us v the Abbey for £7,500***WON***

[Leecabs]

Have you sent a the Prelim letter and your Letter Before Action (Steps 2 to 4) yet? Ignore there stages and stick to the ones listed in the below step by step link:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...tructions.html

Dont forget to get that rejection letter fired off asap.

Go get them!

Leecabs

	Small Claims kit by Lawpack Sue your bank as many times as you like with just one Small Claims kit by Lawpack. Follow this link to read the review. The kit contains everything you need: instruction manual, templates, examples, forms and a comprehensive CDRom. Applies to England and Wales

[ohoh4312]

Yep I have followed all the procedures - last letter on 15th May was LBA, giving them till 29th to cough up or else!

Just compiling letter now - will go Special Delivery 3pm this afternoon to be delivered before 1pm tomorrow. Tempted to be rude and tell them where to stick their £430 (!) but of course I won't be

Jo x

	Small Claims kit by Lawpack Sue your bank as many times as you like with just one Small Claims kit by Lawpack. Follow this link to read the review. The kit contains everything you need: instruction manual, templates, examples, forms and a comprehensive CDRom. Applies to England and Wales

[ICY]

The stage 2 letter will just be another letter saying they need a further 4 weeks to look into the complaint, just ignore it and carry on as you were

[ohoh4312]

This could almost be funny:

Postman was really late today, but when he came there were TWO letters from Abbey.

One is dated 4th June, and is from the Banking Specialist Team - standard letter saying their charges are correct etc etc and offering me £480 as a goodwill gesture (this includes £50 of charges for last month where I went £4 over the overdraft, that they have magnanimously cancelled!)
Also says case is closed in essence, unless we respond within the next eight weeks.

The other letter is dated 5th June, and is from Complaints Dept., and it says that although it has been 8 weeks since we first contacted Abbey, the investigation is still on-going and they are unable to give a full response just now!

Case of right hand/left hand me thinks!

Anyway, I have sent a response today by Special Delivery, quoting the two letters and asking them to clarify what exactly is going on.
I also wrote:

However, notwithstanding our confusion, we hereby decline this offer as full settlement of our claim, but, as the interest we are entitled to claim if the case goes to court is accruing daily, we are prepared to make a final offer of settlement, namely:

"Standard without prejudice paragraph for the original lower figure we offered to accept, less the £480."

For the avoidance of doubt, should we not receive £6,375 within 14 days of the date of this letter, we shall commence proceedings through the County Court without further warning.

Don't suppose this will provoke any reaction, but hopefully will look good in Court, if it goes that far, that their letters contradict each other, and also that we tried again to settle before court proceedings.

Any thoughts/suggestions welcome.

Jo x

	County Court guidebook by Judge Patricia Pearl Follow this link to read the review of this excellent Small Claims Guidebook. This comprehensive and very accessible guide will take you through the process of suing or defending a claim. This guide will help you take control of your litigation and make you more confident about doing it yourself. Applies to England and Wales

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[Leecabs]

You go Jo!

Hey least you got a bit back I havent had so much as an offer of £1 let alone £480 yet!
To be honestI hope Abbey just sleep walk through my claim and forget to acknowledge and then forget to defend (Fingers Crossed)

Take care

Leecabs

[badboy]

hi sorry iv been away for a while iv read your post about abbes refund if its not to late send them a copy of this letter in one of my posts reclaiming bank charges rejecting offer and carry on as normal

[ohoh4312]

Thanks badboy - already sent rejection letter last thursday, as above. Got what I presume is Stage 2 letter today, from Richard Harris, stating they need another 4 weeks - what a surprise!

But my letter gives them 14 days, and I am sticking to that. The 14 days is up on the 21st June, and I intend to have everything ready, and will be walking up to the court on the morning of the 22nd, N1 in hand, if they haven't replied, which I really dont think they will.

The whole court thing still scares the hell out of me, but the more they mess me about, the stronger I am getting (or maybe thats just anger!), and I am going to see it through to the (hopefully glorious) end, walking away with a possible 10 grand (omg!) and sticking two fingers up at Abbey!

