Dear all,

Your advice is needed please on what to do next.

..I am reclaiming my barclaycard late payment charges. I'm only reclaiming the difference between the £20 and £12 (so £8 per charge up until they dropped the charge to £12). The total reclaimed is just £96 and I sent my initial letter giving them a deadline of 14 days to reply. 18 days later they replied saying they were considering my complaint and would get back to me.

Another 14 days later (today) I received a letter from them saying they were still considering the matter and will be in touch on the 16th Jan.

Given that this is way over my original deadline should I continue to wait for them or should I issue the second letter?

If the latter, can someone please post the link to the appropriate template - do I now proceed with court action?

Many thanks for taking the time...

Hi fee,

You should of claimed the total amount, plus contractual interest, they would of paid up. Use the spreadsheet to work it out.

Thanks for your reply. apprecaited. It doesn't really answer my question above however and for my own reasons I'm happy to just claim the difference. Its not something I made up, the advice on the money saving expert website states its an option to do that.

Whether you think its right or wrong is by the by now, I just wonder whether I should leave it until barclaycard get in touch again or send another letter, and if the latter which letter template would I use please?

Thanks again

Hi Feefofum,

It is of course your prerogative to reclaim just the difference between what you were charged and the OFT £12 limit.

Rebel, and I'm sure many others here, would want to ensure you're aware that you can reclaim the full amount of every penalty charge because they are unlawful. In addition you can claim interest in restitution which can make a great difference to the amount BC pays back on older charges.

MSE advice covers many subjects with sometimes a little less detail. We often deal with more complicated cases here in greater depth.

Having said that, the choice is entirely yours and here is the template letter that we use as a Preliminary Claim letter and our LBA - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?562-Credit-Store-Card-Letter-Template

If you don't want to claim interest in restitution, BC should repay your charges in full without the need for any court action.

If they are late replying properly to your claim, send off the LBA now. Don't wait for BC to reply as it may well take many weeks.

I wish you well with whatever path you choose.

Hi Slick,

Thanks for your reply and a copy of the template letter. Below is a copy of my original letter, sorry its copied as such huge text! - It was cribbed from the MSE site. Isn't that the same as the LBA effectively? Though I note I do not state I will take the matter further so perhaps another LBA using your template is required? ()Of course I wish I'd have used the CAG group template initially but trying to make the most of the situation now)

Many thanks once again.

Fee

Dear Sir or Madam,

Account number:

I am writing to request that you repay all the late payment fees and/or over limit fees that have been applied to my account.

I do not believe the charges reflect the true cost to Barclaycard and are unfair and disproportionate. I am therefore requesting a refund based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

This is supported by the Office of Fair Trading’s April 2006 statement into credit card charges, which noted that the level of charges at the time, and prior to that period, were unfair.

As the OFT reported that its fairness threshold was £12, I will accept the difference between my charges and this figure so that the matter can be concluded as quickly and easily as possible for both of us.

This totals £96.00. I believe I have been unlawfully deprived of the money and therefore ask that you repay me this amount. Please find a full schedule of the charges with this document.

I look forward to a full response to this letter within 14 days.

Yours faithfully,

Hi Feefofum,

There's nothing to stop you claiming back the FULL penalty charges now if you want. Just revise your SOC (Schedule of Charges) and send it off with our LBA.

Explain your change of attitude by saying, "Although in my original letter, I asked for a refund of the amount in excess of the £12 OFT limit, I now realise that your penalty charges are unlawful and I require refund of the full amount of each charge as set out in my revised SOC."

8-)

Well well well..... Here's an update for y'all.

I was claiming for a friend (I wrote the letters - he signed them and made the decision to only claim the £8 difference). I was busy with work and he was lax in reminding me to send the next letter so this claim was left for a while. Barclaycard have just sent him a letter in full and final settlement with ALL his charges back to 2004 including 8% interest!!

Is that usual does anyone know? Obviously a good result for him and saved me the time of writing letters for him too.

Hi FeeFo,

It is unusual for them to repay more than you claimed and I think you've been very lucky here. You could have got back more if you claimed compound interest in restitution but that would have involved court action on your (or YF's) part.

So, all in all, this is an excellent result, especially with the simple 8% interest on top.

This just goes to show that BC fully recognise that the penalty charges are unlawful, so they'd rather repay them with 8% simple int't rather than paying compound interest which would have been substantial on charges going back 6 years.

Great stuff. 8)

Thread title changed to reflect your ***WIN***