Lou V Barclays Court action in process **WON**

[LouLou]

I have delivered the Data Protection Act letter to my branch a few days ago and am now just waiting to hear if/when they plan to send me my Bank Statements or list of charges.

My credit rating is pretty poor due to late payments but I managed to set up an account with Nat West as my contingency. (Step account, nothing speacial but atleast I can pay bills and receive my salary)

The personal banker was not too impressed and tried to investigate what I was up too, had I been on the BBC website about bank charges blah blah blah, for once I managed to keep my mouth shut!

Will keep you updated on my progress, thanks for all the help, some of the threads have been very interesting!

By the way my best friend, brother and sister are all starting the prcess too!

	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.

[richardc]

Well done and welcome.

Keep us posted.

[KrasherKid]

Originally Posted by LouLou

My credit rating is pretty poor due to late payments but I managed to set up an account with Nat West as my contingency. (Step account, nothing speacial but atleast I can pay bills and receive my salary)

A Step account is very basic banking with NatWest. No cheque guarantee facility, only a solo card. The is no borrowing associated with this account. That means no Loans, Mortgage's, overdrafts credit cards and so on. A better account with the NatWest would be there first reserve account. Ok its primary function is a saving account, however, the account is the same as the step account, but it pays a higher interest rate.

	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.

[LouLou]

Well I am amazed. Dropped my Data Protection Act letter into local branch and got my copy statements 1 week later at NO CHARGE.

After having fun with the highlighter pen I can't believe I have paid £1990 in charges, well I can cos I am crap but blimey!

So, next letter is on its way and I now start the same process with Barclaycard and my husbands Barclays Bank Account. Might also consider GE Capital.

Thanks again for the help. A Voucher will be on its way soon for some books.
LOULOU

[LouLou]

I forgot something..... In the covering letter they sent there was no mention of manual intervention or not.

[Rebel UK]

Dammit, if they asked me questions about why I'm asking for statements etc, firstly I'd say it's none of their bloody business, then I'd say however, if you are so interested to know, then you can make an appointment to see my personal finance advisor, namely me, but there will be a charge of £250 an hour at a minimum rate of 2 hours.

Let em stick that in their pipe n smoke it.

Rebel <by name and by nature>

[LouLou]

I have had my first reply to my letter requesting a refund of just under 2K, (usual one saying they are investigating) so I am waiting now for my offer.

I am a little concerned at the lack of cases concluded with Barclays, are there many Barclays customers out there who have accepted the 50% offer? I hope not and that many are now court claims with dates approaching, I see Barclays are deffending, has anyone actually gone to court yet with Barclays?

I have just been charged another £30 recently, ( I will never learn!) so they don't seems too concerned with dishing out the punishment!

Also, I did not get any clarity in the reply to my Data Protection Act letter about manual intervention, do I need to be concerned about this?

Will of course keep you updated....

Lou

I passed on details of this claim/website to atleast 10 family and friends and despite their initial enthusiasm no one has yet written off to claim their money back! Shame on them.. They seem to think its all going to fall flat on its face soon and all I will end up with is no money and a bank manager out to get me!

[LouLou]

I have today received an offer of £700 as a good will payment ( I am claiming 2K)

Obviously I won't be accepting so I will be going to the next stage.

Does anyone have any ideas on what has happened to all the other Barclays claims and why there are few details in the concluded cases? I have picked up info on threads about 'gagging orders' is this really true?

Will keep you posted

Lou

[LouLou]

I started this whole process a long time ago and have finally got to the stage now where I submitted my claim and have just returned the allocation questionnaire to my local courts.

Since submitting my claim I have incurred further charges, can I claim for these as well, or do I need to follow the same process but as a seperate request for a refund?

There were a few things in the defense statement that bothered me and would welcome any advice on this.

"The particulars of claim do not provide details or particulars of the account in question and or the precise charges alleged to have been unlawful, or the date thereof." (I was going to send a copy of the excel spreadsheet with each charge, reason and date back with the allocation questionnaire, is this OK?)

Getting a bit nervous now, especially as there are few settled claims in the Barclays folder, those that have gone through the process, what is likely to happen now?

Many thanks and wish me luck!

I will PM Bank Folder with claims details

	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

[Welshman]

Hi. That is the standard first paragraph in Barclays defence. Even though you may have sent them copies of the schedule of charges, it was not included with the particulars of claim to MCOL. There's no facility for it.

If you haven't already done so, print out two copies of the schedule which include the 8% interest and send one to the court where your case has been transferred to for the attention of "The Court Manager" quoting your Claim Reference number on the schedule.
and the other to:

Barclays Bank PLC
Litigation and Disputes team
Level 29
1 Churchill Place
London
E14 5HP

with the reference number on the letters they have been sending to you.

With each Schedule,enclose a covering note asking that they attach it to your file and that you've sent a copy to the other party.

Hope this helps you.

	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.

[LouLou]

This is fab Welshman, many thanks for taking the time to help me out here.

[LouLou]

I have a quick question - I have filed my allocation questionnaire and paid the £100. As I did not want to hold up the process of my claim I am intending to make another seperate claim for charges I have received in the last 3 months. (yes well I never learn!)

Do you think this will be a problem or should I wait until the first claim is finished with?

Also, am I right in thinking that NO ONE claiming from barclays has actually made it to court? I am assuming all cases are settled very close the court date. I just read a thread that said Barclays have sent a 'see you in court letter', is this a standard one we are all getting?

Hope someone can help me out here. (and put my mind at rest!)

thanks
Lou

	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

[The Last Knight]

Lou Lou
I am about to file my claim at court but am unsure of what I need to include and on what grounds these charges are unlawful - Could you please let me know how you pitched your case and what you used to prove these charges are unlawful.

[arkanara]

There is a template for the 'Particulars of Claim' in the templates library. It is very important that the particulars are correct as this can be a reason for them to call for the case to be struck out or not pay if these are not stated correctly.

Good Luck.

	Materials library Follow this link to our library where you can use our templates and other references free of charge. You must be registered to use them - but registration is free.

[The Last Knight]

Thanks - I will get on it.

[LouLou]

Well, you are not going to believe this, I was just preparing for a day of hell in front of the computer preparing my court bundle (left it to the last minute as usual), my court date is not until next year, when I get a letter of full settlement!

It's about £150 short of the full amount but at the end of the day, payment this side of Christmas, no more worrying about the court date, not having to do my court bundle and actually getting my money is worth the £150 lost.

This is amazing, I always thought I would get my money but you always have the tiny bit of doubt that you'll mess up somewhere in the process by not filling in the forms rights or forgetting to do something. Or you'll be the one they take all the way to court!

Without the help of this website I would never had stood a chance so thankyou so much. Donation will be on its way as soon as money is in my account. (How do you do this by the way?)

To all those other Barclays customers in the process, don't give up, no matter what happens, get organised and stick to deadlines and you'll be a winner too!

I am chuffed to bits!