Jo x

[alice25]

Hi there, just wanted to add my 2 pence worth! i filed my claim and they paid about £400 into my account and cancelled a few charges as well. I put my court claim in and they have just settled out of court for the full £2017.12 (cheque paid into my account today) which I have a funny feeling £400 of that ive all ready had!! thats there mistake and I am not going to argue with it!!!!. I had all ready filed my claim when they did this though, the communication between their departments is total useless!! I never once contacted abbey by phone, I think best to stick by letter then you always have an exact record!! good luck, I have just received a court date of 3rd Aug for my second claim against abbey so hopefully they will pay up again very quickly!!!!!! this one is about £2500

[badboy]

Well Recived Letter Today From Court To Let Me Know That The Abbey Are Going To Defend All Of The Claim So They Now Have 28 Days To File There Defence Role On Role On...

[Lula]

you are doing great so far, hopefully not too long to go now

[ohoh4312]

Now I am LIVID!

Ordered some stuff for my holiday over the net last week, and got a letter yesterday saying unfortunately the order had been cancelled because the card issuer had declined the payment. Guess which card it was?! But I wasn't too bothered, thought I had probably keyed wrong info.

But I have just tried to pay my Council Tax online today, and my card was DECLINED!

There is over £3,000 in the account - only wanted to pay £121.

Just rang them, and they said they hadn't declined it, but tried three times and got same message.

Something very fishy is afoot here, and I don't like it.

What should I do?

Any suggestions/help/advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Jo x

[ohoh4312]

Ok, I rang them again - quote: its the two websites I used the card on that have the problem!!!!!!!!!!!

They insist they have not stopped my card or frozen my account - "maybe I entered the wrong details?"

I am the Queen of armchair shopping - I know all my card details off by heart, and would not have input the wrong info 4 times!!!!!

So, after the phone call I tried to pay for something else on another site, and lo and behold the card worked!

Still think its darn fishy, but it must just be a coincidence - after all, the Abbey would never stoop that low, would they?

Jo x

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[badboy]

yes yes yes i have a post titled the abbey squeeze i had sorta the same thing done to me i had spoke to them on the phone about my account 9the day before going to get some money out of the cash machine and it eating my card)THEY DIDNOT SAY THAT THERE WERE ANY PROBLEMS WITH MY ACCOUNT BUT WHEN I CONTACTED THEM ABOUT MY CARD BEING SWALLOWED UP THEY SAID THAT I HAD BEEN NOTIFIED WHICH I HADDENT THAT MY ACCOUNT HAD A ABUSE RESTRICTION ON IT AND WHOULD BE REVUIED IN 3 MONTHS I AM AT THE MOMIANT DEALING WITH THERE COMPLAINTS DEP AS I WAS NOT INFORMED OF THIS ..I TOLD THEM THEY WERE PUTTING THE SQUEEZE ON BECAUSE I WAS CLAIMING BACK MY BANK CHARGES...I STILL NEED TO FIND OUT IF THEY CAN DO THIS LEGALY

	Bank Charges You should have started your claim for your bank charges by now. Don't wait. You should send your bank a Subject Acess Request asking for all personal data they hold on you - not just statements. You should calculate all of your bank charges and related interest as far back as 1995. You should send your bank a demand for a refund giving them 7 days. You should commence your legal action adding 8% statutory interest. If you wait for the outcome of the test case, you may not be able to claim like this. you may not be able to claim interest. You may only be offered the difference between the charge and the OFT "fair charge". The repayment scheme will try to limit you to refinds from 2001 only. A repayment scheme will not deal with any bank charges related defaults on the credit register whereas in a court action you can ask for these to be removed and to be compensated for the damage caused to you and your family by them. You should also write to the bank and to the CRA and put all charges related credit entries in disupte and warn them that you will want them removed from the Register when the test case is over. Warn them also that you are likely to be seeking compensation for these wrongful data entries. Full and final settlement Have you previously accepted a partial repayment of your bank charges in full settlement? You will still be able to claim the rest of your money back after the Test case is decided. Get all your information back to 1995 and put in your claim now.

[badboy]

I Bet If You Had Used It In A Cash Machine Thats The Last You Whould Have Seen Of That Card

[ohoh4312]

Oh my God thats awful badboy - I really hope you get it sorted x

But thats exactly the sort of thing I think they are up to with me, and I think I know why:

We opened a parachute account before we started the whole process, just in case, so there was not as much money going into the Abbey as usual, just enough to cover the bills. Didn't move all the DD's - thought we would do that at a later stage.
After we had started the claim, we received a letter saying they had noticed the way we ran the account had changed, and they may have to consider withdrawing the overdraft - what a surprise!

