Wallet v NatWest

[Wheresmewallet]

Situation since Jan 2002.
Not giving exact figures here in certain cases

Our Agreed Overdraft: £450

1. Various Charge Types: Nearly £900
2. A/C******** Interest Charges: Nearly £140
3. Refunded Charges in previous years: Nearly £140
4. Overdraft Interest (which I am not asking for as we knew about this): Nearly £200.

So 1 + 2 - 3 = Claiming nearly £900
---------------------------------------------
After sending out my first letter in claiming back nearly £900 in bank charges on 3rd July. We recieved a letter back from out local branch dayed the 18th with a such reply as,
"We believe our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent blah blah.....

However we have taken the opportunity to review the charges applied to your account and as an exceptional matter we are prepared to refund £2** as a gesture of goodwill. Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to your account"

Of course we rejected this amount and sent a further letter on the 21st July requesting the full amount. We recieved a reply from Mr Stuart Higley dated 4th August 2006 which is probably the same letter as many on these boards will have recieved.

The letter started of with apologies etc. Then other snippits from the letter

- " Much of the media coverage on bank charges has been fuelled by the OFT investigation this year, but was limited to administration charges on credit card accounts and did not extend to include bank charges"

- "Accordingly, the charges that have been applied to your account should stand."

- "It is dissapointing to note that you are considering legal action against the bank. Whilst I hope you will feel able to reconsider, should you decide to go ahead, please ensure that anyproceedings are served on our Registered Office address at 135 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3UR"

Now I recieved this second letter, has anyone have any tips on what my next move should be??

[VeryTrying]

You've received the standard bog off letter. Your next move is MCOL. Then their next move is to pay you the £900. Easy peasy.

[Wheresmewallet]

Thanks for the reply VeryT.

I have gone through many of the threads on this forum looking for tips on steps in how to claim.

Is it definatley time for the MCOL service now then.

Or is it worth one last try at sending out another more strongly worded letter to the address Mr Stuart Higley states, or will that be a waste of time?

Any more advice welcome

[VeryTrying]

No, wouldn't bother trying to negotiate any more. NW obviously aren't interested. I'd go to MCOL, ask for my charges back, interest on the charges (if any), court fees and then 8% on the charges+interest. If you get it done over the weekend, it will be issued on Monday.

Adding on the extra interest and court fees makes it dearer for NW so why try to save them money by giving them another opportunity

[Wheresmewallet]

Thanks again for the advice.

I have added the interest on the charges

Various Charge Types: Nearly £900
A/C******** Interest Charges: Nearly £140 (INTEREST ON CHARGES)
Refunded Charges in previous years: Nearly £140
Overdraft Interest (which I am not asking for as we knew about this): Nearly £200

Court Figures: I gather the Court Fee + 8% + Interest should read for example:
£80 + 8% of £900 + 29.2%
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Looks like it is time to sort out a new account with another bank over the weekend for our Direct Debits etc to go out of.

[VeryTrying]

The way I'd do it is:

Charges eg £900, less those charges which were refunded
Interest on charges: using the spreadsheet enter the date of every charge and refund (as a negative), and then the interest rate you were charged, only until you paid your balance off. You can only reclaim what they charged you.
Court interest : now you can add 8% on to the combined charges plus interest, because this is what you would have now if you hadn't been charged fees and interest, and had put all that money into a savings account instead.
Court fees: £80 or whatever.

Do it in the above order ie
£900 - £140 (refund) + £140 interest = £900
plus 8% = £72
plus court fees £80 Total: £1052

On the other hand, it might be just as easy to forget the refunds and the interest on charges and do just £900 plus 8% plus court fees. I haven't heard of them disputing anybody's figures, it's as if they don't actually work them out for themselves.

Any comments from others?

[Wheresmewallet]

I am now in the process of preparing a LBA taken from the templates library to follow up my previously failed attempts to get OUR money back.

Does this read okay as i've edited it slightly to suit our cause, or is there any alterations need making to it?? Thanks for any tips.

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: ********

We are very disappointed that you have failed to appropriately respond to our letter dated the **/**/06.
We now understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

We would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that we opened our account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

We are frankly shocked that you have operated our account in this way as we had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

We calculate that you have taken £*** plus £*** which you have charged our account in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £***. We are enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which we are claiming. We have already sent you a copy of these figures in a previous letter dated the **/**/06.

