Bit of back history:

Yonks back whilst at college I had a little bit of birthday money come my way, and I dabbled a bit in shares using a free share trading account on a website that had a flat transaction fee.

Zoom forward a year or two and Id made a few bad investments and so had no more budget for playing the market, so left things as is.

Over a few more years, the company maybe changed hands a few times. At some point I got an email saying about needing extra documents because of an anti-fraud law, and I wouldnt be able to do anything with the account after a specific date without providing the info. I tried to log in to close the account, and got locked out due to the amount of time since I last used the site Id forgotten pretty much all my account details. When I phoned up to unlock the account and was pretty much laughed at by the "support" when I didnt have a clue what my details were and told to send whatever in. Easily worst customer service Ive ever experienced. So I thought "sod it".

Then earlier this year I got an invoice, the company has now started to charge an annual fee for the accounts.

So thats the back history. My legal question is...is it legal for them to charge me for an account that has been inactive and locked out for several years, and as a result of being locked out, its not possible to read any of the secure messages they send on the site informing me of the change from a free service to an annual subscription, and agree to these changes, combined with the unhelpful customer service and the fact that if they were legally required to obtain extra proof of identity for an anti-fraud law, which they never received, they therefore could not offer me the service for which they are charging, and it is then an usury?

I filled in the account closure form a few months back and sent it along with a massive complaints letter threatening legal action if they tried to take any money from the linked bank account... not heard anything back and not had any money taken out so Im assuming theyve just cancelled the account. No way of knowing if I cant log in...unless they send another invoice next year.

Ah but what if for whatever reason I never received the information in writing? The first I heard of it was when I got an annual statement...Theyve locked me out so I couldnt access the online notices, efforts to regain access have been met with insult, and legally they cannot "actively" do anything with my account as they dont have sufficient documentation to meet anti-fraud laws. I guess Ill have to bite the bullet and give them a call after work tomorrow and hope that they have closed the account down :/

Thats the thing, I didnt know whether I was living in my usual dream world of what the law *should be* as opposed to is. I can see Eggs POV and on the face of things I could see it being legal, but then I can also see the dodgyness of changing TOS without explicit permission granted.

Thats the thing, I didnt know whether I was living in my usual dream world of what the law *should be* as opposed to is. I can see Eggs POV and on the face of things I could see it being legal, but then I can also see the dodgyness of changing TOS without explicit permission granted.

Come on man. Dont be a sap.

It doesnt matter if youre legally right or wrong. What matters is that youre morally right and that its WAY TOO MUCH hassle for them to pursue you. You tell them to get lost and they write you off. Are they going to spend $100s on legal fees to claim 18 pence from you ?