I also have an old case that was stayed as soon as the test case began. The account is now closed with an unpaid overdraft which the reclaimed charges would more than cover. I haven't heard from them yet about striking. Not sure how to link back but will try here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/86191-elliejay39-abbey-guru-needed.html will now go and read the front page piece on misrepresentation....

e-mail sent to Ed Miliband - MP (Labour) for Doncaster North Ellie

Well Done!!!! & for the record I think you made the right decision about accepting the interest - its not a bad compromise is it?

Do we need to include a precis of the old defence? (as suggested in the evidence section of your template Gary) If so whats the best way of going about that? Ellie

Hi, most cases in the pipleline (or submitted since the announcement) have been, or are expected to be stayed. See the following threads http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/cases-stayed-pending-oft/ and http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/107573-oft-test-case-what.html I think we all realised that the recent situation couldn't continue and most people (I think) welcome the test case and are confident that fairness will prevail. Its just been very shoddily handled by the authrorities who have obvioulsy had little regard for consumers like us. I'm a week or 2 behind you and kicking myself for not starting sooner but hey ho! The case is due to start in October but best guesses are that its unlikely to be resolved before next April and even then could go on to appeal and further so potentially could take years. This is why we need to keep the pressure on the government to make sure its not drawn out and that the little person is considered in all this. Theres a petition in Zoots sig at the bottom of the 2nd link. Good luck, and try to think of the interest stacking up.... Ellie

don't forget you need to do a prelim & LBA before filing at court but you should still send the letter of dispute to MC & Abbey. Can I just ask how far back the information you received went? your earlier post suggested it was further back than 6 years and ok, it took then 4 months to find it but worth waiting for....?

Hi, Just received the new defence this morning (word for word the same as yourturntopay's) No mention of a stay yet (apart from the standard letter from Abbey telling me they will be appplying) although according to Icy's thread my local court are definitely staying ALL cases. If i go for an application for defence to be struck out, is it better to opt for hearing or not? I'm a bit nattered as I submitted N1 just before new POC's were composed so used a variation of the old, shorter ones although i did file in person not with MCOL. Thanks in advance Ellie

Just found this thanks to KOG on Halifax forum. Might help in putting together an appeal against a stay given that Abbey seem to be blatantly ignoring the advice in letters received today. 'If the firm attempts to resolve a relevant charges complaint after the date of this direction (other than those described in condition 12(4)): (a) the firm must not seek agreement from the complainant that the resolution is in full and final settlement of the matter; (b) in relation to such complaints, if the outcome of the test case produces a result that is more favourable to the complainant, the firm must take all reasonable steps to pay any difference in the amount of compensation actually received by the complainant and that that the complainant would have been entitled if his claim has not been settled by the firm then...' Full waiver Directions can be found here. http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Notify/Waiver/pdf/direction_disp.pdf

Bit of an edit having found the following thanks to KOG on the Halifax Forum... http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Doing/Regulated/Notify/Waiver/pdf/direction_disp.pdf Dear Sir or Madam, Court claim reference No: ******** Elliejay39V ABBEY NATIONAL PLC Thank you for your letter dated 7th August 2007, I note that despite my letter of 24th July 2007 rejecting your gesture of goodwill you still deposited an amount of £490 into my account on 1st August 2007. I must stress that this deposit does not constitute my acceptance of this offer as full and final settlement. You should also be aware that prior to this deposit a claim had already been filed with the county courts, and as a subsequence court costs and interest pursuant to S69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum, have been added to the original amount. I will, of course, revise the amount in my claim to take this partial settlement into account but I must inform you that I will continue to pursue recovery of the remainder. I would like to draw your attention to clause 12 item(14) points a) and b) of the FSA Waiver Directions dated 27th July 2007. If the firm attempts to resolve a relevant charges complaint after the date of this direction (other than those described in condition 12(4)): (a) the firm must not seek agreement from the complainant that the resolution is in full and final settlement of the matter; (b) in relation to such complaints, if the outcome of the test case produces a result that is more favourable to the complainant, the firm must take all reasonable steps to pay any difference in the amount of compensation actually received by the complainant and that that the complainant would have been entitled if his claim has not been settled by the firm then; I would like to remind you of my letters dated 22nd May and 11th June in which I disputed my indebtedness to you and asked you to observe the OFT code of guidance in freezing further action until the matter is resolved. I am disappointed to note that you have decided both to impose further charges and now demand repayment of my overdraft in full by 1st September 2007, something which is completely impossible due to the pecuniary position I have been forced into by your unlawful debiting of charges. Had my claim against you taken the usual course this matter would have been resolved in a matter of months, my overdraft cleared and my financial position restored. However I understand that it is your intention to apply for a stay of all cases pending the outcome of the OFT test case, and a likely appeal if the judgement is not in the banks favour. I would like to point out that given your decision to withdraw my overdraft facility, which is entirely the result of these unlawful charges, any delay in proceedings will cause me extreme financial hardship, will cause deprivation to my children, may cause damage to my reputation with Credit reference Agencies and will without doubt lead to further charges and associated interest. This, I believe, is in violation of my human rights and I must therefore inform you that I fully intend to vigorously appeal any stay that is granted in my case. I would also like to stress that any delay will cause further interest to be added to the claim and possibly further court costs so to avoid the addition of these further costs being incurred it is in your best interest to refund in full the revised balance of £****.** and court costs of £120 forthwith. You are also reminded of my request that you supply me with a copy of my original contract and forward a copy of your terms and conditions that were in force at the time my account was opened, and any subsequent amendments to those Terms and Conditions. These are requested under a CPR Pre-Action Protocol 4.6©. To date I have not received either and your continued failure to provide them will be brought to the attention of the court should the need arise. Yours faithfully Noddy 73 has suggestedthat we alert FSA to the way banks are ignoring their guidance on handling the waiver. Sounds like a plan to me!

