DG Solictors. Need Help

[ppauls150]

Right had my statements now come through today and added the charges up which come to £2860.50. I am enjoying having something to give me a challenge especially for these kind of ammounts but even now i am chasing up things like £80 and even £25. Questions though is can someone please tell me where they say Card Missue £10 can i claim for these as they are under the OFTs £12 charge??? Need to know as i have to take these out of this figure if i cannot claim for these ones. What gets me aswell though is for the card missue that sometimes they charge me £10 and sometimes they charged me £30 lol. Wonder what the difference was as to £10 one time and £30 another? Also while anyone is reading this, anyone know who to start sending the prelim letter to?
Thanks for any advice.

[alanfromderby]

The OFT figure is irrelevant in this context. For one thing it was given as a maximum, and even then they said it would be up to the bank to justify it. They have charged you £10 - almost certainly this was done automatically, without anyone doing anything.

For the bank to justify this charge they must provide evidence that it has cost them £10 because of your action in misusing your card. If they don't provide that evidence then it is an unlawful charge.

Send the prelim either to your local branch, or head office.

[ppauls150]

Ok DG Solicitors have contacted me today offering me a full refund with the confidentiality written in which if i go ahead will be crossing out. What i want to know though is that i got a default against my name on this account and wanted this removed. There is no mention of this on the letter and was wondering what people think i should do? Will they remove the default? will the get shirty if i ask for that to be removed aswell? or shall i just accept the payment.?

[ppauls150]

This is what i had written to the Courts while i filed.

Claimant had an account with the defendant over 6 years,which is run on their standard
terms and conditions.The claimant is claiming £2860.50 taken by the defendant
in the way of charges for last 6 years and removal of a default on the account.The
bank's charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they
are contrary to common law. Further,as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid
under the Unfair(Contracts)Terms Act 1977 s.4 and the Unfair Terms in Consumer
Contracts Regulations 1999.Para.8 and sch.2 (1)(e).In the event that the charges are
not a penalty then they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods
and Services Act 1982 s.15 The bank was asked to justify their charges but they
have declined to do so.The claimant claims interest under s.69 of the County Courts
Act 1984 at 8% a year from the date of each charge to 18th June 2006 of £870.92 and
also interest at same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier at £0.75 per day

[ppauls150]

I cannot believe what has just happened. I had three accounts with HSBC. I had a Current Account, Credit Card Account and and Loan account with them. They closed my accounts down a couple of years ago with around £500 outstanding on my Credit Card Account and My Loan account was £5000. I pay these off to Metropolitan at £100 per month. HSBC was suppose to refund the charges back to me which i thought that they would send me out a cheque for the refund of the charges on my current account. What they have decided to do was as my current account was closed they have decided that they will pay my credit card and my Loan accounts off instead of giving me the money . These account are seperate accounts which i pay £100 per month but they have decided to pay basically my other accounts off. Surely they cannot pay my seperate loan and Credit Card off? If i still had my Current Account open the money would of been refunded back to the account for me to do whatever but they have taken it upon themselves to pay off my other accounts. Anyone know whether they can do this or not?

[LittleMissFoolish]

Arghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stories like this really really worry me about the whole process. Does anyone else know of any instances of this happening - ie. HSBC deciding to pay themselves back as opposed to awarding the cash and letting the applicant decide how it is best spent.

Unlike ppaul150, I have a current account with HSBC. But I also have a standard loan (which I am paying off correctly) and a defaulted credit card account (which I have made arrangements to pay and am doing so). But if I win my case (i have only just sent my first letter off mind you) I have other priority debts which I want to use the money to pay off as opposed to these HSBC debts.

Is there a chance that HSBC won't put the money in my current account but will decided to use it to pay off my credit card account instead?

I want to be the one to make the decision about what to do with my money!

[Askthebarman]

I belive they can only use your money to pay off other loan debt if you have defaulted on the agreement.

[ppauls150]

I have just been reading the small clims procedure book and came across this. Dont know if this is any good but what do you think.

UNSPECIFIED CLAIM.
make an offer to settle(Rule 14.7) which is what they did.

The defendant(HSBC) should say how much he or she offers to Pay, Also, if time is required to pay, complete the financial information on the admission form. Well they offered a full refund.

If the claiment accepts the offer then he or she can enter a judgement on the admission for the amount admitted. Provided the claim has been paid in full and the payment safely received, the action will be over. Well the claim has been paid in full but the payment hasn't been safely received so surely on this basis if i havent received the payment safely as they have given the payment to themselves the claim isnt over?

What does anyone think of that?

[ppauls150]

Two more things.

1. Just had a thought aswell, they have decided that they are going to pay my loan and credit card ammounts with the money that i am getting back from their Unlawful charges which people say that they can do. So what i will start to dispute aswell is that if they didnt charge me the scandalous ammount of charges in the first place then the money wouldnt of been there for them to decide to pay off my bills, so who are they to decided with my money what they stole of me 5 years ago?

2. I have just tried to send an email to Colin Langdale(Senior Service Quality Officer) using colinlangdale@hsbc.com and even @hsbc.co.uk and even colin.langdale@hsbc.com and even @hsbc.co.uk and all 4 have been returned as unknown email addy. Why is that then?

