Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
After reclaiming charges from A&L they closed my account without sufficient notification - (Ombudsman is on the case).
As a result my credit card payment was late on a couple of occassions as it takes forever to set up a direct debit nowdays and Egg charged me £16 a pop. I questioned this and here is their reply:
Dear xx, After reviewing your previous secure messages i can see that you have been previously advised that the £16 charge does stand on your account as it is in your Terms & Conditions that you agreed to when you signed up for your card. If you still wish to view this you may put a request in to do that.
We are not obliged by English law to offer a Breakdown of the charges to yourself for inspection, furthermore our charges were reviewed last year by the office of fair trading and they were reduced down from the £20 they were previously and were deemed to be reasonable at £16.
Regards T S Borrowing Team
This is the most recent definitive view the OFT has on Egg's £16 default charge as given to Tom Brennan:
Egg reduced its charge to £16 after the OFT action in April 06. As you will see from the OFT press release issued on 5 April 06 where credit card default charges are set at more than £12, the OFT will presume that they are unfair, and is likely to challenge the charge unless there are limited, exceptional business factors in play. Exceptional business factors which may affect the level of a fair charge may include policies to prevent casual defaults as operated by issuers such as Egg.
The press release goes on to say where there are exceptional business factors, so that the presumption that a default charge over £12 is unfair is not applicable, this does not necessarily mean that the current level of the default charge is consistent with the OFT's interpretation of the requirements of unfair contract terms legislation. But for example, where a card issuer has a policy of requiring customers to pay minimum monthly repayments by direct debits, such as that operated by Egg, and offers credit cards only to customers that satisfy a relatively high scoring requirement it may be able to set a fair default fee at a level above the threshold.
As a result of the information provided by Egg, and in light of the fact that it reduced its fee to £16, as a matter of administrative priority we did not consider it necessary to take further action against Egg. In view of the current work on bank charges this position has not changed.
Egg credit card
is on the case).
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