Hi all, just calculated that the RBS have charged me £1,137.18 of my hard earned money over the past few years!

Sending my letter this weekend to request refund of these charges!

wish me luck.

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£1,137.18 RBS

Received a letter from RBS deputy branch manager dated the 18th July, stating that my letter was received and they are looking into my claim.

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£1,137.18 RBS

just stick to your timetable and follow up with the second letter 14 days after the first one!

Cheers,

When we talk about 14 days - is that working days or calendar days??

Calendar days

Also I think you should keep to one thread. The mods will merge them for you.

Just received a reply to my "request for payment of charges letter"

Essentially the response was:

"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.

We have considered and responded to the Office of Fair Trading’s statement of 5th April 2006. We do not accept the Office of Fair Trading’s findings in relation to credit card fees. We are concerned that the Office of Fair Trading has publicly called into question the setting of charges applied to other products, including current accounts. The Office of Fair Trading has restricted its investigation to credit cards and made no attempt to consult with RBS or the industry in relation to other, entirely different products.

Consequently, against that background, we must differ with the views expressed in your letter.

Again, thank you for taking the time and trouble to write."

Deputy Branch Manager.

So I am proceeding with my Letter Before Action!

Hi all,

I opened my account in Edinburgh, when I was at university. Since then I have moved to England and closed my account. I have sent all my initial letters to my old Edinburgh branch, but if I have heard nothing by the end of this week I have to start court action.

Can I now start court action in England using a different branch address for RBS or using a head office address?

Please can someone advise?

Hi there. Yes, you're living in England and you have to give an English address for the bank if using MCOL. If you look at the top of this forum there's a thread called RBS contact details - there's lots of addresses there including this one

KAY STANBRIDGE

RBS LITIGATION

1 PRINCESS STREET

LONDON

EC2R 8PB

Hope that helps

Cheers BlueRuby,

I have just submitted my claim on moneyclaim using this address.

Fingers crossed it all goes ok - I will post and let you know the outcome.

Quick question how much did it cost you and what address did you put down.

thanks inadvance

I used the address below:

Royal Bank of Scotland

1 PRINCESS STREET

LONDON

EC2R 8PB

My claim was for £1,032 of charges and £49.18 for interest on penalties.

With the 8% interest this took it to a total of £1,298.59.

Moneyclaim charged a £120 fee - which was automatically added to the claim.

Hope this helps you out.

Hey,

Have had an Acknowledgment of Service reply on MoneyClaim.

Cobbetts have been assigned by RBS to look after the case.

Just been reading the "Judges Request" Thread - very interesting - seems that this is the way RBS are tackling the defences now.

Have we got a template for answering cobbetts questions - or is it still at the trial and error stage as on "Judges Request?"

IrishAd1

The judges request thread is an exception rather than the norm, all other cases have followed a very similar pattern up to now, if you read around the RBS forum draft replies are there.

Hi Irishlad....that letter they sent you about their charges being " resonable,fair and transparent" is EXACTLY the samr responce i got from them!Heres me thinking they had taken the trouble to reply when it was just a standard template...swines.They have untill Saturday 26th to respond ,then my LBA goes out.Hope we are both lucky!

Just received my standard issue Cobbetts defence letter.

And at the last hour - quelle surprise!

Sounds very similar to judges thread - so I am going to use the advice contained there.

I have until the 28th September to reply.

Any advice on how to handle this letter would be gratefully received!

The letter talks about UCTA giving specific reasons to back up the allegation under UCTA!

Hi,

I have been away with work so haven’t been able to update on my progress in a while – have had a bit of progress and need some advice.

I received the following letter from Cobbetts on the 12th October.

“Our client considers that your challenge to its charges would fail in Court. Our client believes that its charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. It considers that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with it and its published tariff, which it is satisfied complies with all applicable laws and regulations. Our client is also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that it gives to its customers about the operation of its products. As such, our client does not believe that your claim has any prospect of succeeding.

However, as a gesture of goodwill and strictly on the basis that our client rejects any liability to you, it is willing to offer you a goodwill payment of £800.

Acceptance by you of this goodwill payment will be in full and final settlement of your claim against our client and strictly on the basis that:-

1 you agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment:

2 you write to the court withdrawing your claim.

