Mechs and Wife V The Halifax **WON**

[mechs]

Hi Gang,
We have today written to the Halifax requesting all the info under the Data Protection Act and will keep you informed of the progress .........I know under employment law you can quote other cases so was wondering if you could quote simular successful cases in this type of claim.

Also I had an account before I got married four years ago which I had held for about 10 years can I go back on that account 6 years or for the last two years regarding my charges.

And thanks to you all for keeping this site open for others like me.

[Bookworm]

6 yrs back from now. Sorry.

Cases establishing a point at law (Dunlop, Murray, et al), yes. Cases like Stephen v Abbey, Dave v ... well, the world, really, no. There's no precedent in small court.

[mechs]

Thanks bookworm, will have to get my skates on then to find this old account lol

[mechs]

My Old account was a joint account with my Mother who died two years ago is there any loophole they can use on this account does anyone know? Ie we will only pay half the interest or it no longer is binding

Any help would be appreciated

	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.

[mechs]

After emailing the Halifax through one of the contacts regarding my second account with my mother I recieved an email back saying that my email had been passed on to the customer relations department, so at least they can`t say they have not recieved my Data Protection Act on my second account, will keep you all informed

[mechs]

I have sent another email asking them if they had recieved my Data Protection Act have recieved an auto responce

[mechs]

My wife sent one of our Data Protection Act request letter via Royal Mail recorded, but though its been over 4 days it is still not showing on Track & Trace that it has been received. Should we wait to receive our statements or resend the letter again? My wife has sent a copy of the letter by email.

Update: My wife has just been on the phone to Royal Mail and evidently with recorded delivery it can take anything up to 17 days for it to be delivered!!!! Only with Special Delivery can you ensure that it is delivered the following day! Totally disgusted!

[mechs]

Today had a letter back from the Halifax in reply to my email from a Helen Rawnsley customer relations managerin which she states

Quote/ Dear mr and mrs ***** Thank you for your email on 27/4/2006 my understanding of your complaint is that you are unhappy with the charges debited on your account since the year 2000.

Were keen to deal with your concerns as quickly as possible. A customer Relations manager will investigate the points you have raised and you will recieve a reply shortly, but certainly no later than 4 weeks/quote it goes on to say they have enclosed a leaflet which explains how they handle your complaint

The letter was dated the 2nd of May so do they have the 40 days from 2nd of may or the 27th april does anyone know please

Incidently the letter sent by snail mail has not been answered to as of yet ( perhaps the snail got run over)

[mechs]

sorry, I should have realised that as they had received my email on the 27th April then the 40 days run from that date and not the 2nd May ... after all the banks are running to our schedule and not their own!!

[mechs]

Had a letter back from the bank today signed by a Damian Robertshaw with the ususal defence and the signing of a contract so they can take these charges from you, but also a letter stating four bounced dds they had during 2001 and 2002 and they are willing to pay up in full total amount £146, do I trust this letter that this is the full amount or do I ask for statements to confirm they are being honest.

They also go on to say they cant say whether they have done any manual interventions as there is no statuory obligation to to record this information.

Can anyone give me advise please as they have given me 8 weeks to write back to them if I dont write back to them then they will record it that i was happy with the letter....

[deemacperth]

Mechs, reference your account you held for 10 years. I'd go ahead and claim.

If you don't have the statements, they might only send you the last 2 years worth of statements, I would claim for those two years then if they did not provide the remaining data, I would estimate the remaining 8 years by mulitplying the first figure by 4.

There is quite a bit of discussion going on about the claim being statute barred due to being over the 6 year limit.

My argument is that they have decieved you and hidden the true nature of these charges, this means that the 6 year ruling starts from the day you found out, i.e the day you joing CAG.

Look here for more info:

Do you have charges going back more than 6 years?

	Statute barred In principle, a debt cannot be enforced after 6 years from the date upon which it became due. The 6 years runs from the last time that the debt was acknowledged in any way or from the last time that a payment was made towards the debt. Once a debt has lapsed, it cannot be revived - even through a subsequent acknowledgement or payment. The relevant law is contained within the Limitation Act 1980.