Anyway, last week - 5th June to be precise - we paid a very large cheque into the Abbey, the proceeds from a loan which had to be paid into the joint account unfortunately,:
Coincidence 1 - it was the 6th June the GoGW was put into the account.

Lunchtime today my card is declined:
Coincidence 2 - I transferred a large chunk of the cheque proceeds into my Nationwide savings account on Friday, which cleared in there this morning. Most of it is already spoken for, but I get a good rate of interest from the Nationwide, even for a short time, so why the hell not?

Seems like they are monitoring the account very closely to me, but none of the above constitutes abuse of the account. I am entitled to move my money wherever I like. Problem I have is now they have seen that money they will think I don't need any more from them!

Sometimes I really wish I had never opened this can of worms; the way bad luck follows me around, I think this is just a taster of what is to come.

Jo

	Parachute account "Parachute account" describes a second bank account opened expressly in order to avoid retaliatory action by a customer's usual bank once a bank charges claim had been commenced. The term "parachute account" was first used in this sense by BankFodder on the 22nd February 2006 and has since become part of general usage in this context. "parachute account" is used regularly by Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com and also by the National press.

	Are you letting your bank keep your money Are you giving away thousands of pounds?? Many people aren't claiming all of the money they are entitled to when they make their bank charges claims. You have been forced to pay unfair bank charges. Have you forgotten that your bank has charged you inteest on those charges? If you are overdrawn and the bank owes you charges - then your overdraft is made up of charges - money which you bank owes you. Yet you are paying interest to the bank - on your own money!!! Follow this link to see the discussions on this. You might even double th size of your claim.

[badboy]

YES I TO OPENED A PARACHUTE ACCOUNT AND TRANSFERD WAGES/DD/SO TO IT ALL I USE ABBEY FOR IS PAYING CHQs INTO HOPE THIS COSTS THEM MONEY

	Parachute account "Parachute account" describes a second bank account opened expressly in order to avoid retaliatory action by a customer's usual bank once a bank charges claim had been commenced. The term "parachute account" was first used in this sense by BankFodder on the 22nd February 2006 and has since become part of general usage in this context. "parachute account" is used regularly by Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com and also by the National press.

[Leecabs]

Hi Jo,
im sorry the Shabbey are being so awful to you makes me so

I have had no trouble with Shabbey so far touch wood, but I have moved all my direct debits, pay check to my new Barclay account.

If I was you I would leave the account dorment moving all DD's etc asap its best for you. I have just moved my last one which is for my Abbey Loan which is for a loan for £7500 which surprise surprise is around the amount they charged over the years cheeky beggers!

Remember the only reason they are doing this because they want to rattle you, keep going and get back all you deserves.

Big Hug of Surpport

Leecabs

[badboy]

Does Anyone Know If The Abbey/banks Can Restrict/down Grade Your Account Without Notice And If They Did What Act If Any Have They Broken...

[ohoh4312]

Aw thanks Leecabs

Just a bit down at the moment, and probably over-reacted. Other half gone to Gibraltar to work, and I am left looking after kids, house etc and this claim on top. Just feeling sorry for myself.

And I can't move some of the DD's yet because they are in joint names and need his signature on the new instruction - blooming typical!

Thanks for your kind thoughts, I will pick myself up and try to carry on regardless!

Jo xx

[ohoh4312]

Hi badboy

I can't find anything in the T & C's about restricting or downgrading your account, only these two clauses, which you may already know:

16.4 Terminating or suspending use of your card or cheque book

a) We may terminate or suspend your right to use a card or cheque book at any time if we believe that it is necessary for our protection. Unless we consider that more urgent action is necessary, we will give you at least 7 days' notice.

24 b) We may close your account without giving any reason. If we decide to do this we will, wherever possible, give you at least 30 days' notice unless there are exceptional circumstances, e.g. fraud.

What I couldn't find anywhere is where it says, or should say, what recourse the consumer has should Abbey take action as above without proper grounds. Any contract surely must be retrospective; it cant work that one party can take action and the other party cannot challenge that action if it believes the action taken is unfounded. (Hope you can make sense of what I am trying to say!)
All it says is that you can close the account/cut up your own cards if you so wish! And also that parts of the contract are governed by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, but only if you have signed the agreement binding you to the legislation of the Act.

You have got me going again now - heads spinning again!

Gotta go feed my hungry monkeys now, but I will do a bit more research later and get back to you if I find anything.

Jo xx