mcuth v RBoS ***WON***

[mcuth]

Sent off a DPA request today for charges on an old current account & credit card. I think it's within 6 years anyway, but I've asked for details since inception

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Received an "interesting" reply from Joyce Tudor at NatWest's Retail Regulatory Risk dept (I obviously missed it when NatWest & RBoS merged!):

 

Dear {mcuth}

DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998

 

I write to you with regards to your recent letter requesting Subject Access under the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

We are unable to locate your account with the information given (Account XXXXXXXX and Credit Card XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, both with Westcot Credit Services). We would be grateful if you could write advising us of your account number(s) and sort code or branch name.

 

In the meantime we acknowledge receipt of your payment for £10.00 in respect of the fee.

 

If you have any problems please do not hesitate to call me at the above number.

 

Yours sincerely

 

I should note that my DPA request included the Current Account number (though not the sort code, as I don't have that), the Credit Card number, the DCA details & reference numbers, and a couple of addresses from the times the account was opened :rolleyes:

 

So, I guess this is my reply:

 

Dear Ms Tudor

DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998 – SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST

Your reference XXXXXX

Thank you for your letter of 23rd June, received on Saturday, regarding the above request.

I note that you ask for the account numbers, but these were already supplied in my DPA request letter of 12th June – this was sent to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Data Controller, but it is confusing to receive a NatWest headed letter after sending correspondence to RBoS!

The accounts were both with the Royal Bank of Scotland:

Current Account - account number XXXXXXXX - Westcot Credit ref: XXXXXXXX

Credit Card - card number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - Westcot Credit ref: XXXXXXXX

I believe the Current Account could well have been opened at the {branch} (sort code XX-XX-XX), but could not guarantee this.

The accounts would’ve been opened when I lived in Hertfordshire – since I’m unsure of the exact date, here are some addresses that the accounts were highly likely to have been at least serviced from:

[Address]

[Address]

[Address]

 

Since moving from Hertfordshire, I lived at [Address], before moving to my current address.

The above account numbers were given by Westcot Credit as the “Client Reference Numbers” in their case references XXXXXXXX & XXXXXXXX. As I have never received a Deed of Assignment, Westcot Credit must still be acting on behalf of RBoS in collecting these accounts - may I respectfully suggest that you contact them for further information if you still have difficulties locating the accounts?

I hope the above information helps and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Sending the following reminder shot across the bows today:

 

Joyce E Tudor

Retail Regulatory Risk

National Westminster Bank PLC

2nd Floor Business House B

PO Box 1000

Edinburgh

EH12 1HQ

By Royal Mail Special Delivery

Dear Ms Tudor

Section 7 DATA PROTECTION ACT 1998 – SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST

Your reference XXXXXX

Current Account - account number XXXXXXXX - Westcot Credit ref: XXXXXXXX

Credit Card - card number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - Westcot Credit ref: XXXXXXXX

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Further to my Subject Access Request (‘SAR’) of 12th June, your letter of 23rd June and my reply of 26th June (copy enclosed for reference).

At the time of writing, you have failed to comply with my Data Protection Act (‘DPA’) SAR dated 12th June 2006. You are reminded that under the DPA, you have 40 days from receipt of the SAR to provide the requested information – the 40 days expires on Saturday 22nd July 2006, as advised in my SAR.

 

I am willing to extend this deadline by 7 working days (i.e. to Tuesday, 1st August, 2006) to allow you further time to provide the requested information. Should you still have failed to comply by that time, I shall seek a Court order obliging you to do so, together with damages at the discretion of the Court, and without any further notice.

I should note that the cheque I sent with the request has not yet been banked – since I made my SAR, the account I issued the cheque on has been closed. Thus, I enclose a Postal Order in the sum of £10 to cover the statutory fee.

Yours sincerely,

{mcuth}

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Filed a Data Protection Act section 7 S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) non-compliance complaint with the Information Commissioner today - figured I have a bit of time on my hands and an N1 can always come later....

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Spoke to the ICO yesterday - apparently they're now dealing with cases submitted on 12th July So, in another month they may get around to this....

 

I did check whether this process would exclude me from taking court action, and it doesn't

 

I'll let it run its course for a while and see what happens....

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[gargoil]

The first letter you got back asking for further details I also received for one of my accounts with BOS. I was kinda busy with my other accounts and banks so never replied. A couple of weeks ago I sent an email through to the customer relations email address in the sticky BOS contacts post. I then just decided to phone up about it. Got through to customer relations and got a very helpful guy. He apologised for it not being received. I spent about 15 minutes on the phone to him as he eventually found the account while I was on the line. He requested the info and said that it would be out to me within a few days. I wasn't that hopeful but I received it within a week. He did say to me while i was waiting that BOS are prioritising the requests that are over the 40 day limit as they are "swamped"(his words!). Might be worth phoning through about thi sto get someone pull the finger out!!

