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Having begun a claim against Barclays, the judge ordered a preliminary hearing for February 9th. Barclays wrote to me about a week before saying that if I withdrew my claim in writing copying them in they would refund me the full amount. The letter said they would credit this money to my account.
As I no longer have a bank account with them, I contacted the person in the legal dept on the letter who said to simply send the acceptance back with a note that I would need to be paid by cheque. 2 weeks later, no cheque. Phone up, told to email the details. Email the details and ask for email confirmation that it has been sorted. No response to email in 2 weeks. Phone again - get voicemail. Leave message saying if not sorted out I will take them to court again. No response and have just sent them a new letter before action.
Whether my experience is down to deviousness or incompetence, I do not know...I have experienced plenty of both from Barclays in my time.
My advice would be - if they offer to settle out of court, only do it on your terms - i.e. only agree to drop yout court case once you are actually in receipt of the money.
You could apply to have your original claim restored, rather than starting again, using form N244.
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Any advice or opinion is offered informally & without liability. Use your own judgment and if in doubt seek advice of a qualified and insured professional.
drop your court case once you are actually in receipt of the money.
Hmmm Bad luck,
Yes, this is the rule that is set in stone on this site. DO NOT TRUST THEM - DO NOT STOP PROCEEDINGS UNTIL YOU ARE IN RECEIPT OF CLEARED FUNDS FOR THE FULL AMOUNT.
did you put in your letter to the court that they had offered to pay?
If so, contact the court and inform them they are refusing to settle.
If you have the letter from Barclays with the offer, send a copy to the court,
They may allow you to continue.
Ah! And these are the people who said to me when I refused to discontinue my claim until I actually had the money, in case they did precisely that: "We wouldn't do such a thing, you'll have to trust us on that!". I didn't. Looks like I was right.
Apologies to people who I was in the process of helping, I may be gone some time.
Well, to be fair I should have expected it from Barclays. The TV programme the other day just confirmed everything I knew about them anyway. Not a fan of big banks in general but I have always found Barclays particularly appalling.
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Any advice or opinion is offered informally & without liability. Use your own judgment and if in doubt seek advice of a qualified and insured professional.
I'm afraid this is another sad tale of our intrinsic engineering which makes us assume we can "trust" the banks.
As an analogy...if a thief picked your pocket in the street and took your wallet, and you said - "hey that's a bit of a stinky trick, but if you give it back, I won't poke you in the eye"
And the thief says...
"Oh all right then"
and then he pokes his tongue out at you and runs away with your wallet..........would you be surprised?
I asked the court if there was a way to re-open the old claim and they said no..I'd need to start a new claim. So I started a new claim but instead of claiming on the basis that the charges were unlawful, I claimed on the basis of offer and acceptance. Barclays offered me a settlement to the old claim, I accepted and they didn't pay up...therefore they owed me the money.
The claim was for the original settlement amount (charges+interest+court fee) and I slapped on the second court fee and further interest. Barclays filed a defence based on the legality of the charges. I informed the judge that I felt their defence was irrelevant as this second claim was based on offer and acceptance and had nothing to do with whether charges were lawful or not....and....
The judge has struck out the Barclays defence and made a judgement in my favour without me even having to go to court!! I am now on the case with Barclays, threatening bailiffs and they are promising me a cheque within a few days. .
I offer help and advice in good faith, based on my knowledge and experience. I am NOT a legal or financial expert. There are many CAG members and site team who are better qualified. Please do not make major decisions based on my advice alone.I do not give advice via P.M's. If anyone can correct my mistakes or improve on my advice, please do.
Congrats! Hope cheque arrives soon Would be poetic to see the baliffs though
nickyc
nickyc
26.06.07 Prelim letter sent
02.07.07 Acknowledgement received
12.07.07 LBA sent
28.07.07 Received Barclays standard OFT letter
29.07.07 Lost it :?
14.08.07 Recovered and back on track
3 Active Claims:
Barclays Refund of Bank Charges (Sole account) - Applied to lift court ordered Stay
Barclays Refund of Bank Charges (Joint account) - Awaiting court date
Barclays Refund of Bank Charges (Joint account) Pre-6 yrs- LBA sent.
3 Wins : Barclays t/a The Woolwich (Data Protection Act breach costs & compliance) HSBC (on behalf of brother)
Settled Out of Court - £3,874.76 Alliance & Leicester (on behalf of friend)
Settled Out of Court - £723.41
Cheque received!! Depending on the outcome of the forthcoming OFT test case, I'd advise anyone who has been offered settlement and not received it to consider going down the route I did.
Basically, Barclays request when they offer you settlement that you drop your original case so stick to your part of the bargain and do so. Then give them a week to pay. If they don't, send an lba on the basis that they offered you the money and you accepted so they are bound by contract law (offer and acceptance = contract). If they don't pay, take them back to court on the basis of breach of contract..they offered the money, you accepted and they didn't pay.
I won my case on this basis. The judge struck out Barclays defence which was based on the legality of the charges (nothing to do with offer and acceptance) and ruled in my favour for full amount plus interest and court fee.
Please note that I am not qualified to give legal advice but I did a bit of contract law at uni, and going down this route has worked for me.
Successful Claimants - Warning *** WON ***
, the judge ordered a preliminary hearing for February 9th. Barclays wrote to me about a week before saying that if I withdrew my claim in writing copying them in they would refund me the full amount. The letter said they would credit this money to my account.
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Originally Posted by GaryH
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