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Your Comments & Experience - Abbey

If you use information on this site please let us know if it's useful. E-mail: mail@bankcharges.info (we only publish first names to protect your identity).

[348]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Simon 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 4:33 PM
Subject: Abbey Rufund


I have had charges to my account ranging from £20-£35 over the past year or so and obviously went into further debt due to the bank penalising me.  So someone at work told me about Bank charges and web sites, so I did a search and found this one.  So simple to do, infact so simple that I only had to send the 1st letter and exactly 35 days after sending letter I have received a refund totalling £315.00 from Abbey National.  However the bank did not inform me that this was going to take place, the only correspondence I received from the bank was to say they were dealing with my complaint.  So today I checked my account just out of the blue and saw I was £315.00 better off, well more like I have received my money back.

The only query I have is will they continue to charge me such excessive rates for overdraft limits, cheques or debit card payments not clearing.  Do I have to send them another letter when this takes place. [GLC note: until their is law reform in the UK (see here) or banks reduce their charges to a fair sum then the answer is unfortunately, yes].

 

[339] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Marilyn 
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:50 PM 
Subject: Unfair Bank Charges 
Last week I read an article in The Mail regarding the Govan Law Centre in Scotland helping someone have charges on their account refunded to them. My daughter had unfair charges made on her account with the Abbey and they have refused to refund them apart from £90.00 which we refused to accept. We have now passed this over to the financial ombudsman who have been very helpfull but due to the volume of work have not yet been able to look at the case. Please can you tell me if there is a time limit after which we can not claim on a case and also would the ombudsman be able to tell the Abbey to refund the charges or would we need to file a claim at the County Court. I can give you more details about the claim if needed. [GLC note: there is a 6 year timebar in England & Wales for breach of contract claims - why have the Abbey refused?  Have you tried sending a modified Step 2 letter?   See the England & Wales section (Step 3) on how to raise a small claims action].
Yours sincerely,

 

[319] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tracey
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:34 PM 
Subject: Bank Charges 


Just read your site and I first wrote Abbey national back in June they totally ignored my first 2 letters I then when into the branch to be told when on of the CSC telephoned the complaints dept that they could only refund the last 12 months bank charges which in total came to £241.00, I declined this offer I have since received my last 5 years bank statements and highlighted all the charges which comes to £2145.00.

I have copied and edited your stage 2 letter and sent them the letter with the highlighted charges of my account , will keep you updated thanks again for all your help.

Regards 

Tracy Liverpool 

 

[318] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: cath 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:44 PM 
Subject: refund of bank charges 
Dear All 
A big thanks for the use of both of your letters which have just resulted in me receiving nearly £1000 back from Abbey bank. After the first letter i received the standard response that it was all in my terms and conditions so there was nothing they could do, so i sent of the second letter not holding out much hope of achieving anything and on ringing the bank to see if they could reduce the £390 charges due to be taken out this month i was told that these charges had already been refunded so i checked my account on line and to my surprise there are nearly £1000 in charges refunded. This is only a fraction of what they have charged me over the last few years but it is a start. So once again thanks.

 

[305] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: cath 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:44 PM 
Subject: refund of bank charges 
Dear All 
A big thanks for the use of both of your letters which have just resulted in me receiving nearly £1000 back from Abbey bank. After the first letter i received the standard response that it was all in my terms and conditions so there was nothing they could do, so i sent of the second letter not holding out much hope of achieving anything and on ringing the bank to see if they could reduce the £390 charges due to be taken out this month i was told that these charges had already been refunded so i checked my account on line and to my surprise there are nearly £1000 in charges refunded. This is only a fraction of what they have charged me over the last few years but it is a start. So once again thanks.

