Hi, sorry if this is longwinded, need a bit of advice. . .

I have a BOS visa which 3 years ago in a drunken moment used to subscribe to an satelite channel. I know I'm a total idiot but hey-ho it happened. It was £10 a month approx, and mini contract term of 1 year. After the year, I moved house and didn't get sky in the new home so I phoned said company to stop the payment, needed to send in writing so wrote letter but at same time phoned Visa to say can you cancel the direct debit. Turns out it's not a direct debit but some other sort of standing payment, meaning I can only cancel in writing, otherwise the will honour any request by the other party.

Anyway both sides said "oh we never received that letter" had another 2/3 calls with BOS Visa saying stop paying this, I've sent a letter, and I'll resend and asked who in their organisation I could complain to. As it was after 6pm, customer relations was shut open till 5.30 or 1 pm on Sat. Ok I"ll try on Sat, queue, after queue, after queue. One thing leads to another days become weeks, weeks become months and you can probably guess the rest. I forgot all about it, I haven't used the card at all recently (last 7 months) and just pay off the mini each month on a DD. This charge has still been taken. It also transpires their where times a couple of years ago, this deduction was putting me over my limit and them getting charges, etc.

I the bank have a note of my telephone request as this was confirmed in calls when I was originally complaining, whats the best way to approach this? Any advice would be greatfully received, I'm definitely not going to be so appathetic this time.

Thanks in advance

If you can sign up to a 12 month contract by phone then you can pretty much cancel it by phone to the company concerned as well i'd imagine.

I'd say the tv company are just trying to stall you and they have no right to do this. I've seen lots of companies do this sort of thing in the past and then say "oh but we never ever got your letter..." Even sending recorded delivery has had similar problems

The bank is right in that you can't have a DD on a credit card. What you're actually paying is a regular credit card payment. This means the tv channel have your details and just present a payment request every time they want the money. But credit card payments need authorised by yourself if not they are illegal. If you've told the tv channel not to take any further payments and they do then tell your bank that the payments have been taken without your authorisation and you can have them refunded (though this could take 4-6 weeks) The credit card company cannot put a block on the tv channel from taking your payments however, it needs to be that they come off first and then you can claim them back.

If it continues to happen I suppose you could take the tv channel to county court for continuing to take payments from you without your authorisation. I would record a phonecall confirming the cancellation with the tv channel 1st (make sure you tell them you are recording it otherwise it is inadmissable in court)

Hope this helps

The problem with regular credit card payments is you can authorise them, but you can't cancel them - not in the way that you can cancel your direct debits via the bank anyway. Because they are guaranteed payments you need to ask the company you (or the credit card company) are paying to stop them.

Send all future letters by recorded delivery and ask for acknowledgement of reciept, I have always found that it's best to ask the credit card vendor to stop the payments, they will then normally get in touch with the company to whom they are making the payments, but write to both anyway. always remember to date your letters.

Thanks for the replies.

Thats really my bone of contention. I gave up on the 'service provider' and thought going direct to the card company would be the best route. I think I made 6 calls in total (2 of them stupidily getting hooked and really losing the plot as I was getting a real run around) to the BOS and wrote 2 letters and still payments are made.

This forum has really galvanised me into action.

Thanks again

Hi, firstly thanks to everyone who contributes to this site, what a brillaint resource, a true people power tool.

Secoondly I'm about to send of my LBA and wanted to know if it sounds okay. What I'm saying is factually correct however, to say I'm nervous is an understatement and dont want the banks to get a whiff I've my nerves and start to play hardball.

Any comments would be appreciated. . .

Thank you for your recent letter dated 12 June 2006 (which I assume should have read 12th June) I am sorry you were unable to contact me via telephone.

I have decided to decline your "getsure of goodwill" of £190.00. Specifically because I 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.

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

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

As per my previous letter I calculate that you have taken £2920 of unlawful charges up to and including the 21st September 2005.

I am enlosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original email of the 5th June 2006, which you may refer to.

I require repayment in full of this money. If you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you initially for charges taken during the period 14 June 2000 to the 14 Aug 2002 inclusive totally £700 plus interest plus my costs and without further notice. Subsequent claims will follow for the remainder of the charges.

etc, etc, etc

Sounds good but should the 'inclusive totally' in the bottom paragraph be 'inclusive totalling'?

Sky

cheers for the spot. Ammended as we speak.

