Recovering bank charges

[Rincewind]

Last week i received a call from a company that recovers overpaid bank charges. BankingRights Bureau. Today I received the package. There are pre-written legal letters for your bank and for a percentage of the recovery they'll do everything for you. Providing you upgrade the plan. The website is www.bankingrightsbureau.com Tel freephone 0800 321 3192. You have to request from the bank your last six years statements and details where you were charged. They are obliged to do this by law according to the letter I have. Sounds genuine but as far as I remember I have not paid much in bank charges. I know a couple of times I did because of cross deposit taking out funds and they refunded it.

I will look at the website as they have given me a password to login and update this. There is a lot of legal stuff and procedure what to do. A lot of work if its a small amount you get.

There are pre-written letters for if the bank contests the claim or do not answer your letters.

Anyway I'll look at the website now.

I couldnt't connect to start with and went to moneymarket.com and read some posts. The first two or three said they got charges back then the posts went off topic. I tried again and found the site.

Bankingrightsbureau

[Mickey O'Neil]

They were paying out, I know a case went to court where a wank Bank actually contested the claim. I've not heard anything on how this went though. I'd check my statements first to see if there was enough money to claim through this company first. If you look at moneysavingexpert, all the templates are there free. This company won't do anything different to what you can do yourself though

[Mickey O'Neil]

*BEWARE*

Just remembered, some banks were closing down peoples bank accounts out of pure spite and in retribution for people making claims (A&L for certain..they got fined for it).

Abbey are notorious for dragging their feet when it comes to supplying 6 years of statements (got the letters to prove it!!!)

Make sure you have a back up bank account before you start.

Also, if you claim from a credit card company, be prepared to have your limit reduced...out of spite of course. And if you are claiming from a bank, your overdraft could well be reduced as well. I'm not trying to put you off but just making you aware of some of the tactics that banks and cc companies use.

Can I ask who you bank with? I've heard quite a lot of people's experiences from certain banks.

[Daggers]

I know nothing about this - but my mother used to recover sofas in order to earn holiday money, if that helps?

[Rincewind]

not really but thanks for your valuable input.

I'm with the A &L.

Seems a lot of hassle to go through. You have to keep a record of all coorespondence, refuse to discuss the matter in person and not take a reduction to the amount you claim. If I upgrade to Platinum the company will do all this for me. I'm a lazy sod as well as a dumbo when it comes to anything like this. I think if the bank starts to get the arse about it they can be done for that as well. I just don't fancy it going as far as the courts which this letter says the banks settle before it gets that far. They take 30% of the claim for doing it all for you. I have agreed in principle and will not pay anything if I decide not to proceed. If the claim is less than the amount they charge then the service is free.

That is the what I understood anyway. Its all the legal stuff that puts me off. I could ring them tomorrow but have no idea what to say or to .ask. I could do with some questions prepared to ask them.

[Webbo]

We used a similar firm to this when we reclaimed some money from an endowment mis-selling. They charged 25% plus vat quite a lot of money for just sending a few letters.

Try this sitehttp://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

for impartial advice.

[MPH]

Last week i received a call from a company that recovers overpaid bank charges. BankingRights Bureau. Today I received the package. There are pre-written legal letters for your bank and for a percentage of the recovery they'll do everything for you. Providing you upgrade the plan. The website is www.bankingrightsbureau.com Tel freephone 0800 321 3192. You have to request from the bank your last six years statements and details where you were charged. They are obliged to do this by law according to the letter I have. Sounds genuine but as far as I remember I have not paid much in bank charges. I know a couple of times I did because of cross deposit taking out funds and they refunded it.

I will look at the website as they have given me a password to login and update this. There is a lot of legal stuff and procedure what to do. A lot of work if its a small amount you get.

There are pre-written letters for if the bank contests the claim or do not answer your letters.

Anyway I'll look at the website now.

I couldnt't connect to start with and went to moneymarket.com and read some posts. The first two or three said they got charges back then the posts went off topic. I tried again and found the site.

Bankingrightsbureau

This has all come about because apparently, under british law it is illegal to penalise someone for breaking a contract.