Ok, GOGW finally deposited in early August over 3 weeks after offer and almost 2 weeks after I sent letter rejecting it. Had to dip into it last week which worried me a bit but given that they swiped almost £400 of the Cap 1 settlement in charges etc i felt justified (and anyway no alternative) and also since they are demanding repayment of OD in 2 weeks i may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.... Had a nice chatty letter informing of blanket stays, telling me to read website for details blah de blah. Then got a letter this morning (its a pretty standard templateI believe) informing me of intention to file for stay and that Open offers stand but acceptance will be seen as full and final settlement. Oh S**t. I definitely rejected it even though they ignored me but thought I ought to reiterate my position. Anyway - who gives them the right to make decisions for the court? have they forgotten who the claimant is her? If the court agrees (eventually) that my unavoidable accessing of money (that was originally taken from me and is still rightfully mine don't forget) means that I am denied the right to the rest of my dues then thats a different fight. Anyway, heres my two penn'orth (I plan to send a copy o everyone who has written to me over the last few weeks including the person who signed with a squiggle, no name & no title, just the Triton House address and a location code....!) 13th August 2007 Your ref: ***** My ref : Account No: ******** Dear Sir or Madam, Court claim reference No: ****** Elliejay39 V ABBEY NATIONAL PLC Thank you for your letter dated 7th August 2007, I note that despite my letter of 24th July 2007 refusing your gesture of goodwill you still deposited an amount of £490 into my account on 1st August 2007. I must stress that this deposit does not constitute my acceptance of this offer as full and final settlement. You should also be aware that prior to this deposit a claim had already been filed with the county courts, and as a subsequence court costs and interest pursuant to S69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum, have been added to the original amount. I will, of course, revise the amount in my claim to take this partial settlement into account but I must inform you that I will continue to pursue recovery of the remainder. As outlined in my earlier correspondence I explained that the charges you have applied to my account are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Further or in the alternative, I believe that your charges are a Penalty and Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963 I would like to remind you of my letters dated 22nd May and 11th June in which I disputed my indebtedness to you and asked you to observe the OFT code of guidance in freezing further action until the matter is resolved. I am disappointed to note that you have decided both to impose further charges and now demand repayment of my overdraft in full by 1st September 2007, something which is completely impossible due to the pecuniary position I have been forced into by your unlawful debiting of charges. Had my claim against you taken the usual course this matter would have been resolved in a matter of months, my overdraft cleared and my financial position restored. However I understand that it is your intention to apply for a stay of all cases pending the outcome of the OFT test case, and a likely appeal if the judgement is not in the banks favour. I would like to point out that given your decision to withdraw my overdraft facility, which is entirely the result of these unlawful charges, any delay in proceedings will cause me extreme financial hardship, will cause deprivation to my children, may cause damage to my reputation with Credit reference Agencies and will without doubt lead to further charges and associated interest. This, I believe, is in violation of my human rights and I must therefore inform you that I fully intend to vigorously appeal any stay that is granted in my case. I would also like to stress that any delay will cause further interest to be added to the claim and possibly further court costs so to avoid the addition of these further costs being incurred it is in your best interest to refund in full the revised balance of £**** and court costs of £120 forthwith. You are also reminded of my request that you supply me with a copy of my original contract and forward a copy of your terms and conditions that were in force at the time my account was opened, and any subsequent amendments to those Terms and Conditions. These are requested under a CPR Pre-Action Protocol 4.6©. To date I have not received either and your continued failure to provide them will be brought to the attention of the court should the need arise. Yours faithfully elliejay39 Thoughts, comments?