[mcuth]

Thanks for that gargoil - I'm not going to give them the chance though, complaint is with the ICO, and the only other action I'll be taking is to decide on whether to take court action to force them to act quicker

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Received a reply from the ICO stating that although they don't believe a formal investigation is required, it's clear that RBoS's failure to comply within 40 days is a breach of the 6th Data Protection Principle ("Personal data shall be processed win accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act").

 

The ICO will be informing RBoS of the outcome of their assessment and instructing them to respond to my SAR in full with immediate effect.

 

Not quite sure how long this gives RBoS to comply, but the ICO case is now closed as a result of this :rolleyes:

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Spoke with the chap at the ICO today, as I've not heard anything from RBoS since his letter of 12th September, when he'd written to them requesting immediate action.

 

We had a chat about the upsurge in SARs, and I told him I was a member of CAG, so I was aware of this, but at the same time RBoS & NatWest are the only organisations that have failed to respond to a SAR out of all the requests I've made. He said they're most likely overworked - in which case, I said, I could understand a response being late by a few days, but not taking 4 months with absolutely nothing received! Quite frankly, I said, they're taking the p**s as Data Controllers.

 

In his letter of 12th Sept, he also asked them to reply to him explaining why I didn't get a response to my request, and gave them 4 weeks to reply to him. So I think we're going to wait & see what they come back to him with first before deciding next actions. I have a feeling that eventually 2 N1s are going to be raised - one to supply the information, and the other as an estimated charges claim for £5000

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Well surprise surprise, today I received a special delivery packet.....all my Current Account & Credit Card statements from RBoS There are some statements missing from my Credit Card account though, but those are from over 7 years ago, so not going to go on those too much.

 

Both accounts go back to 1999, and that's how far I'll be claiming back. Have now completed my first calculations, and I'm amazed.

 

Current Account charges come to £2480 (inc the Data Protection Act fee of £10) with interest paid of £216.02 over the years - total £2696.02. If RBoS decide to do the same as everyone else and leave it until I issue a County Court Claim, the 8% interest comes to a whopping £1386.16 on the penalties and £118.42 on the interest - total of £1504.58. So there's a potential total of £4200.60

 

Credit Card charges come to £58.04 (I've calculated interest at their monthly rates too ) with potential 8% interest of £26.04

 

I'll be putting both together in one claim - initial total of £2754.06

 

Oh, the other good news is that it seems my Current Account overdraft was actually cleared back in 2004, but Westcot (the DCA) never told me - there's now over £500 in credit balance, so I'll be drawing that out on Monday!

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

While I've been toying with the idea of charging contractual interest on this, I noticed that in the spreadsheet I'd fallen for an old trick.... I entered my overdrawn balance on the date interest was charged, not the last day of the period that it was charged for - d'oh! Still, this means there's more overdraft interest to claim back

 

I'm also estimating pre-October 1999 charges on the credit card at a nominal £50.00

 

Now, the subject of contractual interest.......If I go for this, even at 15% (the lowest current RBoS Royalties Account authorised overdraft rate), it adds nearly £3k to the claim, which puts me over the £5k small claims limit :o I'm not sure if I want it to go to Fast Track on terms of costs liability (although I'm currently unemployed, so that might not be a bad thing)

 

Methinks this is going to be a big one

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Ok, I'm finally getting to the bottom of some of this mess created by Westcot Credit Services & RBoS.

 

1. The credit balance on my old Current Account:

Westcot Credit Services are collecting on 2 balances, the Credit Card and a loan, not the Current Account. They've never provided full details on either (and I never requested them because I didn't know better), and today ran into default on a s.77/78 CCA request.

I spoke with RBoS Credit Management Services (CMS) and got the details of the loan - apparently the way that RBoS handle the accounts is they treat them as one outstanding balance to the bank, and when the current account reaches the value of the loan, then the whole thing will be paid off So no, I couldn't withdraw the credit amount

 

2. DPA request:

Spoken to Joyce Tudor today and advised that I require statements on the Credit Card right back to the inception of the card. She said that "you can only claim your charges back for 6 years", to which I replied that that was the subject of some debate under the Statue of Limitations Act, but I still required all statements Also informed her that the 2nd account that I referred to in my request was actually the loan account (not the Current Account as previously informed) and gave her details of that - those statements are going to be supplied under the original DPA request

 

The recalc of charges & OD interest is £2470.00+£241.38 = £2711.38.