 
[303] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Michael  
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 5:36 PM 
Subject: My story 
Hi, 
Can't tell you how glad I am that I have found this site. 
Our lifes have been dogged by bank charges for the last 4 or 5 years and have become so used to getting them that we look at them as part of our monthly outgoings.... ridiculous. We have an average of £90 to £150 per month deducted from our account meaning we cn never get out of the red.
My worst incident happenned just under a year ago when I had been developing a website for a friend. The site had a paypal payment option which I was unfamiliar with. To test whether the site was working, I made a series of nine 1p (one pence) payments to the paypal account to fine tune how the site worked. Three days later when the 9p came off my account, I was overdrawn again due to standing orders and BANK CHARGES etc. The Abbey charged me 9 x £30 in charges, one for each one penny transaction. I called their customer services call centre and complained bitterly but they refused to refund the any of the payments. I then demanded that I speak to a supervisor who also refused to make any refund. However, after writing to them they agreed to refund £90 as a good will gesture.
However, over the past five years I estimate that they have taken more than £6,500 from us and using the info on this site, will fight them all the way to make sure I get it all back. Have today sent a request for a list of all charges over the last 5 years and will then send letter 1.
Will keep you informed on my progress. 
Thanks again, 
Michael

 

[297] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Betty 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 4:42 PM 
Subject: Abbey refund 
Just thought you'd like to hear my Mothers story. She is a 62 year old pensioner who is undergoing treatment for cancer and still managed to fight for what was hers.
After finding your website, she found that for 12 months Abbey had charged her over £1000 in fees. Following your information my Mother has just found £780 worth of bank charges refunded into her account today. This was all acheived from sending letters 1 and 2.
We are still awaiting the statements that were archived to be sent to us and will keep you informed.
Thank you doesn't seems enough but THANK YOU. Keep fighting the fight.

 

[294] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Beverley 
To: <mail@bankcharges.info> 
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 8:56 AM 
Subject: Abbey Charges totalling £1,700 

£1,700 of bank charges since October 2005. Ranging from £115 - £250 per
month

I tried time and time again to either get Abbey to not charge me just for 1
month but they wouldn't, they wouldn't even change the the date they took
the charges out (4 days before I got paid each month) which constantly put
my account over it's authorised overdraft which incurred even more charges.

After looking at the OFT website I decided to write to them with the 1st
letter and sent copies of all bank statements dating back to last October (I
could have gone back a few years more, but didn't have the statements).
They wrote back to me offering a good will gesture of £115 plus to reverse
the £55 charges set for that month (June), I phoned them and said if you
believe that "Abbey's charges are fair and I was aware of the charges when I
first opened the account" then why offer me a good will gesture of £115? I
said to them that I will accept an offer of them to pay me back £1,000 and
take the matter no further, and they duly declined.

I Wrote them stating that I am declining their offer of £115 as a goodwill
gesture and that many other customers of various banks have had most if not
all of the charges back and that they must have seen that the charges were
"unfair, unreasonable and unenforceable" and that I will give them 7 days
to respond to my letter letting me know if they will accept my offer of them
paying me back £1,000, if not then I will be taking the matter further and
going for the full amount of £1,700 and if necessary going to small claims
court.

Well to my surprise, I received no letter for a couple of weeks and
yesterday checked my bank and there was a long list of credited fees back
into my account totalling nearly £1,000. They never wrote to me saying they
were paying me this back, but I am happy that I actually won and got most of
the fees back. Now my account is in credit and I can now sort out my bank
account.........................and hopefully no more charges! 

If it wasn't for a television program about bank charges and the OFT website
I would never have thought of doing it and would never have thought I would
get any charges back..........A BIG THANK YOU!!!!!! 

 

[259] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Laura 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 11:44 AM 
Subject: Thank You! 

Hello! 
I was charged by Abbey for going £24 over my overdraft limit! They charged me £20 for clearing the payment when I didn't have enough funds in my account. This took me £24 over my authorised overdraft. Then they charged me £30 for going over my limit! So a charge of £50 in total for one transaction!
I sent letter 1 and they refunded both charges! Result! Have sent the link to everyone I know!
Thanks! 

