This topic was closed on 09 March 2019.

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- Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 09 March 2019.

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- Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 09 March 2019.

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- Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 08 March 2019.

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This topic was closed on 08 March 2019.

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This topic was closed on 03/08/19.

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I can tell you honestly that it IS a route banks are considering taking.

Says who exactly? Where did you get that information out of curiosity?

Thats exactly what the banks want consumers to think so they think twice about jumping on the the whole "abolish penalty charges" brigade.

Banks don't make the majority of their profits from "penalty charges" - they make them (at least in retail) by keeping a good customer base relatively happy and selling loans / credit-cards / mortgages / investments / insurance / packaged accounts etc to them. As has been said on this thread in various guises already if any bank started charging it would quickly lose a large portion of its customer base (and thus its profits). If all banks did this it only takes one to offer free banking to steal a huge portion of market share (And thus profits)

The banks all seem to want to scare us with quotes like "well if we don't charge for unpaid direct debits etc then it will mean an end to free banking in this country"

Just had an interesting chat with a friend of the family the other day who works for a management consultant company that's heavilly involved in advising the banking industry about how best to maximise their profit. Didn't mention this site - just asked him what his thoughts about bank charges were. His take the on the charging situation was basically "we live in a capitalist world thats just the way it works" but also more interestingly that "Banking is set to become a whole lot cheaper for consumers in the next year or two but the banks will fight all the way to delay lowering charges" When I questioned him on an end to free banking and said that was the way I thought it might go he said it definitely wouldn't happen.

That's just his opinion but saying as he's one of the people actually advising the banking industry thought I'd share his thoughts with everyone.

Sorry I've not posted for a while I just don't get the time these days due to family commitments. (likewise for lack of responding to personal messages sorry again)

I am very annoyed with the title of this thread. "The best way to get charges back"?? Suing them is the only way that works with these greedy people unfortunately. We shouldn't even give them the opportunity with prelim. letter and letters before action but as moderators say courts wouldn't like that. I never thought I could feel so angry about a corporation..... Degrading situations they put us through when we were down. If it weren't for those charges we would have recovered much earlier from the nightmare episode which lasted 3 years.

 

So nobody should tell us there is a better way to get these charges back which includes being nice to banking staff. I know it is not the staff's fault but they were the ones who refused to even listen when we phoned.

 

I am not even doing it for the money now. I am feel so much joy when I find out that there is a new claim starting on this forum. This is more like a revenge for me now. Once this is settled and I gain a bit more experience about the whole process I will do my best to help anyone who has a claim against these greedy pigs.

If you have a large amount of charges, then yes the "best" way to get charges back is to follow the process here and go to court...

But...

If you only have a maximum of one or two charges with each bank then I'd say it would be easier to claim all your charges back without the hassle of having to go to court by being "friendly" with the staff and asking for them back as a goodwill gesture. Yes the banks may be in the wrong but would you rather resolve it quickly with little hassle or have it dragged out for longer?

In my experience in the past credit card companies have refunded a single charge time and time again without hassle just by me appologising, explaining it was an oversight and simply asking for my charge back.

Been on holiday for a bit but good luck mate hope all goes well!

Yeah it might be scary but its what you need to do (apply for the court order). Look at Candices thread, there's lots of helpful tips there. She has just had all her money and court fees refunded in the last day from RBS as they said it wasn't "financially viable" to contest the ruling. Your claim is for much less so you'll win as well. Go for it!

Well done! I've been following your case since the start and its great to see them back down.

Same here. To date I've not received any acknowledgement of the summons. Today however, I received a letter stating that they would like me to make an appointment to review my overdraft facility. I've had one for about 7 or 8 years and this is the first time I've had to have a review of it.

 

Me thinks their up to something.

This is probably quite unrelated. Its our job to ask (tell?) customers with overdrafts to come in to have it reviewed, as we can hopefully sign you up to a loan with insurance - generating more profit for the bank and more sales points for us. (yes folks this is how it works!)

