[THEIR ADDRESS - THIS IS THE ADDRESS OF YOUR BANK'S CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPT.]
[YOUR ADDRESS - YOUR ADDRESS THAT THE BANK HAVE ON RECORD FOR YOU]
[DATE - YOU MUST HAVE THIS ON THE DOCUMENT]
REQUEST FOR REPAYMENT OF CHARGES
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE. ACCOUNT NUMBER: [YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER HERE] SORT CODE: [SORT CODE HERE]
I am contacting you to ask you to repay the charges that you have applied to my account over the last 6 years.
It has come to my attention that the 'fees', 'penalties' and other names that you have given for the charges that you have applied to my account in respect of exceedeed overdraft limits, late payments, direct debit payments causing my account to go overdrawn and so on are unlawful in common law, Statute and under consumer legislation.
If for some reason you believe this is not the case, can you please provide me with a complete and accurate breakdown of the charges you have applied to my account so that I can be fully satisfied that those charges accurately reflect your actual costs for my breaches, and nothing more.
Please note that the Office of Fair Trading confirmed on the 5th April 2006 that these kind of penalties are automatically deemed unfair if any charge is over £12 (and made clear that anything less than £12 is NOT automatically considered fair).
It is an implied term of that contract that you agreed to at the time I opened my account that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.
I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them and your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my rights until now.
I have calculated that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. This comes to a total of £XXXXX
Additionally you may have entered a default notice against my credit record. If this default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of my account not having enough money available which was caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account then I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.
I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment, the 14 days to start from the date on this letter.
If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter prior to action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect your position. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.
After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.
Yours faithfully,
[NAME]