Thread: Davies v Barclays **WON**

Thanks for that whoareya. Makes interesting reading and very helpful. Do you know if anyone has actually gone to the court and had the experience of standing before the judge with the Barclays solicitor? hmmmmmmmm!!

Having seen BankFodders announcment that Parliament are debating this subject, I have taken his advice and emailed my MP, the emailis as below:

Dear Mr XXXXXX,

I am a resident living in XXXXXX, and also a member of the Bank Action Group, and am currently in the process of reclaiming money from my bank that OFT has agreed would have been taken unlawfully as the charges have been deemed as penalties and not admin costs. The Bank Action Group has been successful in helping many people reclaim lost money, for which many people has stated that had these charges not been levied in the first instance, then their level of debt would have been greatly reduced or even not a red balance at all.

I am writing to find out if you will be attending, and what your position is, on the Adjournment debate in the House of Commons next Tuesday? the debate is being led by Matthew Taylor, Lib Dem spokesman for Social Exclusion, and I would hope that you would be debating for the banks to openly discuss the actual cost of bank charges, helping to bring many people out of debt - a subject which I am sure is close to your heart for the XXXXXXXXXXX constituency.

To help you understand the levels that banks are going to to hide this disclosure I would draw your attention to the Bank Action Group and the wotk they have been doing. Judges around the country are becoming increasingly annoyed by banks delaying tactics, and one judge in Lincoln has openly stated that defendents who try to run the course of filing court proceedings in the hope that the claimant will drop the case due to nerves or funding will have their defences struck out, and the claimant awarded their claim.
So far no bank has followed a case through to court, and I am sure many people of the Bank Action Group feel this is due to the nervousness of banks fearing a judge ordering standard disclosure - which when produced would show the real bank costs for administration costs for a banking institution.

As an example of how much people can be out of pocket, and not even know or consider it, if someone has been charged a £25 fee once a year for ten years for a failed direct debit or overdraft breach, then that person has amounted a £250 loss which the bank cannot justify. To show what this refund could mean to people both in and out of Thanet, I draw your attention to a Uswicth survey which reported:

'The uSwitch survey indicates that 28 million of the 40 million British adults with a current account now have an overdraft facility.
A massive one in four account holders admitted to being permanently overdrawn, with the average overdrawn balance at around £-677.'

This would mean that over a 1/3 of the overdraft for a typical person could have been reduced if banking fees were inline with actual costs!

I hope that you will be at this debate and supporting the argument for your constiuency, and hope that my email has offered some support towards this.

Many thanks

PJDavies2000

It sounded ok to me, and is more to make sure the MP is working for me and not against me! Has anyone else decided to email their MP yet?

Peter

I was wondering what happened about the commons debate - so I googled it and found the basic arguement the MP was going to use on the LibDem site, which basically says that he knows the charges are illegal (his words!) and he has brought many cases against banks, and never have they entered court.

As this has now been debated in court, is there a reference that we can use to highlight this in our legal packs when we get to it?

The more ammo the better I say - but I doubt you can reference a website? Or could I just print his quotes out and record where the information ca,e from?

I know I don't need to do this yet, but there is no harm in accumulating whilst I am waiting for the 40 days to run adrift!

Thanks, and hope all is going well everyone else!

Peter

Hansard Record of House of Commons Debate 16 Jan 07 can be found here:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...tml#post499675

Peter

Cheers Peter
I have replied on your post.

Makes interesting reading, and I believe could now been seen by parties as an electorate bargaining tool:
'Vote for us, and we'll get you money / save you money'

You don't hear that very often froma government!

Peter

Hi everyone,
I had a weird thing happen on Saturday - I received something rom Barclays...ONE STATEMENT!??! I sent my SAR off on 3/1/06, and received thier confirmation on 5/1/06. Since then I have (as expected)eard nothing and then one statement (a copy as it has print date details on the side - this says it was printed on 18/1/06) through the post!

The envelope was hand writtien, and had nothing in it b this one statement - the postage was 1st class.

Do you think they have messed up my SAR? Or do you think they maybe missed a statement or even found one lying around (hope not!!!) and posted it out.

Should I contact Barclays for clarity on thisor just wait for the 40 days and then make a noise?

Any help (esp from people who have just received their statements: did yours come in hand addressed envelopes?) would be gratefully received as always...

Thanks

Peter

BUMP...
...and nothing came through today...should I ring?????

Peter

Well you stick to your timetable, and if you haven't had a reply, then you move to the next step.

Have a look at the FAQ and you will see what to do next. You have left it a rather long time though!