Complaining to the Bank

[G4Z]

I have a complaint in with my bank Brarclays over an interest charge and £70 worth of charges they levied on me last December for going over my limit.

The deal with the interest is this.

In August I was overdrawn, by a fair bit a might add, the intrest they charged me was £13.92.

In that month I sorted my finances out and went flying into credit on the 11th of August.

In September I was charged £26.94!!!

I was in credit for nearly all of August and they charged me more than when Iw as overdrawn. So I lodged a complaint and brought up the thing from last year with the £70. Got a letter today saying that the charges were correct, I thought no way so I checked online and sure enough, this month (Oct) I have been charged £0.91 interest even though I am in credit. Hardly inspires confidence, what else have they been mis-charging me for?

So I called the guy back who left me a voicemail whilst in Barcelona and he is due to call me back today. I will let you know the outcome of this engagement.

Ideas on how to play this are welcomed, I may do the irate customer bit or I could do the stone cold business bit. I intend to get the £70 back from Dec last year as well but thats just a case of unreasonable charging - any useful links so that I have the right banking codes/acts whatever to throw at him would also be handy.

[mp3c]

Good luck if you do get the money! they will probably try to find an excuse not to pay you.

[G4Z]

This guy should really hurry up and call me..

The info I am arming myself is growing.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19992083.htm

"Unfair Terms
5. - (1) A contractual term which has not been individually negotiated shall be regarded as unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract, to the detriment of the consumer."

[G4Z]

muhahahaha!

Sucsess!

I got the £75 in charges from last year refunded, the guy says he is doing so as a goodwill gesture and that he has notarised my account to say they wont refund me again in future. They might stick to that in future but I do not anticipate being in that situation again and even if they do I do not think it will affect my position on this as I can just argue with them until they relent (again).

he did try to say that the decisions on charges do not apply to banks and only credit cards, I pointed out that under the consumer credit act any type of credit is treated the same and the only reason there is no decision specifically related to banks is that the banks have always settled to avoid precident. He then agreed to refund all the charges, he had offered to only refund one but I said I was not happy with that. He said it wasnt a bank error, I told him that I never said it was a bank error and that it wasnt the fact I was peanalised that was in dispute, it was the amount that I was disputing as unfair.

hope that makes sense, just got off the phone on a bit of a high.





Edit : On the intrest issue it turns out they were right and he explained why this was, I told him that the explanation was all I was after when I originally called up and ended up making the complaint.