I sent a preliminary letter to ask for the refunding of my charges and have now got a response.

Here's the letter I sent:

 

[my address]

 

Barclaycard

1234 Pavilion Drive

Northampton

NN4 7SG

 

Request for repayment of charges

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxx

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the past two years.

I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £40 plus interest. I require full payment of this sum including any interest that I was charged as a result of these illegal charges.

 

I also request that you compensate me for any costs that I have incurred as a result of your illegal charges. To date, the only cost I have incurred is the cost of posting this letter to you and this is specified by the value of the Royal Mail postage stamps on the envelope that contained this letter.

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

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 payment.

 

If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

It had a 14 day deadline to respond and was delivered on 19 April. Just got a reply dated from 21 April (received 25 April) and it is just a standard reply to a complaint.

Here is a summary of each paragraph:

1. Talks about the Terms and Conditions

2. Then mentions the OFT recommendation to review their levels of charges

3. Talks about commitment to supporting customers in financial difficulty (yeah right!)

4. States that confimation of charges is on the reverse of the statement and these are non-refundable

5. Use Barclaycard website to view transactions

6. Customer satisfaction important blah blah please respond if you need any help etc.

I believe the deadline I gave them ends on 4 May. I guess I'm right to wait until this date before I send out a letter before action.

Good for you.

Give it to em where it hurts.

I'll go for barclaycard next.

Hi,

Called Barclaycard today. The Complaints Manager is John Furgason. He said a resounding NO and refunsed to refund over £500 charges. I did say I had sucessfully sued Lloyds and won and his comment "if you want to sue us then go ahead"

Thats what I like to hear. They could have saved themselves £100 interest. Sent a letter before action today. Then, off to court (again).

Dont lose the faith.

wolfcub

Dont lose the faith.

I'm more than up for the fight. In fact I hope it ends up in court as it will be great for my ego!

Okay it's past the 14 days now and I have had no reply to my LBA. I guess I should now head for Money Claim.

I'm still a bit confused about the interest stuff. I guess I use the spreadsheet but so I add the interest they charged me and then 8% on top of everything or do I just add the 8% to the charges? Also how do how work out exactly how much interest I had to pay as a result of the two charges?

Also on Moneyclaim do I sue using the standard Barclaycard address that is posted on the top of the forum? Finally what happens if I start the claim and I then receive a letter say tomorrow offering a refund (ie. I start the claim just as they are responding to my LBA)?

Check out my post here...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=57866#post57866

It should help clarify things for you.

Have had exactly the same response from Barclaycard today:rolleyes: - unreal. I'm going to wait until their 14 days are up and send the Letter Before Action, but think I might add bits about their charges being unlawful [1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts)].

Don't know about you but, isn't them saying in their letter that they are committed to reviewing their charges under advice from the OFT, tantamount to ADMITTING their charges have always been extortionate?!!

Good luck - will let you know how I get on. Am also claiming back from Barclays, A&L and MBNA - reckon Barclaycard might be the toughest.

What address do I use to sue Barclaycard?

Also the Particulars of Claim in the Library section is well above the 1080 character limit on the MoneyClaim form (around 1700 charcters). How do I trim this down? Do I need to mention the specific charges in this section?

What address do I use to sue Barclaycard?

 

Also the Particulars of Claim in the Library section is well above the 1080 character limit on the MoneyClaim form (around 1700 charcters). How do I trim this down? Do I need to mention the specific charges in this section?

Plenty examples on this site.

Seek and ye shall find

Just submitted the following Particulars of claim through the Moneyclaim site. Tough meeting the less than 24 line limit (ended up around a 1000 characters):

The Claimant has an account xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(‘the Account’) with the Defendant which was

opened around 2004. During the period in

which the Account has been operating the

Defendant debited numerous charges to the

Account in respect of purported breaches of

contract on the part of the Claimant. The

Claimant understands that the Defendant

contends that the charges were debited in

accordance with the terms of the contract

between itself and the Claimant. The

Claimant contends that the contractual

provision that permits the Defendant to levy

such charges is unenforceable by virtue of

the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer

Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair

Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law.

