Hi there, Newbie here

[princesswawa]

Hi all,

was just browsing google looking for some info on claiming back my bank charges when I stumbled upon this site. Am planning on taking Nationwide to court for my bank charges but to be honest I'm not entirely sure or confident in what I have to do. As a Scottish customer I understand there are different rules to follow. I've just received my list of charges from Nationwide from the previous 6 years but not really sure which way to go now or whether to add interest or not. In fact the whole adding interest thing just confuses me more:? . Would be really grateful for any tips from anybody and in the meantime am gonna peruse these forums and see what other info I can gather.

 

Thanks for reading if you got this far:D

 

Take Care Princesswawa Xxx

[happyolddog]

Hi princesswawa,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Please follow this link to your banks forum and start a thread;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=46

Title your post, princesswawa V Nationwide.

Other members with experiance of your bank can offer informed advice.

use the template letters in order. Stick to the timetable in there.

please take time to read the faq's

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/13516-scottish-procedure.html?highlight=scottish+procedure

LINKS....

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/welcome-our-forum/71112-glance-guide-claiming.html

FAQs....

Templates Library....

If you have charges going back further than six years read in here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/80486-claiming-beyond-6-yrs.html

There is also live chat, visit if you need any quick advice.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/chat/flashchat.php

Finally good Luck.

Happyolddog.

If this helps please tip the scales,Left,this lets others know if my information is useful.

[Guest louis wu]

Hello princess

 

I've just received my list of charges from Nationwide from the previous 6 years but not really sure which way to go now or whether to add interest or not

 

Yes you can claim interest, but its one of the first big questions that people have, and its not always explained properly.

 

You can add 8% statutory interest to your claim, but you do NOT add this until you get to the court stage. In the beginning, you send a preliminary approach, and then a letter before action, and these 2 letters only show the charges.

 

There is another interest, and thats the interest thats charged on your account in the form of overdraft interest. This can bit more tricky to work out. The principle is, if there are charges that have been put on your account, and the charges have caused you to be charged O/D interest, then you can calim this back. There is a spreadsheet that works it out for you, but a lot of people (me included) can't use it (I'm not computer literate enough.....or is that just plain stupid?)

 

Anyway, this is a manual way of working it out

 

If you are £1000 o/d, and your charges total £1000, then you can claim ALL the interest charged that month.

 

If your charges total £500, then you can claim HALF your interest charged that month.

 

The way I done it was to have a running total of charges, and compared that to my current o/d (month by month). I worked out what % of my o/d was charges, and then claimed that % of my interest back. It’s a bit time consuming, but as it’s YOUR money, it’s worth it.

 

 

Ok, so as to pitfalls, well the main one is the fact that they will try to stall and put you off at every stage. There have been people that have had accounts closed, but that doesn't seem to happen much anymore. Some banks will still take away your o/d facility, but hopefully your claim will more than cover that.

 

If you look in the Nationwide forum, you will see all the things that they are doing and you will be ready for anything that happens. I am claiming against Nationwide, for a closed account, and have found them to be no different from any other bank that I have claimed against.

 

There are many different Scottish forums, here are a couple

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/helpful-external-links/161-scottish-court-service.html

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31575-important-things-you-really.html?garpg=3

Its a lot to take in, so do take your time, and have a good look around the site. Its best to get a good understanding of whats going to happen, and I cant stress enough thats its important not only to know what you have to do, but also why you have to do it, and that only comes by reading and learning.

 

This isn't a very complicated proceedure, but it can become so if silly mistakes are made, and these mistakes can be costly to put right. If you stick with the tried and tested method, you will be fine, after all, we've had over £10 million returned to use, so we must be doing something right.

 

Best of luck

 

Louis

[princesswawa]

Hi Happyolddog & Louis,

thanks for the advise & information having had a quick glance I can tell it's going to be really helpful. Have spent some time have a look at some stuff & I understand that I have to send the prelim letter first which I will do a little later tonight as I would like to spend more time looking through all the links you have both provided me with. Thanks for the heads up about the interest am still confused to this lol but when I get to the court stage if I've still not got my head round it I can ask again am sure someone will be able to explain it too me.

Thanks again for the replies off now to the Nationwide forum to start my claim thread and will keep it updated as i go.

 

Take care Princesswawa Xxx

[Guest louis wu]

Princess, if you are going to claim o/d interest, its best to work it out now, as it forms part of the claim....its only the 8% statutory interest (this is what the court allow you to claim) that gets added on at court stage.

 

Louis

[princesswawa]

Princess, if you are going to claim o/d interest, its best to work it out now, as it forms part of the claim....its only the 8% statutory interest (this is what the court allow you to claim) that gets added on at court stage.

 

Louis

 

Hi Louis,

I don't actually have an overdraft with the account (though I have been charged unauthourided o/d fees which occured due to the charges being taken grrr) so I presume that I won't have any interest to add though on my list of charges there has been interest added so would this come from the unauthourised o/d or not? does that make sense?

 

Thanks Princesswawa Xxx

[Guest louis wu]

Its a tricky one to explain properly, but.....

 

On your statements, if you have gone O/D, they will have charged you an O/D interest amount (at about 19% -29% rate), this will show as a debit on the statement summery page (page 1 if I remember correctly.)

 

Now, as you were O/D you are stuck with the interest charge, but they would have charged you £20 - £35 as well.

 

Now over time, all these £25 -£35 will add up, and you may find that these charges actually exceed any O/D balance you may have had

 

Another example

 

For the 1st year, you have gone O/D 10 times and been charged £300 (10x£30 charge). Now the next statement you get shows an unauthorised O/D of £200, a charge of £30 and an un-authorised O/D interest charge of £10.

 

If it wasn't for the 10x£30 charges prevously debited, you wouldn't be O/D and as such the £10 interest charge can be claimed back.

 

It tough to get your head around at first, but if you think about it it may click.

 

Get back to me if your still at a loss.

 

louis

[princesswawa]

Thanks Louis,

Has clicked now lol. Needed it put in simple terms I'm afraid as it was going whoooooooshhhhhhhh

 

Thanks again for your advice, very much appreciated

 

Take care Princesswawa Xxx

[Guest louis wu]

Has clicked now lol. Needed it put in simple terms I'm afraid as it was going whoooooooshhhhhhhh

 

I think it was my clumsy attempts to explain it lol:)

 

Don't forget, its only the interest which is caused by charges that you can claim back.

 

Louis