Hello and here goes...

[glynisd]

First of all, many, many thanks to all here! Reading your posts has spurred me on to make a start.

 

This month was the final straw. I have a direct debit of £10.99 with UGC (for my son's cinema pass) which goes out on around the 22nd of each month. The trouble is, I sometimes overlook it - my salary is paid into my account on the 26th of the month and most of my other direct debits go out on or around the 1st of the month. I know it's my fault. I know it's my responsibility but sometimes it slips my mind and I forget to leave enough in the bank to cover it. I realise that this takes me over my overdraft limit (£860 - mainly incurred by punitive bank charges I have to say) - but not by much. :-?

 

Anyway, this month, the debit was called for on the 18th of the month and I only had £5 available credit in my account - it would have put me overlimit by about £7. Smile refused the payment and promptly slapped on a charge of £25 ("Commission Unpaid Item) - which immediately put me £20 overlimit and consequently incurred 9 days' worth of £5 daily "overlimit charges" and a £15 "service charge" totalling £85! (£25 the grabbed straight away and the other £60 to be plundered on the 22nd of this month) - all this for going what would have been £7 overlimit!!!:o

 

From the statements I have access to online I've calculated that they've stung me for around £475 in the past year alone so I'm now going to take steps to get my money back. After all, I had to work a damn sight harder to earn it than they have! It amounts to little more than leglised theft and I'm not letting them do it any more.

 

I've read the FAQs and drafted a DPA letter to request statements going back beyond the last year (if you ask for statements via their site they want to charge you £10 each - surely that's an unfair charge in itself - how does it cost £10 to print and send a statement:? ).

 

Can somebody please answer the following question - In order to pay Smile the required £10 for my account data, do I need to write them a cheque, or can I somehow authorise them to take the £10 directly from my account (they don't seem to have any problem dipping into my account the rest of the time)?

 

Anyway, rant over - wish me luck!

 

Glynis

[barracad]

Hi and welcome to the site.

 

Best to include a cheque, just so they don't stall for time asking you for payment (some banks do this even when you've told them to take it out of your account)

 

Good luck!

[Wolfy]

The DPA request will end up with the Co=Op as they own Smile. I did mine by secure message authorising them to debit my account and it took a while and a few phone calls to get them to get there act together. To be fair when they did they agreed to start the 40 day clock running as from the date of my secure message as, in their words, "it should have been actioned from there". Anyway best idea is to send a cheque and avoid the hassle.

[Jacksy1980]

Yeah i sent a cheque and about 2 weeks after the cheque was cashed i recieved all my statements. Its also a good idea to politely enquire about how your request is going, ie hassle them. But dont do it in a mad way, be polite and phone them and leave secure messages.

[peachy_keen]

Welcome to the forum. Been stung in exactly the same way as you. If you send your letter off in the next few days we should be working to a similar timescale. I sent a cheque, following advice from this forum. Look forwards to hearing your reports back. Best wishes, P_K

[Guest mc661]

This is a secure message I have just had from Smile.

(them working at midnight?)

 

Hello Mc661

 

To find a list of charges applied to your accounts since they were opened, you would need a list of the transactions.

 

As most of the statements for the account are not available online after 12 months you would need to request a list of these transactions.

 

A Subject Access Request can be obtained which will be a list of all transactions on the accounts since they were opened. There is a charge of £10.00 for this, and it will need to be applied for in writing from:

 

The Co-operative Bank

Customer Care Department

PO Box 101

1 Balloon Street

Manchester

M60 4EP

[joload]

Hello

 

I ahve just totted up my charges with smile from september -£455. Can I include the daily charge of £5 they put on and also the service charge they put on monthly if you are over your overdraft limit?

 

I asked for copies of my statements of 1-65 as i could not view and some one replied back via seccure message saying £10 per sheet --- OMG but I will write off with my £10 cheque and hopefully get them that way - do they just send out the charges or all transactions?

 

Well her goes my start of claiming back those charges good luck everyone!

[Guest mc661]

Hello

 

I ahve just totted up my charges with smile from september -£455. Can I include the daily charge of £5 they put on and also the service charge they put on monthly if you are over your overdraft limit?

 

I asked for copies of my statements of 1-65 as i could not view and some one replied back via seccure message saying £10 per sheet --- OMG but I will write off with my £10 cheque and hopefully get them that way - do they just send out the charges or all transactions?

 

Well her goes my start of claiming back those charges good luck everyone!

 

Does it cost them (smile) £5 for each day ur over the limit?

Does it cost them (smile) £XX for the 'service' charge?

 

In otherwords yes you can include them, but if youd have read the FAQ's ud have know that!!!!!

 

Remember to ask in your DPA request to ask for all charges itemised or even better all statements. They can only charge you a maximum of £10 and it is better to send a cheque, Bank statement INFORMATION (not sheets) is classed as 'personal info' under the dpa.

[caro]

Use the template in the library section as it is important to ask about manual interventions too. It might be a good idea to read the FAQ's and the step by step instructions so you understand what is involved. Good luck.

[glynisd]

Hi all

 

Just a quick update.

 

 

I've written my DPA letter (with the help of the bank templates section on this forum - thanks peeps) and will send it off tomorrow with my £10, then I can start the 40 day countdown.

 

As a precaution I've moved my direct debits from my Smile account to my NatWest basic account and arranged for my salary to be paid in there as well - just in case Smile take the hump - I can always move them back if they don't but I like to work on the side of caution.

 

So, watch this space and thanks for the support and encouragement. I'd like to echo the sentiments on here about reading the FAQs and using the document templates. Thanks to the originators of those for making it so much easier for the rest of us!

 

Cheers.

 

Glynis

[caro]

Nice one Glynis. The 40 days starts the day they receive payment, so give it a couple of days before you start counting.