Bank charges - missed the boat?

[mb018538]

Hi guys

 

I was just wondering if people are still having success with reclaiming all of sharkleys hideous fees etc from times gone by. It's sort of my own fault for not getting round to doing this sooner.....but at the time I didn't know about it, and it completely just went off my radar while my finances were a mess.

 

I've just received my old statements bank from Barclays. I've just gone through and worked out that I was charged a total of £826.00 over an 11-month period in stupid reserve usage fees, returned transaction fees and guaranteed transaction fees. As you probably guessed I was up to my neck in debt, had payday loans galore and was in massive, massive trouble. The shame of admitting this to my other half and family was too much, so I buried my head for a while, until I finally fronted up to the problem and a relative kindly lent me some cash to remove this reserve and get me out of the cycle.

 

This was back in 2011 (so a while ago), but I still feel its relevant. I'm still in some debt now, and although I'm not in any trouble, this year of torture made me fall behind on other payments that got missed, defaulted etc.

 

Any advice?

[BankFodder]

Yes, you won't be able to claim charges now. It's much too late.

 

If you have other debts from payday lenders et cetera then the thing to do is to open up separate threads for each one in the appropriate forum and start telling your story. Then you will get some support and some help.

[mb018538]

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

I only enquired as I had mixed messages....I read over on MSE that there are isolated cases where help can be had from the FOS.

 

I called the FOS who will look into it for me - though they did re-iterate it's unlikely these days, as the ruling was made in the highest court in the land, and if they rule in your favour they are effectively over-ruling the highest legal power in the country. That said, banks do on occasion have sympathetic views towards their customers (unlikely I know), so they will still try and help me.

 

I have the evidence, I will let you all know what happens.

[slick132]

Hi MB,

 

If you're hoping for any help about current a/c bank charges through The FOS, don't hold your breath.

 

Follow BF's advice above about payday loans.

 

If you had any credit card a/c's that suffered penalty fees, these CAN be reclaimed direct from the bank with no need for "help" from The FOS.

 

Did you suffer charges on any credit cards or bank loan a/c's when you were in financial trouble.

 

[mb018538]

Hiya slick,

 

I'm pretty much expecting nothing wrt bank charges, but i'll see.

 

Through my old statements I can see that I managed to have a total of 50 different payday loans in a 2 year period....40 of these were in a 6 month period with a value of £11,000!! As you can see, total insanity on my part. I've since paid virtually all of this back.

 

I also had a credit card with Virgin (MBNA), which I defaulted on, but have since cleared down to £0. I was charged late fees etc by them, but have no recollection of how much and when.

 

I borrowed £3000 from Sainsbury's bank as a loan, which I of course also defaulted on. I've managed to pay this down to around £2,500 now, and it's the last big debt that I owe. Not sure about reclaiming anything from these as they aren't a bank?

 

Basically I was a total idiot for 2-3 years, which has made the period 2012 onwards hell. Credit rating is shot, though improving. It'll probably be 2019 before my creditfile shows any sort of normality and all these PDLs and defaults disappear!

[slick132]

Hi MB,

 

Re the MBNA card, you can reclaim the full amount of every penalty charge as these are penalties. If you don't have statements, get the a/c data using a SAR which should turn up your data held by the bank for (at least) the last 6 years. If the bank refuses to refund, you may need to take court action to get the money back.

 

Re the Sainsbury's bank loan, all penalty chgs can reclaimed. Sainsburys Bank were backed by the Lloyds Bank Group but I believe they bought out LBG . Regardless of this, they are still a bank so you should get the a/c info with another SAR.

 

These penalties and 8% simple Statutory Int't (if you take court action) could come to a decent amount, so it's certainly worth investing 2 x £10 SAR fees to see what amount you could reclaim.

 

Best to start new threads in the appropriate forum for each account.