 

So, after all this messing around, I'm now determined to claim back contractual compound interest, which will also have the benefit of clearing all sums outstanding to the bank. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use the current unauthorised overdraft rate - i.e. 29.84%pa - this alone comes to... wait for it... £14530.14 :o Makes a total due of £17241.52

 

I've also decided to start separate claims for the loan (if needed) & credit card (I'm adding the DPA request to the Credit Card claim, in order to ease the calculation of interest!), so I'll start new threads for them when I'm ready :grin:

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Here we go then, this is my prelim letter, including the claim for contractual interest:

 

The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC

Customer Relations

Customer Central Support

First Floor

The Forthstone

56 South Gyle Crescent

Edinburgh

EH12 9LE

 

By Royal Mail Recorded Delivery, 1st Class

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

CURRENT ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXXXXX - SORT CODE XX-XX-XX

REQUEST FOR REFUND OF CHARGES

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund the charges which you have levied from the above account since inception. I now understand that the regime of fees which you have applied to my account in relation to card misuse, cheque/direct debit/standing order refusal, referral fees and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches of contract, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

 

I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore unrecoverable at Common Law. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498; the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This is also the position in English law: Wilson v Love [1896]; Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79; Ford Motor Co v Armstrong [1915]; Bridge v Campbell Discount Co. Ltd [1962]; Murray v Leisureplay [2004].

 

Your charges do not reflect any actual loss; instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. In particular, charges were applied after I entered into transactions without sufficient funds in my account. The actual loss is the cost of automatically sending me a computer generated letter which I would respectfully submit is valued at no more than 50 pence.

 

UK banks have recently given evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee on how bank charges are calculated: "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges" (2nd report, 25 January 2005, paragraph 50).

 

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of your loss in relation to my account. No-one has had to look at my account or telephone me. No one has had to collect anything. Your

charges would appear to represent a device to recover global losses (for example, loan defaulters, bad debt write off, including commercial lending in, and outwith, the UK).

 

On a separate note, your charges appear to represent an unfair term of contract which is contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI. 1999/2083). My account fall within the scope of Regulation 5 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as I am a consumer. Your charges constitute an unfair penalty under reference to paragraph 1(e) of schedule 2 of the said regulations:

 

‘Indicative and non-exhaustive list of terms which may be regarded as unfair - 1. Terms which have the

object of effect of - (e) requiring any consumer who fails his obligation to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation’.

 

0n 26 July 2005, the OFT stated that 'a charge is likely to be disproportionately high if it is more than a court would be likely to award if the lender sued the cardholder for breach of contract'. Because your charges include a large

profit margin, in addition to actual loss, they are unrecoverable as an unfair term in contract. I believe that your charges require me to pay a disproportionately high sum in compensation for incurring transactions which were ultimately declined by an automated computer system. In addition, it is unfair to require me to subsidise your global debt recovery costs and debt write-off.

 

It has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary. I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my Right until now.

 

What I require

 

I calculate that, as at today’s date, you have taken a total of £2,470.00 in charges plus £241.38 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken – a total of £2,711.38. In addition, I also claim Contractual Interest (compounded) under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity in our contract. As RBoS has taken unlawful charges from my account, this constitutes unauthorised borrowing – thus, the rate of Contractual Interest used is the bank’s unauthorised borrowing rate. The standard rate of unauthorised borrowing set by RBoS is 29.84% (see RBS: Current Accounts - Rates & charges), therefore this rate is added to the above amounts and the breakdown is shown on the enclosed schedule. I calculate the Contractual Interest element (to 23rd October 2006) at £14,530.14.

 

 

The grand total of the above is £17241.52 and I enclose 2 schedules showing the charges & contractual interest which I am claiming.

 

I request that you refund this amount in full, payable by cheque directly to me.

Targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and write on the assumption that you will prefer to do this rather than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

You have 10 working days, from receipt of this letter (i.e. by Tuesday, 7th November 2006), to reply unconditionally accepting my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action allowing a further 10 working days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments. After that will be no further communication from myself and I shall issue a County Court claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

I look forward to hearing from you by return.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

mcuth

Hold on to your hats, I think this one could get bumpy

 

 

 

BTW, in case anyone's wondering how the contractual compounded interest is calculated, I used mindzai's excellent spreadsheet for this task

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[weej]

Aye, best of luck mate. I'm sure Tommy Mac will choke on his prawn sandwich when he sees this one.