Whilst this letter is written without prejudice save as to costs, in the event that you decline this offer, we will draw this letter to the Court’s attention on the basis that we hold the fim view that this offer is entirely reasonable in the circumstances. This offer will remain open for 7 days until Friday, 20 October 2006.”

I replied with:

“Further to your letter of 12th October 2006, I am writing to inform you that I will NOT be accepting your clients offer of £800 in full and final settlement of the above claim but I will accept the offer as an interim payment and I will be pursuing the rest through the courts. If your client believes that their charges are fair, reasonable and transparent as stated in your letter then it will not be a problem for them to disclose to the courts how the charges are calculated.

I am also unwilling to agree to the specific terms and conditions you have added to this, namely:

1. Not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment;

2. To withdraw my claim;

3. That this payment of £800 is a full and final settlement of the claim.

Furthermore I am requesting a list of the charges that your client is willing to refund by way of the £800 payment so that I can compare it with the schedule of charges that I have previously sent to you.

The legal advice, which I have sought, has confirmed I will be entitled to the entirety of my claim of £1489.76 to date.

(£1,088.00 + £49.18 interest on penalties + £232.58 8% interest allowed by the courts + £120 court costs).

I look forward to receiving a cheque for the interim payment of £800, along with the breakdown from your client of which charges they relate to.”

So far I have received no response from Cobbetts. Is there some further action I should take? Am I supposed to make the court aware of their offer and my acceptance as an interim payment?

On the 1st Novmber, I received a confirmation that my case has been allocated to the small claims court and a hearing date has been set for the 31st Jan 2007, and should take no longer than 1 hour.

The Court order reads as follows:

“Upon reading the documents filed and of the Court’s own motion

It is ordered that:

1. This claim is allocated to the Small Claims Track.

2. The Claimant shall by [28 days] file and serve:

(a) A schedule setting out each charge repayment of which is sought, showing the date, amount, and alleged reason (if any) for that charge being made;

(b) Copies of any statement or other document relied upon as showing that each and every charge has been made;

© A statement of his evidence, if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made, or that they are irrecoverable as penalties.

If the Claimant fails to comply with this order, the claim will be struck out without further order.

3. The Defendant shall by [56 days] file and serve a response to the Claimant’s schedule, stating in respect of each item claimed:

(a) Pursuant to what contractual provision such charge was made, producing a copy of the contractual document relied upon;

(b) Whether such charge is accepted to be a penalty, and if not, why not;

© If such charge is alleged to be a pre-estimate of the Defendant’s loss incurred by the Claimant’s actions (whether or not such action is to be treated as a breach of the contract between the parties), all facts and matters intended to be relied upon as showing that such is a proper estimate of such loss, and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was.

If the Defendant fails to comply with this order, the Defence will be struck out without further order.

4. Decided cases and other legal materials should not be filed, but brought to the hearing with additional copies for the Court and the opposing party.

5. List for hearing next available date after 10 weeks, time estimate 1 hour, reserved to District Judge Atkinson.

This Order has been made by the court of its own initiative, without hearing the parties or giving them an opportunity to make representations. Any party affected by the order may apply to have it set aside, varied or stayed. Such an application must be made not more than 7 days after the date on which the order was served on the party making the application.”

In terms of the actions that I need to take, can someone advise:

1 Does File and Serve mean that I send a copy to the court and a copy to Cobbetts?

2 My schedule of charges and a copy of my bank statements should cover the courts first two requirements, but I am a little confused as to what I should use for the third: “A statement of evidence, if such is to be relied upon as tending to show that the alleged charges have been made, or that they are irrecoverable as penalties.”

Should this be acceptable, then it looks like it is up to our friends at Cobbetts to supply all information intended to be relied upon to showing that RBS’s charges are a proper estimate of such loss, and all evidence to be adduced at trial as to what the true cost of dealing with the matter was.

Success!!

I received a cheque for £1,589 from RBS via Cobbetts.

Apparantly they still say I don't have a case but the cost of going to court outweighs the amount of money I was asking for and it is simple financials.

Either way - it's a success!

Thanks everyone for their help and advice

See rest of thread for details.