Birdie v Smile

[Birdie]

Hi

OH and I have joint account with Smile (not in use anymore, now have basic bank account with Nawest). There was an agreed overdraft of £650.

The overdraft currently stands at -£710.05 which includes charges and interest

They have written to us both - separately, please see attached.

Please note that on my husband's letter, they did not include the "A £60 administration fee has been debited to your account".

We have previously send a dispute letter to them and a SAR - they have acknowledged receipt of both, they have sent some statements so far, but not all. We have not had any further contact from them until receipt of the attached letter.

I believe that we fit the criteria for a hardship claim. I really do not know how to proceed with this in light of the letter received today - should I send the prelim letter and another copy of the dispute letter and SAR letter?

Many thanks.

Birdie

[Jester]

Re: Birdie v Smile

I found that Smile are quite easy to deal with and get sense from. I got just over £3500 in charges back off them after I filed an MCOL last year. They paid up rather than defend it but then that was BEFORE the OFT Test Case was announced.

Without knowing your circumstances, it would be difficult to say whether you really do qualify as a Hardship Case, but if you do then simply write to them along those lines. Smile (Co-op) are one of the easier banks to deal with in these respects and I expect they will give you an answer quite quickly.

All the best

[Birdie]

Re: Birdie v Smile

Thanks Jester.

These are my circumstances - taken from a prelim letter sent to Nationwide
"We would ask you to take into account the fact that we have two sons with severe allergies that require one of us to be on hand at all times should urgent medical intervention be required, this has meant a reduction in monies coming into the household each month. In addition, one of us has medical problems that mean a full time job would now be impossible to cope with in addition to the above.

We would also ask you to be aware that items have repeatedly been returned from our account with Nationwide especially over the past two years due to a lack of available funds; the charges of which have spiralled causing further monetary problems to us and stress to us and our young family.

We are in arrears with our mortgage and with our electricity payments and with our credit card payments to which we are incurring further charges and defaults.

As you can see, we are in severe financial hardship. "
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With the prelim letter I sent to Nationwide, I did not include the amount of charges I was trying to retrieve as I did not have all the statements.

The same goes for Smile - until they respond to my SAR letter, I will not know the charges.

Would I be stupid to send a prelim letter off at this stage? If so, please would you consider my first message in this thread, what should I send to Smile please?

Many thanks

Birdie

[Budgie]

Re: Birdie v Smile

When did you send your SAR and when did they supply "some" of the statements?

You could just send of a basic preleiminary letter and simply ask for the return of all charges plus compensatory interest etc, also outline your hardship situation as stated in your post and then actually put some figures together for your LBA ( hopefully by the time you are ready to send an LBA you will have recieved all of your SAR information).

The preliminaryrefund request letter would be ideal for you to modify to suit your purposes.

Rgds Budgie

[Birdie]

Re: Birdie v Smile

Thanks Budgie.

I sent the SAR on 15th August and received a reply with "some" of the statements on 27th August.

Kind regards.

Birdie