Letter from bank ref OFT test case received today

[The Phantom]

Not sure if other HSBC customers got this as well, but I got a letter from them today regarding the OFT test case.
(I have a claim against them for just under £1000.- which has been stayed)
The letter apparently is supposed to give me an 'update' and HSBC is pleased to tell me that the court has decided their overdraft charges are not unenforceable penalties, but are merely assessable for fairness under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations which the banks will appeal. A new timetable will be set apparently in July and they will ask the court to keep my claim stayed until the test case has been concluded.
At this stage it is not possible to predict when the case will be concluded.

All in all it sounds a bit as if they are trying to rub it in a bit and are saying "ha ha... you'll have to wait for ages. Why not give up now."

Quite annoying.

	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.

[Camdenite]

Interesting if that is their strategy. They wouldn't be sending out those letters for the good of their health would they?

I can't believe that anyone with a stayed case would go to the trouble of dropping it at this stage though. It's more effort to do that than just wait isn't it?

[The Phantom]

Of course, it's racking up interest nicely and I can wait all the time it takes.
I have just filed their letter and will ignore it, but I find it quite cheeky what they are doing.
Actually it really annoyed me.

	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.

[ohoh4312]

Funny that...........

I had a letter from Abbey today saying exactly the same thing!

I found it quite patronising, and it annoyed me also, especially the line that says

"The banks are pleased that the court agreed that their current charges are not unenforceable penalties."

Of course they are bloody pleased - they hastily rewrote the T&C's in the run-up to the actual case, in the hope that this would be the outcome.

But I don't care about that - our cases are based on the OLD T&C's, and their Defence is based on the same. So I sincerely hope that the penalties issue on historic terms goes our way next month.

The other thing that really, really annoyed me - the judgement was handed down in April, but they are only writing to us today? Do they think we are all so dumb that we haven't been following the case? There is NOTHING in that letter that we didn't already know.

Supercilious barstewards

(Rant Over!)

[glad]

Yes I too have received the patronising Abbey later today. What made me laugh was the fact that it was signed at the bottom with just "ABBEY" in a handwritten signature !!! Talk about the personal touch - what a joke.

[johnnyjoeflyer]

Yes, I received one of these annoying letters from HSBC, I am just wondering if this goes against the judge's instructions that cases will be stayed until the conclusion of the test case, on the provision that the banks are not allowed to communicate with claimants.

Not sure if the communication had to be specific to amounts being claimed or just communication in general. After all this is the first communication I have had from HSBC or any of their associated companies such as DG Solicitors or Metropolitan Collection Services in 10 months.

Does this letter from HSBC constitute unwarrented and unnecessary communication and is it worth asking the judge to lift the stay?

What ever happens, I am making a note to write a similar annoying, gloating and unpleasent letter to HSBC when they have to repay the huge amounts of money that they owe us.

	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.

[Bigmac versus]

Well one of the conditions for the waiver to remain in place was the banks HAD to keep customers up to date with the test case.
Saying that another one was they were not to make any changes to their T&C's which would be seen as an abuse of power, how many banks ave changed these?

	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.

	FSA Waiver The FSA has granted a waiver to the finance industry in respect of bank charges claims. The waiver has been in place since July 2007 and will continue until the OFT test case is decided. The OFT test case will be heard by the House of Lords in June 2009. We are likley to get a decision before the end of the year. Under FSA rules, banks must normally deal with all complaints within 8 weeks. The FSA waiver has allowed banks to put bank charges claims on hold pending the outcome of the Test case. The FSA waiver is expremely one-sided as it allows banks to put claims on hold but it allows banks to continue levying charges. It also allows banks to continue enforcement action even in relation to disputed bank charges. The FSA waiver has been assisted by a general stay on charges-related County Court claims. You are still permitted to begin a County Court claim for the refund of your charges but your claim will be put on hold pending the outcome of the OFT test case. Despite this, we recommend very strongly that you begin a County Court claim now!! If you are on benefits, you will not have to pay court fees. You should start a County Court claim to recover your money straightaway.

