I've got to admit I'm scared about claiming against RBS. I am asking for just over £7k back including contractual interest at 28%. They have not even acknowledged my claim or LBA and more than 2 weeks have now passed since the LBA was sent.

I think I've got a few choices, ideally I want to do it myself and get the full amount but I really don't want to risk costs. I should mention I live in Scotland and this is a Scottish bank so I don't think I can go through the English system unless option 3 is a goer.

1) File a claim against them in the Sheriff court for the full amount and hope they don't turn up to defend the claim.

2) Use the Financial Ombudsman Service. I phoned them up today and asked a few questions. The guy was friendly and helpful but said that they would only look at 8% interest and also the claim could take 4-5 months.

3) Ask my brother in law who lives in England if I can use his address for for a moneyclaim online and issue a claim for £5k. I would be happy with this as charges are £3.5k and interest at 28% is £3.5K so I could accept a lower amount which I would still be delighted with. (However I am not sure if this is legal and if I need to advise the bank this is my new address, also he is a company director and would not want mail coming to his house for me from the bank as I currently owe them about £3k)

4) Issue two summary cause claims of £1500, 1 for each account,(Hopefully the court won't see this as an abuse of process) This would be a last resort as it would mean getting the lowest possible return

5) Use a solicitor or a firm advertising for bank charge business. PAying 14-25% of £7000 might be annoying but it might be better than option 4 although what if I lose, they won't take a fee but it might mean I can't contest it again myself.

I appreciate all advice given and will make a reasoned decision if I can get a few good opinions. Apologies for the length of the post.

Many Thanks

John

I think this is a call you have to make yourself. From what i understand the courts will only do 8% interest so if it goes to court that might be the only option re interest you get.... I personally think that changing course/tact at this point would show the bank doubt and also in court would should doubt.... i am no judge/lawyer tho, i prefer microbes.

StyX

Thanks Mate

Anyone else got any other opinions??

John

Personaly I would have stuck to basic charges only, but its your decision. Read the mcuth thread to see the many problems you will be faced with claiming C.I. I think you will find that firms offering to take on your claim may only go for basic charges, with 8% if it goes to court.

I reckon options 3 & 4 are no go. Try phoning or e-mailing bank

Thanks

1) File a claim against them in the Sheriff court for the full amount and hope they don't turn up to defend the claim.

Very risky because of the fact you are in Scotland. From what I gather from the large collection of experienced Scottish people that are appearing in RBS at the moment, this isn't even worth considering. Have a read of a few of them if you can find them, there is plenty of debate going on.....SEAHORSE, ALPHA, ATLANTIC, DANGLER8 & SUPERWARD are just a few I can think of who are currently claiming against RBS and have had quite detailed discussions on their approach to this.

2) Use the Financial Ombudsman Service. I phoned them up today and asked a few questions. The guy was friendly and helpful but said that they would only look at 8% interest and also the claim could take 4-5 months.

Right now this sounds like your best and possibly only option. Your only problem being is that you are currently asking for CI. Did you ask the FOS what would happen because you are already claiming CI if you were to drop it from your claim? Would there be any issues doing this? I believe you also have to have had 8 weeks since you sent your complaint before the FOS will look at your claim

3) Ask my brother in law who lives in England if I can use his address for for a moneyclaim online and issue a claim for £5k. I would be happy with this as charges are £3.5k and interest at 28% is £3.5K so I could accept a lower amount which I would still be delighted with. (However I am not sure if this is legal and if I need to advise the bank this is my new address, also he is a company director and would not want mail coming to his house for me from the bank as I currently owe them about £3k)

Aside from the fact you would somehow have to amend your address but not get your mail sent there, I think you need to be at an address for a certain amount of time before being able to use it though I'm not sure this is definitely true, just remember reading this elsewhere on the forums - something you are going to have to investigate.

The major issue with this idea is how would you reduce it to 5 grand? You can't simply drop some of the charges in order to fit within the small claims limit! Doing it this way you would most certainly have to go for the full amount as chopping your claim could be seen as vexacious and the bank could apply for a strike out. You are also abusing the system so it could potentially be struck out for that I guess. Assuming you can get round the mail bit (and the length of time at address bit isn't true), this option (let's call it option 6) could be a possibilty though I'm not sure what implications there are if you move address so close to filing. Again, something for you to research.

