MetaChat - Yay,

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

21 February 2007

Yay, my (English) bank paid back all my credit card arrears charges from the past 6 years; yay. You can get your charges back too, if you have an English or Welsh bank account of any kind. →[More:]I followed roughly what the BBC suggest in the link, except I sent a nice non-threatening letter to start with, asking for the repayment as a goodwill gesture. They responded without an offer.

Then I sent the threatening letter with the legal argument (in link), accompanied by highlighted photocopies of relevent bank statements, and they offered, exceptionally, as a goodwill gesture, to pay me half in exchange for my nonlitigiousness. I suggested that I was disinclined to acquiesce to their request, and repeated the threatening letter, and they offered, mega-exceptionally, as a super-goodwill gesture, to do what I asked them to do in the first place.

I have the feeling that I would have got the same set of responses had I sent incoherent babbling, but it was fun to threaten the biggest company in the world by referring to Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915].

post by: Pretty_Generic at: 19:48 | 18 comments

oh yeah and scotland apparently sry

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 19:52

o and northern ireland because the relevant statute is actually a statutory instrument applying to the united kingdom as a whole and here it is. but i don't know if how the case law stuff applies outside england and wales ianal ymmv

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 19:59

Oh Pretty_Generic, you should be a lawyer! So handsome and smart!

posted by Pretty Generic's Totally Not Made Up Fian 21 February | 20:01

Fucking beautiful./ Way to go.
Best retribution, you hit them in the wallet.

posted by alicesshoe 21 February | 20:01

stfu make me a cup of tea

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 20:02

of course that was directed to my totally not made up fian. thank you for your support!

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 20:05

Haha loser, you just told the one person who cared about your boring story to stfu. a winner is u lol not.

posted by Pretty Generic's Totally Not Made Up Fian 21 February | 20:07

Oh fian, you should be a poet! So eloquent and punctual!

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 20:09

You were paid in normal currency? I think you missed out on your chance to claim a fax machine from your local branch. Maybe next time?

The biggest company in the world is an English bank? Wha? HSBC is the largest bank based in the UK, but they're only #1 among banks in one category (and probably not the category I would choose to indicate #1). A few oil companies are larger when measured by market capitalization, revenue and profitability--banks are only largest when measured by assets. Sorry to be pedantic, but your comment got me thinking.

posted by mullacc 21 February | 20:35

Hello! HSBC are the biggest company by assets, as mentioned in your link, but that is indeed only one of many possible metrics to use.

posted by Pretty_Generic 21 February | 20:42

Ah...I was looking at the older data that had UBS as the biggest by assets.

posted by mullacc 22 February | 00:38

Can someone explain to me what the justification behind all this charge-claiming-back is? I've racked up loads of charges in my time with my bank, but as far as I'm concerned, it's pretty clear -- I signed up to something with an agreement not to break certain rules, and if I broke those rules I'd get charged. I broke those rules, and I got charged. Yeah, it sucks, but I'm the one that fucked up. So why should I be allowed to claim those fines back?

posted by chrismear 22 February | 03:08

Oh, duh, read the link.

posted by chrismear 22 February | 03:09

I got mine too - £960 last week. Screw you, Barclay's!

posted by armoured-ant 22 February | 06:54

I have just deleted a long rant about this as it would be injudicious for me to comment further. But, basically, why should you be compensated for spending money that doesn't belong to you?

posted by essexjan 22 February | 07:51

essexjan, true they agreed to abide by the bank's regulations when they signed up for accounts. However. The bank themselves agreed (implicitly) to abide by UK law when they registered as a company here.

Unfortunately a side-effect of this will be that it will no longer be profitable for banks to allow people with low balances to maintain accounts.

posted by atrazine 22 February | 08:11

Also, it's not compensation for spending money. It's claiming back unenforceable fees. The consumer should not be in a better position than they were before the fees were charged.

posted by grouse 22 February | 11:05

It's not compensation, it's a refund. They have had the money from my fees all that time, and have invested it, and in addition I've been paying compound interest on those fees, which won't be compensated.

posted by Pretty_Generic 22 February | 12:10

← Damn you, Craig Ferguson! || Ice caves →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN