claiming under the £750 mark.

[alexcraw]

As we are in Scotland, on making the claim at the court, do we have to keep the total below £750 (ie. Charge + Interest + fees = £750) or can we claim for, say, £740 + interest + fees = over £900?

Alex

[Movingon]

Basically the limit applies to the amount you're claiming, BEFORE you add anything else. So you can claim exactly £750 plus fees plus interest and it would likely remain in the small claims regime.

[alexcraw]

My total claim would be for £4143. Do I claim for that amount in my preliminery letter, then go for <£750 when I go to court. Or should I stick with claiming <£750 from the first letter?

[Movingon]

Originally Posted by alexcraw

My total claim would be for £4143. Do I claim for that amount in my preliminery letter, then go for <£750 when I go to court. Or should I stick with claiming <£750 from the first letter?

You claim for £750 at a time so that's what your letters must refer to; otherwise they'll smell a rat and try to force you onto a different court track.

[alexcraw]

oops

sent the letter earlier recorded delivery asking for the full amount. Oh well, we'll see how it goes from there.

[fruitycar]

Originally Posted by StoneLaughter

You claim for £750 at a time so that's what your letters must refer to; otherwise they'll smell a rat and try to force you onto a different court track.

Although I made my first claim for £740 + costs and interest, during one telephone conversation I indicated to BoS what my full claim was. I am now on my second claim and have asked for the full outstanding amount from the start, and will at the appropriate time (LBA) indicate that due to the £750 restriction of the Scottish small claimg system will be severing my claim. This gives them the opportunity of settling in one go and saving the costs of a further 3 claim fees.

[alexcraw]

Originally Posted by fruitycar

Although I made my first claim for £740 + costs and interest, during one telephone conversation I indicated to BoS what my full claim was. I am now on my second claim and have asked for the full outstanding amount from the start, and will at the appropriate time (LBA) indicate that due to the £750 restriction of the Scottish small claimg system will be severing my claim. This gives them the opportunity of settling in one go and saving the costs of a further 3 claim fees.

Fruitycar,

Could you do me the favour of posting or PM'ing the LBA when you do it so that I can have a butchers at it.

Cheers

[fruitycar]

Originally Posted by alexcraw

Fruitycar,

Could you do me the favour of posting or PM'ing the LBA when you do it so that I can have a butchers at it.

Cheers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the one I sent first time round and which I will use again this time (due to be sent this Friday July 7th) perhaps with a tweak here and there.


I used the Govan Law template and sent BOS this.....

25-04-2006
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxx

Dear Madam

Penalty & unfair charges – request for refund for xxx xxxxxxx x xxxx
xx-xx-xx xxxxxxxx

Charges applied to account between 28-07-2000 and 05-01-2004 totaling £740, please see attached spreadsheet.

I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable at common law. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This is also the position in English law: Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79.

Your charges do not reflect any actual loss, instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. UK banks have recently given evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee on how bank charges are calculated: "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges" (2nd report, 25 January 2005, paragraph 50
“Sir Fred Goodwin told us that for RBS "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges".)
online here: http://www.parliament.the-stationery...274/27405.htm).

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of your bank’s loss in relation to my account. Your charges would appear to represent a device to recover global losses (for example, loan defaulters, bad debt write off, including commercial lending in, and outwith, the UK).

Please refund these charges to my account within the next 14 days. I reserve the right to commence court proceedings without any further notice, and to seek an additional award for 8% interest plus costs.

On a separate note, on 5 April 2006 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that default charges which are set at more than £12 will be presumed to be unfair and unenforceable in terms of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). Charges above this sum will be subject to legal action by the OFT
(press release 68/06 - online here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+rel...006/68-06.htm).

I would respectfully submit that if your organisation does not agree to immediately refund all unfair charges applied to my account, it will not meet the ‘fit and proper person’ test to hold a consumer credit license under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In that eventuality I will submit a 1974 Act complaint to the OFT.

Yours sincerely




Cc:
Bank of Scotland
Customer Relations
PO Box 548
Leeds
LS1 1WU

[alexcraw]

I just rang the Moneyclaim helpdesk to ask if I could use the service whilst being based in Scotland. They basically told me that if I had an English based "Service Address", then I could use MoneyClaim to get my claim done using that service. I assume that means that I could claim more than £750 in one go.