Hi, my name is Alex Roebuck, and I thought I would report my progress so far. My bank is The (Virgin) One Account, which is run by The Royal Bank of Scotland; I hope this is the right forum for this post.

16th October 2006 - Subject Access Request sent.

I received paper copies of all my statements from 1999 until today within a week. There was no indication or confirmation regarding manual intervention.

I have since discovered that the online banking service allows me to create a statement going back to 1999, which has made identifying the charges and calculating interest much easier!

4th December 2006 - Preliminary Approach Letter sent

I calculated that The One Account had charged me £594.00 in charges plus £50.89 in interest. Total £644.89. I calculated the interest for each charge on a daily basis from the date of the charge until now using the variable interest rate indicated in my statements.

6th December 2006 - Response to Prelim Approach received

I received the following standard letter:

I refer to your concern regarding the charges applied to your account. To progress the resolution of your concern I thought I would write to you.

Initially, let me thank you for bringing this to my attention, as it is important that we are made aware of any instance where our customers feel that we have fallen below the standards expected of us.

I appeciate your patience while I have been dealing with your concern. As part of the Concerns team I have now fully investigated the issues you have raised and would like to resolve your concern with you. To help make you aware of all the options available to you I have also enclosed a copy of the leaflet entitled Customer Complaints which explains how we handle customers concerns within The Virgin One account.

I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account. We believe that our charges are fair and reasonable*. 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.

Consequently, against that background, we must differ with the views expressed in your letter and are unable to refund any of the charges applied to your bank account.*

This letter concludes the Bank's complaint investigation process and therefore, we will not re-investigate the issues you have raised.* Should you remain dissatisfied, you have the ultimate availability of the Financial Ombudsman Service. I have enclosed their leaflet for your information.

I understand this response may not meet with your expectations, but I do hope that I have provided a clear explanation as to how and why this decision has been made.

Yours sincerely, etc.

* my emphasis

Given that they state that this "concludes the Bank's investigation process", should I proceed immediately with the Letter Before Action (LBA), or should I still wait until the end of the 14 day deadline?

Is there anything in their reply which means I shouldn't proceed with the LBA?

The LBA states "...you have failed to respond to my letter...". As they HAVE responded, how should I proceed? Should I amend the letter?

They suggest complaining to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which does not seem to be mentioned in these forums. Why not? Is it a waste of time?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

So, should I send my LBA now? There doesn't seem any need to wait, as The One Account have responded.

Anyone?

In the absence of anyone telling you better, I would delete the reference to 'non-response', in fact make sure you thank them for responding!

The fact that they say THEY won't be investigating it further is irrelevant.

Other than that statement it seems to be a stock reply that all the banks are giving (maybe they have their own website? Banks Against C.A.G., Forum, Stock replies to PRELIM and LBA )

Go with your LBA.

Thanks for your reply!

That's pretty much the conclusion I had come to. LBA off today then!

OK, the 14-day dealine is up and I have received no reply. My only concern before I start action is that I did not send the LBA by recorded delivery. Is that a requirement before action? Will I have to prove that Virgin received it?

Thanks!

I would give the bank a quick call as 'a courtesy before commencing action now that deadline has expired.'

Ask them if they received your last letter and what was being done about it....if they say they didn't get it then I think you may have to send them another, but ask for an emal and do it that way, give them 7 days this time, perhaps.

On the recorded delivery issue...I have noticed comments in several threads that it is not worth the effort as posties often don't bother to collect a sig off large companies....

Thanks for your reply.

I've submitted the claim on MCOL already. So let's see what happens next...

I have a question regarding the MCOL claim:

The sample text states: "Defendant is aware of all details as a list of charges has already been supplied. Another copy will be sent."

Should this copy include the S69 (8% interest) breakdown as well, as I have not sent this to the One Account yet, just included the total in the MCOL claim.

Is there a sample covering letter for this? Should I mention that I have submitted a claim against them?

Thanks!

My claim was "deemed served" on 9th January 2007.

The One Account have ticked the box "We intend to defend all the claim".

What happens next? I assume this won't actually go to court.

Since my 2 successful claims in 2006/2007, I have incurred quite a few more charges on my One Account. They are still charging £29 per unpaid item . What is the current status? Can I go through the claim process again?