I have moved house since the gas meter was installed. I wonder if I can still see if I'm due a refund.

So maybe, in addition to the "standard letters" thread, a "defence comparison" thread might help? Because the CAG is doing such a great job and there is sooooo much information on the website, it can be a little confusing for some and, because of that, I suspect there is quite a lot of repetition of information. Hopefully, "standard letters" and "defence comparison" threads might help a bit?! I think they might need to be "sticky" to be really effective, though. How do you go about that?

I wondered if it would be helpful to have a thread specifically for posting transcripts of letters from A & L, if we suspect they might be standard letters, just to see how many others have had the same letter in response and gone on to complete their claim. It would be reassuring to know which replies from A & L are just standard letters and which, if any, aren't. What does everyone think about this?

It seems a few people have had the same letter. I've only had one refusing to agree to refund my fees but it was in response to the prelim letter I sent the A & L. Is this other letter that several of you have had, a bit further down the line? I suspect they have standard letters for each stage of the process and would be interested to know if that's so.

"Dear Thank you for contacting us regarding fees which you feel were unfairly debited to your account. While I understand your concerns, please be assured our fees are reasonable and competitive with those made by other financial organisations. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has commented that they consider the level of late payment fees to be unfair, however, they were actually referring to late payment fees for credit card payments, which are quite distinct from a bank’s fees on current accounts. Discussions are ongoing between the banks and the OFT regarding current accounts and once the outcome is known, Alliance & Leicester will review its position as appropriate. As well as making our customers aware of our fees when opening accounts, we also continue to do so through our website, our branches, by telephone and on the back of statements. In view of this, I do not feel that you have been unfairly charged and regret that I cannot agree to refund your fees. I enclose a copy of our complaints leaflet which explains the steps we take to deal with complaints and what to do if you are unhappy with any aspect of our response. If you have any further enquiries regarding your account, our Customer Service telephone number is shown above. Yours sincerely, J Doyle Customer Services" Needless to say, I shall proceed with the claim. I understand that this is a standard letter and wondered if anyone could advise me whether I should refer to it in my response to them. Incidentally, there were two copies of the letter as I had two accounts with them but they hadn't included their complaints leaflet in either of them!

Hi Folks, I have received copies of statements from A & L and have, today, sent the prelim letter giving them 14 days to cough up (I'm not holding my breath at this stage), the total of £641.50 owed to me from two bank accounts; (£232.50 on one and £409.00 on the other). I'll let you know how it goes.

I only have the stuff on the back of statements; not T & Cs. Would that be any use to you?

A belated Happy Birthday and grateful thanks. Half the battle is knowing you're not on your own. Long may the CAG continue!

Hello everyone, I've just joined the CAG and I'm delighted to be included in the number of people who care enough to want to change things for the better! Just out of curiosity, does anyone feel as strongly as I do about the practice that banks have of showing, on bank statements, debits before credits when they take place on the same day? On my latest statement my account is shown as overdrawn because money was paid in and taken out on the same day. In fact, the money that came out did so via a cash machine and it would not have been possible for me to withdraw it if it had not already been paid into my account. However, on my statement, the withdrawal is shown first, making it appear that I was overdrawn even though I wasn't!