Hello Everyone

I'm in the process of getting back all unlawful charges put on my loan account with SPML. Received all the info on my account after submitting an SAR, now going to ask for a refund.

Can someone please tell me if I need to send them a copy of the list of the charges that I intend to reclaim with the template letter 'Request for Repayment of Charges'?

Cheers

Phil

Hi. Yes you need to send them a breakdown of all charges you are reclaiming.

You need the date, time, name of charge and ammount. If you are claiming interest you need to add that too.

Use the right spreadsheet to list everything and send a copy to them.

Shout up if you can't find stuff. Most of it's in the CAG library.

Thanks, Dx & Freaky

I've copied one of the spreadsheets from the library and filled it in. Am I right to add interest at this stage when I'm just asking for a refund of the charges? Also, I thought you could only claim interest once it goes to court? That is what happened and how things were when I re-claimed some bank charges a few years ago........

Thanks again for your help.

Phil

Hi Phil,

Good luck with them, I would check all of the information in your SAR mine was only half completed and getting info out of them is nigh on impossible. I have just gone the court route its just been listed so I wish you luck in getting them back.

Lynne

Thanks, Dx & Freaky

 

I've copied one of the spreadsheets from the library and filled it in. Am I right to add interest at this stage when I'm just asking for a refund of the charges? Also, I thought you could only claim interest once it goes to court? That is what happened and how things were when I re-claimed some bank charges a few years ago........

 

Thanks again for your help.

Phil

ideally you should use the fosrunningCI sheet

put your motgage APR in D13

and READ the RED NOTES TAB

you cant add anything more even at court stage.

dx

Hi Phil

Responding to PM

From the list you gave me here are my observations...

1. Unpaid D/D - Yes
   
2. Arrears management fee - Probably yes - more info?
   
3. Litigation fee - more info?
   
4. Legal costs - not if they are the true cost to them
   
5. Agents costs - more info - are these for agents visits to you?
   
6. Late payment management fee - yes, I would
   
7. Litigation management fee - if it can be shown to be a penalty, yes
   
8. Referral to solicitor fee - probably yes
   
9. Third party fee (solicitors costs) - not if they are the true cost
   
10. Early stage arrears management fee - yes
    
11. Redemption statement fee - probably not
    
12. Alternative payment method fee - more info
    
13. Int on arrears - yes by way of the spreadsheet calcs but not an item you would list
    

Basically what you are looking for is anything that can be shown to be a penalty i.e. it does not reflect the true cost or accurate pre-estimate of the actual cost. For example the passing on of a solicitors fee is not a penalty, it is the true cost to them. A fee for a bounced direct debt is highly unlikely to reflect the true cost to them so it is a penalty

IMHO

ims

Thanks Ims21

I wish all financial institutions would just be transparent about the way they charge people. I know it is never going to happen as they are still making lots & lots of profit from them!!!!

I feel like going after them for every charge the have ever made on my account, and letting them justify their excessive charges & costs in a court of law. Its unlaw & unjust - end of! Thats the grey area as I want to know where every penny has gone for each charge!

Am getting my letter ready and list of charges ready for sending first thing Monday morning. Gonna think about it tomorrow and amend my letter to request them to justify them all.

Anyway, onwards & upwards.

Good Luck to you all!!!!

Phil

Have you completed your spreadsheet with the interest calculations?

ims

Yeh, with Statutory 8% which I'm happy with. I'll pm you my letter now. See what you think. Any observations or additional comments are much appreciated.

Thanks for your help, Ims.

Phil

Hi

There is a preliminary letter template in the CAG library which you could amend to suit. Alternatively pop your letter here and it can be reviewed.

ims

We are writing to you to request the refundof £****.**of charges which you have levied against us in respect ofour account, plus statutory interest at 8% of £****.**, an amount thatwe would be expected to receive under normal circumstances by a county court orthe Financial Ombudsman. A total of £****.**

These charges have been levied against us unlawfully because they are excessiveand therefore unfair.

We are sure that you are aware of the recent decisions by the FinancialServices Authority in Deutschebank and also in Redstone. The Financial ServicesAuthority made it very clear that charges should reflect the actual cost ofdealing with difficulties on a mortgage/loan account. It is very clear that yourcharges are calculated to produce a high margin of profit for you.

Furthermore your charges are unfair and therefore unlawful under the UnfairTerms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. Although a test case in 2009 decidedthat overdraft charges for personal bank accounts could not be assessed forfairness, this decision from the Supreme Court was limited to charges whichform part of the core revenue of the banks. Your charges are not part of yourcore revenue. They are incidental to your main business and therefore they fallto be assessed for fairness. Thismeans that they must be proportionate and that they must truly reflect youradministrative costs.

We are prepared to sue you in the County Court if you will not refund us forthe full amount.

If you are prepared to act quickly and to refund us our money without anytrouble, then we will be prepared to accept the return of our money as detailedabove, with statutory interest added at 8%.

