Money Claim Online

[cagrep]

I've initiated a claim for repayment of charges slapped on our account by (un)Intelligent Finance for a declined direct debit - when we had plenty of dosh in our savings account in the selfsame 'Plan'. We'd already told them we refuse to pay the charge and want the account closed; because they took the money out after we'd deliberately emptied the account, they then threatened to whack out another £28 for 'unauthorised overdraft'!

As their trading address is in Scotland, I entered the Small Claims case c/o Halifax Plc, of which IF is a division. Their Head of Legal Services has filed a response declaring their intention to contest the claim fully. Whereas we'd be happy to stand up against them to fight for our rights, we're loth to set the ball rolling (and end up losing and paying costs) without knowing if they're likely to defend the case on a technicality. That is, we suspect they'll say: IF may be a Division of the Halifax (i.e. its Scottish call-centre), but it's none of our responsibility if they decide to slap penalty charges on customers. Can anyone with previous experience of IF-Halifax claims offer advice on this?

[hagenuk]

How much is your claim for?

[cagrep]

Actually, just the initial £30 (though I'd have been reclaiming another £28 for the 'unauthorised overdraft' if they'd gone ahead and extracted that before closing the account), plus £2 for recorded delivery complaint letters to them, plus whatever some insurance company had refunded to our account after the 30 quid was abstracted. Basically, a question of principle rather than penury. (Though I have successfully got a refund from CapitalOne for a friend where it was 4 x £30 and it definitely was a case of penury...)

Anyway, I now have the answer for anyone being persecuted by Intelligent Finance (or Halifax Plc)! What you do is 1) write to demand your money back and say that if they don't pay up you'll take them to the Small Claims Court. They'll reply to say: sod off and die, we're fully justified. 2) Enter a claim with Money Claim Online (no need to dress up and take time off work to go to court), giving a description of the claim, the amount claimed and who from (this will be Halifax Plc, whose address is in England, rather than IF, which is apparently just a 'trading name' with an address in Scotland. IF's Head of Legal Services will respond to the claim by registering their intention to fully defend it. 3) Do nothing else - do not proceed to the next button ('Start') with your Money Claim Online; if you do, the Court fee of £30 will be charged to you. After about another month, you'll get a letter from a Litigation Solicitor in their Legal Services - Retail Division. This will say that everything's your own stupid fault, and that they admit no liability, but since it would cost them a fortune to defend the case and they'd have no chance of recovering their costs even if they won, they'll credit your account with a) the charges, b) interest on the sum refunded and c) £30 for the Court fee. 4) If you've already closed your account (and so they can't pay you that way), just ring the solicitor's direct line and tell them you'll accept a cheque. This will arrive in lightning time, and you can then... 5) Wait for a form from the Court that needs to be filled in to say you don't wish to proceed and copied to the Halifax.

I don't know what maximum sum this would work for - obviously I wasn't personally into 3 or 4-figure sums. They pretty much ignored the contents of our letters - which could be less than satisfactory if you wanted to keep an account with them. And they didn't pay back what I'd claimed - but the extra £30 for the unpaid Court fees more than covered it, so I wasn't going to quibble. Hope this helps at least one other person to nail the EDIT!