[mechs]

Thanks DeemacPerth,
I looked into the other discussion and as stated there requested a full Data Protection Act disclosure (after waiting on hold for about 10 minutes gosh they were busy) now they want to charge me £10 as well cheeky blighters lol

What they are saying is that they only hold records for the last 6 years so have asked also for a copy of my original contract, bet they have that saved somewhere so will have to wait and see, they also tried to have the 40 days started again ........did I agree YEAH RIGHT what do they think I am .

Will keep you posted

[mechs]

This is an email I have composed and was going to send to the halifax does this sound ok?

Dear Mr Robertshaw,

Roll Number *********
Reference number ********

Thank you for your letter dated the 8th May 2006,

I am fully aware that the bank incurs charges when people go overdrawn and I am also in agreement to pay bank charges, what I am not in agreement with is the amount you charge as this is excessive.

The OFT has ruled that banks in general not only the Halifax have overcharged their customers and have ruled that it is illegal to make a profit out of these charges and have set a figure for these charges yet the Halifax have never written to us saying so, or reimbursed the charges neither have you offered an explanation of how you arrive at these charges perhaps you can now, I would like a full rundown, after all is not the letter computer generated and does it cost £39 for the paper and ink?

You state that we must have funds in our account to cover our transactions yet most of the time people go overdrawn because the bank has slapped an illegal charge to the account and then it snowballs over to the next month, I am only claiming back what is legally mine as set out by English law, yet from the tone of your letter you are saying that I have no right to do so

After discussing the Data Protection Act with one of your colleagues this afternoon I have requested a full disclosure and look forward to receiving it within the timescale allowed by law just to remind you the clock started running on the 27th April.

As for the offer of £146 I will accept it as an interim payment if you wish to send it to me but am not accepting it as a final payment for the time being, I need to gain further legal advice

Yours Sincerley

************************

	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.

[deemacperth]

Depending on where you are with your claim Mechs.

If you have submitted the first LBA then I would header that e-mail in bold and red 'without prejudice', this way they can't submit it to court. Not that anything is wrong with the e-mail, but just limit what they have to submit.

Have you submitted the Data Protection Act? I'm a bit confused as you've got 2 accounts that you're talking about. Maybe you should start a new one for the one you used to have with your mother. It's a seperate claim.

	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

[mechs]

Hi Deemac,

We sent the email a couple of days ago and are still awaiting a reply, least I am giving them a chance to justify their charges .....if they reply to it LOL

This is indeed the account I had with my mother so will try and change the title of the thread and start a new one for the wife and myself I think the Bristol and West could be next on my hit list

[mechs]

Halifax took £10 this morning for Data Protection Act ... first time that I have been delighted that they have taken something from me

Im afraid the 40 days start from when they recieved payment not before.

Sorry and good Luck

Lou xx

[mechs]

Originally Posted by Lueeze

Im afraid the 40 days start from when they recieved payment not before.

Sorry and good Luck

Lou xx

Hi Lueeze is this from the date they recieved it or the date they cashed the cheque?

thanks for the good luck

as a rule we say 2 days after posting....

[mechs]

Received the following letter today dated 15th May '06

Dear Mr & Mrs 'Mechs'

Completion of Request For a List of Transactions and Charges - D/XXXXXXXX-XX

Thank you for your letter requesting specific information on the above account.

I confirm that copies of duplicate statements have been ordered and will be sent to you under separate cover at the latest by 6th June 2006.

With regard to your request for information relating to manual intervention on your account, HBOS plc is under no statutory obligation to record this information and therefore, I am unable to assist further with your request.

Should you have any general account queries, please contact the 24 hour banking helpline on 08457 203040 or if you have any data protection concerns relating to your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Details of how we use your data can be found on the Internet under the Security and Privacy section at www.halifax.co.uk or www.bankofscotland.co.uk. If you would like a copy of the registered Data Protection Notification details, this can be found at www.informationcommission er.gov.uk. Alternatively, please let me know if you would like me to forward a copy of either to you.

I have enclosed a copy of our leaflet for your information, 'Personal Customer Complaints - Here's what we'll do'.

Yours sincerely

<signature>

Sam Fraser
Data Protection Consultant
Business Risk - Retail
enc.

Direct Line 01422 332991