what?

I am not great with spreadsheets (well computers in general really) and prefer to handwrite my schedule of charges. Just about to calculate statutory interest for court claim, and I notice your calculator only goes up to 31/12/2006.Unless you can point me to another one somewhere else on site, could you update it please? Thanks.

I paid over the counter at my village post office, cash and paying-in slip.Had'nt gone back to the PO as I thought it was a matter for A&l, but I'll see what they say about it tomorrow. Thanks for your comments.

Hi everyone, this is'nt a bank charges question, I'm claiming back from Natwest and have opened a parachute account with A&L but it's all going rather pear-shaped. I wonder if anyone can advise me on this please? New account is online, can use post office to pay in cash/cheques. Did'nt read info., properly and used paying-in slip in back of chequebook to deposit cash through PO.Trouble is, you're only supposed to use these to deposit cheques.Money still has'nt appeared in account, despite ringing every other day, and faxing copy of my receipt which clearly shows amount and correct account no.,6 days after depositing.Two days after they received the fax they assured me it would be looked into as an urgent matter. That was 10 days ago. I have been informed by a variety of staff on a number of calls that; it takes about 10 days to look into these matters;that their system is down so they can't look at the notes; that rest assured I won't incur any charges if I go into the red as I'm still in the "changing over phase" (they still returned first cheque I wrote to the payee though).;that you'd be surprised how often cash/cheques get lost in the system(!!!!!); that there is a dept.just dealing with all the lost cash and cheques.All this information is supposed to reassure me that they know what they are doing?!The last straw was yesterday when I rang to find out if a manager had rung me as promised the day before, to be met with a load of waffle from someone who did'nt appear to have anything on screen at all about this, and no-one could help me because it was a Sunday!! That made me mad! I told him to record that I was making an complaint to the Banking Ombudsman if the money was'nt in my account by midday Tuesday, followed by a visit to my local police station to report the matter on the grounds of being defrauded of £80 by A&L. Can anyone tell me if there is something I can say/do that will push the right buttons asap? Any help gratefully received. Thanks, Karen.

Thanks WendyB, I had'nt thought of ringing them, just putting everything in writing. I will put letter in post to them anyway, and ring them in the morning and see what they have to say.

Hi people, I have already asked this question , but I'm hoping someone in the know can give me a specific answer.Bank threatening default, been given a really good letter to respond with, but thinking ahead, and not wanting collectors turning up at the door(£120 to collect said chequebook/card) where do I stand on this surrendering thingy?I should explain that I wrote an urgent letter to the bank on the 25th April when I saw charges were building up. I said that I was extremely concerned, had cancelled what D/Ds I could, would they contact me to try to sort something out.After hearing nothing for a couple of days I went into my local branch (where I had hand delivered the letter) to ask if they had any response to my letter. The very nice customer services officer went off to find out and came back to say that the letter had been sent off to the dept. dealing with bank charges. I pointed out that the letter was not about claiming bank charges but was a specific request for assistance from my local branch.So I would not consider that good service. They were unable to help me further and said I would get a response to my letter. No response has come, so the way I look at it, the bank has chosen to ignore my request to discuss the matter before it got totally out of control(bank charges of approx.£150 between 1st-25th April) and waited until I started action to reclaim charges on 2nd May(by which time the bank charges had risen to over£500)Not only that, but my local branch chose not to deal personally with a long-standing customer, but to pass the buck. So if Natwest think that the charges are for providing a service, it's not very good is it? Unfortunately I did'nt keep a copy of the letter dated 25th April but I am thinking that if this gets to court I could get a personal witness summons on the customer services officer(who I presume would be under oath) to verify that I did present the letter and the action the local branch took.So going back to my original question, should I surrender the chequebook/card with a letter demonstrating that I am trying to be as cooperative as possible? Any thought, anyone please?

That's brilliant, thanks very much, I'll get the letter off to them in the morning.

