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Bank Overdrawn/cancellation fees.

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
A simple version: I want to claim back all overdrawn/cancellation/debit charges from my bank, Halifax, from the date I opened the account. How do I do it, or where do I send a refund letter?

I've now been issued another £35 pound fee, which I'm not fuming about but I am because all they did was cancel the transaction and I never went overdrawn. This is how it breaks down.

It was due to me not thinking. I had roughly £6 left in my bank, I spent £4.10 of it, but I didn't think/realize at the time that it will take 2-3 days for my online banking to reduce my amount, though it usually instantly/over 24 hours lowers it saying "I have: Blah" and "I am able to withdraw/spend blah" but this time, it never. I didn't think so I went ahead and bought something for £3.90, so yeah, I would have went overdrawn due to self negligence. But here's the thing, the bank canceled the first payment of £4.10 BUT allowed the 2nd payment of £3.90 - so I never went overdrawn but I got a £35 fee for them cancelling the payment for £4.10.

The first time I got an overdrawn charge it was THEIR fault. Everytime I want to use my debit card in electronic purchases, in the slots or online, they charge me £1.50 each time. The first time I went overdrawn by £1 because of that f:mad: £1.50 charge. So I get a £30 overdrawn charge, I did pay it even though I shouldn't have. So it was basically a £31.50 charge!

They've taken shit loads of money off me over the year I've used my account with them because of those £1.50 charges, so I want to claim them all back. I did searches into it and they never told me when I opened the account, nor could I see in the little booklet that I would be charged £1.50 each time, plus it's meant to be an illegal charge?

I'm going in tomorrow and talking to the people, getting a full bank statement from the open date, and calculating the fees, them writing to them. Where do I write/send the letter or how do I go about it all? I've never done it before.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hiya, moneysavingexpert.com is pretty good for information and help with this stuff. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges is where you need to look, there's loads of advice on there. The forum is pretty useful too as you can get advice from people who have been there, done that. Good luck!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm not a100% but i don't think they can legally charge you an overdraft fee if their charges make you overdrawn.

    Banks et al are cunts. They exist for 1 reason and one reason only, to make money out of you.

    moneysavingexpert.com has the type of letter you need

    http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges#step2
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You need to write to the financial ombudsman. They may make you go through customer relations complaints with the bank first, as they are the last port of call. The address should be on the moneysavingexpert site.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks you three, I'll write up the letter and stuff when I get my statement :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh, I forgot to mention, the overdrawn charges thing is calculated on whether you continue to use an unauthorised overdraft without clearing it. The bank would expect you to clear the unauth overdraft on the same day you went over your limit to avoid getting the charge, or stop using the account til the payment in is made. ie if you went beyond your limit a month ago paid off the unauth overdraft and the charge was debited today and that took you beyond your limit again but you didn't withdraw money for another month you wouldn't get charged for that.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I paied the first overdrawn charge off the next day, but I still got charged £30. I thought Halifax were different than Barclays, but they're starting to go worse. This one I got, I got on Friday. They're taking the money out on the 19th, if I have it or not in my account, they just charge the £35 to my account, leaving it -£35 and then have the cheeck to charge interest on it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You don't want to be going to the ombudsman yet. You need to write to the bank using one of those templates. If you can't get the matter resolved then write to the ombudsman though, as I've recently found out, they can be exceedingly useless.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    All the bank will do if you complain is send out a reminder of the charges policy. You're unlikely to get a refund unless you mention legal action as the test cases are still underway. You will need to go through customer relations before ombudsman, so don't expect it to be a fast process. Good luck and keep us posted on how you get on.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Basically just to clear a few things up for you, yes bank charges are absolutely shit, but those £1.50's that they're charging you are visa charges, basically visa charges the bank them when its a foriegn transaction, the bank then charges you them. If the "unplanned overdraft fees" that they charge you take you overdrawn solely, they can't charge you again for it. Basically if your looking to claim your bank charges back, phone up your bank, get the charges address off them and send upto 6 years worth of statements to them along with a covering letter, bare in mind, until the court case with the FSA (financial services authority) nothing will be looked at.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Basically just to clear a few things up for you, yes bank charges are absolutely shit, but those £1.50's that they're charging you are visa charges, basically visa charges the bank them when its a foriegn transaction

    I knew of this, but I'm not making foreign transactions... I'm in the UK making payments in the UK, this is for anything.

    But here's the thing. The payment of £4.10 has only recently been cancelled through Paypal, even though my bank already cancelled the payment... and they gave me the £35 charge nearly 1 week before Paypal denied to send the payment. Now that I had money placed into the account on Tuesday, the £4.10 was automatically taken out and now the £4.10 isn't a problem now.

    So I never went overdrawn, they just charged me £35 for holding back the payment - and I'm still being charged it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im with halifax and i dont have o.d and i went o.d by 1.22p and charge me 35quid plus an addition 28quid foq not having o.d how stupid is that they have ocasionaly when i have by accident recalled the charges. Lloyds tsb only charge 12quid!
    How can 1 bank charge 35 and another 12
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    19 Mar 2009
    Charges as Notified
    35.00
    -33.65

    f-ing rage. :mad:
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