[davethorp]

Similar letter from NatWest received yesterday

[linda m]

Similar letter from HBOS yesterday for my sisted case and the same letter to my son for his which was settled before court case last July,they must have forgotten they had paid him out LOL .Think I might send a letter back reminding them that.

[skbuncks]

GF got a similar letter from RBS back end of last week. The nice shiny spin they put on a loss to make it look like a victory was really quite amusing

skb

[Shuff]

Originally Posted by Bigmac versus

Well one of the conditions for the waiver to remain in place was the banks HAD to keep customers up to date with the test case.

I've had chuff all from Barclays, I wonder if this would be grounds to get the stay lifted?

[Bigmac versus]

Well no one had anything till roughly 10 days ago, complaints were made to the FSA regarding this very issue some 7 weeks ago and again 3 weeks ago, coincidental if nothing else but what about the T&C's that have been changed since the waiver was put in place.

	FSA Waiver The FSA has granted a waiver to the finance industry in respect of bank charges claims. The waiver has been in place since July 2007 and will continue until the OFT test case is decided. The OFT test case will be heard by the House of Lords in June 2009. We are likley to get a decision before the end of the year. Under FSA rules, banks must normally deal with all complaints within 8 weeks. The FSA waiver has allowed banks to put bank charges claims on hold pending the outcome of the Test case. The FSA waiver is expremely one-sided as it allows banks to put claims on hold but it allows banks to continue levying charges. It also allows banks to continue enforcement action even in relation to disputed bank charges. The FSA waiver has been assisted by a general stay on charges-related County Court claims. You are still permitted to begin a County Court claim for the refund of your charges but your claim will be put on hold pending the outcome of the OFT test case. Despite this, we recommend very strongly that you begin a County Court claim now!! If you are on benefits, you will not have to pay court fees. You should start a County Court claim to recover your money straightaway.

[Mostyn1704]

I too got the same letter from DG solicitors for HSBC. They are also threatening me with court case as HSBC decided "not to renew " my £2500 overdraft facility, giving me one month to pay it back. I've negotiated some temporary repayment schedule with them but am so cheesed off with them have got another account, but wonder if anyone can give me a little advice about the wisdom of this ...

1. Will it damage my case if I close my account? I was one of the Cardiff many whose cases were stayed a couple of days before our hearing.

2. Can they remove my O/D facility when the case is stayed - the overdraft if less that the charges I am claiming, let alone the interest etc.

Any thoughts gratefully received

	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.

[saffy33]

I've received the letter from Barclays. Should be replying in any way to the letter? I've changed address since beginning the claim and, although I've updated the address on my account the letters regarding the claim are still going to my old address.

I guess I could send them a letter reminding them of my new address and confirm I received their letter and look forward to receiving further updates?

[citizenB]

I received one of these letters the beginning of June. However, I continued with my time schedule and filed at the court. HSBC's solicitors DG advised they would be defending so I thought things would go ahead. I received the Allocation Questionairre, completed it and paid the fee.

I then received another letter last week from HSBC saying they would be asking for a stay in line with the Judge's rulings and repeating what they had said in their first letter.

I received notification from the court yesterday that a stay had been granted.

[ramone1977]

same happened to me i am one of the older bank charge cases abbey have removed all overdraft facilities from my account to and are being really award with me i hope it goes throu then they can kma

	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.

[PGH7447]

full letter from HSBC in this thread

HSBC Letter in Response to High Court Case

[ss_collins]

I had one from Barclays waiting for me when I got back from Le Mans... this week I got hit for £90 in charges - yet I can't act on them - why do the government let this nonsense go on???

[Aequitas]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

why do the government let this nonsense go on???

Because it is quite wrong for the government to become involved in the judicial process.

[PGH7447]

Originally Posted by Aequitas

Because it is quite wrong for the government to become involved in the judicial process.

Unless it suits them of course