Eek! I have one there - 'can I still claim' - just wanted to alert TNOOK to MisterMind's advice...

Thanks, will have a read - it's with Egg rather than B/C...

I'm pursuing a similar claim but have been advised by MisterMind that 6 years is as far back as one can go and that interest should be claimed only at 8% as 'contractual interest' was dismissed by the high court. Can anyone confirm this?

He says: "Your penalty charges are reclaimable in full, except for charges before May 2004, now gone beyond recall because of the 6-year statute of limitations.

If you demonstrate your conviction and resolution Egg will cave in at the last minute. They normally add 8% interest without prompting, but do not mention "Contractual Interest" which was dismissed in the High Court."

Does this mean that I can't claim compounded interest at the rate they charge me?

Righto, thanks. It seems then than tnook has been given a serious bum steer on both counts, perhaps he should be alerted.

So the advice to the claimant in this thread is incorrect on both interest and 6 years?

Thanks for the update, I'll adjust the interest in light of what you say. Might the fact that I'm still repaying the debt mean that the 6-year statute of limitations doesn't apply, do you know?

The mouse-over pop-up on this site says 'the six years runs from the last time .... that a payment was made towards the debt.'

It also says that the six years runs from the date upon which it became due - wouldn't this be the first time that I requested the charge back, or became aware that it was unlawful?

Did the arguments that were being used by CAGers against six years collapse? I thought this issue was a cracked nut?

Thanks, Mr.B

Hello,

I got to the stage of having an offer from Egg for about half of my charges + compound interest (£1,500 asked, £750 offered) roughly two years ago but never accepted this or got around to starting court action. I had assumed that the bank charges ruling meant that there was no point in pursuing these charges (dating back 6+ years) but I have seen some posts suggesting that this isn't the case. Can anyone tell me whether it's worth getting back in touch with Egg and then going through the courts? All the deadlines I set are long passed so I assume I could just send a letter declining the last offer they made in June 2008, asking for an updated amount and then launch a claim online when they decline to pay?

Or does the banking ruling mean there's little point?

Any advice gratefully received.

Mr Bump

Well done! Did you have to start proceedings?

The judge needs six weeks apparently....

Excellent - that's very promising. I'm glad you didn't sign! I'll certainly crack on in that case.

Thanks Steven, that's interesting. They've put the money back into my account, which means I have no access to it anyway so may as well press on. I'll watch your progress with interest - keep me posted please!

I see in your signature that it says 'Full offer received 18 April but with conditions'. Does this mean that they offered to cough up the interest after you filed a claim? What were the conditions?

Bump

They just repaid my charges today, but with no interest 'as your balance was not solely consistent of charges'. I can't see that (if true) this matters; they applied charges unlawfully and charged interest on these, therefore that money should not have been taken. The problem is working out exactly what proportion of the interest is for purchases and what it is for charges (I used the basic s/s so have no idea). However, I think that they will want to avoid court for such a small amount so I'm going to pursue them for the rest through the courts. The worst that can happen is they will have to repay the exact amount of charges interest, I think. Others have gone to court for contractual only (ie already having been refunded) and won, so I fail to see why we shouldn't. I'll be following in your footsteps... good luck!

Well, my first (partial) victory. Huzzah! The deadline on my LBA expired last Wednesday, so I thought I'd call them and see if they wanted to avoid court costs as I'd heard nothing further from them.

Unfortunately, I ended up in a Kafkaesque nightmare of being passed between call center staff in India, when I was trying to contact David Cunningham of GE Money in the UK. This is impossible through the numbers available on the web (there's no number on the letter he sent). I found myself in the odd position of being offered a refund of two of the latest charges by the guy on the phone, and not really wanting them as it would mean re-doing my spreadsheet.

Anyway, perhaps my efforts weren't in vain as today I got a letter from GE giving the usual guff about terms & conditions etc. It then goes on to say that they are reviewing the OFT decision and may change their position on 'default fees' in coming months. Then it says they agree as a 'gesture of goodwill' to refund the charges in full and final settlement of the matter. This has, apparently, been refunded to my account. Then it says that they will not refund the interest I requested (contractual) as the balance of my account was not solely made up of charges (debatable I'd say). Now, what to do? Since the claim is under £500 the fee to go to court would be only £50. I'm inclined to press on, as the interest is around £270.

Has anyone taken on GE solely on interest? If I issue a claim for interest only, will they then take the money back? Any thoughts?

I'd recommend sending it recorded, rather than using their envelope. Then they can't wriggle out of dates. Having said that you should perhaps start the 40 day count from your first letter.

Yes, I'm afraid so. However, after much tooing-and-froing I got them to accept a secure message as proof of ID and didn't have to pay the DPA fee. They said:

Apr 2007

Dear Bump

I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Previously, a secure message was not one of our accepted proofs of ID for this type of request. However, to improve the speed and efficiency of this for our customers we now accept secure messages as proof of ID when making a data subject information request.

I've passed your details on to the team that will process your data subject information request to let them know you've sent the secure message to us, they'll contact you shortly.

I would say that it took me AGES to get this out of them so you may well be better off just resending the ID. However, it seems that a stern message through the website mentioning a complaint to the Information Commisioner really makes them pull their finger out...

Good luck.

Nope, stick to the deadline - LBA on May 3. It might be worth calling them and asking for the cash as it's so little - they may well roll on a phonecall if you make it clear that you mean business. Bon chance!

Well, finally Crapwest break their silence - a letter from the venerable Mr Higley saying he's looking into my claim. Unfortunately however, my LBA deadline is Monday. He'd better work quick, cos I'm heading to the court next week. Here comes the PAIN!!

That sounds good to me although perhaps also mention the fact that you have received no information at all regarding this payment from them, just so it's on record that you haven't agreed to accept this amount as a settlement.

And don't forget to send it recorded delivery. Good luck!

Blimey - I think you'll be retiring in Bermuda! As I understand it, you simply use the current rate for the whole period. I had the same question, and the venerable Bong told me:

"you don't need to know the different interest rates that they applied either. Just stick in the current interest rate that they are charging you. Think about it, we don't have to go back and apply different rates of statutory interest to our claims, we only use the current rate of 8%. If the bank rejected the claim just based on the rate used it would be up to them to show what the actual rates were throughout the claim and provide an alternative calculation. You will need to decide whether to go for authorised or unauthorised rate, I think authorised if you would find it hard to show that they applied the unauthorised rate for most of the time but you will need to make this decision, there are many arguments on the site for using both, and it is not clear cut."

As for the spreadsheet, I had no problem putting in a minus sign to get a negative balance...

Good luck!

Take it further! The OFT stuff has no real bearing on your claim. Go gettem!

This one is more comprehensive: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/51736-excel-contractual-interest-spreadsheet.html?highlight=mindzai#post421046

Overdraft interest is the amount they have taken on top of the charges - if a charge puts you in the red they charge interest, so you should reclaim this too. The spreadsheets on the site calculate this for you. The 8% is added when you go to court, on top of this amount.

Er, what I meant was, how lucky!

Although you didn't get the pleasure of threatening them with some shower-block action ... hehehe.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghh!!!!!!!