I have received a letter from RBS after sending a preliminary letter making me an offer for bank charges, due to what has been happening recently I am unsure how to proceed, the offer is for 624.00 although the claim was for about 1100.00. Another thing is, my account has now gone over my agreed overdraft limit of 650.00 due to bank charges and yesterday I received a letter from a debt recovery agency threatening me with action if I don't repay the overdraft. any advice greatly appreciated. Here is the letter I received, the reason it refers to a previous letter is that I didn't receive the first letter RBS say was sent.

We refer to your complaint about bank charges. We wrote to you recently making you a goodwill offer in full and final settlement of your complaint about these charges.

We believe the charges are fair, transparent and lawful.

Since we last wrote to you, the bank (and several other banks) became involved in legal proceedings with the office of fair trading (*OFT*) about bank charges which we believe will resolve the legal issues on the fairness and legality of your bank charges.

We have asked the Financial Services Authority (*FSA*) to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints and the FSA has agreed to this request subject to conditions that protect your rights.

However the goodwill offer the bank made to you still stands and you can accept or reject this offer. If you decide to take up this offer you must contact us within 2 months from the date of this letter. You should be aware that if you accept this offer, this will be in *full and final* settlement of your complaint. This means that it is unlikely you would be awarded a further sum even if the test case indicated that you could be entitled to a potentially larger amount. Though this does not preclude you asking for repayment of any further charges if the court finds they are unlawful.

If we do not hear from you within the specified 2 months, we will assume that you have decided to reject this offer and await the outcome of the legal proceedings with the OFT. This means that the bank's offer will expire(i.e. can no longer be accepted by you) and we will reconsider your complaint once the test case is resolved. We can assure you(in that instance) we have registered and stored your complaint.

Please retain your bank records, as this will make it easier for your to support your complaint on resolution of the test case.

Once the legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish, we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible and apply the (test case) principles. This may produce a larger or smaller figure when compared with the current offer.

We are sorry that we have not been able to respond in full to your complaint now, but we (together with the FSA and the OFT) think that it is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how we should respond to your complaint.

Obviously exactly what will happen next will depend on the courts. We do not know how long the case will take - we have promised to proceed as quickly as possible but inevitably given the importance of the issues being considered this may take many months to finally resolve. But we can assure you that once the legal proceedings are completed we will resolve your complaint as quicly as possible. If at that stage you do not agree with our conclusions you will of course be able to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (*FOS*) (or to the courts)

Given this court case we have asked both the FOS and the courts not to proceed with any other case they are hearing until the test case is resolved. FOS has indicated that as a general proposition it will indeed not proceed with cases which rely on the legal issues being considered in the test case.

Similarly, you should be aware that if you choose to issue a claim in the County Courts, "the master of the Rolls" (in England and Wales) or "The Lord Chief Justice" (in Northern Ireland) has, at our request, issued a notification to the County Courts suggesting they stay proceedings about bank charges until resolution of the banks' proceedings with the OFT. Alternatively the bank will immediately apply to the Court for an order to stay your action until resolution of the bank's proceedings with the OFT.

We will keep you updated appropriately about the proceedings with the OFT. You can also check the latest position on our website at Overdraft charges update- RBS - The Royal Bank of Scotland

The FSA requires us to ensure that any bank charge complaint will not be adversely affected by the delay in dealing with it. For customers for whom Scotland is the most likely jurisdiction: In particular, your right to refer your complaint to the FOS will not be affected. The FOS provided a convenient alternative to the courts, and is free for customers. However, if you nonetheless wish to continue your claim through the courts in Scotland, you may wish to seek advice on filing a claim now to protect your rights in prescription although you may have to pay a fee.

If you have any further questions or would like an update on the latest position regarding proceedings please check our website Overdraft charges update- RBS - The Royal Bank of Scotland or call us on 0845 3030 442.

It's not enough - especially if they are hitting you with even more charges as we speak. Well I don't think so. It is difficult to know what to do though when you are having problems to start with and to refuse their 'kind offer' of just over half your claim is a hard decision to make. I guess you can fend off the DCA by saying you are waiting for your charges to be refunded.

