Well....

After receiving a visit the other day from Wescot Credit Services and then reading up on Unlawful Charges on C/Cards I'm looking at contacting Capital One to find out how they have come to the conclusion that I owe them monies, when the card only had a limit of £200 in the first place?

I took the card out in 2004 / 2003? and the nice people at Capital One only gave me a limit of £200 now I used it once or twice in emergencies and ended up missing 1 or 2 payments (when myself and my partner temp split). Obviously I received 1 or two letters and fastly cleared the arrears.

I then made a payment of £300 hoping that it had cleared any monies owed off the card and any charges that the nice chaps had charged me...

Let it lie and now a visit from a Collection Chap from out of the blue...

Now obviously i intend on hitting them on the rebound if I have paid monies that I could rightfully claim back, last thing I want is a default on my record if they are stating I owe them money for charges that they have unlawfully added.

The only details I have in regards to the account is an old expired card I found in my drawer, If I contacted them staing this number could they look into my account and send me the details I need to claim?

Regards,

SP

Hi

If you have the account number,you can send of your sar requesting your data

enclosing a 10.00 cheque, then you will be able to check all your payments and

charges.send it recorded delivery.

1. Data Protection Act, Subject Access Request letter - List of charges(

Tilly

Back again...

I requested my S.A.R. which I received back via recorded post on 15th May 2008, ands its all gobbledegook to me.... it has a vague breakdown of when withdrawals were made and numerous £20's going out of the account (charges I assume?!)

Now Ive woken the account, I have received a letter from "Capquest" offering me a discounted settlement of the account?!? (Ive got no intention of settling an account if they owe me ) If I add these random £20's as listed on the statement it comes to near on £400?!?

Im a bit stuck now as it doesn't actually state "charges" the format is 3 columns which says "Transaction Date" (no breakdown of the transaction), "Paid In" and "Paid Out"?!?

That £400 will have interest on it too

Steven,

Just have no idea what are actual purchases etc, and which are charges etc....

Anybody have any ideas on how I'd find out?

If you would like to scan and e-mail me a sample page, I will have a look

steven,

Thanks for your help....

Please take a look at the images on this link...

Images - Windows Live SkyDrive

Thats what I received off Capital One in regards to the info I requested (plus a load of computer screen captures)

The first few months of having the card all was A-OK then I split with the girl I was with at the time then it all went a bit pear-shaped

Glad I dont have any cards or any O/drafts now, and if it wasnt for the chap knocking at the door I assumed all was cleared and sorted with Capital One "Obviously not!"

Hello StokiePotter!

Just have no idea what are actual purchases etc, and which are charges etc....

 

Anybody have any ideas on how I'd find out?

I wrote this earlier, then walked off and forgot to Post it! I see Steven has jumped in to help.

I was going to say, if you have a Spreadsheet Application, it would be a good idea to enter all of the Transactions via Date and Amount.

Then see if the £20 Charges all fall on about the same Day per Month, as Card bankers tend to add Penalty Charges at around the same time every Month. Particularly Late Penalty Charges, as it will be added a few Days after the "Due Date", whatever that is for your Account.

Over-Limit Penalty Charges can vary, i.e. when you were using the Card you could've popped over Limit at varying times but usually they added them at the Statement Date. Accounts don't tend to go down unless something was Paid in. But if you were no longer using it, then even these should fall at around the same time.

I've now had a quick look at your Docs, and some seem to fit the above pattern, say:

08/11/2004 £20

08/11/2005 £20

10/06/2005 £20

11/11/2005 £20

But it is very hard to tell, as there are many other £20 debits littered around the place with no real Pattern.

You may need to go back and ask them what Charges they levied? They are a Business, so will have to have Business Accounts going back 6 Years. If they Charged you anything in the last 6 Years, they should have a Record of that.

What you spent is not the same...it's what they Charged YOU that matters, and they should have a Record of that, as it is their Earnings so accountable to HMRC.

Sorry this is not more helpful.

Cheers,

BRW

There will be 2 types of charges - charges for going over you credit limit and charges for late payment, possibly addded on different dates.

I think I might go one stage further than BRW and assume that any charge of £20 that was added when you credit limit was exceeded and any charge of £30 were unlawful charges (and that £50=£30+£20) and get them to prove they are not (I will probably get shouted at for saying that ) UNless of course, you actually know that you made purchaces of exactly £20 (petrol?) or £30. Presumably they will send you propper details if you have claimed too much.

Yes, I like that.

Claim for all £20 and £30 Charges, and make them prove otherwise!

...and don't forget the Interest either.

Excellent.

Cheers,

BRW

BRW,

You are not supposed to agree so wholeheartedly - you are supposed to say 'tut, tut, Steven...'

Anybody be able to point me in the right direction for the template to add up the charges (with interest)

Also do I put both £20's etc, down as just "Charges" or will one be a late payment fee and the other a card charge?!

Ideally, you would list what each charge is i.e. late payment, overlimit etc - but as they haven't told you what each charge is then there is no way you can do that so you would just have to list them as 'charges'.

Interest calculation spreadsheets here:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

Excellent...