The Claimant claims the return of the amounts

debited in respect of charges in the sum of

£40; Court costs; Interest under section 69

of the County Courts Act at such rate and for

such periods as the court deems just. The

Claimant has asked the Defendant to justify

their charges but they have declined.

Just got an Acknowledgement of Service saying that Barclaycard are going to defend the claim. They've got 28 days to file a defence.

On the other hand Capital One have immediately offered to settle for the remaining £20 + £30 court (I already had a £20 goodwill gesture out of them after a preliminary approach).

how much are you claiming as it looks like you are claiming £40?????

how much are you claiming as it looks like you are claiming £40?????

£40 in fees + £30 costs.

(The Capital One bit was a separate case which has just been settled).

Has anyone actually got a settlement from Barclays? I can't see a single case in the Litigation Concluded forum.

hi not sure I think they are doing well stalling because of statements for 6 years, check out my letter in parkes thread... I am happy to go all the way with my estimate, it will only cost me £80 ....if it all goes wrong which i doubt!!!!!!

did you try calling them for these charges to be returned as they usually would for this amount????

hi not sure I think they are doing well stalling because of statements for 6 years, check out my letter in parkes thread... I am happy to go all the way with my estimate, it will only cost me £80 ....if it all goes wrong which i doubt!!!!!!

 

did you try calling them for these charges to be returned as they usually would for this amount????

I wrote a preliminary letter. Got the standard reply talking about terms and conditions. Wrote a letter before action (confirmed delivery through the Royal Mail Recorded). Didn't even get a reply from them. So just went ahead with the claim confident that they will settle instead of going through with a court appearance for such a pitiful amount. Why not hurt them with a further £30 in the process (paid for by my Barclaycard incidently!).

I'm not going to bother calling them now asking for a settlement (don't need to show any sign of weakness). I'll just wait and see what they do next.

good luck keep thread updated you could be the first on BAG to be succesful against barclaycard

Just got a letter from Barclaycard.

It looks like they finally decided to respond to my 'Letter Before Action' (which they received on 5 May with a 14 day deadline). They have apologised for the delay in responding and they seem to have decided that I am a female because the letter is addresses to a 'Ms' (I am a 20 year old male).

They have offered me £16 as a good will gesture (that's my 2 x £20 charges minus the £12 recommended by the OFT for a single charge).

This is strange timing considering that they have already acknowledged the small claim I filed at the end of last month to which they asked for 28 days to file a defence (of which 11 days remain)!

Should I write back to them accepting what they have offered but letting them know that I will pursue the rest on court? The bloke who wrote this letter is obviously not aware that Barclaycard are already 'preparing their defence' against me! What I really want to do is phone them up and have a go at them but I prefer to do things in writing as everything can be recorded easily.

Here's the letter:

Dear Ms Shah

Account no: xxx

I refer to your recent letter. I apologise for the delay in responding.

With regard to your request for a refund of charges I am sorry you feel the charges you have incurred are unfair. We believe that our charges are both fair and transparent, and we make them clear in our Terms and Conditions, and on the reverse of every monthly statement. These charges are avoidable by staying within your limit and making your monthly payment on time.

In your correspondence you state that it is an implied term of the contract that we conduct ourselves lawfully. I must inform you however, that we disagree with your legal analysis, as we believe that our charges are lawful. In light of the above we cannot accept your claim for a refund of £40 however as a goodwill gesture and without any admission of liability we are prepared to credit to your account the difference between the £12 fee level recommended by the OFT and the fees which have been charged, which is £16.

I look forward to hearing from you.

If you have any questions in relation to the above please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Simon Walker

Head of Data Protection & Legal Counsel

Personally, I would ring Simon Walker in person - don't speak to anyone else - or write to him straight away explaining that you will accept the £16 as partial settlement but will be pursuing the rest of the claim plus interest and costs through the court system. I got offered "the difference" from MBNA but pointed out to them that the OFT ruling means that the WHOLE CHARGE is deemed as unfair, not just part of it. They are only allowed to charge £12 from now on. I got all my money back within a couple of days.

