Yesterday I sent a letter to the Woolwich claiming the return of £870 of my hard earned which had been deducted as penalties.

I used parts of various templates found in this forum to compose the properly worded lettter.

I gave them 14 days to repay, and have already got all of the evidence (over 2 years) by way of my statments.

The bloodsucking leeches won't get away with this travesty forever.

I support you in your fight for justice and will be at the demonstration on the 3rd march.

I will keep you all apprasied of any developments in this thread.

Andy

Yesterday I sent a letter to the Woolwich claiming the return of £870 of my hard earned which had been deducted as penalties.

I used parts of various templates found in this forum to compose the properly worded lettter.

I gave them 14 days to repay, and have already got all of the evidence (over 2 years) by way of my statments.

The bloodsucking leeches won't get away with this travesty forever.

I support you in your fight for justice and will be at the demonstration on the 3rd march.

I will keep you all apprasied of any developments in this thread.

Andy

Well done, and welcome, and thanks

Well done, and welcome, and thanks

Look forward to monitoring your progress. At this stage too

Good luck with this. Joyce Bell at the woolwich dealt with my claim and sent me two letters outlining policy, legalities, blah, blah. Then they refunded all my charges before court as a "gesture of goodwill"

That sounds promising.

Can you tell me, were you forced to commence the claim procedure, or did the Woolwich offer the money back first?

BTW no response received from my first letter yet.

No - they caved prior to me submitting county court papers. It just took two letters on either side first.

The first was the standard letter, which they replied to with their policy statement etc.

In the second one from me I pointed out that they subscribe to the Banking code which states that they have a responsibility to aid customers in financial difficulty. Charging me £300 odd quid plus interest and additional monthly charges did not aid me in financial difficulty.

Mind you, it could have been a bit of a different case because I left the account when they forced it into an unauthorised overdraft and sent it to a collection agency. I told them to take me to court or refund the charges as I knew the law was on my side.

But I think Joyce Bell knows where they stand with the law and if you're persistant enough they will call a halt to it.

Yesterday I received 2 letters from the Woolwich

The first one stating that they were sorry to hear of my dissatisfaction with the service, and that they would be further investigating the matter.

The second one statedthat they will turn the matter over to the Barclays customer complaints department.

Today I received a similar letter from Barclays.

They gave me a date of 27th March to resolve the matter, however there was no indication of a decisive outcdome.

I am due to commence court proceedings on the 9th March.

I think I will go ahead with the action, regardless of their complaint resolution date.

Write them a very short letter and tell them that their 4 week deadline is not acceptable and that the clock is still ticking.

Set the pace and keep control

Today I received a letter from Barclays

The Woolwich had previously stated that the matter would be referred to Barclays, as they are now owned by Barclays.

The letter basically says that they disagree with my legal analysis and that the T&C were clearly stated at the outset of opening the account, in line with the banking code.

They offer half of the disputed amount as an "offer of goodwill", and I should accept the offer by enclosing the attached form with my signature.

This seems to have become standard practice from other posts, so I will continue with the court action.

They're deadline for return of the funds is tomorow, but I will commence proceedings if I dont get the full refund in another 7 days. (see post below)

Just drafted this letter to Barclays:

Barclays Bank

Head Office Customer Relations

London

E14 5HP

Letter 6th March 2006, re. Unfair Bank Charges

Your Ref: ........

Dear sir / madam.

Thank you for your response offering to reimburse me the sum of 435.00GBP, however I feel that this is not a fair and reasonable offer considering your inability to prove the actual loss suffered by Barclays as a result of unpaid direct debits and standing orders.

If you can provide documentary evidence of the actual loss then I will be able to assess your offer properly. Should the matter be brought before a court, you would have to produce this information anyway.

In the meantime, I do not accept your offer of 435.00GBP and unless you make a full refund of the original demand of 870.00GBP within 7 days of the date of this letter, then I will have no option other than to commence court action against Barclays for the full amount plus interest.

Yours sincerely,

Nice Ltter. However, do understand that on the Small Calims track there is no disclosure required other than the documents which you will actually be referring to in your case.

You bring the action. So you have to prove your case on the balance of probablities. (See some of the case guidance notes about this)

It does tend to mean that if you can't make out a case on your own behalf then the banks will not have to answer and so there is nothing to force them to start revealing their figures and processes to the court.

Off the Small calims Track you would automatically get "Standard disclosure" This would require each side to reveal any relavant documents whether or not they harmed their case.

You could apply for standard disclosure when you complete your allocation questionnaire. If you did and you were granted it then I expect that it would cause ructions and in that case the bank would either cave in or appeal the disclosure order.

Has it been known that a bank has not caved in at any point yet?

Barclays have refused my rebuke and stated that they are still only willing to offer a sum of 435 pounds (half the disputed amount).

I have started a claim today.

PS. they have actually hit me with four more charges since my original request letter, so the Claim total is now gone up by 120 pounds.

Any update on this? Love to hear how it's going.

Barclays have until this friday (28 days) to reply to their acknowledgement of service and file a defence.

I have heard nothing from them yet, so maybe it will be a judgement bt default or maybe they will file a defense and we will go to court.

There has been no settlement tabled by the bank, not since their 50% offer following original letter which I refused.

I am a bit worried there are no barclays bank items posted in the litigation concluded section yet, so theres no indication of what their strategy may be.

Yesterday the 28 days for filing of a defense expired, and I duly requested a judgement on the moneyclaim website, which was accepted, however before it could be issued, the defendant posted a defense, stating that they disputed the amount owed.

It will now go to court.

Has anyone else got this far with Barclays/Woolwich yet?

Back in August 06 actually, sorry I forgot to update the thread.

Back in August what?

Yeah sorry, I remember at the time I was scared to post, because there was a confidentiality agreement.

Doesnt really matter now I would have thought. Seems like everyones on the bandwagon these days

This topic was closed on 03/05/19.

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