We require repayment in full of this money. If you do not comply fully within 14 days from the date of this letter, then we shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest and any costs and without further notice.

Yours faithfully,

*******

[cumbria123]

Looks fine, but they`ll not really read it, keep going, wait for the reply and move on.

[Wheresmewallet]

Cheers. The letter will be winging it's way to the bank by the end of this week.

Like you say, they probably won't read it anyway.

Reason for not sending it so soon is we are currently in the process of opening another account for our direct debits and standing orders to escape into.

[Wheresmewallet]

Can anyone (natweststaffmember?) clarify what the Charges A/C******** are about

Because I hope the Charges A/C ******** which have shown on our statements since 31st Jan 2003 on our statements are nothing to do with Advantage Gold as we don't and never have wanted a Advantage Gold Account as it is no benefit to us whatsoever.

Here are the Charges A/C from our statements NOT Interest A/C

31st Jan 03 ...£5.48
28th Feb 03 ...£6.00
31st Mar 03 ...£6.00
30th Apr 03 ...£11.20
30th Apr 03 ...£1.20
15th May 03 ...£6.00 REFUNDED (Yes they refunded us this for some reason)
31st July 03 ...£14.00
30th Jan 04 ...£20.00
27th Feb 04 ...£20.00
31st May 05 ...£28.00
30th Sept 05 ...£28.00

Why do they vary so much

31st jan to 31st mar 03 adgd fees, 30apr 03 £11.20 not sure, 1.30 poss adgd partial fee(if changed back to Cur A.c). the rest probably unarranged borrowing and defo claim on them

[Wheresmewallet]

Thank for the reply.

Looking at it now you are possibly right. So it must have been £6.00 per month for a ADGD Account (when) we joined?

It's just the £5.48 and £1.20 don't look right

they are partial charges so if changed half way through the month, you do not get charged for the whole month, that makes sense?

[Wheresmewallet]

HI everyone

I sent a LBA letter on Tuesday (August 22nd) and got my reply today from Mr Higley(Friday 25th August). That was quick

Is this a standard reply from Stuart Higley. It goes:
-----------------------------------------------------------

Thankyou for your further letter of 22 August 2006

I regret that there is little that I can add constructively to my last letter and note your proposed course of action. I have alerted our lawyers and litigation department accordingly. May I please remind you that the address to use when initiating legal documents is that of our registered office,

Thank you for letting me know of your intentions.

Yours Sincerely

S Higley
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What shall I do next. Is it now the moneyclaim stage or something else I should do??

Any advice most welcome

[chriswatkins]

yes it is, been there had that lol

[arwenboddy]

Hiya
I posted my prelim letter on the 21st 1st class and got Mr Higley's letter yesterday 24th!
'NatWest will not be refunding any of the charges' I detailed in my schedule. All charges were lawful and furthermore Stuart is disappointed that I am contemplating legal action against the bank. Signed off with 'Please would I use the bank's registered address for issuing proceedings.

Now I've read through the FAQ and lots of postings and I believe the next stage is to wait for my 12th September deadline (initial 14 days) and then do what it says in the prelim template from the library.......

Or am I due a slapped wrist for not reasearching enough?

Arwenboddy (Angie)
"Never argue with idiots they drag you down to their level and beat you on experience"

[davep1270]

i had exactly the same letter today, looks like its the moneyclaim now guys.
good luck.
davep1270

[Wheresmewallet]

I'm not on my own then

Now i'm just trying to work out how and what to put in the moneyclaim form.

Such as what amounts to put in:

Do you add these four together?

A - Penalty Charges
B - Penalty Charges Interest
C - 8% on Penalty Charges (s69)
D - 8% Interest on Penalty Charges (s69)

= TOTAL CLAIMING A+B+C+D

Has anyone filled a moneyclaim form in yet? Has anyone got any tips on filling it in correctly?. What about claiming for time spent on the letters I have prepared and sent. Postage costs etc.

I've had a look through the faq's and numerous threads. I just want it to look okay when i've completed it.