Step 1
First of all, you need to find out how much you have paid in charges since you opened your account. Although standard claims have a limit of only the past 6 years, it is possible to claim as far back as you need to and people have been successful in doing this More about those type of claims in another discussion. For now, lets keep it
straightforward.
You can find out what you have paid in charges by looking through your old bank statements. Many banks now post the last 6 years of statements online too. If you can't do that, you'll need to send a Subject Access request.
A SAR is a statutory request under S.7 of the DPA whereby YOU (the subject) formally request access to data that a company (in this case your bank) holds on file about you.
The data to be provided will contain records of all transactions and any other data such as terms & conditions and company ontes about you. You will need to enclose payment of £10 which is the statutory fee for a SAR.
It is also a good idea to get a copy of your credit file to see if any defaults or adverse data has been entered by the bank in respect of the charges which have been levied.
Step 1- SAR Template Letter
Step 2 - Preliminary Letter *Optional
You can send off this letter at the same time as sending off your SAR. In this step, if you don't have an overdraft facility on your account, you could ask for one of the amount that you were most overdrawn. If you already have an overdraft facility, you could ask the bank to increase your limit to the amount you were most overdrawn past your current limit. This letter also asks for the bank to explain under what criteria they make their decision to either grant or refuse both an arranged and an unarranged overdraft.
Also in this letter is some questions about some of the new services that were introduced onto your account. This applies to accounts that were opened before September 2007. New services include, Unarranged/unplanned/informal overdraft arrangement services, payment consideration services. For most current accounts, these services did not exist at the time of opening the account.
This letter is optional, but it will be applicable to the majority of accounts and it could help strengthen your case as your claim progresses to the advanced stages.
Step2 - Preliminary Letter Template
Step 3 - Refund Request
Once you have made a list of all the charges you have paid, enter them into a spreadsheet or list them on a piece of paper. Its now time to ask for them back See the letter templates for this first letter.
It is important that you keep copies of all correspondence both to & from your bank. It is also advised to send letters recorded delivery so that you can get proof of delivery.
Step 3 - Refund Request Letter Template
Step 4 - Letter Before Action
As you've probably guessed, you will likely have received a letter informing you that you agreed to the charges, that they are in line with the current market and applied correctly blah blah blah.. There will no doubt be some kind of mention about the OFT test case and that your claim will likely be put on hold if you were to issue a claim.
Whilst this is true, you should still press ahead and send off the final letter before issuing a court claim. It is important to stick to your timescale and issue the claim if you do not get a refund after the this last letter. Post whatever response you get in your forum thread and someone will help you with this step if you need it.
The LBA. This is the final request to the bank to issue a refund. This gives them 14 days in which to issue the refund, after which you can issue your claim.
Step 4 - Letter Before Action Template
Step 5 - Issuing Your Claim
Issuing a claim with the court.
This is where it gets serious, but don't get too nervous. Remember, around half a million people just like you have already done this! A few years ago, most of us issued our claims via moneyclaim online. However, these days you are better advised to download an N1 form from the HMCS website, fill it in with the POC and help provided here, and take it to your local court.
At this point, there is every likelihood that your case will be placed on hold along with all other claims. However, it will be accepted and you can claim statutory interest at 8% which will be accumulating every day whilst your claim is on hold. It is also important to note that if you have charges approaching 6 years old, these will not become barred by the 6 year limit once you have issued the claim!
Step 5 - N1 Claim Form - Download it Here -
Get help with it Here
Step 6
Assuming you get this far, you will either receive an Allocation Questionnaire from the court (this is a form for you to fill in which asks a bunch of questions about your case to give the court an idea of how long they will need & who will need to be there) or a pre-trial hearing. It is quite rare these days that anyone receives an Allocation Questionnaire as most county courts have dealt with many hundreds, if not thousands of bank charges claims over the last 4 years and will know exactly what is required. Pre-trial hearings far more common these days, they are quite informal.
It is also often either before or at this point that a settlement is offered by the bank. Sometimes its an offer of some of what you are claiming, sometimes its an offer of payment in full. Most people who held out & demanded payment in full have got it!
Step 6 - AQ - Get help with it here
Step 7
The trial.
Assuming you get to this point, which is about as likely as getting mugged by kermit the frog (as happened to a guy called 'kevboy' once) you will have been thoroughly prepared by the good people here and on some of the other websites who specialise in these advanced stages of claims. As long as you keep your thread up to date, understand what you are doing & ask questions when you need to, and kept all your paperwork organised there is every chance of success!
Step 8 - Court Bundle - See notes here
Step 9
Assuming you have been successful, its time to put in an order for wasted costs and treat yourself for a job well done!
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Step By Step Guide To Reclaiming Bank Charges
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