refundmylife v barclays ***WON***

[refundmylife]

have sent Data Protection Act request today for student account. much wasted money while at uni so time to get it back.

[refundmylife]

They failed to cancel a standing order to my student account on this one then mounted huge charges against me. knew nothing till they called saying 250 quid overdrawn!!!!! paid loads of charges due to a lack of attention to balance unless refused money at cashpoint. fingers crossed when they give it back i can have a week pretending to be a student on them. Data Protection Act on its waaaaaaaayyyyyy

[refundmylife]

have received a letter from barclays with cheques for student and current account Data Protection Act's saying
"please be aware that the bank is not under an obligation to presernt information according to any particular format. therefore your request to assemble a schedule of charges is turned aside."......."you may of course obtain this data from copy statements, and these will be supplied shortly free of charge"...cheques returned blah blah..."as regards your mention of manual intervention, the Data Protection Act does not oblige the bank to comment about internal policies and procedures."


"furthermore in the context of managing day to day transactions arrising from out of order accounts*, the bank does not hold the information you have requested in a form that would be covered by the Data Protection Act. whilst agregated information is retained for statistical purposes**, this would not be constitute personal data under the Data Protection Act and therefore would not be covered by a s.7 Data Protection Act subject access request. for the avoidance of doubt, the fact that we do not generally record this information in a way that is caught by the provisions of the Data Protection Act, is in no way an admision that there was no such manual intervention."

* OUT OF ORDER ACCOUNTS: couldnt have put that better myself!!!!

** Would they not have to keep the original data to be able to prove their statistics???? My degree was a research degree and WE HAD TOO.

Statements are on the way so we shall see what they say. just wondering if this means they will send statements from before 2004 as they have not said they wont, just that i would be able to obtain the data i require from the statements they are sending.

	Subject Access Request A Subject Access Request is a demand which you can make to any organisation to disclose any personal information which they hold on you. The right to disclosure of data is provided by the Data Protection Act. There is no time limit. The organisation is obliged to reveal everything they have about you - which you ask for - as far back as you ask for. There are very few exceptions. It does not matter whether the data is held on microfiche, in an archive, on tape, in a cardex system, in sound recordings or in screen notes. Some companies are saying that they do not have to disclose where it would be difficult to do so - "disproportionate effort". This is untrue. Disproportionate effort refers to something else under the Act. If you are seeking bank charges information then you should ask for "all data held on you" and you should make it clear that you want everything as far back as it goes. Do not be put off by excuses. Do not accept being fobbed off. It is not in your bank's interest to make full disclosure to you. This means that it is in your interests to get it. If you have not started gathering your bank charges information yet, then you should start now. There will soon be a big rush once the OFT test case has been settled. Get all of your bank account informtion as far back as possible. At least as far back as 1995. If your bank says that they don't keep data as far back as this, don't accept it. Be persistent. They've got what you need in some form or other.

[mahala]

standard Barclays response. It basically means they will send computer print outs of your transactions, which are fairly easy to navigate. They are just being pedantic with theor "your application for a schedule of charges is turned aside" - they are sending the info anyway. As to manual intervention - there won't be any, so they cam't send it, but they're not going to admit that now are they? lol

you're doing fine - wait for the info, if you haven't got it all as far back as you wanted, write to them again, tell them what's missing and tell them the clock is still ticking on the 40 days - they'll send it!

well done

[refundmylife]

At last i have recieved the statements for my barclays current account. Totaled up the charges and they come to £740. This is comforting news as its the only of the 4 claims i have that doesnt have a huge negative balance.

They have also provided me with statements/printout of all details back to 2001 so a result with that. Also waiting for statements for student account so will be interesting to see if they do the same for that.

i have one question though, i have had £135 of charges refunded. One was the first charge on the account so thats no problem, the other £105 was refunded after i had recieved £210 of charges. In the summary of charges i have left out the first charge they applied to my account and also the £105 of charges that directly preceed the £105 refund.

Is this ok (fingers are crossed on this as the options sound like a pain in the ar*e) or should i: a) include them and show the refunds, or b) do another spreadsheet showing the refunds and also the type and dates of the charges i have not claimed for as a result?

Any help would be appreciated, this lark is complicated but the hourly rate should be ok in the end. lol

[refundmylife]

sent letter for refund on 15/07/06. Got no response what so ever. i have checked and it was signed for on the 17th. LBA sent 01/08/06. Fingers crossed they can be ar*ed to reply to me this time.

VERY PROFFESIONAL RESPONSE?!?!? BARCLAYS

	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

[refundmylife]

cheers for that villabird. i got a response from barclays offering me just over half of my claim. not something i weant to accept.
i have just spent the last 3 hours (this is no joke i really mean 3 hours) trying to find a letter i noticed before which was very well written rejection letter. if anyone knows where this was could they please let me know, as im now ripping my hair out (why has this not been put in the library as it would save many people a lot of time).

any help with this will be very appreciated.

[refundmylife]

as usuall i have now managed to find one of these templates. so have now said no to their offer and that unless they are in contact with a better offer i will be filling with the courts on tuesday. is this a bit unforgiving to only give them a few days to respond?

[Spotted Dog]

Why would ANYONE want to be 'forgiving' to Barclays ??

Spotty

[refundmylife]

cheers villaburd all progressing well now. i have done the moneyclaim form and will be awaiting their response. was going to call barclays and let them know i would be sending it today if they didnt pay up. all i got was a customer services answerphone, so hey in the form went.

[refundmylife]

claim has now been served. only question i have is, do i now need to send the spreadsheets (with the interest on) in to the bank and the court or is this done with the allocation questionaire?

	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.

[refundmylife]

recieved a letter from money claim saying barclays have untill 11th 0f sepember to file defence.

[refundmylife]

hi villa
are you saying that if i have paid the 80 quid to money claim i then also need to send another £100 with the aq? if you are its bad and i need to do some fast financial thinking (so you may have saved me from one hell of a surprise in a few weeks).
decided how your spending it yet?

[Michael Browne]

AQ fee of £100 is only charged on claims of £1500 or more

	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

[refundmylife]

cheers for that i can stop panicing. its only 900 and a bit.

[refundmylife]

barclays have acknowledged my claim on the 1st of september. deadline for defence is the 25 of september. i can almost smell the money.

[refundmylife]

nothing from the gits yet. shame they didnt fold like NatWest. they now have just over 24 hours to defend the claim. will be sitting up hovering on the judgement button on money claim. are they likely to defend on the last day?

[refundmylife]

t minus 10 hours to launch..........

[refundmylife]

well they still dont show on moneyclaim as having entered a defence so 4 and a bit hours till the start judgement button gets a wack. hopefully followed by the solicitor that forgot my claim.

[Welshman]

Crossing my fingers for you refund. Trouble with this system though is that once you file for judgment, they have until 4 pm on that day to act so by applying, you are effectively unwittingly acting as an alarm clock.

It's then they wake up and act. Although I accept how the system works, in my book, once you're out of time then you lose. End of!