Hi there, just to clarify - I haven't heard of anyone losing against any bank. I haven't heard of any going as far as court. When I said that before I won I was worrying because it didn't seem that people were winning against RBS I just meant that I couldn't find anyone online who had actually won. I think that is probably because most people don't need to come back to the forums once they have won and because there is normally a confidentiality agreement as part of the settlement. I hope I didn't put anyone off, it definately works, I am proof of that.

Hello all, Just to answer a few of your questions: I directed all my pre-court correspondence to my branch in Scotland. I sent it recorded delivery and my branch were kind enough to telephone me and leave messages letting me know the progress of each letter. So from that point of view I can say that the RBS at least at branch level, have been good. The branch had to send each of my letters to head office and await a response from them. When it came to the court stage I used the English online court system (Moneyclaim) as I live in England. In order to use this system you need to have an English address for the bank so after a few postings on here trying to clarify the correct English address for the bank and a telephone call to direct banking to confirm it, I submitted a claim against the English address. Since then my correspondence has been from them and I will therefore write back to them (1 Princes Street London EC2R 8PB). My claim was for less than £700. I specifically tried to keep it to the charges that I knew they couldn't defend in court. i.e. I only claimed for charges they made for things that they had not paid - cheques, direct debits etc. I did not include the charges for going over my overdraft as these were only £10 each and I felt the bank might be able to defend them as, if I went over my overdraft, essentially they were covering the money. Another reason for keeping my amount low was that I didn't know if it would go through the English or the Scottish court system and I believe that to qualify for the small claims court in Scotland (and therefore not have to cover the other parties costs if you lose) the amount has to be less than £750. With regards to the interest I definately didn't get 24% I might have got the 8%, but, and this will REALLY make you laugh, I can't find the cheque they sent me !!! :) so at the moment I can't check this for you. If you really need to know how much interest I was paid I will try to work it out for you. I think I did get the 8% but I think that I worked it out in a way that benefitted the banks. I just worked out 8% of the amount I was claiming and added this onto my claim amount. I'm not very good at sums and suspect that I could have squeezed more out of them. Sorry to rant on but I thought these details might help you. I'm afraid I won't be posting the exact figures even when I find that cheque as I suspect that some of you are spies for the RBS (I know I am the eternal conspiracy theorist!) and don't want to make it TOO easy for people 'on the inside' to be able to work out who I am!!! Good luck everyone. If I can be of any help let me know.

I am in England. I filed my moneyclaim online court action and they innitially filed a defence. I waited nervously and after about 10 days a cheque arrived. Good luck.

Bookworm, you are a genius! I wrote a letter with similar wording to yours and received a reply today saying that they had removed the conditions on my settlement. I have to admit I felt a wierd and possibly dangerous sense of power!!!! Mrs M, just to clarify for you - I won at the moneyclaim online stage. About a week to ten days after I started my claim online I received a cheque from the bank.

Hi there, I presume you are sending the letters which are provided in the library section of this website. (if not, go to the top of this page, click the consumer action group link to take you out of this forum and then click on the templates library link. Assuming you are using the templates provided by this site, the letter that you send before court action is called 'Preliminary approach for repayment'. Once you have sent this letter you have given the bank 14 days to respond before you take court action. They will probably send you a letter offering slightly less than half of what you are claiming. I wrote and rejected the partial offer, as most people do. When the fourteen days from the date of your Preliminary approach for repayment have elapsed you can start a claim with the online courts system (moneyclaim). The web link is www.moneyclaim.gov I think. If I have it wrong just google moneyclaim and you will get it. The site is self explanatory. It is the online court system for England. You will need to pay to use the service but the bank will refund this amount along with your claim. As I said earlier, the address for the Royal Bank of Scotland doesn't come up but I can assure you that it is RBS Group Litigation, 1 Princes Street, London, EC2R 8PB. If you are not sure if you are at this stage, just read the letter you last sent them and if it has the 14 day deadline at the bottom of the page, then moneyclaim is your next step. If it doesn't have this 14 day bit, then you need to send them a letter with this bit in it next. I hope that helps.

