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I will soon be starting the whole long winded process of claiming back about £1000. I wasn't intending on sending a DPA request as I have all but 2 statements going back for the 5 years I have had the account, and as Abbey notify you of charges one month, then take them the following month, I allready know that the 2 statements that are missing don't show any charges. However reading through the various threads on here I came across one that had examples of quetsions to ask should you go before a judge, one of which reffered to any record of manual intervention. I know my claim is highly unlikely to go that far, but should I do a DPA request to get this info anyway?
OK, thanks guys. That should make it a little quicker.
I can't decide if I should go for contractual interest or not. It would nearly double my claim, but what are the drawbacks?
have been reading through Glenn UK's thread and it didn't seem to turn out great there, although he is no worse off than if he had just gone for 8% at the court stage. I don't like the idea of having to argue that contractual interest was justified in front of a judge, but was glenns case exceptional because of it's size?
Mine is only about £1000 of charges plus a little interest charged, over £2000 with contractual interest, but no defaults that I need removing. Most of my charges were from 2-5 years ago and I feel happy with the way my recent account has been run and I am on the other side of my credit problems, so don't want to jeoperdise this with any retalitry action Abbey may take such as closing account. Is this more likely if I ask for contractual interest?
I do intend getting the safety net of a parachute account before sending any letters to Abbey, but all banks charge excessive fee's so I would prefer to avoid the hassle of having to actually change accounts if I can.
Redrob, IMO claiming contractual interest is sinking to the Banks' level, fraught with difficulties and on dodgy legal ground. Save yourself a lot of grief and stick to reclaiming your charges, the overdraft interest they levied (you say that was limited in your case) and then add 8% Statutory interest. The 8% goes on at the N1 court claim stage. HTH. If you're not convinced, look at the CI threads on the General subforum. Regards, Mad Nick
I think I've pretty much decided to just take the tried and tested route. It's a lot of money so it's tempting to go the contractual route, but somehow it doesn't quite sit right, seems a little greedy to me, so I do understand what you mean about sinking to the banks level.
To a large extent it is exactly what the banks do, but only in the short term, I would imagine that you would get defaulted and have account closed long before money owed got as high as some claims on here could be if contractual interest was used.
The more I think about it the less I want to go for contractual interest, the only pro I can think of is nearly double the money, but the extra time & hassle involved, the potential dodgy legal ground.
I do think as well that if lots of people went for CI, the banks will eventually go to court. It would just be more costly to keep paying it out than to refund penalty charge they have charged all customers over the last 6 years. And it's not a foregone conclusion that the banks would lose, they would clearly have a top litigator to argue their case possibly against someone like little old me. If a judge thinks the CI part of your claim is unjust, it "could" alter the way he/she feels about the rest of your case.
I'm doing Abbey and should have my statements soon. I have decided just to go for just for charges with 8% if it gets that far. I don't know about you but I read so much about contractual interest it caused my brain to melt. Abbey statements are a bit confusing because of the charge abd then taking it the month after. It all seemed a heck of a lot of work to me. So I'm happy tp go for the lesser amount.
Been a bit of delay coz I was trying to get some defaults removed before opening parachute account, HSBC is not playing ball on that one unfortunatly, but have opened new account now anyway. Was expecting a problem with my credit history, but it seems what adverse stuff there is was long enough ago.
So anyway, I'm ready to send off my first letter but have a couple of questions.
Is the authorised rate 16.9%?
Am I right that I need to state in this first letter that I intend claiming interest at the authorised rate.? i.e. I am claiming for £x in charges + £y in overdraft interest charged + £z in interest on these sums charged at 16.9% total £xyz.
Ok, well I've done my Prelim letter based on the one in the library. I have altered the paragraph headed What I Require to what I have pasted below. I would very much appreciate any comments on the wording/grammer etc...
I calculate that you have taken £1098.50 plus £64.37 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. In addition, as you have effectively borrowed this money from me without my permission, I am also claiming interest at your own authorized overdraft rate of 16.9%, of £622.25 to date and increasing at £0.54 per day. Thus the total I am claiming as of today is £1785.12. This sum will continue increasing by £0.54 per day until I receive payment from you. There is also a charge of £20 plus £6.28 overdraft interest due to be taken from my account on 16 May 2007, I require that these charges are cancelled. They will be added to my claim if this matter is not settled before this date
I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter
One other question. What finaly spurred me to send this now was when they recently took 2 charges of £30 for paying 2 £1 cheques, plus £20 unauthorised overdraft fee. When I phoned to get these reversed I was fobbed off and have since received a letter saying my complaint is being investigated etc.... Should I address the above to Oliver Stephens who signed the letter and include their reference number, or just keep it seperate for now?
Sent Prelim Letter today. Decided not to go for CI, just gonna claim the 8% at court stage. Read Mad Nick's thread in full and no longer confident of getting the CI.
Well, two weeks are up and I've not even had a letter telling me where to go, so lba goes in the post tomorrow. Is it usual for the first letter to not even get a letter saying that fees are justified so go away?
Well, another 2 weeks are up and I still haven't had a single letter from Abbey. I didn't expect a settlement offer before court stage but did at least expect to receive a letter rejecting my claim, but they have now had 2 letters and I've heard nothing.
Anyway, onto the next stage. Gonna file N1 at the court so I can attach schedule of charges as I understand you can't do this online and I'll just fell better knowing that it was submitted together rather than sending it seperatly when the bank inevitably asks for a copy.
I do have one question. I work in an office with one other person, wh is about to take off the whole of July for Paternity leave. If I file now, is there any chance at all that I will have to attend court for any reason before the end of July? I know they have 28 days to file defence, and they are likely to use all of this, so I can't think of any reason why I will have to visit court that early, but I've obviously not been through this before.
OK, I've filled in my N1. Got a couple of question
Is it right I can just stick the 3 copies in the post along with a covering letter and a cheque?
I have included the schedule of charges, I don't bother including copies of my Prelim & lba do I, just save that for my court bundle right?
I haven't included anything for claiming for my cost i.e. £8.50 per hour spent on claim, postage costs etc... does that mean I won't be able to get anything? It won't come to much I don't suppose so not too concerned, but if I do spend quite a few hours on aq etc... it could come to a couple of hundred quid, maybe more.
Redrob V's Abbey
notify you of charges one month, then take them the following month, I allready know that the 2 statements that are missing don't show any charges. However reading through the various threads on here I came across one that had examples of quetsions to ask should you go before a judge, one of which reffered to any record of manual intervention. I know my claim is highly unlikely to go that far, but should I do a DPA request to get this info anyway?
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Re: Redrob V's Abbey
