Reclaiming bank charges question

A friend has just received over £3700 from his bank for been charges £15 a month for that last 15 years or so for the Mobile phone and holiday insurance package they add to your account.
Anyway, he said to me to have a look but I know we never took up that option with our bank but then I noticed about overdraft charges.

About 4-5 years ago while moving house we went through a terrible time financially paying the mortgage and then unluckily through no fault of our own we ended up in out of work both me and the missus while renovating a property, throughout that period were always in the red and took years after to sort out. We had credit cards mounting up and we ended up in trouble with one card which we agreed on a £50 a month payment scheme for 3 years but that's now paid off.

Through this period we were getting hit with anything from £60-£100 a month in overdraft charges from our bank and sometimes the fee's taken out the account would actually send send us overdrawn again. We struggled for the best part of 3-4 years trying to get in the green. Eventually we manage to clear them all. I've just been looking though the our bank statements and we have paid them well over £3000 in overdraft fee's

I then read this ;-

Bank charges: reclaim £1,000s? - MoneySavingExpert

Has anyone on here successfully claimed and won back overdraft fee's from when you were having a hard time ?. I'm wondering if to give it a go but unlike PPI you have to prove you were in the mire and it's that long ago I wouldnt know were to start and all the cards have long been paid off and cut up.


Any views on this would be greatly appreciated

Bank charges are always exaggerated but can be negotiated. The banks do not hesitate for even 1 day of overdraft to claim charges. Never let do, it is the essential and we can recover money. Try it.
A word from a Frenchman, because the banks are all the same.

I'm going to give it a go, it seems to be a case of proving that, at the time they were hammering us with fee"s we were in hardship. This will mean digging out credit card details and proof to show we were heavily in debt.