Assuming the letter was from the branch this is definitely what it would be for.

If it was from another department then maybe they are up to something else like you say.

an interesting tale about how debit cards can be authorised

http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2006/04/hidden_danger_o.html

Fair enough, I've just never heard of or seen it done before. Was pretty sure the police would take the line of just claim it back using your issuing banks existing procedures.

It would be interesting (and amusing) to see the rozzers turn up at Megbucks PLC and arrest someone.

Correct me if I am wrong but taking money from someone without permission is

THEFT isn't it?

Yes technically it is theft but as far as I'm aware you can't just go to the police station and report them like you would a person, you would need to go through the courts. They would probably just put it down to error and it would be accepted as a "genuine mistake".

Noising up the bank will indeed work, but we need to process an switch (maestro) chargeback report and then send it to the retailer. The retailer then has a certain timescale (around 28 days?) to show us how and when the transaction was authorised. If they can't do that then we can get the customers money back. I work in a branch, but from speaking to the department concerned the timescale can be up to 6 weeks. I'd assume its a similar system for credit cards.

So basically I'd try the retailer first, they are not allowed (well, supposed) to process any transactions without your authorisation. If they do agree the refund it should take no more than a few days to be credited back to you.

Yes they can ask "can we take this payment of £9.99 from your card every month" and if you agree thats fine for them to do it. But they're not allowed to take any payments (regular or not) without your authorisation.

Funniest thing I heard was a friend who worked for Sainsburys on the customer services desk. They had to refund the customer no matter what.

Enter one tramp carrying a packet of open, half eaten chocolate biscuits. He said they were like that when he bought them and wanted a refund. Naturally my friend noticed the suspicious amounts of chocolate smudged into his beard and all over his hands, and pointed out that it looked obvious the customer had in fact just eaten the biscuits himself. The tramp denied it and the manager made my friend authorise a full refund!

Hi and welcome!

The annual overdraft fee for business accounts is quite standard, I think its normally 1% of the overdraft minimum charge is £100. Pretty shocking they could just apply it without telling you. Assuming your overdraft limit is £20K I'd imagine they're already making a fair whack in interest off you.

Check the terms and conditions of any agreement you originally signed, there may be something in the small print saying that you give them authority to do this by signing the original agreement.

Also when you go into speak to your business manager (make sure it is your actual "business manager", not just the business advisor (a mere minion!). If you don't know his/her name then just ask in your branch they can find out.

When/if you go into see them it could be worth asking about a reduction in interest rates. I don't know what rate you're on but when i asked a business manager in the past he thought "base rate + 7%" (ie 11.5%) was about as good as he could offer normally.

For example if you're paying 14.5% and you're near your overdraft limit then getting this better rate could save you around £600 per year.

Also if you still struggle goto "customer relations", the phone number and contact details are listed as a sticky in this RBS forum.

Good luck let us know how everything goes.

And please don't shout (turn caps lock off) we're all friends here! Thanks

Congrats!

Sorry I haven't heard of this before, maybe its an army branch thing and unfortunately I don't know of the legality of the army changing soldiers addresses automatically.

If the army have wrongly changed your sons address I'd say they are liable for the charges. Obviously though you could just claim them back through the systems as laid out here.

After requesting RBS Statements and going through for the obvious charges, ive come across charges that just say

 

:-

chg to 17 may a/c 1******* 30.00

 

from what i can see the normal charge to my account for the month (royalties gold) should have been about £10 per month and it is so in some months - so why in other would it be £30 or so??

 

Any ideas please as im trying to compile what they owe me at the moment and need to know wether or not to include these??

This is the referal charge I was talking about earlier. Read my post above 23:57 on 28th April again. If you're still not sure get them to explain it to you in your local branch - thats what we're here for. Ask for a copy of the leaflet that explains charges as well.

Here's my original thread on how they're worked out, maybe this will help:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2794

Yes charges are confusing, at times one wonders if they're set out like that deliberately.