Groovycaz v The unCooperative Business Bank

[groovycaz]

Hi to all
Well were off, after recieving a refund from the BOS for business charges its time to takle the unCooperative,
The story so far, the charges relate to my first business account which I opened in 1996 with cooperative business banking, the total amount i was charged for account breaches is around £200, add to that CI at 34.49%
2.5% monthly works out around £28k,

1 sent a letter in Dec 06 requesting a refund of charges with a schedule showing each charge and when it was applied ( I have all my bank statements )which recieved a reply with the usual sod off your out of time.

2 I replied to quoting limitation act which they ignored in early Jan.

3 sent another LBA mid Jan, again ignored.

4 waited for a while as unsure about limitation act, so decided to be patient then out of te blue I recieved a letter mid april informing me they were looking into my complaint. ( strange I thought ).

5 then a week later they wrote another letter thanking me for my patience and that they were still looking into my complaint.

6 I then wrote to them with a new schedule of charges including CI and informing them that I would be starting a claim in my local county court.

7 they ignored this letter and wrote to me 2 weeks ago referring to my first letter and stated that they could only consider my claim from Jan 2000 offering £513.87 in charges with compound interest over 6 years the total amount £896.54 which if I sign in full and final settlement they will be happy to refund to me.

well, wouldnt they just, I know im no mathematical whizz kid but even I know that this figure is not correct, ive written a smashing reply and am just awaiting their answer,
in the meantime ive discovered around 15 letters I recieved from them about my breaches dated from Jan 1997 to July 1998 they are all signed in the same font with a job title underneath which prooves they are computer generated.

So its now time to get the ball rolling, if you read my thread photoman i'l be asking your advise again...GC

[groovycaz]

Woops my charges were around £2000 not £200 missed me 0 off..GC

[groovycaz]

Quick update
just done a new spread sheet from 17/01/2000 which is when the cooperative say they will repay my charges from with compound interest, the charges are £566, with 8% interest =£886.70 however with compounded interest at the same rate of 34.49% which they charged me the combined amount is £4,623.33 and rising by 47p each day, dont know how they reached the figure of £896.54....GC

[groovycaz]

hi all bit of a dilemma, do attempt to reclaim back the £4,523.33 dateing back to 2000 as a seperate claim then issue a new calim for the charges from 1996 to 2000,
Help! ant suggestions please anyone...GC

[Micky the Hippo]

so basically you have £2000 of old charges that with CI at 34odd% racks up to £28k?

been dying for one of these to crop up, if I ever get my NW statements from when I was a student, I think I could bankrupt NW

you need advice from one of the heavyweights, but my inclination is to claim for the whole lot at once, the recent stuff is easy to claim but if you do it first it makes the older stuff harder to claim I think

make sure you claim authorised rate and the statutory 8% in variance so you've got some fall-back positions, that's an awful lot of interest that they're bound to fight tooth and nail

[groovycaz]

Hi Micky thanks for posting on my thread, yes the charges were £2152.00 and with compounded interest the total cost to 28 may is £29.532.28 and rising by £1.78 a day, god its scary the amount of interest but when you look at it another way for 10 years the uncooperative have unlawfully had my hard earned money, they will have used my money for high interst loans, investments,and whatever other use, to enrich them, I have been deprived of my money when all the time they would have known that they unlawfully took the penalties, this bank did not give me 14 days or any notice of when they took the money and on many occasions they allowed a cheque to be represented 4 times knowing I did not have sufficient funds, and they could have refered them to drawer, they knew when I had paid cheques into the account and when they would clear and as soon as they did clear they would take the charges straight out my account so any other cheques I had written were also bounced, I felt as if I had no contol over the account, it was an absolute nightmare, then when they screwed me for as much as they could they wrote to me and told me they were closing my account, to be honest it was a relief because I opened another account and was offered an overdraft (the Co-Op refused to give me one) and I never looked back....Gc

[Micky the Hippo]

yep, I'm claiming CI myself on every account, nothing vaguely like that much though, it really bites when it's on old charges

have you done the complex spreadsheet to work out the debit interest due to charges? a fair bit there if you haven't claimed it

give the CI something to work on!