I recovered my money and was jolly pleased i did too- i didnt use a company i just got my sister to do it for me.

I wrote off to my bank and asked them for the last 6 years of my bank statements and, as instructed by my sister informed them they were legally obliged to do so under the data protection act. My sister told me that they were entitled to charge a 'reasonable' fee for this which she said was between £5-£15 pounds.

2 weeks after sending my letter they mailed me my 6 years of bank statements. I looked through them with my sister and found out that in the six years i had paid £3,800 pounds in overdraft charges. I wasnt suprised at this as i had constantly been going overdrawn and sturggled to pay the bills. This, she told me, I was entitled to claim back so printed off a letter for me to sign and then send off to my bank asking for all the money back. About 6 weeks aftert that i got a letter from them offering me £2790 in ' full and final settlement' of my claim whilst accepting no responsibility on their behalf. I was instructed by my sister to reject this amount and seek the full amount as this is what she had done so i rejected the offer seeking the full amount. whilst waiting for their next letter to come ( my sister eventually got everything she claimed for) the banks had gone to the high court and along with the financial watchdog ( whoever they are) had struck a deal whilst waiting for the courts to decide on the final legality of the payouts. The deal was they would honor all offers already made but would not be obliged to make any further offers until the high court had decided once and for all. Sure enough a few days after reading this i got a letter saying the exact same thing. I could basically wait a year and risk getting nothing / an extra thousand pounds or take the offer they had made me - i took the offer.

I am with Barclays and they havnt once threatened to close my account. Infact, by luck, they have upgraded my debit card from a visa electron card to a full Visa Debit card as my account, they said in a seperate letter, was no longer going overdrawn!

Right now if anyone makes any claims then they will not pay out on them and will not be making any offers as the high courts i dont think have yet looked at the case- although my sister has told me that this will be happening this year...

I personally would not choose the option of getting a company to write the letters for you as you will lose 25% of what they will pay you. I got my money with just my sisters help and should the high courts decide in our favor then please pc me with your email addresses and i will forward the copes of the letters my sister used for me to anyone who wants them - On the condition they donate a very small amount of money to the funding of the FoxesTalk website!

[Guest]

Why don't you go and see the CAB, Ken?

[purpleronnie]

I got £200+ back from halifax.

[hebangsthedrums]

I did it on behalf of my parents and got over 3k back. Do it yourself, don't use any firm that asks for money. Its straightforward enough you just have to be methodical and thorough. This is the site I used www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

[Rincewind]

Lisa I knew nothing about this until I got the phone call. Well maybe I had heard bits on the news but it never sunk in that I would be entitled to anything. I don't think i've paid a lot of bank charges. Although I have been overdrawn. I just accepted the small print as correct and legal. Good idea going CAB. This company sent me pre-written letters for the bank so I can check them out as well. I thought the ones after the bank refuses a little rude to use a polite word. If I thought that I was going to get a huge amount I would not mind using a company such as this to do the work but for a small amount I'm not sure its worth it, although if the claim is less than I pay them I don't pay anything.

the first letter requests information list of charges or statements from the last 6 years. Also information where there has been manual intervention by a member of their staff.

Then it goes on to say if necessary debit my account with £10 which is the max statutory fee. You are required to send me the information within 40 calender days under yhe DP law. If I find you have charged my account with dispropotionate penalties charges or fees against meI will start the process to reclaim them as I am entitled to by law.

Then finishes with if I don't hear anything within 40 days I will be forced to seek help and lodge a complaint with the information commissioner.

If I dont sign and return the letter I received they will not take anything out of my account as I've not agreed in writing. I wondered what he was going on about on the phone. Made it sound as if they were going to get me all this money back and it would not cost me anything.

Now it seems the Platinum service is free for 30 days which is the free phone no. and website. You have to give the bank 40 days to respond to the first letter so thats awaste of time. To upgrade it costs a percentige of what you are awarded.

I think I'll go CAB. Then email (insert name) the poster above who offered to help. A percentage donation will apply as I was going to pay this anyway. This is negotiable. It may be easier than I thought but its also time consuming andas I said I am lazy with this sort of thing.