Hi everyone, I'm preparing to send LBA and have received letter from Birmingham Collections Centre stating my account is seriously out of control, threatening default action and saying if I don't forward my cheque book and debit card immediately the collectors will be round and I'll be charged another £120 for the privilege! Natwest have another couple of days before Prelim. deadline is up, so I'm in two minds wether I should send them a letter now reminding them that they have been served Prelim. letter, or wait a couple of days and send LBA.I have done some more reading up, it seems I can add on the charges on my account since I sent Prelim.,I wonder though where I stand with the cheque book/card? I am happy to surrender them, after all I won't be using them anymore as I am using a pararchute account, but does that admit liability for the whole outstanding amount? How would I word a response to their threat of default action in the lba? Also, can anyone tell me what I can expect to happen if they are chasing me to pay up whilst claim is ongoing and I've stopped using the account?Any help would be wonderful. Thanks.

Hi everyone, I got back all of my bank charges and interest for a six year period up to end April 2006,and used it to pay up my mortgage arrears. Still have the overdraft which we live on permanently.The money came through into my account towards the end of the year. The thing is that I was still incurring charges whilst all that was going on. So now I have totted up the charges SINCE end April 2006, it comes to over £1000! I understand NatWest are paying up sooner than before, and as we are selling up to emigrate and start afresh, I want to get started asap.Has anyone taken action against Nat West more than once? We have been charged over £200 just this week alone, and my letter to the local branch a few days ago about the situation has not been answered yet. I am expecting them to close the account if I start a second claim. Any thoughts, anyone?Thanks, Karen.

I am claiming about £2,450 bank charges and about £500 interest from Natwest. Prior to making claim they offered about £800 goodwill payment. I refused this and continued with claim, they have filed defence and both sides have sent in allocation questionnaires. Now Ihave received another letter from Cobbetts offering us £1700 to withdraw the claim. Bearing in mind that I need to show the court that I have made every effort to settle before it goes to court, how should I word my response?I will decline the offer, and I want to say something to counter their stating that they "will draw this letter to the Court's attention on the basis that we hold the firm view that this offer is entirely reasonable in the circumstances." They also stipulate that a condition of accepting their offer is to agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment. Any thoughts,anyone?

Thanks Sid.

Hi all, I am going to ask a REALLY stupid question. I have read and re-read forums, library, threads etc. Which set of letter templates do I use for claiming against the credit card company? I'm through to the stage of submitting AQ to the court in my claim against the Natwest, so I'm familiar with the bank templates. Now we're going after the credit card, which is in hubby's name. Do I just amend the wording on the bank templates? Also, how about mortgage early redemption charges? Any letters/guidance for those please? Thanks very much for your help guys.

That's encouraging to hear. I'm just hoping somebody will be able to answer for me the questions I've raised as I don't want to give the bank any excuse to have my claim thrown out.

Due to a backlog of work/staff shortcuts at my local court, it's been 2 weeks since the Natwest filed their defence, and I'm still waiting for the allocation questionnaire to be sent to me. I've done as much reading(and re-reading) on this website as I can, and you know what it's like, you begin to wonder if you really have done everything by the book, crossed the "t"s, dotted the "i"s, etc.Couple of questions please. Firstly,the guidance notes for filling out the AQ seem straightforward, but should I copy any documents to submit with it,like copies of statutes and acts, that sort of thing? Also, when I prepared my claim by hand,as my printer was'nt working, I VERY carefully and methodically wrote out a schedule of charges. This was headed with all the account details as per the spreadheets. I then set out in columns the dates of the charges, the amount of each charge and then the interest accrued per charge (I used the interest calculator).I did'nt state what type of charge or the number of days interest has been accrued. Looking back now, I'm wondering if I should have included this additional detail? If I should have, could I submit a revised schedule with the AQ and forward copy to Natwest? Any help with this would be SOOO gratefully received.

Thanks very much, I'm so relieved.