Hi,

I had a credit card with 'the associates' that I closed a couple of years ago. I am trying to find out contact details so that I can write to them about charges.

The problem is, I cant find out information about them anywhere. Does anybody know if they have been bought out or merged with another company?

Thanks

I had an Associates card too, it was, if I remember correctly, sold on to Citibank (Citicards).

Hope that helps.

it wasn't sold on to citibank, it always was citibank, just the associates was their 'subprime' brand.

Hi

I have sent my preliminary letter to CITICARDS as I too had an ASSOCIATES card. Received a reply about the £10 fee so don't make my mistake and pay the fee straight away to avoid delays.

Their address is

RICHARD COOKE

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

CITI CARDS

CITIFINANCIAL EUROPE PLC.

1 EXCHANGE QUAY

SALFORD

MANCHESTER

M5 3EA

Hope this helps

Hi All,

I have been going backwards and forwards with CitiBank over the past month or so after asking for my charges back, and have just recieved their final response. I must say that what they said did stop me in my tracks a bit but after speaking with Bankfodder, I am going ahead and issuing a claim tomorrow.

Bankfodder has asked me to post what they have said just incase anybody else has recieved the same reply.

"Following a review of your situation, I have been made aware that you are currently fulfilling an IVA for your overall indebtedness. In order for you to have been accepted onto an IVA your creditors, including ourselves, must have accepted short settlement of the debt you owed on your accounts. For this reason we will not honour your request for a refund of default fees, which may have been levied, as this will mean reversing the IVA agreement and you benefiting twice"

Any thoughts on the argument that I have recieved from CitiBank would be much appreciated before I submit the claim.

Citi are just unbeleivable - as you will be aware only 75% of creditors have to agree to proposal - the rest have no choice

Have a look here for info on claiming when in an IVA

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/26925-business-account-over-19-a.html

Claim issued 04/12/06. Let the battle commence!

As I have already explained to you, there are two aspects to this and to dealing with Citi's letter.

Firstly, as their charges are unlawful in that they are unenforceable law, it can be said that they have contributed to your indebtedness and in this way they are partially responsible for the problems caused to your other creditors.

When city finally pay you back your charges -- which they will do even if it has to be by force through the courts, there is no doubt that you will have to account to your creditors. Citi are part of the IVA agreement. They will not be able to seize the repayment for themselves. They will be obliged to share it out with the other creditors. Furthermore as the repayment of the money to you will reduce or do away altogether with your debt to them then they may find themselves out of the loop altogether.

If it can at all be shown that it was their unlawful charges which created your problems and therefore created the problems with your other creditors for which they themselves have had to suffer then we do find ourselves with some very interesting questions indeed as to Citi's general liability.

Citi's logic is flawed and their letter really is nonsense. Was it written by city or was it written by a solicitor? If it was written by a solicitor I would have no hesitation in sending it to the court and also to the Law Society and asking them whether they consider that it is a proper letter to be sent out.

Had a letter from Lloyds TSB solicitors today who are very concise and to the point, whereas Citi do seem to come up with alot of invalid points in an effort to defend their client.

Have you completed your IVA yet?

If not then none of your creditors will actually have received any payment.

In which case your supervisor could simply not pay anything to Citi. If they still owe you money then seek that through the courts. The IVA has nothing to do with your overall claim.

I need to read the rest of your thread though.

Citi's logic is flawed and their letter really is nonsense. Was it written by city or was it written by a solicitor? If it was written by a solicitor I would have no hesitation in sending it to the court and also to the Law Society and asking them whether they consider that it is a proper letter to be sent out.

This is what I felt compelled to write to them recently:-

Such inconsistencies in your actions indicate that if you are not acting upon sound, professional, legal advice, then you should be. If you are acting upon professional. legal advice, you should perhaps be seeking that advice elsewhere.

Elsinore

I loved that letter:D

Sorry for the delay in replying. Have been away from work for the past few days.

In answer to your question Bankfodder, the reply was not from a solicitor but from Mark Clibbens in the office of the chief executive. I havent bothored replying to him because this was the third rejection letter I recieved from them. Just issued the court claim. I guess its now a case of waiting and seeing what happens.

Thanks for all your advice guys.

Just looked on MCCOL, Citicards acknowledged 07/12/06. They are not wasting anytime so far!

Well, Looks like Citicards are slipping a bit!

They acknowleded my claim pretty quick but failed to submit a defence within 28 days, so I requested judgement yesterday and just checked MCOL and that has been issued today! :D:D:D

Well, I have just spoken to the infamous Brian Smith and asked him when I could expect my money.

Said that he would still be putting in a defence. When I asked why he had not done it within the time limit he replied "er, Im not quite sure".

Warrant of applied for 11/01/07!

Can't see the judge accepting the defence late.

If they have been unprepared or let it slip through the net thats Citi's fault not yours.

Well,

I applied for the warrant on 11/01/06, and recieved a letter from Brian Smith at Citicards stating that they had 'mislaid' my claim and would be putting in an application for judgement to be set aside.

Have just checked the MCOL site and status of my warrant states 'rejected'

Looks like MCOL has set aside the judgement, so I will await the paperwork to come through.

It makes me furious that a multinational company such as Citicards can get away with abusing the court system this way.

Still, It has made me more determined to fight them every step of the way!

Maybe ringing them and bringing it to their attention was not the best move .We do continually advise people not to phone the banks / solicitors .

Keep us posted please

Ok,

Recieved a 'Notice of tarnsfer of proceedings to another county court' notice this morning. Reason given was that an application to set aside judgement had been made. Follwing text was written by Brian Smith -:

"The claiment is claiming as a debt monies he purports to have paid to the Defendant by the way of bank charges. The amount of his claim excluding fees is £1359.17 made up of principal and interest. My client operated an account with the claiment. He failed to make his payments [unreadable] using the credit facility and my client eventually charged the account off, and sold the debt amounting to £1593.27. The claiment therefore owed my client more than he alleges it owed him. Moreover he us basing his claim on a misreading of common law and contract law. My client, notwithstanding it failed to lodge a defence in due time, has a complete defence to this action and respectfully requests that the judgement in default be set aside"

What should I do? Should I reply to this now or wait for something else from the court? Any help gratefully recieved!

Does the notice tell you to which court the case has been transferred?

If so, is it a County Court and is it your local one?

Elsinore

Yes, It has been transferred to my local county court

It's now up to the Court to consider Citi's application for a setaside. You can object to Citi's application but it is likely to suceed. The Court may order directions to both parties or it might set a date for a directions hearing.

If you want to object to the setaside application I suggest you ask on here for assistance. The Site Helpers and Mods will guide you in the right direction.

Elsinore

Got a letter from court today. Date for the setaside hearing is on 1/2/07!

Got a letter from court today. Date for the setaside hearing is on 1/2/07!

Hi Kano - not ignoring you be back later with a plan.