[alyhalfpint]

Originally Posted by ppauls150

I cannot believe what has just happened. I had three accounts with HSBC. I had a Current Account, Credit Card Account and and Loan account with them. They closed my accounts down a couple of years ago with around £500 outstanding on my Credit Card Account and My Loan account was £5000. I pay these off to Metropolitan at £100 per month. HSBC was suppose to refund the charges back to me which i thought that they would send me out a cheque for the refund of the charges on my current account. What they have decided to do was as my current account was closed they have decided that they will pay my credit card and my Loan accounts off instead of giving me the money . These account are seperate accounts which i pay £100 per month but they have decided to pay basically my other accounts off. Surely they cannot pay my seperate loan and Credit Card off? If i still had my Current Account open the money would of been refunded back to the account for me to do whatever but they have taken it upon themselves to pay off my other accounts. Anyone know whether they can do this or not?

I think they probably can do this. Its a kind of a 'we may owe you money but you also owe us money.' If its being recovered by creditors then you must have defaulted on payments. I understand its a pain in the bum and that you were looking forward to getting some wads to spend but I think a court would probably decide they were within their rights. I also understand what you say in a later post about if they hadn't made the charges and so on but the best way to look at it is that you'll pay off those debts a bit quicker and soon have £100 more a month to play with. Sorry to be a damp squib! Also this is just my opinion, I only know what I've learned from this site (which is loads!) maybe a mod could inform you better.

[blissfulbabe]

Oh dear! I hope this isn't the case.

When I sent off my prelim letter in I asked for payment by cheque and NOT into any HSBC accounts because I have 3 accounts I have defaulted on and I don't want the money disappearing into them. I have a DMP with the CCCS and HSBC is just one of my creditors - I don't see why they should be treated as a preferred debtor.

HSBC only have this money because they took it unlawfully from my account so surely they cannot decide how the money is returned, especially as I have been so explicit in saying how I want this money repaid, in all my letters.

Darn it - I was going to have a nice relaxing evening but can see I'm going to be going over and over this in my head.

[ppauls150]

Well i will keep you informed as this you will have the same problem i have. Should find out at the beginning of the week.

[blissfulbabe]

I've been having a bit of a mull over this (I KNEW this would be stuck in my head!).

I've decided that unless payment is made by one of the methods I have stated in my letters I'm not going to let this go. My reasoning is this:

1. The money was taken from my account unlawfully in the first place and HSBC don't have the right to help themselves to this money again.

2. Yes, it probably says in the orginal contract they have the right to offset from one account to another but:

[blissfulbabe]

I've been having a bit of a mull over this (I KNEW this would be stuck in my head!).

I've decided that unless payment is made by one of the methods I have stated in my letters I'm not going to let this go. My reasoning is this:

1. The money was taken from my account unlawfully in the first place and HSBC don't have the right to help themselves to this money again.

2. Yes, it probably says in the orginal contract they have the right to offset from one account to another but:
a. this money isn't in an account owned by me - HSBC have it (unlawfully)
b. we already believe that the bank knows thatat least one part of the contract is unlawful so this has implications for the bank's behaviour based on that contract

3. I am prepared to go to court over this - I have been very explicit in how I require payment so if DG Solicitors decide not to follow my very reasonable request then I will not have received the money so as far as i am concerned the claim isn't settled, so we can go to court and argue about it. I am prepared to take legal counsel and I'm sure the good people on this site can furnish me with some interesting and pertinent questions to ask!

[lookinforinfo]

The bank does not have the right to decide where your money is to be deposited.
The court is not concerned whether the bank is owed money by the claimant in
other accounts- all they are dealing withis whether the money being claimed is a valid claim and if it is, then the money has to be repaid to its rightful owner.

As the bank has opted not to go to Court, then they have to make restitution to the claimant as if the case had been heard and lost by them. There is a form n242a
which you can apply for which makes the bank pay the claim into Court rather than pay you direct. And if you go to this url
PRACTICE DIRECTION*--- OFFERS TO SETTLE AND PAYMENTS INTO COURT*-- This Practice Direction supplements CPR Part 36

under paragraph 8.4 you will see "Subject to paragraph 8.5(1) and (2), if a party does not wish the payment to be transmitted into his bank account or if he does not have a bank account, he may send a written request to the Accountant-General for the payment to be made to him by "


So, send a strong letter to the bank giving them the option of returning your money
immediately by cheque, or you will apply to the Accountant General forcing them
to pay you by cheque. They will also incur additional costs because you will restart
interest charges and the cost of applying for form n242a

PS Bear in mind that as the bank have terminated your accounts, they cannot even use their
T&C's to give them the right of offsetting one account against another.

[Jordan]

Originally Posted by lookinforinfo

The bank does not have the right to decide where your money is to be deposited.
The court is not concerned whether the bank is owed money by the claimant in
other accounts- all they are dealing withis whether the money being claimed is a valid claim and if it is, then the money has to be repaid to its rightful owner.

As the bank has opted not to go to Court, then they have to make restitution to the claimant as if the case had been heard and lost by them. There is a form n242a
which you can apply for which makes the bank pay the claim into Court rather than pay you direct. And if you go to this url
PRACTICE DIRECTION*--- OFFERS TO SETTLE AND PAYMENTS INTO COURT*-- This Practice Direction supplements CPR Part 36

under paragraph *.4 you will see "Subject to paragraph 8.5(1) and (2), if a party does not wish the payment to be transmitted into his bank account or if he does not have a bank account, he may send a written request to the Accountant-General for the payment to be made to him by "


So, send a strong letter to the bank giving them the option of returning your money
immediately by cheque, or you will apply to the Accountant General forcing them
to pay you by cheque. They will also incur additional costs because you will restart
interest charges and the cost of applying for form n242a

great post