 My Letter to ABBEY & They've BEEN IN TOUCH!!!
Abbey
PO Box 382
Prescott Street
London
E1 8RP
15/02/2006
Penalty & unfair charges – request for refund for Mrs & Mr
Dear Sir/Madam,
Find INSERTED DETAILS of how charges were applied i.e. how much was charged, how much over agreed overdraft or credit limit and how long did we exceed limit for etc.
• Friday 13th. Jan 2006. ~ Went over my overdraft limit by £7.62. ~ Amount Charged £20. I returned to the agreed overdraft on 16th. Jan 2006. ~ 3 days.
• Friday 13th. Jan 2006 ~ my instruction no.56 for £10 was paid when there was not enough money in my account ~ Amount charged £30.
I returned to the agreed overdraft on 16th. Jan 2006. ~ 3 days.
• Friday 20th. Jan 2006. ~my instruction no. 6 for £54.84 was paid when there was not enough money in my account. Went over by £38.45. ~ Amount charged £30.
I returned to the agreed overdraft on 21st. Jan 2006. ~ 1 day.
• Around this date my overdraft was £350, I asked (by phone) for an increase in my overdraft…I was told No!
• I later asked again and was told that I could only increase my overdraft by £50 to £400, I accepted this.
• If this had been offered to me when I had first asked, my account would have been good and I would not now be in this predicament! Would I?
I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable at common law.
In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract.
This is also the position in English law: Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79.
Your charges do not reflect any actual or real loss; instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme.
On a separate note, your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI.1999/2083).
My account falls within the ambit of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as I am a consumer.
Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under reference to paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 of the said regulations: ‘Indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair -
1. Terms which have the object of effect of - (e) requiring any consumer who
fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation’.
0n 26 July 2005 the OFT stated that 'a charge is likely to be disproportionately high if
it is more than a court would be likely to award if the lender sued the cardholder for
breach of contract'.
Because your charges include a lucrative profit margin, in addition to actual loss, they are irrecoverable as an unfair term in contract.
I believe that your charges require me to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation for being overdrawn without mutual agreement.
Please refund these charges to my account within the next 7 days, or I will commence
court proceedings without any further notice.
Yours faithfully
I have received a reply and I will paste it later.
is this right?? and have I completed this right here?
jimmysixtwo
So for a small amount I was charged £80....The Abbey have been in touch with and eventually offered me £50 return of charges...(they phoned me Saturday evening at six o'clock) I told them NO, and also that I want them to total all my charges similar to these for the last six years and that I will be requesting that they repay these.
The Customer Complaints Manager I spoke to said that she would be sending me a full detailed document of our conversation and their offer, if I still did not accept it, then I can contact the Ombudsman.
I'll let you know the outcome, please give me any advice that you feel I need. | 