Did you add overdraft interest into the amount you claimed or is it purely charges?

This is pretty much the standard letter that all banks are issuing to claimants since the OFT announcement was made.

Unfortunately, it now puts you in the difficult position of having to decide whether to accept their offer or whether to decline it and send them the LBA - and then file at court. If you send the LBA, they'll more than likely send you another copy of the above letter. And if you file N1 at court your claim will more than likely be stayed pending the outcome of the OFT announcement.

You could try accepting this as a partial acceptance only - pursuing them for the remainder via LBA/N1 at court. However, the banks tend to view partial acceptance letters as an outright rejection. It may be worth a try though.

It's a horrible decision to have to make right now, but I feel this is a decision that only you can make. So read as many threads as possible regarding the test case and how it's affecting claimants at the moment before reaching your final decision on their offer. Also, it's worth going over your schedule of charges again to ensure that it's accurate (e.g., no double entries or royalties fees, etc.) I'm sure you haven't made any mistakes at all............ but it's worth checking just to be completely sure.

Also, they can't pass your account onto a DCA whilst your account is in dispute.......... and as you're reclaiming charges from them your account is definitely in dispute.

Best of luck spikeymike

This is pretty much the standard letter that all banks are issuing to claimants since the OFT announcement was made.

 

Unfortunately, it now puts you in the difficult position of having to decide whether to accept their offer or whether to decline it and send them the LBA - and then file at court. If you send the LBA, they'll more than likely send you another copy of the above letter. And if you file N1 at court your claim will more than likely be stayed pending the outcome of the OFT announcement.

 

You could try accepting this as a partial acceptance only - pursuing them for the remainder via LBA/N1 at court. However, the banks tend to view partial acceptance letters as an outright rejection. It may be worth a try though.

 

It's a horrible decision to have to make right now, but I feel this is a decision that only you can make. So read as many threads as possible regarding the test case and how it's affecting claimants at the moment before reaching your final decision on their offer. Also, it's worth going over your schedule of charges again to ensure that it's accurate (e.g., no double entries or royalties fees, etc.) I'm sure you haven't made any mistakes at all............ but it's worth checking just to be completely sure.

 

Also, they can't pass your account onto a DCA whilst your account is in dispute.......... and as you're reclaiming charges from them your account is definitely in dispute.

 

Best of luck spikeymike

Hi, thanks for your reply, if thats right that they cannot pass on my account to a DCA whilst it is in dispute do you think I should contact them and point this out? I have phoned them a few times when I received letters regarding the overdraft limit and told them that I was awaiting a response regarding these charges and that I wasn't prepared to pay any more money into the account whilst it was just being taken out in charges and until the dispute was settled and now they have hit me with a letter from a DCA.....

Spikey

Definitely contact them with regards to your account being in dispute. In fact, adapt this letter to suit your own circumstances and post it to them recorded delivery (c.c. the DCA into it also). At least this way they can't ignore the fact that the account is in dispute.

Keep us informed of your progress x

Definitely contact them with regards to your account being in dispute. In fact, adapt this letter to suit your own circumstances and post it to them recorded delivery (c.c. the DCA into it also). At least this way they can't ignore the fact that the account is in dispute.

 

Keep us informed of your progress x

Hi, Hedgey, I phoned RBS today regarding the letter from the solicitior and spoke to a woman there who was trying to get me to agree to pay a reduced amount to what I owe the bank so that they could close my account, I explained to her that they shouldn't have passed the case to a solicitor whilst my account is in dispute but she just ignored me and kept going on about me accepting to pay 500 quid as a final settlement on the account. I asked her what would happen if I were to pay the actual amount that I owe and she said that my account would still be closed, so basically they just want to close the account asap. I told her I had been made an offer by RBS for the bank charges and that I am going to respond in the next few days, I think I am just going to accept their offer of 624.00 and let them close the account.......

Spikey