 

[255] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paula 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 10:07 AM 
Subject: Success 

Thank You! Using the first stage letter template I got a refund of £100 bank charges from Abbey National.
Paula

 

[234]----- Original Message ----- 

From: Colin 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 6:29 PM 
Subject: Abbey 

Just thought I would write and thank you, and show others that there is light at the end of the tunnel.   I have been with Abbey for just over a year, and ran up in that period over £800 in charges, mainly when I became Ill and had no or little wages coming in.
After ringing up and asking how I got back dated statements, being given wrong info, and grilled as to why I thought now was a good time to defend these charges, I was given an address and told I would have to pay the usual £10 DPA sum. I did this, and was sent a letter with my cheque stating that as I was only wanting 12 months statements I would be given them free. I waited again, took nearly 3 weeks to receive them!! Worked out the total costs and charges and made statement up to show them with a grand total. Sent this along with your letter 1 and waited, and waited. I eventually rang up and was told it was being dealt with by senior management and a decision had been made, but needed approving by them. This morning I received a phone call as promised and was given the option to accept just over £600. I thought this was a good offer, and better than I had expected reading a few letters about Abbey. So far there have been no clauses to accepting this money, but will await what the letter in the post states.

Thanks a lot to all who help at the site, and I urge anybody who has any charges to push for what is rightfully yours!

Colin

 

[216] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jeremy  
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 1:56 PM
Subject: Abbey National plc

Hi
 
I read your website and wrote to the Abbey bank, asking for repayment of bank charges and interest charges. I received a very snotty letter basically telling me it was my own fault and that I was free to switch banks. (I have had an account with the Abbey for 20 years).
 
I issued proceedings for £1,160.93 (including court fees). By coincidence, a day later I received a letter from Abbey telling me that they had refunded £440 as a gesture of good will.  The bank had the standard 14 days to respond to the claim - apparantly they didn't bother, so I have just returned from the court having applied for judgement in my favour.
 
Thanks for your help. I'll keep you updated.
 
Jeremy

 

[194] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Adrian
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 12:35 PM 
Subject: bank charges refunded! 

What a wonderful website! 
Thanks to you I have been refunded in full all my bank charges amounting to £170.
I banked with Abbey and had an overdraft liit of £600. 
One month due to my travel expenses being paid late and an unexpected garage bill I went over my overdraft and the bank paid some D/Ds and other debit transactions.
I was over my limit for 5 days to the tune of about £130. 
My next statement showed a total of £230 of bank charges. 7x £30 transaction fees and an unauthorised overdraft fee of £20.
I phoned the bank. The adviser said they were only allowed to refund one £30.
I went into my Branch. They refunded another £30 but were not allowed to refund any more on instructions from Head Office.
I have never incurred charges in 10 years with this Bank. 
I heard about your Web Site on the radio. 
I sent "the First letter".  

Today (within 2 weeks of letter) I received a letter refunding in FULL the remainder of the charges.Plus a standard letter saying Office of Fair Trading announcement was in relation to Credit Card Default - not Bank Charges. But as a valued customer and the history of my account it would appear to be an oversight on my part.  Who Cares? I got my hard-earned money back. And the super-rich Spanish Bank lost a customer.

Many, many thanks for your advice . I have already told several people who are in the process of claiming back hundreds of pounds.

MORE POWER TO YOUR ELBOW FRIENDS! 
YOU GUYS ARE TOTALLY BRILL! 

Adrian 
Derby.

 

[175] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Kerrie 
To: <mail@bankcharges.info> 
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 6:31 PM 
Subject: Unauthorised overdraft charges. 

> Hello. After watching the Trevor McDonald programme a few weeks ago I 
> strated looking into my bank charges and came across your site plus a few 
> others.
> I have looked through my bank statements (it is a joint bank account with my 
> husband) and we have been charged £2507 in charges and £527.75 in interest 
> since 24th May 2003. I would love to file a claim with the Abbey bank but 
> as we live out of our overdraft from month to month despite both working 
> (though I am currently on maternity leave) my question is "If I did send a 
> letter regarding the charges, would Abbey make me pay of my whole overdraft, 
> which currently sits at £3,100.00"
> The reason the overdraft is so big is because my husband was out of work for 
> 2 months in 2004. During those 2 months we incurred several bank charges and 
> during the week that the bank debited them they left us with no money for 
> the next week etc, so they just kept increasing our overdraft so that we had 
> got money to live on. the most we have been charged in one month is £390.00 
> plus £24.39 interest so that month alone they took over £410.00 off us which 
> totally wiped our wages out and left us with nothing to pay the bills.
> I cancelled all Direct Debits in the hope of reducing charges, but I am now 
> left with the grief of wondering whether we will have enough each week to 
> pay the bills.
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> Thank you
> Kerrie