I think I'd get some of the site mod and heavyweights involved in this, it's a huge amount of money, a landmark one

[groovycaz]

Hi again micky
I used the spread sheet which shows the interest due to charges so if you take the £30 charge on 24/01/97 the interest is £613.35, theres also a column on the other side which shows interest paid on penalties and also compound interest on interest, I think this is the excel spread sheet, easy to use, Ive been lurking around the site with this one after I claimed my charges back from the BOS without going to court but decided to see how the land lies because of the limitation act, I now feel confident that I can go to court and win because Ive spent so much time reading up on the legalities and been following photoman and taking advise from him, so ready to face them, I think your right I will PM one of the mods when I file my claim was waiting to see if anyone came up with any old terms and conditions, managed to get hold of some Barclays from a mate dating back to 2002, getting them tomorrow so will see what the difference is from then until now, Im realy not to stressed about this as ive got nothing to loose and every thing to win, they have already offered some money which shows to me that they want rid of me even if they are taking the p**s..GC

[groovycaz]

Micky got a brill avatar but dont know how to do it (I know thick ) how did you get yours next to your name

[groovycaz]

Hi all
I wonder if any one could advise me please, should I send the a Subject Access Request to the bank for copies of any evidence of manual intervention,Copy of original terms and conditions, contracts etc, as when I first opened the account in 1996 it was a joint account with another person who I was in partnership with, when I moved on after about 3 months his name was taken off the account, however I believe the bank never supplied me with any T&Cs when they reissued a new cheque book etc....any help please...GC

[groovycaz]

anyone!
HELP i need advise please...GC

[groovycaz]

OK
decided to send in a Subject Access Request, dont want to waste any more time although i knoe they are going to come back and tell me they are only required to hold customer account information for 6 years, if they can not come up with a copy of my T&Cs then they wont be able to use them against me... gc

[groovycaz]

Could anyone answer this question please,
When it gets to the N1 stage, should I ignore the authorised borrowing rate and stick with the unauthorised rate of 34.49% on the principals of implied mutuality and reciprocity and the allowed 8% as an alternative, I believe that because I was never allowed to borrow from the bank I only ever paid the unothorised rate!!!
any comments would be greatly appreciated....GC

[phatram]

Go for it, we did and got it.

[groovycaz]

Thanks Phatram, Im on the ball now,
Subject Access Request off today at least it will be something else to add to my court bundle, they,ve got until the 11th to reply, dont think for a minute that they will comply so looks like action on the 11th June,
WATCH THIS SPACE....GC

[groovycaz]

Hi all
Just a quick update, recieved a reply today from the lovely uncooperative

Dear Groovycaz
Account Number****** ********
Our Ref:***********

Further to your letter dated 28 May 2007 regarding the above account. My investigation into the issues raised is complete and I am now in a position to respond.

As previously advised, financial institutions are only required by law to keep records for a maximun of 6 years. It is detailed in the statute of limitations that we do not have to refund more than six years charges.

I note from our records that an offer in full and final settlement of your claim was issued to you on the 16 May 2007. Should you wish to accept this amount, please return the form duly signed.

Yours Sincerely

Joan Lyons
Customer Service Advisor

Well they have completely ignored the fact again!!!!! that I have never requested any information pre 6 years so I guess this is my last bugger off letter, N1 filed on monday,

[Micky the Hippo]

to my knowledge that letter contains several bare faced lies

[groovycaz]

Hiya Micky
Yes of course it does, firstly they have already ofered to repay me back to Jan 2000 and that dates back 7 years, Ive been looking around the site for a smashing reply and will be starting court action on Monday but will have to contact one of the mods because im going to need help with letters etc when im dealing with their solicitors...GC