Point out to him that, if he checks his records, he will see that you have already filed a claim against them and what stage it is at.

I have to admit here and now that I have backed off from Barclaycard - I know it's a point of principle but I have got a lot of money on there on a low "life of the balance" interest card and if they give me my £100 back but close my card account down, I've had it. I would end up losing a lot more than I would gain, so it's just been a case of realising which side my bread is buttered for me! I will just aim at paying it off as quickly as possible - then I'll take them on again!

Good luck!

Sent the following letter 2 days ago:

[my address]

Simon Walker

Barclaycard

1234 Pavilion Drive

Northampton

NN4 7SG

Thursday 19 June 2006

Dear Simon Walker

CARD/ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxx

Ref: xxxx

I have received your letter dated 15 June 2006 in response to my letter that you received on 5 May 2006. In my letter I gave you a 14 day deadline in order to refund a total of £40 in charges to me otherwise I would proceed with a claim against you for the full amount plus costs and interest.

I am shocked at your ineptitude in dealing with this situation. Firstly, in your letter you chose to address me as ‘Ms Shah’ even though I am a male. Secondly, you took almost six weeks to respond to my letter which suggests that you have not taken my letter seriously. Thirdly, you obviously are unaware of the fact that I have already started my claim against Barclaycard as you failed to communicate with me within the 14 day deadline I gave you. This deadline is more than adequate for a large company to respond to a customer.

In your letter you have offered me a £16 refund. I will accept the £16 refund but I will continue to pursue my claim for the remaining £24 plus costs and interest through the courts system. I take issue with your interpretation of the OFT rulings as you should only charge me £12 for future penalties. The OFT has stated that the whole charge is unfair and not just a part of it. Therefore, your previous charges of £20 each are deemed completely unfair.

If you want to avoid having to go to court then feel free to fulfil my requests. Please check your facts before any future responses.

Just wondering when does Barclaycard's 28 days to file a defence expire.

I issued the claim on May 24 and the letter says it will be seemed to be served on May 29.

I received the Acknowledgement of Service dated May 31 which told me Barclays had 28 days to file a defence (they signed it on May 26).

Can someone tell me when the 28 days expires? Is it 28 days from May 26 or May 31?

EDIT: Having just tested trying to get a judgment on the Moneyclaim website it won't let me do so right now so I guess it will become active on the appropriate day. I'm assuming this means June 28!

So it looks like the stubborn Barclaycard are taking me to court over £40 (or simply trying to scare me off - no chance!). Just got a 'Notice of Transfer of Proceedings' with Barclaycard's defence and the court questionnaire.

What is the additional fee I have to pay when I send in the questionnaire?

Also in the additional information section should I add any further information such as dates of charges, interest calculations and the OFT ruling?

Here is Barclaycard's defence in full: (They call me HER. I am a man for goodness sake! Also some silly mistakes in the English. Does this mean they have f'd up or will they be regarded as irrelevant mistakes?)

1. It is admitted that the Claimant has an account, number xxx. To the extent it is alleged that the Claimant incurred charges on her account for unauthrorised borrowings (whether late payment fees, exceeding authorised credit limit fees, or any other such fees (the ?Charges?)), it is admitted that such charges were debited from the Claimant?s account; however, the Defendant puts the Claimant to strict proof of each charge and the date thereof.

 

2. The Defendant?s standard terms and conditions (?Terms?), which the Claimant accepted upon opening the account, entitles the Defendant to debit Charges from customer accounts upon certain events (including, but not limited to, exceeding account credit limits and / or unauthorised borrowing and / or failing to make sufficient monthly payments to reduce the account balance by the required date).

 

3. It is the responsibility of the account holder to properly monitor her account so as to ensure compliance,for example, with the obligation to make payments by the reuired date.

 

4. The Terms gave the Claimant a fair and transparent view of the obligations and entitlements set out in paragraphs 2 and 3 above, including the basis on which the Defendant would be entitled to debit the Charges from the Claimant?s account.

