Can I make a claim myself?      top

The simple answer to this is yes in the same way that you can prepare and file your own tax return without the use of an accountant, or service and repair your own car without the use of a mechanic, or buy and sell your own property without the use of a solicitor. Yet many people choose to use independent experts rather than do it themselves. Why? They do so, because they have established that the benefits of using an independent expert far outweighs the cost, especially when the cost is payable only on success!

In fact there are number of possible complaints you can have against your bank some of which can result in a payment now and are nothing to do with the current court case. To process these claims you need a detailed knowledge of the British Banking code, the Mortgage Conduct of Business Code and the FSA waiver that is in place.

What claims can I make and what would be included in my claims?      top

What instructions has the FSA given to banks about complainants suffering hardship?      top

When dealing with complainants in financial difficulty, the firm should consider the following steps in respect of the period during which they are assessed as being in financial difficulty:

1. The firm might waive future unauthorised overdraft charges; and
   
   
2. The firm might not enforce debts against complainants in financial difficulty to the extent that these debts are made up of unauthorised overdraft charges.
   
   

In making an assessment of financial difficulty the firm will take into account:

1. evidence of changes in lifestyle, including loss of employment; disability; serious illness; imprisonment; relationship breakdown; death of a partner; starting a lower paid job; parental/carer leave; and starting full-time education;
   
   
2. evidence of the following events:
   
   1. items repeatedly being returned unpaid due to lack of available funds;
   2. failing to make loan repayments or other commitments;
   3. discontinuation of regular credits;
   4. notification of some form of insolvency or court proceedings;
   5. regular requests for increased borrowing or repeated rescheduling of debts;
   6. making frequent cash withdrawals on a credit card at a non-promotional rate of interest; and
   7. repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement (and, in this regard, where a complainant has incurred over £500 in unauthorised overdraft charges in the previous 12 months, that is to be treated as indicative of financial difficulty).
      
      

The OFT’s case against the banks relates to the Unfair Terms in Consumer contract Regulations and has no impact on business bank accounts. More importantly the FSA waiver granted to banks which allows them to defer resolving complaints only relates to consumer accounts. Accordingly if you file a complaint for charges incurred on a business account the bank must deal with it. However claiming back default charges incurred on business accounts has been made more difficult because the High court recently ruled that such charges were not penalties and could not be recovered in Common Law. To date the OFT have not indicated whether they are going to appeal this ruling. In the meantime we are still able to progress these claims with some success. The outcome depends entirely on the circumstances of each case.

Most financial institutions aim to settle complaints within 8 weeks. However, if we need to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, it can take up to 8 months to settle. Where we can’t settle the matter satisfactorily with the bank or financial institution directly we have no alternative but to refer the matter to the Ombudsman’s service. The ongoing court case between the Banks and the OFT can be responsible for holding up some elements of a claim and we are unable to predict when this will be resolved..

A condition of the FSA waiver is that a financial institution must not close accounts or threaten closure of accounts of customers when it might reasonably appear that this is for the purpose (or with the intent) of penalising customers that have complained about unauthorised overdraft charges or for deterring future complaints from these customers or others. For the avoidance of doubt, the firm may close accounts or threaten to close accounts where there is good justification for doing so based on the circumstances of the particular case; furthermore, before closing a personal current account of a customer in financial difficulty, the firm might offer the customer a basic bank account, if this is a facility that the bank offers.

We operate on a “no win-no cost” basis. We will take over your claim and pay you 85% of the value of the claim that you assign to us (less £10 if we have to obtain details from the bank or lender of the charges that you have incurred) upon receipt of cleared funds from the relevant financial institution (subject to a minimum deduction of £180). However, we also cap our fees, so that under no circumstances will our fee exceed 50% of the amount you recover, no matter how little you recover. The purpose of this is to protect those clients that simply have no idea how much their claim is.

To illustrate our fees:

1. If the value recovered is £3,000, our fee is 15% i.e. £450.
2. If the value recovered is £1,000 our fee is £180 i.e. the minimum before taking into account the 50% cap.
3. If the value recovered is £100 our fee is £50, because we invoke the 50% cap
   
   
   

We are committed to meeting our obligations to you according to the contract you have signed with us and to informing you of progress with the claim. If, however, we are deficient in any significant way, we would like to hear from you. Our support teams are ready to receive your complaint and to work with you to resolve it. You can share your concerns with them by completing an on-line form, by phone or by letter as follows:

1. Complete the on-line complaint form - click here
2. Telephone to our Office: 020 3239 1607
3. Write a letter addressed to us at The Complaints Department, PO Box 359, Feltham, TW13 6WF.

Our complaints handling procedure may be viewed by clicking here