4) Issue two summary cause claims of £1500, 1 for each account,(Hopefully the court won't see this as an abuse of process) This would be a last resort as it would mean getting the lowest possible return

Agree with Dangler8 on this one. Scottish courts are wising up to this. It IS an abuse of the system and future claims are being struck out. You stand to lose £5k+ doing this. This is a no go IMO.

5) Use a solicitor or a firm advertising for bank charge business. PAying 14-25% of £7000 might be annoying but it might be better than option 4 although what if I lose, they won't take a fee but it might mean I can't contest it again myself.

I would stress that a NWNF company will not do anything that you can't do yourself. They won't hold any more weight than you and the risks are still the same. Again, I agree with previous posters....they are only going to go for what they think they can achieve and if they amend your claim, you are open to the same problems as I've said previously.

IMO, you've dropped a clanger by going for CI in Scotland but hindsight's a wonderful thing! Bear in mind if they offer you the full amount of charges back less any interest you are going to have to accept it whatever happens. I think your best bet is to go through the FOS but you are going to have to amend your claim in order to do this. How you are going to do this is another question. I don't know whether you will get away with simply going through the FOS NOW and simply reducing 28% to 8% or whether it would be in your interest to send them a letter telling them you will be withdrawing your claim for the time being and will contact them again shortly then start the process again from scratch less CI.

What you could do for the time being is send them another letter saying you are aware of backlogs at present as you are a member of CAG and note from other people's posts that this is the case and you will therefore allow them a further week to resolve this. The key now is getting any sort of offer out of them. I'm a bit concerned you haven't received ANY response at all.....perhaps they're confident you aren't in a good position? Might be worth emailing them to see if a response is imminent? At least one of the guys above has emailed them if I recall rightly.

here's my happeny's worth ...for what it's worth!!

No matter where you live, if you're thinking of claiming CI then have a really good and thorough read of Mcuth vs RBoS (search under "mcuth"). From what i have read his attempted (and successful) claim was one, or rather the, most audacious claim I have ever seen but he was forced to drop the CI part by RBS's solicitors Cobbetts.

The address issues with getting around the Scottish legal system are complicated - but I have a feeling that you might have little option other than to change your address in favour of your brother-in-law who lives in England. Though not ideal - it would get around this problem of "which" legal system as it does seem a lot tougher to claim back under Scottish jurisdiction.

T4FF did mention about potential strike out of claim to to RBS feeling you are being vexacious. T4FF warned me of potential for similar outcome for a claim I filed on Friday (albeit am revising at the moment) because in my case I missed off the overdraft interest component by accident and oversight (for which I am still kicking myself)........ but again you do want to be super careful about making substantial changes to either a claim or within the process (i.e. between your 2 LBA's and the legal claim itself). A single strike out would finish everything for you ..... in an instant.... so you are risking a lot making any changes and you'd have to really justify those changes if you are prepared to risk the entire claim on basis of potential strike out. Part of the reason why RBS employ Cobbetts (their solicitors) in first place is to "get rid" of as many claims as is possible...... so a strike out would amount to you handing yourself to them on a plate. From what I have read on all the other threads once you have filed your claim into the court system then you'll be fighting tooth and nail with the three way negotiations (you against RBS *and* Cobbetts) anyway......

Good luck....... I really do hope you get everything back..... I think part of reason why I have written so much now is I am really quite nervous myself as have literally just filed at the Central London County Court!!

Thanks

I've gone for the ombudsman route and tried to explain why I think I am due contractual interest. Trying to appeal to his better nature. In the meantime, I chased up RBS by phone and they said they had input a date in July for replying to me by mistake. They are chasing it up and will make an offer although I bet it's not as good as I would like it to be.

John

I read of a similar situation with someone else in Scotland - where they lacked the confidence and were held back by the £750 single claim restriction......

It is a shame....because the consumer is at the behest of the banks it is unlikely you'll get situations like this happening (click link): Customer sends bailiffs in to seize bank's computers | the Daily Mail