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Wrote to Natwest last week with a prelim letter and have recieved following response today.
Dear XXXXX
Your complaint regarding charges has been passed to me and I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account.
We believe our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff which, we are satisifed, complies with all applicable laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give to our customers about the operation of our products.
Consequently, against that background, we must differ with the views you have expressed and will not be refunding any of the charges applied to your bank account.
Having reviewed your account, I can find no instance where charges have been applied when they were not properly due. They have all been associated with a lack of covering funds in the account at the time items were presented for payment. Accordingly, the charges that have been applied to your account must stand.
I am disappointed to note that you are contemplating legal action against the bank. Whilst I hope you will feel able to reconsider, should you decide to go ahead, please ensure any Proceedings are served on our Registered address, which appears at the foot of this letter.
I accept that this is unlikely to be the answer you might have hoped to recieve but nontheless thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact us.
Yours sincerely
Stuart Higley
Customer Relations
My questions are....
* I have seen this guys name before on natwest threads but now can't find it - can anyone point me in the right direction?
* I have looked at the lba in the library and I need to modify it as states no reply - has anyone written a blast of a reply to this type of letter I could cribb?
* Should I send LBA to registered address or back to this Stuart Higley guy?
Usual standard letter from Mr Higley, had a few of those myself (see my thread).
With regards to your reply, send it to wherever you sent your preliminary letter, they will soon advise you when to start replying to the registered address.
Okay - is the following ok as my LBA - totally taken from library and am full of cold so have no inspiration as to how to jazz it up and make them pay me!!!!! Any suggestions gratefully received.
I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond positively to my letter of the 17th October 2006.
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.
I calculate that you have taken £772.11 plus £157.20 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £929.31.
I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming.
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 for the full amount plus interest plus my costs and without further notice.
OKay now received a standard letter back from Higley saying still bog off and please serve legal documents on registered address etc etc.
Do I start MCOL immediately or do I wait til end of 14 days from their receipt of my lba?
Also in the amount of money I was claiming I used Vampiress spreadsheet with the 8% interest - so I have claimed for the charges plus the 8% interest - I am getting really confused on the interest issue and am unclear as to whether there is another sum of interest I should be claiming too - could anyone who understands this please advise me? I have read a million threads discussing this and am now more confused than when I started.....
Miavega
NatWest Bank charges
01/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) sent
06/10/06 Statements arrived
17/10/06 Prelim letter sent claiming £929
23/10/06 Bog off letter received
25/10/06 LBA sent
01/11/06 Second bog off letter received
MBNA Credit Card
17/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) + £10 cheque sent
26/10/06 Letter telling me they will respond by Nov 16th
You should only be claiming the 8% interest when filing your claim with MCOL, and I would say yes you can carry on with your court claim now, seeing as though you've had a response from your lba. Make sure you use their registered address when filing your claim.
Fab thank you - and thats made it up to grand total of £1025........
NatWest Bank charges
01/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) sent
06/10/06 Statements arrived
17/10/06 Prelim letter sent claiming £929
23/10/06 Bog off letter received
25/10/06 LBA sent
01/11/06 Second bog off letter received
MBNA Credit Card
17/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) + £10 cheque sent
26/10/06 Letter telling me they will respond by Nov 16th
Sent Higley the letter below last week and having still heard nothing from him managed to phone him (oh and he is not a nice person on the phone at all) and he tells me the bank has stopped making ANY payments at the moment as basically the bigwigs have decided they need a strategy and until he gets their strategy his department cannot make any new agreements with any customers.
his phone no is 0208 236 8223
Letter I sent (thanks to Littlesally who I unashamedly copied it off!!!!) - so I guess my only option now is to file the MCOL claim????
Thank you for your letter dated 23rd October 2006.
You clearly do not believe that I will issue a claim against you for the unfair bank charges against my accounts.
I am writing to inform you that this will be the next stage unless I hear from you, in the next 7 days, that the £935.08 I am claiming from you will be paid back to me in full. I have attached a copy of my already prepared HMCS Moneyclaim online court submission – I will be claiming unless this matter is settled in full by 7th December 2006.
However, please accept this correspondence in accordance with my duty under the Civil Procedure Rules to continue to pursue a settlement without the need to invoke the time of the courts.
Take note that I will draw the Court’s attention to the fact that you have not made any attempts at settlement in accordance with the overriding objectives of CPR. Furthermore I will submit this letter to the Court as further evidence of your intransigence with my case despite my attempts at settlement and the settling by your company of all other similar claims to date.
Alternatively, in accordance with the overriding objectives of the Civil Procedure Rules I would like to give you the opportunity to settle this issue without the need to take the time of the Courts. My claim is for £935.08. If you could ensure that this sum is paid into my bank account within seven days I will inform the court that this matter is settled.
If you wish to proceed with this, I will be pleased to meet you in court and hear your justification of the penalty charges.
And, I am sure, so will all Natwest customers.
If you do not intend to defend the charges in court, but hoping that I will "just go away", I need to point out to you that this will not happen. But you will incur more costs against you by the court.
Please do not waste their time and mine with something you do not intend to defend.
NatWest Bank charges
01/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) sent
06/10/06 Statements arrived
17/10/06 Prelim letter sent claiming £929
23/10/06 Bog off letter received
25/10/06 LBA sent
01/11/06 Second bog off letter received
MBNA Credit Card
17/10/06 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) + £10 cheque sent
26/10/06 Letter telling me they will respond by Nov 16th