 

[170] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: carolyn
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 2:20 PM 
Subject: Bank Charges from ABBEY 

I have incurred £105 worth of charges since I opened my ABBEY bank account 18 months ago. I sent letter 1 on Wednesday 12th July 2006 and still hadn't heard anything by this morning. I phoned ABBEY complaints department to see if they had got the letter and they said they were dealing with it. She put me on hold and when she came back on the line she said basically it was my own fault for not managing my account properly and I had agreed to their Terms & Conditions but as a "Goodwill Gesture" she would refund £70 back into my account today.

Thanks for a great website !!! 

Carolyn

 

[150] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Llewelin 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:01 PM

Many thanks for your letters, settled for 90% with Abbey (£1300) after taking them to court. They defended the claim, but I struck a deal with them over the phone as I am going on holiday and there was a strong chance their defence would have been filed while I was away.

Regards 

Llewelin 

 

[66]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Barbara 
To: m@govanlc.com 
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 12:41 PM
Subject: Unfair Bank Charges

I thought I would drop you a line just to tell you that I used your unfair bank charges letter as the basis of a complaint to the Abbey for charging me £110 for honouring two cheques and a direct debit over one single day when I was over my agreed overdraft (£30 for each transaction plus an extra £20 as a general penalty).

I wrote to the Abbey about this on 24 April and received a letter from them on 3 May agreeing to repay me the entire sum.  I have to say that the letter took great care to point out that this was because I had not incurred charges in the past and as a gesture of good will. 

The Abbey also pointed out that it is my responsibility to monitor my account and, "Any future charges will therefore have to stand."   (Perhaps I should write to them formally to say thankyou, but I don't accept the last part?)

Thanks for posting the letter on your web site.  The result shows the banks can be made to repay their outrageous charges, even if they do try to do so with the threat that they'll impose them again if they get half a chance.

Barbara
Glasgow

 
[59]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: jtudds
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 12:37 PM
Subject: Bank Charges


> Hi, i have just come across your site and its great. I have become fed up 
> with paying unauthorised o/d charges etc and decided to try and do 
> something about it, where i came across yourselves.
>
> I have been with Abbey 20+ years, and my salary is paid straight to my 
> account monthly, but must admit i sometimes go over the od limit by small 
> amounts each month then get hit with the big charges £30 clearing dd and 
> £20 unauth o/d. Anyhow, question is, how long is reasonable to go back to 
> try and claim some of these back. Since July 05 my charges total £360, 
> but i was wondering should i go back 3 years? maybe 5 years at max? [Govan Law Centre's answer: customers in England/Wales can go back 6 years; customers in Scotland can go back 5 years; you can use the Data Protection Act 1998 to ascertain your charges see here].
>
> Your advise would be hugely appreciated, and great work your are doing. 
> Superb.
>
> All the best

> James 

 

[50]  ----- Original Message -----
From: Jan 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 12:22 PM
Subject: successful refund from Abbey using Letter 1


Hi,

I just wanted to thank you for providing the proforma letter to the bank which I used successfully to get a £100 refund for charges from the Abbey and additionally a waiver of £70 charges incurred as a result of those charges.

 I had been charged £30 for unauthorised overdraft & £20 for visa payment whilst overdrawn on two occasions, when automatic payments were taken whilst cheques were waiting to clear. Abbey maintained that their charges were fair, but refunded me on the grounds that my account management had been good in the past and that it had been an oversight on my part.

I will be recommending your site to all my friends.

