Claim your Bank Charges Back in 6 Simple Steps

Its easy to claim your Bank Charges back and get a full refund from the bank, and we'll show you how in these 6 simple steps.

This guide is a summary of the process from start to finish, and you can click each heading to see to our detailed guide for each step. Here you can see an overview of how the process works, before you make your claim for the bank to refund your charges. Please read each step carefully before you start your claim. Also read Important Information - Read before making a Claim!

Note: Before you make your claim, you must be committed to follow it through, even if it involves taking the case to court (which isn't as scary as it sounds!). However, if you are worried about the procedure, or don't have the time to do the work yourself, there are companies that can do everything for you on a "No win, No fee basis", such as Unfair Bank Charge who take 25% of the refunded charges as their fee.

Step 1 - Getting a copy of your Bank Charges for the last 6 years

Before you start, you need to have a list of charges you are claiming for, going back 6 years (or 5 years if you are in Scotland). If you have online banking, then you may be able to get all the statements yourself if the bank allows you to go back that far (HSBC are one of the banks that let you do this).

If you don't have your statements, then you need to get copies from the bank. DON'T go to your local branch and ask for statements, as they will charge you per statement and it can cost a lot to get the last 6 years. Instead, use the Data Protection Act to get your charges, by sending the letter in Step 1 - Getting a copy of your Bank Charges for the last 6 years to the Data Protection Officer at the Bank. There is a maximum charge of £10 for this, which the bank usually return to you. The bank have a maximum of 40 days to send a list of charges, or full statements.

Step 2 - Calculating your Total Charges

Once you have your list of charges, or copies of your statements, you can go through and work out which ones you can claim for. Basically, you can claim for anything which is a penalty charge for breaking your accounts terms and conditions, such as going over your Overdraft limit, bounced Cheques, returned Direct Debits, Card Misuse fees etc. For a full list see our guide at: Which Bank Charges can I Claim Back?

You can download our spreadsheet from Step 2 - Calculating your Total Charges to calculate the total charges and put them in a format which is acceptable to the bank. It also allows you to calculate statutory interest on your charges, if you wish to claim it.

Step 3 - Write to the Bank and ask them to refund your charges

The next step is to send the letter given in Step 3 - Write to the Bank and ask them to refund your charges to the Bank by Recorded Delivery, so you know that its been delivered, and when it was delivered. You need to enclose your "Schedule of Charges" created in Step 2 - Calculating your total Bank Charges .

The bank then have 14 days to reply from the date they received your letter to respond.

At this stage, the bank will probably ignore you, so after 14 days has elapsed from the date they received the letter, you can move to Step 4 - Send the Bank a Letter before Action.

Step 4 - Send the Bank a "Letter Before Action"

You now need to send another letter to the bank, asking them again to refund your charges, and telling them that they have 14 days to do this or you will take them to Court. Again, it needs to be sent by Recorded Delivery, and the 14 day deadline starts from the date they received the letter.

You can find a letter to use for the above in the full guide for Step 4 - Send the Bank a Letter before Action .

Step 5 - The Bank responds to the Letter Before Action

There are now a number of events that can happen:

• The Bank ignore your Letter - This is possible, and if they do you can move to Step 6 - Making a Claim in the Small Claims Court at the end of the 14 day period after they received your Letter Before Action.
• The Bank make a "Full and Final Settlement" for all of your Charges - The bank may be co operative, and offer to refund all of the charges you asked for. You would of course accept!

  However, they may try to impose certain conditions such as you agree not to claim for any charges again in the future. If they do this, you would ask them to remove the conditions before you accept their offer, and if they won't you carry on the process and take them to court.

• The Bank make a "Full and Final Settlement" of a portion of the total charges. If this is close to what you are asking for, its best to accept this. However, if they make conditions then you need to ask them to remove them, or you will proceed with the claim.

  If you are not happy with the amount of the settlement, then you can accept it as a Partial Settlement and inform them you will be continuing the claim for the rest, of you can reject the offer totally. You can use the letter in Step 5 - Bank Responds to Letter Before Action for this.

If you are not happy with the offer from the bank, once the 14 day deadline from the bank receiving your Letter Before Action is up, you can proceed to Step 6 - Making a Claim in the Small Claims Court.

Step 6 - Making a Claim in the Small Claims Court

This isn't nearly as scary as it sounds! You can start the claim using the Internet at the Money Claim Online web site, which is run by the Court Service.

You can file the claim using the details in the full guide for this step. There is a charge of between £20 to £110, depending on the size of your claim. At this stage you can legally add interest at the statutory interest rate of 8% to the claim.

After 5 days the claim is served on the bank, and they then have 14 days to acknowledge the claim. If they don't respond after the 14 days you can apply for a "Judgement by Default", again using the Money Claim Online web site, which means you win the case, and the bank will be ordered to pay all your charges, plus interest, plus court fees. Usually the bank settle around this stage.

If they acknowledge the claim, they have another 14 days to submit a defence. If they don't do this within 14 days, you can again ask for a "Judgement by Default", and will win the case.

If they submit a defence, then a court date will be allocated. The bank will however almost certainly settle before the court hearing takes place, as they can't justify the charges in court, so again you will win the case. If a hearing goes ahead, you should still win the case, but the bank know this so should settle before hand.

Once you have won the case, they still may not pay. However, you can apply to the court for a "Warrant of Execution" using the Money Claim Online web site, and bailiffs will be appointed to collect the money from the bank!

Step 7 - If we have helped you, let us know!

Yes, I know it was supposed to be 6 steps, but this isn't part of the actual claims process!

If you have been helped by this web site, please contact us and let us know! It would be really nice to add it to our Success Stories, and keep a total of how much people have claimed from the banks, and at what stage the process went to before you got your charges back, to encourage other people to do the same.

This is a short overview of the process, and you can see that its not difficult. A lot of the process is waiting around for the banks to reply, as they try to drag everything on as long as possible to put people off claiming. Each step in this process has a more complete guide on this site.

If you have your own web site or blog, I'd be extremely grateful if you could add a link to www.claimbankchargesback.co.uk - The more people using the site, the better it will become! Please tell your friends and family about us, and help them claim their own bank charges back.