Last week, Webwise revealed how the internet is fast becoming the No 1 ally for dissatisfied consumers keen to claim money back from companies that have taken their cash.

Our selection of sites provided quick and easy ways to help you claim back over incorrectly issued speeding fines and parking tickets, delayed trains and other transport costs.

Week two of our guide takes on the illegal bank charges, inflated tax bills, and assets stuck in dormant bank accounts, lost pensions and forgotten savings.

BANK ROBBERY

For years, banks have helped themselves to your money every time you made an authorised overdraft. But you can get some, or all, of your cash back. The video clip at www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk, provides an excellent guide of how to do so. Run by Martin Lewis, a financial journalist and broadcaster, this site is a good online source for independent advice on money.

The energetic Lewis talks you through the whole process, from how to start (set up another bank account in case your bank closes your one), to what to do if you win in court and the bank doesn’t pay up (send in the bailiffs).

Dozens of sites provide template letters to aid you in the process. Penaltycharges.co.uk/guide, set up by Stephen Hone, who recently made history when he won £5,000 in a case against the Abbey, is one example.

Compared with some sites, the letters at Penalty Charges seem rather aggressive and lengthy but it claims to have helped people get more than £1.7m back from banks.

If you have a Scottish bank, you can recover charges for the past five years (not six, as in England and Wales). Govan Law Centre, an independent charitable community, www.bankcharges.info, has template letters citing Scottish cases.

MORTGAGES

With the looming threat of rising interest rates, you may be thinking of switching your mortgage sooner rather than later. When you do, your existing lender may charge you what is known as the mortgage exit administration fee (MEAF). If, in the past six years, you

have been charged more than the original fee in your mortgage contract, the consumer group Which? recommends you challenge the lender, and the site (www.which.co.uk) makes it really simple to do so, with a three-step hand-holding guide complete with template letters.

Which? has also been campaigning for the past five years about endowments, which are among Britain’s worst investments. If you think yours was mis-sold, try complaining with the site’s letter generator.

Whether you are successful or not, you still have to decide what to do with an endowment that you probably wished you had never bought, and which might not pay off your mortgage. The financial site www.fool.co.uk talks through some of the options, which include selling it.

Online valuations are obtainable from the Association of Policy Market Makers (www.apmm.org) or the auctioneers Foster & Cranfield (tinyurl.com/23qbex). The endowment may include useful life cover, so consider all your options carefully.

LOST ASSETS
There’s an estimated £15 billion lying around in dormant accounts, unclaimed premium bond prizes, lost pensions and forgotten savings. Many companies will relieve you of more cash to go looking for this loot, but take no notice. Do it free online.

National Savings and Investments has £1.5 billion in unclaimed assets, some of which date from its 19th century origins. The sum includes 500,000 premium bond prizes worth £28m. The government is spending this little honeypot while you are not, so track down what is yours with the online form at tinyurl.com/2vxg25.

The British Bankers’ Association (www.bba.org.uk) makes it simple to search for funds in a dormant bank account, as does the Building Societies Association (www.bsa.org.uk/dormant.htm), which can trace accounts even if the building society no longer exists.

If you have changed jobs several times, it is very easy to lose track of an occupational or personal pension but at the Pension Service (tinyurl.com/2x6sxk) you can easily hunt for either. The credit agency Experian has an unclaimed assets register (www.uar.co.uk) that makes a nominal charge of £18 (10% of which goes to charity) but offers an online search for life policies, personal pensions, dividends and unit trusts.

TAX

The government’s HM Revenue and Customs site can seem as complicated as one of Gordon Brown’s budgets, but if you think you have paid too much tax, you can find various downloadable claim forms here (www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxback/forms.htm). Nor is it just income tax that you can get back. If your house is in the wrong council tax band, you may have a claim. Some detective work is required to find out if this is the case.

First, check what band your property is in at the Valuation Office Agency’s site (www.voa.gov.uk). Then find a few properties on your street that are similar to yours and check their band too. If you find a big difference, then you might wish to dig deeper.

Council tax bills are based on house price assessments in 1991, so you need to find what your property was worth then. The house price calculator at www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi will work this out. Then head to the council tax band list at tinyurl.com/34jmrd, to see if your house falls in the correct band. If necessary, you can ask for a reassessment at the Valuation Office Agency’s site, or at www.saa.gov.uk in Scotland.

CREDIT CARDS

Last year the Office of Fair Trading said penalty charges issued by credit card companies were too high (see www.oft.gov.uk for a summary). And, as with banks, you can claim back six years worth of these exorbitant fees. The www.which.co.uk site is one of the few to offer template letters specifically for this but any of the letters about reclaiming bank charges are adaptable — instead of claiming back unauthorised overdraft fees, ask to be reimbursed for charges for exceeding your credit limit, not paying on time, or not honouring a payment.

Do not, however, be tempted to cut up the plastic — their consumer protection is invaluable. Use a credit card to pay for any goods costing between £100 and £30,000, and if the goods don’t arrive, or the retailer goes bust, the credit card company will reimburse you — see the website of the UK payment association Apacs, www.apacs.org.uk.

Plastic is, however, vulnerable to a whopping £1.2m of fraud a day. If you are not negligent, the card companies must cough up, but you can reduce your risk of fraud during online shopping by registering for password-protected security at Verified by Visa (www.visaeurope.com) or Mastercard SecureCode (www.mastercard.com/uk).

If you have struggled to claim money back for unfair penalty fares, inflated bank charges or any other of the circumstances we describe, please e-mail us at yourviews@sunday-times.co.uk

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