 

j

[mcuth]

Aye, best of luck mate. I'm sure Tommy Mac will choke on his prawn sandwich when he sees this one.

Thanks - yup, I think he'll be starting have some heart murmurs at this rate - especially if he reads my letter at the same time as livelylad's Isn't the effect of compound interest amazing - and the banks have been charging us it for years!

 

Edit: PS if a Mod comes across this thread, can you change the title to mcuth v RBoS (Curr A/C) - Contractual Interest, please? Thanks

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

BTW, the charges go back to January 1999, which is why the contractual interest element is so large (due to the effects of compounding)

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

And the Royal Mail website shows:

 

Your item with reference DK973103836GB was delivered from our WEST EDINBURGH Delivery Office on 25/10/06

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Oooh, I received my first letter from Mr Tommy (well, pp'd for him) - dated 26th October:

 

Dear {mcuth}

 

Thank you for your letter of 24th October 2006 and I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account.

 

We believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff, which we are satisfied complies with all applicable laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give to our customers about the operation of our products.

 

Against that background, we must differ to the views expressed in your letter. Accordingly, the charges that have been applied to your account must stand.

 

However, thank you for taking the trouble to write.

 

Yours sincerely

 

{hand signed}

 

pp Tommy McLean

Customer Relations

ROTFLMFAO! :lol:

 

No mention of Statute of Limitations, compound contractual interest, etc... oh well Tommy, expect my LBA next week as promised

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[bill-k]

Oooh, I received my first letter from Uncle Tommy (well, pp'd for him) - dated 26th October:

 

 

ROTFLMFAO! :lol:

 

No mention of Statute of Limitations, compound contractual interest, etc... oh well Tommy, expect my LBA next week as promised

 

Cheers

 

Michael

 

It's bad enough being offered zilch as a "gesture" - but after all that time & effort you spent putting your request together, to be offered it with just a standard sod-off letter is a gesture of entirely the wrong kind, innit ?

 

Ah well, roll your sleeves up, Michael. I'll be watching this one, mate. Life's gonna get interesting at Uncle Tom's Cabin !! :grin:

 

Bill.

[mcuth]

It's bad enough being offered zilch as a "gesture" - but after all that time & effort you spent putting your request together, to be offered it with just a standard sod-off letter is a gesture of entirely the wrong kind, innit ?

 

Yeah, and I have to say that it's one of the plainest bog standard sod-off letters I've had yet. I mean, I've seen a few (see my sig ), and this one rates as the blandest of the lot thus far. It's not even had the pleasure of a corporate b's-er giving it some decent spin!

 

Of course, on the other hand it'd be no fun if they just caved in on the prelim letter

 

Ah well, roll your sleeves up, Michael. I'll be watching this one, mate. Life's gonna get interesting at Uncle Tom's Cabin !! :grin:

 

Oh yes, bring it on indeed - I can't wait to go down to the court to put this one in

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

LBA sent 1st Class Recorded Delivery today:

Mr Tommy McLean

The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC

Customer Relations Unit

Retail Support

The Forthstone

56 South Gyle Crescent

Edinburgh

EH12 9LE

 

By Royal Mail Recorded Delivery, 1st Class

 

Dear Mr McLean

 

CURRENT ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXXXXX : SORT CODE XX-XX-XX

 

Your ref: XXXX

 

REQUEST FOR REFUND OF CHARGES – LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Further to my letter of 24th October and your reply of 26th October 2006, I am again writing to ask you to refund the charges which you have levied from the above account since inception. I now understand that the regime of “fees” which you have been applying to my account in relation to card misuse, direct debit/standing order refusal and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations. My letter of 24th October explains this in detail.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I calculate that, as at today’s date, you have taken a total of £2,470.00 in charges plus £241.38 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken – a total of £2,711.38. In addition, I also claim Contractual Interest (compounded) under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity in our contract. As RBoS has taken unlawful charges from my account, this constitutes unauthorised borrowing – thus, the rate of Contractual Interest used is the bank’s unauthorised borrowing rate. The standard rate of unauthorised borrowing set by RBoS is 29.84% (see RBS: Current Accounts - Rates & charges), therefore this rate is added to the above amounts and will continue to accrue until this claim is settled. I calculate the Contractual Interest element at £14,716.35 (to 7th November 2006).

 

The grand total of the above is £17,427.73 and I enclose 2 schedules showing the charges & contractual interest which I am claiming. I request that you refund this amount in full, payable by cheque directly to me.