Thanks again,

yours sincerely 

Jan 

 

[42]  ----- Original Message -----
From: Justin
To: <mail@bankcharges.info>
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 4:13 PM
Subject: Many thanks for your commitment and help


I have just received £170 in refunded charges from Abbey plc. I had been 
charged a total of £340 in charges, but had negotiated (begged) them down 
to a more respectable £170 and thought 'Well it could be worse'. Then I 
heard your spokesman on Radio 4 (Money programme?) and downloaded your 
letter, followed the instructions, and incredibly (not a sleight on you but 
this IS a bank we're dealing with) I am appeased. There seems to be too 
many of us charged incredible rates for genuine errors. We pay many 
companies a lot of money for effectively poor service. Thank you very much 
for all the work you have done on this. United we stand.

Justin

 

[32]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil & Linda" 
To: <mail@bankcharges.info> 
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 3:41 PM 
Subject: Re Bank Charges 

>I would firstly like to thank you for setting out a great letter for people  to use to try and get their bank charges back.

> I have just received back all of our £360.00 bank charges from the Abbey National and only on receipt of your first letter. Thanks again.

 

[29] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Jackie 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 3:15 PM 
Subject: Refund of bank charges 

Hi,

I've just had a refund from the Abbey for £80 after using your letter. This is the full amount of the charges they applied (excluding the interest which was very small).

The bank said their charges were justified in line with their terms and conditions but, having carefully reviewed the history of my account, they did not want to penalise me for a one-off lapse. They asked for an acceptance form to be signed and returned and state that any future charges incurred will stand.

Before I found your letter I'd already phoned them and been fobbed off so thanks for the letter - I don't think I'd have got the money back without it.

Jackie

 

[23]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 1:34 AM 
Subject: Abbey Refund 

Just a quick e-mail to say what a great site this is! Abbey tried to charge me £50 for going £1.07 over and when they recieved the letter the charges were quickly dropped.

Thanks

 

[20]   ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Richard 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2006 2:48 PM 
Subject: Abbey National 

Hi 

Many thanks for your programmes & suggested letters.  An oversight in November caused me to slip over my limit & by the time I had realised, £130 worth of charges had clocked up.

Your letter prompted a standard reply (computerised I think), & I was just going to follow up with the suggested court Action when I received a letter refunding the fees.

Naturally it was stated that this was a goodwill gesture, & their terms & conditions would still apply in future, but I have my £130!!

Many thanks & keep up the good work. 

Richard

 

[19]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Chris 
To: mail@bankcharges.info 
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 11:16 AM 
Subject: Abbey Bank Charges 

Guys,

To continue on a positive note Abbey have agreed to refund £144 in charges for being overdrawn by £9.51 for a direct debit. If your helpful letter was more widely known about the banks would be in turmoil!

Many thanks again.

Chris 
Leamington Spa

 

[18]  ----- Original Message ----- 
From: paul 
To: m@govanlc.com 
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2006 3:28 AM 
Subject: court case won against abbey 

hi there, last december i proceeded with court action against the abbey to reclaim their unfare bank charges. i printed off a letter from your website. just to let you know that they never responded to the summons inspite of their threatening letters that they would produce evidence, in court, of their costs involved when i went overdrawn (i asked them for this). last month i won £184 plus £39 expenses plus interest. at last (after i sent them a recorded letter reminding them that i had won) they have paid a cheque for £228 into my account at their Milton Keynes branch (a long way from Scotland...very discreet!). i am now going to reclaim the full 6 years of charges.

thankyou for your online advice. a victory for the consumer. 

Paul

 

[3] ----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ben
To: mail@bankcharges.info
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2005 3:52 PM
Subject: Bank Charges/Court Case

Hi,

i have had an ongoing scrap with my bank, Abbey, for several years. Like you i find their chaarges obscene, especially as they effect people who are allready in financial trouble. However, i thought, up until i heard you on the radio that i was a one man army, i now know otherwise. I am probably going to bring a court action against them. Are you interested in provideing advice and maybe even appearing as a witness? I have detailed info already i.e. a spreadsheet detailing percentage rates etc, and have a sound understanding of the law.

Please advise?

Thanks Ben.