Cheers for the pointers folks...

Can I just add, that this site is absolutely Spot On!!!

and another Stokie as a Mod "You cant go wrong ;)"

Done the spread sheet and it looks like I'm owed, with interest £458.00 serves themself right for sending Mr Wescot round for £200

"Bully Boy tactics DO NOT SCARE ME :)"

Now the next step is to send a letter with the spreadsheet? Correct?!? Will the letter have to mention that I want the "default" removed from my credit file also?!

Do I also need to contact Capquest to let them know to scrap their "reminders" as I am reclaiming charges?!

The prelimnary letter template in the bank templates library includes default removal as an option

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/671-2-letter-preliminary-approach.html

That one....

I take it Capital One are "The Bank" and the same terms apply?

Blimmin'eck :-| me heads in the shed today

Yep, Cap 1 are 'the bank'. You need also to check it doesn't talk about 'overdrafts', etc- just change things in a commn-sense way

And hopefully - "Finally"... the info needs to be posted to the following address?

Legal Compliance Specialist

Capital One Bank (Europe) plc

Trent House

Station street

Nottingham

NG2 3HX

That's right

Off it goes this afternoon via "Recorded" post

Thanks again....

SP

Finally got around to posting the letter yesterday "recorded" and checked today and its been delivered....

The 14 day countdown has begun

Now for the next step..... :grin:

Just reading through a couple of the other posts and noticed that they are having the same contacts with Capquest...

Now I received a letter from Capquest "offering" me a discount and saying they would "match" any payment I made to reduce the balance... very nice of them BUT, Im out to get the whole thing wiped from my file (if Im honest the money part doesn't bother me, just stop the hounding and remove any blotches from my credit file and Ill be happy)

Now should I contact Capquest and let them know Im reclaiming charges or just leave it to Capital One to let them know there is no charges to persue?!

7 days to go for their initial letter to tell me there charges are fair etc....

Just been reading this thread.

Seems like a new tactic from Capital One.

When you send them a SAR they are supposed to supply you with copies of the original statements that they would have originally sent out to you.

We all seem to accept the summary version of the statements that Capital One sned out in response to SAR's, similar to the ones you posted Stokiepotter.

However in your case Capital One have modifed the summary versions to remove the item descriptions. This is unbelievable and a tactic that can have only been instigated to confuse and frustrate.

Personally I would suggest you just stick with the tried and proven routine now. Ignore CapQuest, don't phone them or write to them and certainly do not pay them anything. Let Capital One have their complete 14 days to respond to your initial letter, see how they respond and hit them with a LBA if necessary.

You will probably have to follow through with a small claim but once you have done this you can rest assured that Capital One will offer to pay you back all of your charges, all the purchase interest you ever paid them, statutory court interest and your court fee. This will obvioulsy clear your account balance and leave you some cash left over. From this position of strength you can force them to remove any defaults on your credit file.

Rgds Budgie

2 days and counting (I havent included Weekends) they signed for my letter on the 17th June so....

Next step here I come

Received the following letter today...

Dr Mr XXXXX

 

Account Number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

 

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about the default sums we'vee added to your account. I understand that you think these default sums are unlawful and I'm sorry you feel we've treated you unfairly.

 

To explain, we add late or failure to pay default sums if your payment is missed, arrives late or isnt enough to cover your minimum payment. We'll also add overlimit default sums if your balance goes over your agreed credit limit, which is £200.

 

When we opened your account in October 2004, we sent you a credit card agreement which stated these default sums. By signing and returning this to us, you agreed to the terms and conditions for the account, including the default sums.

 

As you're probably aware the Office of Fair Trading, OFT, hasnt challenged the right of banks to charge default sums. Although we feel £20 is a just amount, we've now reduced our default sums to £12. I appreciate that you have incurred default sums at the higher rate, and I would like to address this.

 

I've reviewed your account and, as a matter of goodwill, I'd like to reduce the default sums we've added to your account to £12 each. This amount totals £152, I would also like to refund an additional £10 as an acknowledgement of interest that you may have incurred. If you'd like to accept this offer, please sign and return the settlement form I've included. Once I get it back I'll add these refunds to your account.

 

Now that we've sold your account, we don't report anything about it to the credit reference agencies. As Capquest own it, it's their responsibility to report on this debt, and you'll need to agree repayments with them for the remainder of your balance.

 

I can confirm that we have issued a default notice on your account, We have a legal obligation to report a true reflection of the way your account is run to the agencies. I am afraid I am not prepared to remove the default notice as the reason you defaulted was due to your account being over its credit limit (please may I add this was due to the charges "they added") and behind with payments, and not due to the default sums we've added. This notice was, therefore, added correctly.

 

I hope I've explained things clearly, but if you do have any further questions, please write to me again. You'll find my address in the leaflet I've included, which also explains our complaints procedure. If I don't hear from you within four weeks, I'll consider this matter closed.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

XXXXXX

Now obviously the amount I was claiming was not £152 but more like £450+

Could anybody advise me on what to do now... Ive had a look through the letters but cant find any that relate to a "sold" account or the refusal to remove a default notice.

Regards,

SP