Get hope and comfort from the many successful claims for unlawful bank charges. Here are words from just a few happy claimants.
So far, at least £2 million has been recovered by thousands of people for unlawful bank charges. As for my claim, it's moving on. My bank has acknowledged the court service notice and has about twenty days left to file a defence. I switched to a better current account ages ago, so there can be no nasty repercussions!
I'll write more on my claim later, but as it moves to its inevitable successful conclusion (boy will my face be red if I'm wrong) I'd like you to take hope and comfort from just some of the many emails and discussion board posts I've received from happy claimants. We can all do this!
One claimant, two successes
"I emailed a while back to say your letter had prompted a very positive response from Capital One of £300 +. I'm now pleased to report that.Co-op Bank have just paid out £218 to my wife on her current account with them."
A big claim
"One week after having my court claim acknowledged on the Internet I have won! Today I checked my online account to find correction payments credited to my account amounting to the £2,070 I requested plus the £120 court costs plus a couple of hundred more.wow - we did it!"
A court claim filed and another big win after the bank failed to defend
"The charges come to £2,648 over the last 6 years...I've managed to obtain a judgment by default and had a 'nice' letter from Lloyds offering me the full amount."
A delighted winner turned trigger-happy
"Well the result is that I have received £1,600 in charges back from HSBC! Yippee! Am delighted.
"I am off to pursue Halifax now...touché!"
A small telephone recovery
"I've just read your article on Motley Fool. It was very helpful as a work colleague has literally just had £50 refunded over the phone and I am about to try to get £30 refunded from Nationwide."
Another small but satisfying victory
"We phoned the Nationwide and complained and we had our £60 refunded back to our account."
And another (I want that drink!)
"I owe you a BIG drink. Barclays charged me £60 in fees over the last couple of months. I phoned them up at first they refused to refund them then I said I knew the OFT on 6th April had announced they were unfair and they refunded them both immediately!"
More breakthroughs
"I am having a lot of success with this bank charge stuff. I have made a profit of around £20 from Morgan Stanley but my biggest breakthrough was when I got a letter from Virgin offering me £170 as a goodwill payment not to take it any further! Woo hoo!"
And this one
"A brief note to say that using your draft letter - Capital One have just agreed to a full refund of £136!"
Stick to your guns!
"I had great success with HSBC using the template letters from the Fool's website.
"I wrote back saying.I want a full refund of charges plus interest, listing them all, or else I would take them to court, and within 2 weeks my account had been credited with £350."
A big one
"I got my money back from Alliance & Leicester. £999 in charges + interest + £80 small claims charge. Total £1,304"
Look who's laughing now!
"Anyway, I wrote to Halifax and asked for a refund of the £2,932 I'd incurred in charges. They offered me £500 which was tempting but which I declined. They upped the offer. I declined again and said I would go to court - completely convinced that, as someone with my history, I would be laughed out of court.I kept reading the discussion boards and saw that other people had been successful in reclaiming charges. So I bit the proverbial bullet and submitted the papers.
"Halifax then offered a refund of £2,812 plus my court fees of £120 (purely for financial reasons and with no admission of liability you understand....!)."
A whopping victory against another smelly bank
"This is really worth following up if you can do from start to finish from DPA letter to Money Claim Online. It took 7 weeks to settle out of court yesterday for £3,200 - lovely sum credited to my account around 4pm yesterday."
These are just a few of the successes, large and small. It shows that you don't need a law degree or even quality letter-writing skills to get your money back, you just need to dig your heels in.
Advice from one successful Fool
Before you begin your claim, heed these wise words:
"Like everyone else, I was slightly worried when they said they'd defend the case, but I knew it was likely that one week later a nice fat cheque would arrive. Which it did. Just make sure you have a parachute account."
- Support our campaign to recover unlawful charges! Please email this article to your friends and family. To do this click on 'E-mail page to a friend' below.
- Compare current accounts and get a 'parachute' in case your nasty bank tries to close your account.
- Read The Ultimate Guide To Reclaiming Bank And Card Charges.