 

If you do not fully comply within 10 working days of receipt of this letter (i.e. by Tuesday 21st November 2006), I shall begin a County Court claim against RBoS for the full amount plus my costs, without further notice.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

{mcuth}

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

Your item with reference DK973103853GB was delivered from our WEST EDINBURGH Delivery Office on 08/11/06

 

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[elsinore]

Light blue touchpaper and retire to a safe distance!!

 

Elsinore

[mcuth]

Received a reply from Tommy McLean today:

Dear {mcuth}

 

Thank you for your letter of 7 November 2006 and I am sorry to learn that you remain dissatisfied.

 

There is nothing that I can add constructively to past correspondence but I would like to resolve matters with you. Agaist that background and as a gesture of goodwill without admission of error or liability, I am offering the sum of £1,544 in full and final settlement of your complaint. However, our Terms & Conditions will continue to apply and any charges that accrue in the future must stand.

 

I hope you will consider this to be a fair and reasonable settlement and on receipt of your signed acceptance, I will make arrangements for payment within 5 working days.

 

A prepaid envelope is enclosed for your use.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Tommy McLean

Customer Relations

 

"I accept the sum of £1,544 in full and final settlement of my complaint. Please credit this to account number XXXXXXXX at XXXXXX

Well, I don't know where they get a figure of £1,544 from on a claim of £2,711.38 (exc interest), but no way am I accepting this... The following going back as a reply today, using Mr McLean's pre-paid envelope (which, naturally, is prepaid 2nd class!) of course

 

Dear Mr McLean

 

CURRENT ACCOUNT NUMBER XXXXXXXX : SORT CODE XX-XX-XX

Your ref: XXXX

 

Thank you for your letter of 10th November 2006, received today.

 

As you are no doubt aware from our previous correspondence, the amount in dispute is £2,711.38 (being £2,470.00 in charges, plus £241.38 in overdraft interest) and I am claiming Contractual Interest under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity in our contract at RBoS’ unauthorised borrowing rate of 29.84%. The Contractual Interest element at today’s date is £14,803.93.

 

The grand total of the above is £17,515.31 and once again, 2 schedules of charges & interest are enclosed for your reference.

 

Whilst I appreciate your offer of £1,544.00, credited to the above account in full & final settlement of this action, regretfully I cannot accept this offer as it stands. I would, however, be prepared to accept it as a partial settlement, on an unconditional basis and paid directly to me by cheque. You should be aware that in this instance, action would still continue on the disputed balance of £1,167.38 and the Contractual Interest element of £14,803.93 – making a new grand total of £15,971.31

 

Immediate full & final settlement of this action can be achieved in either of the following ways:

i) A cheque for £17,515.31 being issued directly to me, or:

ii) An offset occurring for the repayment of my other indebtedness to RboS:

Loan account XX-XX-XX/XXXXXXXX

– balance (confirmed by Westcot Credit on 23rd October 2006) £5,461.17

Credit card account XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

- balance (confirmed by Westcot Credit on 23rd October 2006) £1,226.31

Resulting in a cheque being issued directly to me in the sum of £11,392.29 (being £17,515.31 minus

£5,461.17 minus £1,226.31 plus £564.46, the current balance of account XX-XX-XX/XXXXXXXX)

 

As per my letter of 7th November, if either of the above actions haven’t taken place by Tuesday 21st November 2006, I shall begin a County Court claim against RBoS for the full amount plus my costs, without further notice.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

{mcuth}

Cheers

 

Michael

[mcuth]

New reply received today:

Dear {mcuth}

 

Thank you for your letter of 14 November 2006 and I am sorry that you remain dissatisfied with our earlier offer and as a consequence have reconsidered your claim.

 

As mentioned previously, we prefer to resolve matters with you direct and as an exceptional matter, have agreed to meet your claim of £2,711 in full.

 

Payment is to be made on the basis of a full and final settlement of your complaint. It is offered as a gesture of goodwill and without admission of liability or error. Also, our terms and conditions will continue to apply and any future charges, in the absence of a bank error, will stand.

 

If you are prepared to accept my offer on this basis, please sign and return the copy of this letter. On receipt of your signed acceptance, arrangements will be made for payment within 5 working days.

 

I look forward to hearing from you and enclose a prepaid envelope for your use.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Tommy McLean

Customer Relations

 

"I accept the sum of £2,711 in full and final settlement of my complaint. Please credit this to account number XXXXXXXX at XXXXXX"

 

Clearly, this is brinkmanship since he's offering to settle the basic amount of my charges - although he ignores nearly every point in my last letter - it's still by account credit and takes no account of interest.

 

Oh, and the pre-paid envelope is 2nd class again

 

Cheers

 

Michael