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Hi, is there anyone out there who can help me, I am new to this and need a little guidence.
I held a credit card with Egg which I defaulted on in 2005, I have since satisfied this. So my account is closed.
I wrote to egg requesting details of all charges on 8/2/2007 and they were very good in providing with this information.
10/04/07 - Sent Letter requesting that they pay back £360
12/04/07 - acknowledgment of complaint recieved
15/04/07 - today i recieved the follwoing letter - this has put me off a bit!
Re: Request for repayment of charges — Account number
462785**********
Thank you for your letter dated 10 April 2007.
1. Your Credit Card agreement (‘the Agreement”) with Egg Banking plc (“Egg”) clearly states that charges will be added to your account if you exceed your Credit Limit or fail to make your contractual payments. In accordance with condition 7 of the Agreement, a charge of £20 (or since August 2006, a reduced charge of £16) has been added to your account each time you exceeded your Credit Limit or failed to make a payment.
2. You allege that these charges are a penalty. You have put forward no evidence to support this allegation and we do not accept it. As explained in our previous letter, the charges set out in the Agreement are a genuine pre-estimate of the loss caused to Egg when a customer breaks the terms of their Agreement.
3. You may have followed recent media coverage of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation into default charges. The OFT stated that a default charge could only be used to recover certain limited administrative costs. These may include postage and stationery costs and staff costs and also a proportionate share of the costs of maintaining premises and IT systems necessary to deal with defaults.
The OFT set a threshold for intervention of £12 but stated that default fees should not be equivalent to the threshold. The OFT stated that the presumption of unfairness in relation to charges over £12 would NOT apply where exceptional business factors apply and specifically referred to Egg’s practice of requiring all customers to pay the minimum monthly payment by direct debit as an example. The OFT acknowledged that in those circumstances, a card issuer may be able to set a fair default charge above the threshold of £12.
4. Following the conclusion of this investigation, the OFT indicated that it would not proceed further against Egg on the basis that Egg reduced its charges from £20 to £16. Without any admission in relation to the previous level of charges, Egg has reduced the charges accordingly. This reduction does not apply retrospectively, but in your case we are prepared, without any admission of liability, to apply the reduction to the £20 charges. If this is acceptable to you, we will credit your account with a total of £72.00 (being £4 per default charge applied to your account, on the basis of 18 defaults.
5. The above offer is available for 14 days after which it will be automatically withdrawn. An Acceptance form is enclosed for you to sign and return, together with a pre-paid envelope for your use. You should retain the second copy for your records.
6. If you have any concerns relating to information held about you by a Credit Reference Agency you should contact the agency directly. Egg uses the following agencies:
a) Equifax (Equifax File Centre, P0 Box 1140, Bradford, BD1 5US)
b) Experian (P0 Box 8000, Nottingham, NG1 5EX)
c) Call Credit (1 Park Lane, Leeds, LS3 1EP)
If there is anything in this letter that you wish to discuss or needs further explanation, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the contact details at the side of this letter. Alternatively my direct number is 08007 834 393 ext 6156.
You now have six months from the date of our resolution to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service — further details are available on www.financial-ombudsman.orc~.uk. A copy of their leaflet is available, so please contact us if you would like one sent to you.
Yours sincerely
Ema Clayton
Customer Relations Adviser
Egg plc
The problem i have is with paragraph 2 about evidence. What evidence do i have to put forward? £72 is a joke.
Is there any advice for the next step? and how i go about making my case
You don't have to put forward evidence - they have to prove that the charges are fair. Which they won't, because they aren't. Press on and you'll get your cash.
I respectfully decline your offer of settlement and request, once again, that you return to me the charges imposed on this account that I specified, totaling £xx (excluding statutory interest).
If, as your letter appears to imply, £16.00 reflects a genuine pre-estimate of the loss caused to EGG for each incidence of exceeding my credit limit or for an unpaid direct debit, then I request that you provide me with a Breakdown of how this amount has been calculated. In the absence of such a breakdown I will continue to believe these charges do not reflect your true costs and are therefore unlawful.
I will therefore accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remaining £xx, with a county court claim if necessary. Should such a claim be necessary I will also be seeking interest at the statutory rate, which I calculate as currently totaling £xx, court costs and any other costs I incur in recovering this money from you. I sincerely hope that such action will not be necessary and am genuine in my desire to reach an amicable settlement with you without recourse to the courts.
My Request for Repayment letter dated 26/3/2007 indicates that you have until 12/4/07 to respond before I proceed to the next stage of my request. My deadline remains the same despite your offer.
For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to stress that I do not accept your offer under the terms stated in your letter.
1. We view our terms and conditions as fair and in particular the charges levied pursuant to Section 7,1 of your credit agreement (“the Agreement”) with Egg Banking plc (“Egg”) to be a genuine pre-estimate of loss rather than a penalty.
2. Notwithstanding our view, in the particular circumstances of your case
we put forward the following settlement proposal:
(a) Without any admission of liability and on a purely commercial and ex gratia basis we will within 14 days of your acceptance of this proposal by return of the enclosed acceptance form (see paragraph
(b) below) pay you £360.00 in Full and final settlement of your complaint and of all claims, rights, actions and causes of action (including claims for interest and costs) you may have against Egg arising out of or in connection with your complaint. As you will appreciate this is the full amount of your complaint broken down as follows:
(i) £360 for charges
(b) As your acceptance of the proposal you will sign and return to us the acceptance form.
(c) The terms of the settlement shall remain confidential between the parties and their legal advisers save that the same may be
disclosed:
(i) To the extent necessary for the purposes of enforcement of the settlement; and
(ii) To any Court, government or other authority to the extent necessary for compliance with a lawful obligation by the party disclosing it and to the extent necessary to any professional adviser to that party in connection with the giving or receiving of advice in relation to such disclosure.
3 The above proposal will remain open for acceptance for 14 days from the date of this letter after which it will be automatically withdrawn.
If there is anything in this letter that you wish to discuss or needs further explanation, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the contact details at the side of this letter. Alternatively my direct number is 08007 834 393, ext 6156.
You now have six months from the date of our resolution to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service — further details are available on www.financial-ombudsman.orq.uk. A copy of their leaflet is available, so please contact us if you would like one sent to you.
Mr Bump, I didn't cross out the full & final settlement bit because they have agreed to pay me the full amount I was claiming for, looks like they have done the same with Inndyfox99. I thought if they offer you the full amount, there is nothing else you can claim for?
The only bit i crossed out in the letter was the bit about it staying confidential.
xx
I suppose if you're happy with the money and haven't asked for interest then it doesn't really matter - I'd say it was unreasonable for them to impose this though, in principle.
Well done you guys, I am at exactly the same stage and hope they will settle just as quickly, I sent my partial acceptance of the pitiful £76 against my £380 claim on 17th April, so am waiting with eager anticipation! Do you think the email sped things up, perhaps that is way forward for all future correspondence, followed up by a hard copy letter.
The roll call continues ... just got home to collect post and received my confirmation letter that they have agreed to repay me my £380. Same letter as IndyFoxx.
Can you add me to the victory list .
Yippeee - Next HSBC, HALIFAX & Bank of Scotland awaiting outcome of lba whilst preparing MCOL ...
Indyfox99 v egg NEED HELP
which I defaulted on in 2005, I have since satisfied this. So my account is closed.
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Re: Indyfox99 v egg NEED HELP
Re: Indyfox99 v egg NEED HELP
