multiple claims to Abbey

[noobrider]

OK first post here and Yes i have read the FAQ's but not entirely sure of the answer.

excuse what may prove to be a long post. I had a joint account with the Abbey that started to incur charges which eventually meant that the charges exceed my salary so, luckily my wife had a seperate account which I switched my salary into and dd's etc leaving an oustanding debt on the joint account which we are no being chased for made up entirely of bank charges around £600). the wifes account has incurred several charges running into hundreds of pounds a month for the little things we have all experienced...ie being 2p short of a DD and getting a £30 then a further £30 charge for being overdrawn.

Here's the question...patience now...A rough estimate of charges incurred in the last 6 years would take me well over the £5000 small claims proceedure especially when both accounts are added together. (Estimated £9600) Is there a way I can break these down to make seperate claims without have to go to a higher court? should I treat the two accounts as two seperate claims? Finally, do i have to make two seperate Data Protection Act requests?

your site has given my the courage and the ability to make not only make a claim a possibility but a reality.

[dinghy]

IMHO you could probably make one Data Protection Act claim... Although it's part of our process it bears no relation to what you are going to do with the information...(Although I'm sure of course that the banks will guess what you want it for ! )

You could split your claims across several lines to keep within the £5k...

Eg each account & each type of charge... It's really just a case of playing around with the figures to see what works best...

One thing you may need to be careful with is to spread your claims out because it is possible for the bank to have your claims joined...

[joneshousehold]

Hi and welcome on board. This is where you can now start to take control of your money and get all those charges back.

First thing, if your wife is named on both accounts I would be inclined to make the Data Protection Act request in her name as it will bring up everything for both accounts. That way it will only cost you one lot of £10. Obviously if there are any others on which she is not named then separate requests will be required but from your post I think that is not the case.

There are a lot of posts suggesting ways of splitting claims and certainly a good place to start is to split the two accounts when claiming. If that still doesn't get the claims below £5,000 it has been suggested that you divide them up according to type (eg charges failed DD in one and charges for exceeding the overdraft limit in another). You will have to be careful though because if Abbey get wind of what you are doing, they may ask the courts to join them together and then you are at a greater risk. Having said that the general perception is that Abbey will never go to Court but it is just a bigger risk in case they do.

Can anyone else offer any more guidance on the splitting up question?

[joneshousehold]

Ah, dinghy, you beat me to it. I think a shout of SNAP is required!

[noobrider]

thank you people, some good advice there. i'll start the Data Protection Act process off in my wifes name seeing as she is listed as being on both accounts and it saves time and money.

Splitting the accounts and the amounts...you mention a "risk" of joining the amounts...what would this entail?...does it mean they will take it away from the small claims court? If so what does that entail apart from the fact that if I lose i incurr costs. would legal representation be an option?

i must say that the response times took me by suprise...faster than my sim racing forum which incidentally uses exactly the same forum engine and style.

[joneshousehold]

I don't have too much experience on the claim splitting ideas. I believe the Abbey can ask for them to be joined together if they realise in which case you may have costs awarded against you if you lose (not likely though). Other than that you can have legal representation at any time irrespective of the amount. It's just that it will cost you so most people don't bother. They get plenty of support from the forum members.

Get the Data Protection Act reply first and then see what you need to do. You can always post a question later. In the meantime have a good read around, there's a lot to look at. You will find some mention of splitting claims elsewhere it's just I can't remember where. If you get yourself a good beer and give yourself plenty of time you should find something.

Best of luck

[noobrider]

here's some interesting facts about some of the things Abbey has done with our accounts.

when the joint account became overdrawn Abbey threatened to take the charges out of the additional accounts to pay off any debts.

When we asked for an overdarft the response actually made me laugh as it reminded me of the advert for Nationwide with the bank manager that gives you loads of excuses as to why they cant help you..in particular " new customers only"

we don't have any overdraft but to cover bank charges and to avoid future bank charges we said is there a possibility that we could have a £100 overdraft to cover a few DDs and Cheques toward the end of the month to avoid further charges.... the response was.. "No you have to be in credit for 3 months to qualify for an overdraft"...Answer "But if you give us an overdraft we wont go into debt because of bank charges as the cheques are less than £20 each and its only a couple" Reply " Ha ha ha ha ha well that's your problem not ours" A " so you can't help us avoid the charges in any way" R " no you have to pay them and if you incur them then you'lll never get an overdraft with us".......A " thanks for your help then"

Second laugh was a phone call in brach using that stupid phone on the wall to customer services because the counter staff can't help...." can I arrange apayment plan to pay off my BANK CHARGES" A "no we require them in full in the next 14 days." A " i can't do that I dont have the money" R "Can't you borrow it from somewhere" A "No you won't lend it to me" R So you have another account with us?.... yes you have a current account in your wifes name we can transfer thefunds from that to pay off the debt" A " No I need that account to live off i have 4 children and need to pay rent etc" A " don't get funny with me Ican take the full amount from this account to pay off the debt on the joint account at any time". A " You can't do that i need that money to live" R "we can do whatever we want in order to settle any debts to this bank" A "Can I arrange a payment plan then" R "Yes we would require a minimum payment of £100 a month to clear the debt within our statutuary 6 month period"....A " OK i agree to that as long as you leave my current account alone" R"provided you stick to the payment plan that will be fine but if you miss the payment date we will take the full outstanding balance from your current account to pay off they debt as you will be in breach of our agreement"

Talk about bullying... as i said earlier...had enough now...give me my money back. The only reason I'm in debt is because of your unlawful extortionate charges so BRING IT ON I'm more than ready now.....


PS anyone need any help with call centre procedures i have extensive knowledge in this area, in particular the various call logging and call recording systems available and their applicability to Data Protection Act. I',m a DPA representative for my company (O2) and we have used a variety of systems in the past 10 years I've been employed with them. i also have access to a lot of DPA resource info that may be of benefit to any members of the forum.

[joneshousehold]

Interesting about the Data Protection Act info. There are some claims in court at the moment about microfiche. Abbey claim they are not covered by DPA. I think they are beginning to capitulate though.

I really laughed about the conversations you have had with Abbey. They are so stupid. In fact some of what they were saying was questionable (we can just take the money anytime - not if it doesn't leave you enough to live on they can't). The funny part however is not what was said because I imagine at the time it was rather a worrying thing but now the boot is on the other foot. Do you know we often talk of going in to the local branch to see the manager who sent us the rudest letters you could imagine (well they could have been worse but he might have got the sack then). It's only a bit of a joke really but it would be lovely to just go in and loudly say 'I've come to put this cheque REFUND OF MY BANK CHARGES you stole and lied to me about' As I say it's only a fanciful idea but it has kept us going.

Ironically we have a claim with the Nationwide as well and they were just as bad only ruder.

[Jane Austen]

They've taken money from us and left us with nothing to live on. We've had to pawn some jewellery, on more than one occasion.

They are completely intransigent. They do not care about their customers.