Right thats my LBA off. . .fingers crossed. . .and heart rate racing:-)

Actually I dont know if anyone else is doing similar but I have sent all my requests via email ([email protected]) I obviously save all sent and received items.

Thanks again to all who provide support and assistance on here, priceless.

Surprise, suprise one day before 14 day deadline, a subsequent reply this time it's from Halfiax Plc Customer relations in Leeds. I've outlined the letter below:-

I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy with our initial offer to refund £190.00 worth of charges. As we have explained previously, the charges we apply to your account do recover costs so we cannot agree to refund them all. However, in an attempt to reach an amicable solution to your complaint, I am prepared to increase my offer to £560.00 in full and final settlement of your complaint. I will reiterate that future valid charges will stand and we reserve the right to close your account if you do not manage it correctly. If you are prepared to accpet my revised offer, please sign and return the enclosed acceptance form in the pre-paid envelope.

Do I respond accepting the amount and state I will now be applying to the courts to recoup the remainder of my claim (total is £2900) so will be doing it in the £700 bursts. Or do I ask them to outline the costs they have incurred with a view to reaching an amicable agreement or do I just go straight to completing the small claims form?

I guess I'm approaching the scary stage plus the threat of account closure!!! I think I need that parachute account now!!

sorry can someone advise do I respond initally to the banks reply and wait x amount of time to see how they respond or do I just press ahead with small claims? I thought I was getting the hang of it however their letter has threw me a bit.

Any help most appreicated.

Personnaly, if it were me, i would just press ahead with the monayclaim, stick to your time table not theirs. you could always accept the offer as an interim payment only and persue the rest of the charges.

P.S, Sign Nothing

Send them this, then after 7 days (given they have had the two 14 day periods already) file your Claim at MCOL

Rebel

**********

[Your Address]

[bank Address]

My Ref:

Request for repayment of charges

ACCOUNT NUMBER:

Sort Code:

Date:

Your Ref:

Dear Sir

Thank you for your letter of [date]. I draw your attention to my letter to you, [Ref/Date] As you seem to have disregarded my request for FULL repayment of the unlawful charges you have placed on my account.

You continue to quote your Terms & Conditions relating to the use of my account, I draw your attention to the following:-

Your charges do not reflect any actual loss, instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. In particular, charges were applied after I entered into a transaction(s) without sufficient funds in my account. Actual loss is the cost of automatically sending me a computer generated letter. I would respectfully submit that this is valued at no more than 50 pence.

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).

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of the 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 outside, the UK).

On a separate note, your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). My account falls within the ambit of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as I am a consumer. Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under reference to paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 of the said regulations:

‘Indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair - 1. Terms which have the object of effect of - (e) requiring any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation’.

0n 26 July 2005 the OFT stated that 'a charge is likely to be disproportionately high if it is more than a court would be likely to award if the lender sued the cardholder for breach of contract'. Because your charges include a large profit margin, in addition to actual loss, they are irrecoverable as an unfair term in contract. I believe that your charges require me to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation for incurring a transaction(s) which was ultimately declined by an automated computer system.

In addition, it is unfair to require me to subsidise your global debt recovery costs and debt write-off.

I thank you for your offer of £xxxxx however I cannot nor will not accept this as full and final payment, especially not under your proposed conditions. You now have 7 days in which to return the FULL amount of £xxxxx in charges and £xxxxx (including 8% interest as per s69 County Court Act 1984), in calculated interest on these charges, after which, there will be no further communication from me and I will pursue this matter through the County Court.

Yours Sincerely

Hi

Find myself with a bit of a problem and not sure how to resume. I never held to any of the above timetables as unfortunately after posting above my father died suddenly. To cut a long story short, mother died years ago and only other family member, a brother lives abroad, therefore I've been dealing with my fathers estate (there was no will) and just trying to get over it (we were close)

This claim went totally out of the window in this period however 2/3 weeks ago I emailed BoS to say sorry I hadn't been in touch formally due to fathers death but as I had not been in touch would give them an opportunity to re consider their offer. I'm now not sure what to do and I guess not sure I've alread missed the opportunity. Kind of lacking the energy but really want to put this to bed.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Sorry for bumping this up just not sure if I've blown my opportuniy to claim by being all over the place.

I've not seen anything re this on the site (and to be honest, up until the events with my father things were going so well was about to complete the small claims paperwork.

Any help guidance at all would be appreciated.

Thanks

as far as I'm concerned, you've warned them, just hit the court.

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