 

5. If, and to the extent it is the Claimant?s case that the failure to make monthly payments and / or her failure to remain within the agreed credit limit, constituted a breach of the Terms, and that contractual entitlement to debit the Charges from the Claimant?s account constitutes a liquidated damages clause, the same is denied. The Charges applied to the Claimant?s account were payments that the Claimant agreed to make upon the events described at paragraph 2 above by reason of the Terms. Accordingly, it is denied that the Charges or any such charges constitute unfair and / or unreasonable charges, and it is denied that the legal principles governing the enforceability of liquidated damages clauses applies or is relevant to the Charges, as alleged by the Claimant, or at all, and / or that the charges are otherwise unenforceable.

 

6. Further or alternatively it is denied that and such charges constitute unlawful penalty charges or are in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, or are in breach the Unfair (Contract) Terms Act 1977 (or any other provision).

 

7. Further or alternatively, without prejudice to the matters pleaded by paragraph 4 above, if the Claimant?s failure to make sufficient account payments by the required date and / or to remain withinpre-agreed credit limits constituted a breach of the Terms, the Defendant avers that the Charges were unlawfully debited from the Claimant?s account.

 

8. It is further denied that the Charges were unlawfully debited from the Claimant?s account.

 

9. Accordingly, it is averred that the Charges are legally enforceable and the Defendant was entitled to debit the Charge from the Claimant?s account.

 

10. The Defendant denies that it is liable to the Claimant for the sum claimed or at all.

Come on guys it would be nice to receive some advice for once.

EDIT: That was tongue in cheek!!!!!

What fee shall I send?

Does Barclaycard referring to me as the wrong sex affect their defence?

In the additional information I guess I mention the details of the charges, interest calculations, OFT ruling, refusal to provide manual intervention details. Anything else?

And can anyone please look at their defence and tell me what is wrong/what I should counteract?

Come on guys it would be nice to receive some advice for once.

Patience is a virtue.

There are over 38,000 members on this forum - it is impossible for everybody to receive an immediate response to their query. Especially when it gets to the more complex stages of a defence being filed etc.

Apart from that you don't make it clear what advice you are looking for - you ask 2 questions and the answers are as follows:

1) There is no fee to pay

2) There is a guide available to advise how to fill in the AQ.

The answers to both of these questions are readily available on this site - perhaps that's why nobody answered your question.

Patience is a virtue.

 

There are over 38,000 members on this forum - it is impossible for everybody to receive an immediate response to their query. Especially when it gets to the more complex stages of a defence being filed etc.

 

Apart from that you don't make it clear what advice you are looking for - you ask 2 questions and the answers are as follows:

 

1) There is no fee to pay

2) There is a guide available to advise how to fill in the AQ.

 

The answers to both of these questions are readily available on this site - perhaps that's why nobody answered your question.

Sorry I pressed post before adding my questions. By the way my quote was tongue in cheek rather than annoyance!

Edit: I looked at the fee issue on HM courts website but there were so many different types of fees it doesn't hurt to confirm rather than risk blowing the case. Just found the AQ guide in the templates library which is separate from the BankActionGroup forum (which is why I couldn't find the info in the FAQ section in the first place).

I'm assuming I will be mentioning details as well as any evidence to support my claim in the Other Information box of the questionnaire.

I'll obviously be mentioning details of my charges, OFT ruling, interpretations of the law. Can anyone help me put together some specific points?

OFT ruling: I'm assuming I mention the £12 recommendation as well as the implication that all previous charges are therefore deemed unfair by the OFT. Barclaycard has also reduced its charges to £12 following the OFT recommendations.

Penalty charges are excessive and a means to make profit as the system tends to be automated and the cost to the bank is minimal. That the process operates many thousands of times each day and millions each year so that the cost of it is spread over a huge number of transactions and shared equally between them.

The bank has also failed to justify its charges by failing to provide details of manual intervention when the charges were applied.

FAQ case guidance notes mention useful documents such as minutes of select committees and useful documents as well where for example the bank has argued that the charges do only allow then to recover their losses. Any particular recommendations?

Any particular points to help with my arguments of Barclays ignoring the Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Unfair (Contract) Terms Act 1977?