First trust Bank

[hobsti]

I filed a claim with the First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland in april of this year. My husband and I have a small business which has been crippled by their default charges, excessive fees etc. I received their reply in june in which they stated that their fees etc where lawful. I then contacted the FSO who have been very good in their replies however I received a letter from them in August stating that they contacted the First Trust and that they were adamnant that their fees etc were lawful and in line with their business tariff. In April of this year we moved accounts and all we have with First Trust at the minute is our mortgage and a loan. The mortgage is £200,000 and the loan is £120,000.
I'm quite nervous about taking the bank to court for the charges as our new bank has not given us any committment that they will take on the borrowings from First Trust. Our business assets are currently worth in excess of 1.5 million although I understand this means nothing and banks are more concerned with you ability to repay. First Trust has put us under a lot of pressure in that we don't even deal with our local branch anyone but a number cruncher in Belfast. I estimate the charges from 2001 have been £10,000 plus. I have to reply to the FSO and as I'm not legally minded with all that is going on in the financial market at the moment I could really use some advice.

Thanks

[calamity jane]

Re: First trust Bank

Bumping this as it seems to have been missed.

[Amethyst]

Re: First trust Bank

Hiya sorry we missed your question.

The loan and mortgage you have with first trust are they personal or business ?

The charges and excessive fees on the account - were these solely default charges or transaction fees too. The transaction fees you have to swallow pretty much unless they were seriously extortionate, but the default charges were unlawful (as far as things are in the test case at the moment) More recent ones (since Nov 07) have been deemed as unable to be deemed as penalties so you may have more trouble reclaiming those.

Check which type of fees/charges you have put in your claim to the FOS and I would write back stating your case that the default charges are unfair and ask them to go back to First Trust. It shouldnt affect your mortgage or loan if you are making the right payments on time.

also if you have the letter from FOS that would be useful to see.

Ame
xx

[hobsti]

Re: First trust Bank

the mortgage and loan are business ones as we bought out a business partner. any cheques that they did'nt honour they charged us £38.00. £14.00 for a letter even though we told them we did'nt need any more letters. even though we were paying our credit card on time they withdrew the facility. as we no longer deal with our local branch it just seems as if they keep moving the goalposts all the time. if i could have your e-mail amethyst i could e-mail you letter from fso. thanks

[calamity jane]

Re: First trust Bank

Hi hobsti. Amethyst isn't on line at the moment, but if you could post the Fos letter (deleting personal details first ), somebody else should be able to advise you what to do.

[Paule]

Re: First trust Bank

If you are unable to edit or remove your details you can email it to me and i will remove your personal info fro you and post it

pkea@legalbeagles.info

PKea

[Paule]

Re: First trust Bank

Edited Scans from Hobsti

[hobsti]

Re: First trust Bank

really disappointed that no-one on the site was able to give me any advice. that was the main reason that i registered for this site in the hope that some-one could shed some light on my dilemma. i have since recommended this site to other people sorry now that i did. Bye

[redbus]

Re: First trust Bank

I have to say that I cannot find a letter on the site for business claims. These two links are on Business claims
Business Claims - Legal Beagles
and the follow up is from what the OFT case means to you
What does the intial Test Case Judgement mean for YOU ? - Legal Beagles

I hope someone with a bit more knowledge of business claims can help you to claim the charges back from your bank.

[Tools]

Re: First trust Bank

really disappointed that no-one on the site was able to give me any advice. that was the main reason that i registered for this site in the hope that some-one could shed some light on my dilemma. i have since recommended this site to other people sorry now that i did. Bye

Apologies to you hobsti this thread seems to have had little attention.

It would have been more appropriate to have asked again after Pkea had kindly posted up your scans as a gentle reminder that you had not received a reply. The forum has been very busy and continues to be so and sometimes things do get missed. I am sorry you have felt the need to make your last post and can assure you that if you return we may be able to help you further.

After the test case ruled that penalties did not apply to current accounts and that this would be read across to business claims things changed considerably for charge claims on business accounts.

As it stands now you would be unable to reclaim your charges under the premise of them being a penalty in law or statute. As for being charged £14 for letters, I am unsure if these charges are mentioned in the Terms and Conditions of your business account. Just because you simply tell them you do not need further letters does not mean that they will stop sending them. They may need to communicate with you and they are entitled to do so.

If you have any further questions I am sure we can assist you more.

Again I apologise for the lack of responses, in future if you have not received a timely reply I would suggest using the report post button and it will flag up to the Team.