Alex Harries's diary

A quick festive Happy Christmas (or, if Christmas isn't something you celebrate, happy holidays) message from me. I'm sitting at the parents' house in Kent drinking tea and wandering around the vast expanse that is Flickrdotcom.

Of course, that means I'm bored. Very bored. I'm supposed to be off to a party in Essex later this evening, but having a shaved head and - rightly or wrongly - believing that my stubbly features could pass for "fashionable", I don't have any getting ready to do beyond the usual shower, brushing of teeth and selection of clean underkeks.

So, I've been playing about with UPSU.net, but now I'm running out of "little things" to do - I've already sent out a mass mail saying nothing more than Happy Xmas (but it's quite pretty anyway), I've re-jigged the URLs to peoples' profiles (e.g. "upsu.net/people/alexh") and squashed some bugs that have shown up from the fix, managed to separate the profile template from the forums template (when you viewed your profile, your page was using the same stylesheet as the forums, which was something I needed to change so I can start thinking about polishing up the user profiles pages soon), and posted some tumbleweed-attracting twaddle on the forums, also about me being bored. I think there's a common theme here...

I've got a couple of little tweaks ... ok, major changes, to make to the news system, including some magic with image handling and simplifying/tidying up the layouts, but for now I'm off to plan what toys I'm going to buy for the Nano I'm hoping Santa's dropped into the Apple store to collect for me (I'll be writing a furious letter if he hasn't...).

Hope you all have a ridiculously fattening Crimbo, and a great Noo Year. I'll probably write some more twaddle on here at some point, but if you're still around to read it, I'd really advise getting some more interesting things to do with your hols... ;o)

/al 

(Off-topic. Again. Wonder when I'll ever do some work...? ;o) ) 

I mentioned earlier that I was planning to chase my old bank to recover several years' worth of bank charges since an Office of Fair Trading report concluded that all charges over £12 were illegal.

The BBC News website has now run a story covering the growing movement of people who are taking their banks to court to reclaim their bank charges and, much more interestingly, they have also proved a "how-to" guide (including template letters) to reclaiming bank charges.

In a nutshell, the process goes something like this:

• You send a Data Protection Access letter to your bank by recorded, demanding all your bank statements for the last 6 years. You enclose a £10 fee, and the bank has 40 days from the date your letter is signed for.
• After you receive your statements (which usually takes 41-ish days, according to most of the reports from successful claimants), you calculate all the charges your bank has applied - bounced payment charges, unauthorised overdraft charges, etc - and list each one in a spreadsheet.
• Print this list of charges (your "Schedule of Charges"), and sent it - along with a "Letter Before Action" - to the bank, which warns them that you are demanding all your charges back, and will issue a Small Claims Court action in 14 days if they don't comply.
• The bank will normally reply with a partial settlement offer - this is usually only a fraction of your amount (an example recently was a settlement offer of £45 for a claim of £3,300. They won the full amount back without having to go to court). You can either accept the partial settlement - which usually includes an (illegal) clause which tries to stop you later claiming more charges back - or you can send them a reply which politely tells them you'll be continuing with your court action.
• You will probably also have to issue proceedings in the small claims court, which costs up to £120 (you can claim this back) before the bank pays up.
• Eventually - usually after a period of around 2 1/2 months - your bank should pay out. Go celebrate!

Most advice websites - including discussion forums where more experienced members assist people to make their claims - recommend accepting offers above 90%.

More and more banks are now delaying until the court papers have been issued before paying up but, to date, I haven't heard of a bank going to court because, as the BBC News article mentions, the banks know that they cannot substantiate charging £45 just because someone's gone 50p over their overdraft limits.

It's important to stress that, although there is a huge amount of help for every step of the way, and everyone from laywers to numpties like me can do it without a solicitor's help, the process does involve the threat of court action and there is a remote chance you'll end up having to fight your claim in court. Don't panic, but do remember it.

If you want more help, you could do worse than to sign up on this community forum (consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forums) - as there are thousands of people on there who have either claimed successfully, or are going through their claims now.

If you do decide to go after your bank, good luck :o) /al

Useful weblinks:

• BBC News article on bank charges
• BBC News guide to reclaiming bank charges
• Consumer Action Group discussion forums - include...
  
  About 75 more words in this entry

This fascinating 6 minute video showing cocaine production has been shortlisted in the BBC's Newsnight end-of-year poll. It all looks almost civilised until the question and answer given at the end of the clip which makes it clear just what a vicious business it is.

Well worth a look.

I've just watched a short video of this photo...



... being created in MS Paint. I'm absolutely amazed - this guy is a genius.

You can find out more about him at Pixelgod.net - seriously, check his stuff out. Amazing stuff.

Plus, the soundtrack's pretty inspiring too - I'm not a metal fan (are NIN metal? I think so...?), but it was a really appropriate choice to have Nine Inch Nails' "Right where it belongs" playing in the background while this guy created a work of art in MS Paint.

Seriously, check out the video. I don't even care if you never read my blog again ;o)

I've been trying to track down a chillout tune that I managed to lose a couple of years ago. All I knew about it was the vocal "It ain't always umbrellas in the rain" and that it was a chillout tune.

Having given up searching for it, I still decided to drop "umbrellas" into the iTunes store's search toy today - result: up popped Helicopter Girl's "Umbrellas in the rain"! It's not the mix I remember but it's damned close, so in the basket it went. Result - one very happy greyhead.

The tune's in the iTunes store, and you might also want to check out Helicopter Girl's album - here on Amazon.co.uk - if you're into your chillout. You can read more about Helicopter Girl - aka Jackie Joyce - on Discogs dot com, or read Stylus Magazine's review of her from a couple of years ago.

If you're not into chillout, then what are you doing reading this post?

Much luv /munki