Please note that we are not prepared to wait for your normal eight week delay.This is an industry time period which has been agreed with the FSA. We don'tthink that we would be prepared to accept your violations of FSA rules on onehand while you then attempt to rely on some FSA guideline on the other.

If we do not hear from you within 14 days of this letter then we will beginproceedings in the County Court and without any further notice.

Yours faithfully

Hello Ims

I'm sorry if I've sent you pm's that go against forum rules. I am very suspicious of some of the charcters that read these forums (ie. Financial Institutions!) and don't wish to give them a chance to prepare anything against me. I want to hold my cards as close to my chest as possible!!!!!

The letter I've posted above is what I've put together. Your opinions are very welcome.

One last thing, do I need to send them a 'prelim' letter (14 days) then a 'letter before action' (another 14 days) then go to court as per bank charges claims?

Thanks, again.

Phil

Hi

I'd remove the line being prepared to go to court. See below as to how to round off the letter re: court action

I'd also take out the bit about the FSA 8 week business.....you have said they have 14 days.

Round off the letter something along the lines of:

You now have 14 days to respond positively and in the absence of this, I will put you on notice with a further 14 days letter before action.

Yes a prelim as above, then lba then issue

ims

Thanks Ims,

You've been a great help. I've amended my letter and gonna get it off to the same address I sent my SAR too.

All the best.

Phil

Hi,

I've just recently got out of debt, the stress and frustration caused friction, and put the family out of balance. It caused a whole lot of anxiety, so we decided to cut our losses and sell up. We were fortunate, as we were in a position to pay back debts secured against the property. One of which was Ascenden. I borrowed over a 120 month period, this was for home improvements, holiday, car etc... it was for £15000, originally through London Mortage Company, then Capstone and now Ascenden. The Total amount of borrowing was £16600 due to a £1600 brokers fee added to the loan. It all started in March 2007, and I managed to complete the sale of my house in Feb 2012. Now forgive me for being naive here, after paying back over £15000 in repayments, the settelment figure paid was 16250, when I looked at the original agreement the total amount payable at the end of term would have worked out at £33500.

1.) What I'm trying to figure out is, why have I paid back nearly the amount payable under the full term? It works out that I had paid back circa £31250.00, Ascenden reckon it was made up of charges. Despite falling into nearly £3000.00 into arrears, by the time I had sold my property I made up the arrears balance to just under £1800.00, in other words the CMI was being paid, and an additional arrangement had been made too.

2.) When I asked ascenden in December 2011 for the settlement I almost choked, I asked for a breakdown of charges, but was fobbed off with the echoing sound of 'look at your terms and conditions' as I wanted to know why the settlement figure was so high.

3.) I have written in correspondance but I am facing a brick wall.

I really honestly feel that I've been done, particularly when I've paid the debt half way through term. Is there any way I claim some if not all of the charges back.

Your help would much appreciated.

Mark

Hi Mark

I'd start your own thread.

If the charges you mention are unlawful then they can be reclaimed

ims

Thanks fo rthe tip, i'll do just that. Again being naive, am I able to start another thread as I already have one open? A new starter to these!

Thanks fo rthe tip, i'll do just that. Again being naive, am I able to start another thread as I already have one open? A new starter to these!

Yes of course...the thread you have going at the mo is regarding Daniels Silverman and Train 4 Gain or something like that I believe.

This is a different issue so we encourage separate threads for each issue you are trying to resolve

ims

Hi phil,

I am in the same boat as you and have now received my SAR back.

Can I ask what you did regarding interest?

Did you add this to your spreadsheet?

My mortgage rate varied throughout the term so I'm unsure if I should do a seperate sheet for each different APR, or leave it blank or add the statutory 8%.

Also, what charges are you reclaiming back. Reading through my statements there are about 15 different types of charges added!

I am hoping to get letters sent off to ascendon this monday. Be interesting to see the response.

Hello Everyone

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a link to a template for a 'letter before action'?

Cheers

Phil

Hi

Your LBA is the same as your preliminary letter but you add the heading "LETTER BEFORE ACTION".

Also add a paragraph at the end to say that if they do not refund your money by x date you will issue proceedings in court without further recourse to them. Send an updated spreadsheet with the interest running right up to now and amend the figures in the LBA to reflect those now showing in the updated spreadsheet.

ims

Hi Phil, have you any update for this? Just wondering as I am about to send my claim off.

Pru

Hello Everyone,

So its been a while, we wanted to start our claim against Ascenden for unlawful charges before now, but we've not had the opportunity to do so till now.

After repeated failings to resolve our issues, we are now ready to issue a claim and I've started proceedings with 'Moneyclaim Online'.

Just a quick question though, can anyone direct me to a suitable template to complete the 'Particulars of Claim'? I've successfully claimed bank charges back before, and have produced one at present, but as these are mortgage charges, I'd like to know if there are any differences to apply to this claim?

Thanks in advance!

Phil

Hi Phil, have left a message for others on the site team to advise on this.

As each situation is unique then there is no template as such hopefully others who have made a claim will also be looking in with some advice.