Which charges can be claimed back?
What cannot be claimed back?
What is the procedure for claiming back these charges?
Will this affect my credit rating?
Can my bank close my account?
What happens if I received my Statements directly from my Bank?
Can't I claim back these charges myself?
How much will it cost me?
Any other questions?
Q. Which charges can be claimed back?
A. Any charge which your bank has placed onto your account in respect of an unauthorised overdraft (one off charge or monthly / weekly fee), unpaid direct debit or bounced cheque. Even if the terms and conditions attached to your account state that these charges apply they are unfair contract terms and thus not legal.
Additionally we will claim for 8% interest on an APR basis thus any charge made 5 years ago will attract in the region of 40% interest.
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Q. What cannot be claimed back?
A. Increased interest rates paid on unauthorised overdrafts and account fees paid for additional services (e.g.: I pay £10 per month for a Premier Account which gives me mobile phone and travel insurance, free legal advice, etc). The bank is also not liable from any consequential loss from these charges such as not having the money after you have been charged to pay bills, etc.
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Q. What is the procedure for claiming back these charges?
A. Firstly we send a form of authority and a DPA subject access request to your bank. The form of authority is a statement which you sign to say that Solar have your authorisation to deal with the matter of the charges. The subject access request is a statutory demand which we send to your bank to which they have to respond with (in this case) a list of all charges made to your account within the last six years.
Once we have details of all charges levied we send a second letter to your bank claiming the charges back along with 8% APR on each one. The banks tend to settle these cases at this point as the point of law which we use to make the claim is very clear.
In some exceptional cases the bank may chose to either not respond or to refute your claim in which case our next avenue is to issue proceedings against your bank in County Court.
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Q. Will this affect my credit rating?
A. No. Reclaiming bank charges will not affect your creditworthiness.
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Q. Can my bank close my account?
A. In theory yes, although in practice this is unlikely. Nevertheless it would be a sensible precaution to open a “parachute account” just in case.
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Q. What happens if I received my Statements directly from my Bank?
As Solar Accountants is acting on your behalf, if you receive your statements direct from your bank, please forward them to us to allow to process your complaint. If any postage is incurred, we will refund this to you on successful completion of your claim.
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Q. Can't I claim back these charges myself?
Of course you could – in the same way there are many tasks you could do yourself but choose to leave it to the professionals. In today's demanding world many people simply don't have the time to trawl through paperwork.
Appointing Solar Accountants to manage the claim professionally on your behalf takes away all the hassle of dealing with financial institutions who love to try and confuse people with complicated jargon.
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Q. How much will it cost me?
A. We undertake to do all the work to present and chase-up your compensation claim free of charge. You only pay a fee when we have successfully secured compensation for you – and then only 25% +VAT (28.75%) of the claim settlement amount.
Charges may be payable in some exceptional circumstances, which are set out in clauses 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 6.4 of Solar’s Terms and Conditions, which are available upon request.
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Q. Any other questions?
If you have a question which we have not answered here,
please call or email us for a personal response.
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Remember...
We can help you claim compensation
It’s your right
We are the Accountants, experts in our field.
Until you call us we can’t advise on the solution that’s right for you.