Credit/Debit card users double-charged at New Year

Hi JWK. similar thing happened to me . i had made a few transactions using my Debit Card and some of the transactions had been withdrawn twice from my account :(. fortunately they were for smaller amounts
than you had. the Amounts have now been processed back into my Account with an Apology letter from
the Bank. music .

 

What a rubbish start to the New Year, John. I do hope things get sorted out quickly.

 

Sorry to hear of your start to the year John. I still have a Debit Card with Lloyds as my pension goes in there and withdraw every two weeks plus use the debit .. last time 20 December for a small purchase. I think all banks are useless in their various ways ... I've never changed as I've had the account for 32 years.

Hope you get sorted out soon ... but it's all the inconvenience of their ineptitude and with the problem you've had, also hope you are compensated.

 

What a rotten thing to have happened!!!! I HATE it when there are mix ups with money, makes me really cross, other peoples stupidity and it is so bloody inconvenient you want to make sure you REALLY complain about this!!!!

Val

 

Hiya John, thats terrible, Id be livid. I hate banks they are always mucking up.

Just make sure they dont charge you for the direct debits that were'nt honoured.:thmb:

 

Here are the facts.

Banks screw us at every opportunity. Bankers caused the credit crunch. Banks cannot survive without OUR money. Banks will charge you huge sums for sending you a letter.

PAYBACK TIME!

List everything that has been returned unpaid as a direct result of THIER cock up. List any extra charges that you incur due to THIER mistakes.

List every phone call and letter you have to write, to correct THIER mistakes. Work out how much time you have spent sorting out the mess. Don't forget any traveling you have had to do and include bus fares or fuel costs.

Write to the bank in the strongest possible terms, listing your grievances, detailing your inconvenience and exact costs. (Don't forget to charge YOUR time at twice your normal hourly rate of pay). Tell the bank they have seven days to pay the costs in full or you will take them to the county court and make an official complaint to the Banking Ombudsman and the Financial Services Authority.

Send your letter by recorded delivery and send a duplicate copy to yourself, BUT DO NOT OPEN THE COPY YOU SEND TO YOURSELF. You might need it later if they decide to go to court and you need proof of the letter. Keep the receipt from the post office.

If the bank does not pay up within the stated time, go to the County Court and lodge a claim in the small claims court. The Small Claims Court cannot award compensation so don't try to claim it. Just claim your provable costs. It will cost you a few quid to lodge the claim but you can claim it back.

The bank will receive your claim and MUST respond to it. They may try to settle out of court for a lesser sum. Insist on the full amount. If they try to ignore or refuse to pay, persue the claim.

I did this with my bank after they made a mistake, then made things worse by having an arrogant, pompous twit phone me and threaten me with court action. I had a total of seven letters from them and for each one they billed me £40. The problem was caused by an error of basic maths on thier part. They put the decimal point in the wrong place.

I went to the bank and the aforementioned twit refused to see me, three times. I explained to the cashier what the problem was and she tried to tell the idiot, who was incapable of admitting the mistake was thiers. He stuck to his guns and refused to listen to anything I said. Even the bit where I promised him a punch on the nose when I next saw him.

I went to the court and filed my claim. I lodged a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman and the FSA. The idiot called me to tell me that I could not make a claim against them or him as they were a bank and he was a bank manager!

The claim hit his desk the next day, so did a copy of the complaints to the Ombudsman and the FSA. I got ALL of my money back plus £250 as a gesture of goodwill from the bank. I don't know what happened to the idiot but there was a new manager next time I went into the bank some weeks later.

Yes I did give him a punch on the nose when I saw him in town. (I always keep a promise).

Don't let a bank or any big organisation bully you or mess you about. All of these organisations are made up of very little people. Most of them are on power trips and try to build thier own little empires within the organisation. You can beat them, you just need the will to find the chink in thier armour which is usually thier ego's. Learn to fight back and fight to win.

Good luck mate.

Chopper.

 

He did you know, he had to.:yez:

 

Hooray! Glad it all worked out, John. But yes, you should have asked for more. My kids always work on the principle: 'start high and make 'em haggle downwards'.

 

Its interesting how some organisations still try that old chestnut.

By law, they can charge you a maximum of a tenner (might have gone up a little bit since I last checked about a year ago), to provide you with EVERY piece of data they hold that relates specifically to you.

Its all covered under the Data Protection Act 1990, a 'data subject' (you or I) is entitled to request all personal data from a 'data controller' (the bank or any other organisation that holds data about you), and the data controller is allowed to charge an admin charge of up to £10.

Of course they don't volunteer that info, hoping people will not know about it and pay extortionate costs.

Still, glad you got it all sorted in the end.