accounts. One account only has £45 worth of charges - the other is near the two grand mark. Just wondered when I write my first "Gimmie my money back" letter - should I write three - or bunch them all together, then split them into £750 claims later? Thanks in advance, Yvonne

I'm not sure how to "quote" someone because i'm new to forums, but the part below was written by Andy Wade. Sorry to hijack the thread - but I already knew what Andy had said - which is the whole point of us all claiming our money back, so I thought you all might find the letter I recieved from CB today telling me that the charge for returned DD's etc is being increased from £22.50 to £25.00 as chucklesome as I did....Andy has quite rightly stated that the banks are already illegally over charging - so instead of putting costs down like they should be doing according to the OFT and to stop people from reclaiming huge amounts - Clydesdale once again show their true colours...Well done Clydesdale for cheerin me up today! Yvonne Disgusting isn't it, to make such a huge amount from customers mistakes? In October last year, the Office of Fair Trading said that even with manual intervention they couldn't see any way that it could cost more than £12.00 for a charge like this. Some banks have reduced their charges accordingly, but since the system is almost £100% automatic, they're still ripping off their customers at £12.00.