Clydesdale Financial Services "WON"

[steven4064]

My son has a loan with CFS going back to 2005. During that time they have added over £200 in late payment fees.

We wrote to them on 5 October under s77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 requesting a copy of the executed agreement and statement of account. The statement of account came by return (twice) but nothing else. This contains all payments and charges added so we got everything we would have receievd under an Subject Access Request.

As more than 12 days have passed, we have put the account in dispute until they come up with the agreement. They have until 19 Novemeber or they will have committed an offence.

We will keep you posted

	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.

[steven4064]

Clydesdale have refunded half of what we requested and they think that's fair. They have another think coming

LBA off tomorrow

	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

[Bookworm]

I'll keep an eye on you, Steven my lad, as I have a credit agreement ending next month with them, and as I pay my standing order, I'll be paying my last legitimate payment, which means if they want the charges (1 late payment, I had deleted the S/O by accident, doofus, and they plonked about £70 of charge for that), they'll have to pursue me for them. Should be interesting.

[steven4064]

I am claiming on behalf of no 1 son. We are reclaiming several lots of £22.50 for letters sent due to late payments on the grounds that the letters cannot cost more than 35p and are therefore disguised penalties. They repaid half of them immediately after receiving the prelim letter. (actually more than half since they seem to be inordinately bad at maths )

[steven4064]

N1 going in tomorrow. We are also asking for default removal since they applied one a couple of weeks ago. I agreed a payment with their agent on the phone and paid it electronically and they still placed the default

They are not goijg to get away with that.

[caro]

I don't want to teach you to suck eggs Steven, but don't accept any cash settlement without removal of the default.

[steven4064]

Originally Posted by caro

I don't want to teach you to suck eggs Steven, but don't accept any cash settlement without removal of the default.

Absolutely. Although there is a problem - they repaid some of the charges by just crediting the account. I expect they will do that again, especially as the 'brink' approaches.

What I propose to do is to write and say we don't accept the payment and demand that they remove it. I think that is all we can do given that it is a loan account. There is no way of sending them back the money as far as I can see.

[steven4064]

Originally Posted by steven4064

N1 going in tomorrow.

Went to the court and they were closed

They had a notice on the door "Closed until Tuesday 2nd January"

Do they know something we don't?

[steven4064]

Court papers served on Friday.

[steven4064]

Two letters recieved yesterday - one from the court with Barclay's (they bought CFS) defence and an AQ, the other an offer from Barclays for the full amount. No offer to remove the default though

I need to talk to son to find out what he wants to do.

[caro]

How long since it was defaulted, and was it for more or less than the amount of the charges? If it was a while ago, and if he has any more recent ones or CCJ's it might not be worth holding out for removal, but he shouldn't accept the settlement if he wants to get rid of the default.

[steven4064]

Hi Caro

The default was only about a month ago and is less than the total charges. He has no other defaults/CCJs.

[caro]

In that case, IMO he should not accept the financial settlement. The default would not have occurred had the charges not been incurred. You should force them to court if necessary. Jonni2bad is your man on defaults. I'll see if he'll post some advice for you.

I don't need to tell you that your son will struggle to get credit for another 5 years and 11 months if he doesn't fight hard. If he accepts the money, he has little or no chance of removing the default.

[steven4064]

Thanks Caro - I'm aware of that. The question is whether he is prepared to fight (I am, but it has to be up to him)

[caro]

Yes I know that really. You just need to emphasise how important it is to him. Good luck.

[steven4064]

Sending them this letter

Dear Mr Anderson,

Claim against Barclays Bank PLC,
Claim Number 8LGXXXXX

Thank you for your letter of 24 January 2008, the contents of which I have noted.

I have read the defence filed by Barclays on 23 January which I note is a standard defence.

I note that you have offered me, without prejudice, the entire monetary component of my claim but that you have not included removal of the default notice. Despite what you said in your defence, I contend that this notice would not have been issued if the charges had not been applied to my account. Thus, if the charges are unlawful, so is the default notice.

Therefore, I accept your offer only as a partial settlement of my claim and intend to continue with the action.

I am willing to let the court decide whether the charges are lawful or not and on this basis will be seeking an order from the court for Barclays to disclose the actual costs to them due to breaches of contract when I submit the AQ (which is due on 11 February). Knowledge of the actual cost base will allow the court to determine if the charges levied are in excess of actual costs. The law on penalties in contracts is well established and this simple arithmetic comparison will settle the issue.

I note that you reserve the right to disclose your letter of 24 January to the court. I will be attaching this letter to the documents submitted to the court with my AQ.

Yours faithfully,

myson

[caro]

It'll be interesting to see if they pay up on your terms. Do you know of other similar cases with CFS, and how they've reacted?

[steven4064]

I don't know of similar CFS cases but they are Barclays now and there are loads of BC cases. It all hinges on what they make of "I am willing to let the court decide whether the charges are lawful or not".

In their letter to us they say, "We... recognise that it is not cost-effective for either party to take this matter all the way to trial". It's no skin off our nose if it goes to trial (I would relish the chance to be honest) so I expect them to cave in, if only on those grounds.

[steven4064]

It turns out that, although they issued a default notice, they didn't actually put a default marker on my son's credit file. THerefore we have accepted the offer - just awaiting payment.

	Credit Report Click link to open in new window.

[caro]

Sounds good then Steven. I bet your son is very pleased. Well done.