Hi Slick, it was contractual interest.

 

This is the letter I sent:

 

Dear Sirs,

 

I am writing to insist that you refund all of the penalty charges incurred on the above account(s) since inception. These are listed as “Late Payment Charge” and “Exceeded Limit Charge” amongst others.

 

I am aware that these charges are unlawful at Common Law & Statute. This is further reinforced by the Office of Fair Trading report of 05/04/06 which concluded that these charges are unfair to the consumer. In addition, following a recent Freedom of Information request to the Office of Fair Trading I was informed that:

 

“Following consultation with eight leading credit card issuers we have concluded that default charges in most credit card contracts across the sector are highly unfair in terms of the UnfairTerms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs) and therefore unlikely to be enforceable against consumers”

 

If you believe that they are not penalties, then will you please demonstrate this by giving me a full breakdown of the costs you have incurred as a result of my breaches, in order to prove to me that your penalties really do reflect your actual losses.

 

I therefore insist that you refund to me, by way of cheque, the total amount of all charges incurred plus any interest accrued at the contractual rate thereon. I will not accept partial repayment nor will I accept that the Office of Fair Trading report of 05/04/06 deemed £12 to be an acceptable charge, as it clearly did not. I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive a refund in full which would return me to the position had these charges and interest thereon not been incurred.

 

To accompany your refund, I require a full breakdown of the charges you are refunding and details of how you have determined the amount of refund, including the original amount charged, the date which they were unlawfully applied to my account(s) and the amount of contractual interest you are paying for each refunded charge.

 

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall refer the matter directly to the Financial Ombudsman and Office of Fair Trading for further investigation.

 

Should I not receive satisfaction in this way, I shall then seek recovery by way of a county court claim against you.

 

 

They did send me couple of "we are dealing with your complaint and will reply by xxxx..." letters until I got refund letter.

 

One4

I'm sending this tomorrow!

Hi Madnes,

I've moved your post into your own thread which you can use to update us.

Please be aware that One4All's case was an exception with BC apparently repaying the charges plus interest at BC's contractual rate.

I suggest you include your own schedule of charges to show what you want refunded and the interest on each charge.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained but don't be surprised if they fail to respond in the same way as on One4All's thread.

Good luck anyway.

Cheers for the advice. Nothing ventured nothing gained as you said. At the end of the day will only cost me a stamp.

You will all be pleased to Hear, My settlement letter has today arrived from Barclay card offering me ..... £586.00 in charges and £206.28 statutory interest!! = £792.28

I am very happy, I just spoken to them and left them my bank details to pay the refund into.

To add I never even sent them a schedule of payments in either!!

Hi Madnes,

I assume that you're very happy with this, even though they haven't repaid interest at their contractual rate.

Excellent result and very fast.

If you can manage a site donation when they pay you, it will be greatly appreciated and will help others tackle their banks, etc.

Thread title changed accordingly.

Hi Madnes,

 

I assume that you're very happy with this, even though they haven't repaid interest at their contractual rate.

 

Excellent result and very fast.

 

If you can manage a site donation when they pay you, it will be greatly appreciated and will help others tackle their banks, etc.

 

Thread title changed accordingly.

I am very Happy.

As I see it they have paid me a higher interest rate than a bank would on a savings account.

And yes a donation will be made once I receive the funds.

Yep, it's the best rate of interest you'll find !!

Well done, and thanks in anticipation of your donation.

Just wondering, As I Barclaycard have refunded me the "Unfair" Charges is there a way of getting them to ammend any missed/late payment defaults on my credit score?

Hi Madnes,

If BC reported that you paid late or missed payments, those markers may be factually correct. Such markers are not so serious if the a/c is subsequently brought back into order.

If BC (or more usually Mercers) have issued a Default Notice and the amount they said needed to be paid included any penalty charges, the DN should be challenged on the grounds of inaccuracy. The DN is a more serious black mark on your credit rating and should be challenged if possible.

Useful reading here :-

The Consumer Forums - Challenge a default on a disputed account

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/