A fairly standards set of events happen when you ask for a bank to repay your money and an example of those events is shown here :
First, you realise that the banks have been acting unlawfully for a long time, and you decide to reclaim what is your money.
Next, you get all your bank statements together or use the Data Protection Act request letter to get copies of all your bank statements. If you sent the Data Protection Act (DPA) letter, you will have to wait a maximum of 40 days for the materials to come through from your bank.
Then you add up all your unlawful charges and come to a total figure, which you then put into an Initial letter asking for repayment. In this you give your bank 14 days to pay up. We recommend that you also send your bank a list of charges that you want repaying so that they cannot argue later that they were unaware of the particulars of your claim. We further recommend that you send this letter recorded delivery so you have a log of the date the letter was sent and there will be no argument that your letter didn't arrive. Now you can sit back and wait (for those 14 days).
This is when is starts to get interesting. What happens at this point is normally one of the following :
1. Your bank sends you a letter stating where you place formal complaints to. Sometimes it is a glossy brochure, sometimes it is a photocopy.
2. Your bank offers as a gesture of goodwill to refund one or two of your charges in full and final settlement.
3. Your bank tells you that when you initially signed up for an account with them that you agreed to look after your banking affairs properly and tries to get you to read your account terms and conditions. It is tempting to send a reply stating that you also expected them to comply with the law but don't get into any further communications at this point.
4. You are sometimes advised to attend a meeting at a local branch where you can discuss your account (this is presumably so that they can pressure you in a one to one situation and hopefully get you to agree to drop your claim, so our advice is don't bother to go just to discuss charges and refunds.)
5. Your bank often tells you to complain directly to the banking ombudman. You can do this but it will delay things greatly. The ombudsman needs not get involved (a fact which the banks are quite aware of). This is is a delaying tactic by the banks.
6. and other various tactics that the banks try use to wriggle out of repaying you (normally by delaying things where they hope you get bored and eventually accept any old thing they offer you)
If your bank haven't paid up in full what they owe you and you get to the 14 day deadline you set for them, you then move onto the letter prior to action. (LPA)
What you are doing when you send the LPA letter is demanding the bank repays what is took unlawfully from you and you are stating that if they fail to repay you, you will simply take them to court and get it back that way.
Your bank will either 'huff and puff' or do nothing, either way, if they fail to repay what they owe you, simply wait until the 14 days are up and then file a claim using the government's moneyclaim website.
What the banks normally do at this point is wait until the last day before the trial and then pay up. In some cases they send a representative along to a court who will try to talk you out of action in return for say 50% of what you are claiming and in the end, if you stick to your guns will make a formal offer to pay the whole outstanding amount.