Congratulations! I wonder if they're getting fed up now!

Take a look here for help on Court bundle. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/33060-basic-court-bundle.html You will get lots of help from this site but you are posting in the successes forum atthe moment so won't get much help here. Start a new thread in the main Abbey forum where it will be seen by more people. Good luck Ellie

Hello all, Firstly you are posting in the successes thread so are unlikely to get much response here. Try starting a thread in the main Abbey forum and you will get more help. For interest calculations have you tried using the spreadsheets in the templates library here? However if you have already filed it would cost you £35 to amend your claim and this cannot be claimd back so you may be better leaving it for now particularly in the current climate. As far as your court hearing goes I would assume it is happening until you hear otherwise. Unless something has happened today that I have yet to read abouut the banks have to apply for a stay to your case and you will be alerted that this has happened (at which point you can appeal against the stay) its all a bit fuzzy atthe moment but I think the main jist is carry on as normal until someone official tells you otherwise (and I don't mean the bank or their solicitor!) Good luck and don't forget to start a new thread in the main bit. Ellie

Is it worth amending mine? I only filed on Wednesday 25th July. Can I ask what brought this about - is it just for Abbey or are the POC deemd stronger no matter what bank you are claiming against? Ellie

surprise surprise, a letter from Abbey this morning telling me that my overdraft is up for renewal in September and unfortunatley they won't be renewing it at this time! Its fair enough really since I started having my salary paid into another bank in April.. Its a bit worrying though, considering the likely delay in resolving my charges claim due to the test case. D'you think I can request a stay on my overdraft repayment pending the result...LoL:D

anyway does this mean that I can request a stay on paying back the overdraft Abbey have told me will be cancelled from beginning of Sept and that I was relying on charges refund to repay! Lol

You mean Tom Brennan? He's waiting for judgement on Monday as to whether there is enough legal cause to take his case further. Don't forget he's been offered full charges back PLUS about £5k compensation (allegedly) His claim will not test whether the charges per se are unlawful its more about damages (I think...)

aww, thanks

:lol: :lol:

What are they like? Talk about left hand, right hand! Thats a new name though - did you e-mail him and if so did you get a response? My offer came from Grace Ballantyne and its now 2 weeks on and I've still not seen hide nor hair of it. Oh and when I worked it out they actually only offered about 1/6 of my charges. So now interest has gone on plus court fees - when will they ever learn? Hope your approach works.... Ellie

Yep, that cleared my unauthorised balance for me. I still haven't had my GOGW credited to my account and its over 2 weeks since they sent letter, they're so random. The letter did say that the amount offered was also to cover charges not yet debited - perhaps i had that many outstanding LoL Anyway found out today that I've got an interview for a new job next week so I'm well excited. Gonna pop over your thread and have a read.. Ellie

well following Abbeys GOGW dated 11th july - still no sign of anything hitting my account (which is still open and accesible online) No doubt they are waiting for next round of charges to hit and will maximise the unauthorisedeness of my overdraft before crediting any dosh. Its good news for me anyway as i sent rejection letter off today advising them that i am claiming full amount and I filed N1 with original figure (thought that if it did materialise i can always notify court later or deduct if/when Abbey agree to settle.) So thats it for now then, the hour apporaches.....

Hi Nigel, Sit and wait for a bit. I've not done MCOL but i think N1 timescales are the same. 14 days from date of service (you will receive acknowledgement of issue from court with date deemed served) for Abbey to acknowledge claim. They then have a further 14 days (i.e 28 days from date of service) to file their defence - unless of course they decide not to defend...! Lol Have good read through the library & FAQ. Take in some of the other Abbey threads to study Abbey's modus operandi and start a new thread in the main Abbey section (this is in the Abbey success thread, where of course you will eventually end up but you might find you don't get much attention here in the meantime) Good luck ellie

Quick update, Son received notice of issue this morning along with a separate envelope containg Halifax's acknowledgement of service and intention to defend. so they have 28 days from 20th July to file defence. I make that 17th August? Ah well, tick, tock... Ellie

Quick question if anyones about. I'm just filling in my N1 form and honestly cannot remember when I opened my account. It could be 11 years it could be 15. Its definitely more than 10 and less than 17 but other than that??? Does it matter if leave out the bit about 'and was opened on or around' from the POC? I wondered if I should change point 1 to: 1. The Claimant has held an account ******** ("the Account") with the Defendant for over 10 years. I seem to remember that contracts entered into pre-1995 do preclude certain arguments. Am I still OK with UTCCR even if my account was opened pre 1995? Thanks in advance...