Karnevil V Abbey Business - **SETTLED**

[Karnevil]

Morning - tomorrow is the 8th which is the deadline for Abbey replying to my LBA - I have heard nothing at all as yet - the letter was delivered recorded mail and I have taken the 14 days from the date it was delivered. Now as I havent even had a get lost letter I am worrying I sent it to the wrong address or something ?

The account is an Abbey National Business account and I sent the letter to Anthony Turbitt, Manager, Customer Services Banking, PO Box 297, Bradford, BD1 1BR.

The letter I sent them I have copied below; it was from from the penaltycharge website which I was using before I discovered BAG.

Account Number: ********

Due to recent media coverage on bank charges I am now aware that you, Abbey National have been charging me charges that are Unfair,

I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963 It was held that a contractual party can only recover damages for an actual loss or liquidated losses. It is clear that your charges do not reflect any actual and or real loss.

Your charges appear to be nothing more than a profit-making scheme. Therefore I require you to refund my entire bank at a total of £982.00 representing the total unlawful charges during the last 3 years. I hereby give you 14 days to refund the charges back on to my account. If this is not done within 14 days, I will commence my claim in the courts.

Yours sincerely


Does this look okay to you ? Should I just proceed with the court claim tomorrow ?
I didnt do a prelim letter as this wasnt suggested on the other site, and as I had online access to my statements from opening of my account I used the figures from these so I haven't asked for proof of manual intervention.



Any advice would be greatly appreciated....

[alanfromderby]

Looks fine to me.

[alanfromderby]

Just one thing worries me though - I think 14 days is a bit tight, and the County Court may also feel that way. The reasoin we suggest two letters is that by giving them a total of 28 days, they cannot claim in court that they were not given enough time to respond.

[Karnevil]

Thanks for your comments Alan - do you think it would be a good idea to send a second LBA to Abbey saying that as I have not heard anything from them I will be issuing my claim in 7 days time unless I receive a full refund within that time ? - or would that look like I am backtracking on my initial letter ?

[alanfromderby]

It would be a good idea - it just closes another potential escape route for them.

[Karnevil]

UPDATE on business account LBA sent 20th April.

Received standard reply - refer to complaints leaflet enclosed.....4 weeks to respond blah de blah - 8th May. The 'leaflet' wan't even a leaflet just an A4 printout so I guess they have run out of leaflets becuase of all the complaints they are getting !

Have sent second LBA as suggested giving additional 7 days by recorded delivery to the GLASGOW address. (because didnt send prelim only LBA with 14 days so giving them a little extra time which per chance also gives me time to get funds together to submit claim!)

[Karnevil]

Update:

LBA giving 7 days 'was delivered from our CENTRAL GLASGOW Delivery Office on 09/05/06' thus will submit moneyclaim on 16th May for business account.

2nd Data Protection Act letter for personal account 'was delivered from our BRINKLOW Delivery Office on 04/05/06' £10 Cheque enclosed Still not cashed . Swines.

Still havent had first Data Protection Act letter back which they and the postoffice say wasn't delivered (sent 20th April recorded delivery with postal order)

If they are losing Data Protection Act requests as a stalling tactic I will submit a reasonably estimated claim for that account after the others have completed.

Have a feeling they are trying to stall as many as possible until after the 31st May - not that I think the OFT will suddenly be in their favour - but I'm trying to get as much as I can dealt with before then.

[Karnevil]

I am taking 40 days from delivery of letter NOT from cashing of cheque - as I originally sent a postal order which counts as cash which they have conveniently not received I don't really trust them to cash the cheque promptly.

Do you think thats the right way to go ?

[Karnevil]

bizarre entry on my business account statement has appeared today

MAY 11 REFUND OF CHARGES 30.00+

considering I have just sent them a 7 day LBA for £982 this is a bit odd.

Are just refunding the latest charge in the hope I'll go away ? lol....

[Karnevil]

Received Reply to my 7 day LBA for business account dated 11th May.

couple of quotes - though I expect letter is the same as everyone elses;

'Charges are however necessary in order to cover the administrative costs of items being presented for payment against insufficient funds'

'Abbey policy is to refund the first charge incurred in each 12 month period and as such I have refunded one charge to your account today. This is a gesture of goodwill......'

'For most people banking is free and they do not incur penalty charges'

'....may give notice to close the account under the Terms and Conditions'


Now - should I wait until the 16th to lodge the claim with the courts, or should I go ahead today ?????


I also today received a letter from Abbey on the personal account I have sent the prelim letter claiming 3240 telling me I am 170 over my overdraft limit (of £300) which is mainly made up of charges taken on the 5th May (£105) and I will go and get a statement print out which I expect will show the other 65 is charges too !!

letter states ' ...call us now and we'll do all we can to help you.' YEAH RIGHT !

Do you think I should call them and ask them if they will refund those charges to help me get the account back in its limit or just continue with the claim, and pay in the £170 to get it back in its limit (which I feel is a bit like saying yes okay charge me what you like)

Any advice appreciated at this point.... Many thanks, Sharon.

[alanfromderby]

1) I would go ahead now - their letter seems pretty final.
2) It's always good for a laugh!

[Karnevil]

Will go ahead with claim - will PM BF with details when I get them.

I'll post if I need some help with the forms but I think I've seen pretty much everything on the forums now.


I'll give abbey a call re personal account and see what faff they come up with re my overdraft situation.

wish me luck !

[alanfromderby]

Best of luck - and you must let us know how the conversation goes. They are usually good for a laugh!

[Karnevil]

Quick question - just started on the moneyclaim forms and the address I have been corresponding with re business account is in Glasgow - can I use a different address for the claim in the UK or will I have to use the Scotland system ? Its a business account ?

Thanks

[alanfromderby]

I would always use either your local branch, or their head office address.

[Karnevil]

Just called abbey who suprisingly refused to refund any of the charges incurred this month but I did get the nice indian lady to read out all my transactions for the month on the phone.

So this week Abbey have taken from my account £105 for going overdrawn by £23.50 last month. Why oh why have I put up with this for sooo long.

20.00 (unathorised overdraft fee)
30.00 (5.92 visa purchase )
30.00 (7.35 visa purchase)
35.00 (10.23 direct debit)

needlass to say I will be adding these figures onto my next letter to Abbey.