Hi there, Thanks everyone for the advice. I am going to take bookworm's advice and then I will hopefully (if I still feel brave enough, as it is you must all agree, quite an embarrassing subject) go to my local paper. If I get into any trouble I will come back and let people know so that other people don't make the same mistake. I do feel that as a matter of integrity, people should try to get the word out. It is the poorest people in society that banks have been levying this charge on. Sorry if I posted the same story on 4 threads. I just wanted to tell EVERYONE!! Good luck everyone and thank you for your advice. hostie

Hi natweststaffmember, It says in my letter: Acceptance by you of this goodwill payment will be in full and final settlement of your claim against the Bank and strictly on the basis that: you agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment; you write to the court withdrawing your claim. So I guess if I go to my local paper I can't cash the cheque as by cashing the cheque I am accepting their terms I guess. As for your idea vikiross - to go to the nationals, I am not sure that I am brave or brass necked enough to do that. I guess I just wanted to go to my local paper as I felt a local face would encourage people. Still not sure! Perhaps I'm not brave enough to go to the press. anyway in the big newspapers it is old news now. The Sunday Times had it on the front page on Sunday.

Hello everyone rather than post this individually I would just like to tell people that I won this week and got a cheque sent to me. Part of the deal is that I don't disclose this to a third party. I am wondering what can happen to me if I do? Does anyone know? I already put another thread up about going to my local paper to try to inspire other people to do the same but I am not sure how wise that would be. Perhaps I could be sued for breaching the contract. Anyway good luck everyone and don't worry IT DOES WORK!

Hi just to spread the news that I got my cheque this week so stick in there everyone - it does work.

Hello, I recently won and am thinking of not cashing my cheque so that I can go to my local paper and ask them to do a story. The main reason for this is that I feel that it is the poorest people in society who have been hardest hit by this and it is those same poor people who could benefit most from getting their money back. Sadly not everyone in that position will be as much of an internet nerd as me and I just thought that if people saw a local in the paper it would make them realise that it is possible. I'd obviously like to cash my cheque - at the end of the day it is, I feel, my money (apart from the portion that is ethically due to this site ) BUT it says in my letter that by accepting this 'goodwill payment' I agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment; Obviously if I went to a local paper it would not be for financial reasons. Any thought on this. If anyone knows a way round the confidentiality agreement that would help. I just wish I could tell everyone I know about the banks and this site and that it is possible. I already told the postie in rather a loud embarrasing voice when I got the cheque

Hi June, I got my cheque yesterday so stick in there - it DEFINATELY WORKS and a few people (me being one of them) seemed to be worrying that there weren't many people who were claiming against RBS that were winning. Well that was just nerves and I can confirm that after submitting a claim using moneyclaim online and waiting nervously (for 11 days to be precise), I received a cheque. I will shortly be donating a small portion of it to this helpful site... As for addresses - I used my branch address all the way through until the moneyclaim online stage and then as I live in England and wanted to use the English court system I used the London address: RBS, Group Litigation, 1 Princes Street, London EC2R 8PB If anyone else is using the above address in their online court case please note that it does not come up on the screen as The Royal Bank of Scotland. It comes up as NatWest so you have to persevere with the links to enter it manually and the links to 'select the correct address. This might sound wierd now but when you come to do it online it might help. Also I just want to let June above know that I didn't send my signature in the end and still received my cheque BUT it could be that there was no link between the bank asking me for my signature and them asking you for yours. As long as you signed the letter you sent to them you should be OK. Obviously if you forgot to sign the letter (and it might be worth phoning the bank to check that isn't the case) they probably won't be able to process it. I don't think that they could legally disclose the details of someone's account without a signature as it could be anyone. If you printed the letter off the computer you might have forgotten? If you have any queries you can pm me if you want. Now that I have a cheque in my hands I feel that I should help others to be in the same position.

PS I just want to add that I have started my court case and the RBS phoned me for my signature and said that it was unrelated. I said that I would provide it but now I think I should wait until the court dates have elapsed. Any advice?

This is very wierd! The Royal Bank have also asked me to sign a thing with my signature on it but they have said that it is for a separate matter (I am sending money to Brazil). Now I realise that they are probably just pretending that it is not related to my court case but that they want these signatures for something legal. Any thoughts anyone? It does seem too much of a co-incidence that they are asking us for updated signatures.

OK thanks, I will do the same

Oh I also wanted to let the moderators know that I tried to get my case put on the litigation thread but I think Bankfodder is on holiday and is not accepting personal messages and Dave's PM box is full. I don't know how important it is to the system that they have this info.