Still heard absolutely nada. With the OFT issue am I likely to hear anything at all?

Received a letter today offering the full outstanding amount, plus 8% statutory interest and court fees. They claim they will send me a cheque within the next 14 days.

I don't really want to cancel court proceedings until the cheque is cleared and in my bank, but the deadline for their defence is also only 14 days away.

Any advice?

Received a copy of Cobbetts' AQ today (hardly strike fear into my heart when they don't put anything at all in section G!) but still nothing from the court yet.

Must.....be....patient!

Thanks again Hedgey, you are a star!

After trawling through carrier bags of old statements (mrs rpgsx3r isn't as organised as me, but she is a hoarder!) I can now tell that we're only missing around 18 pages out of 300. Mrs rpgsx3r isn't too keen on going through with court action vis-a-vis the Data Protection Act, so I'll give it another week to see if the missing statments come through before sending the Prelim.

Received a ltter on Tue from NatWest saying statements are to follow. Today some arrived - from 2001-2002, so still missing 4 years worth.

However, I do have a question about what can be reclaimed. My wife had an Advantage Gold account (and I assume she cannot reclaim the £6 monthly fee for this?) and was charged £14 on several occasions as an 'unarranged borrowing fee' when she went beyond her agreed overdraft. Presumably this can be reclaimed? There are other referral fees at the usual £25, so naturally I'll be reclaiming those.

Edit: Also, I've just noticed a 'Loan Fee' at £63.46. Should I be tring to reclaim this?

Yeah, have checked those out. I guess that's the only way to proceed.

Little update.

Been a little delayed with this one as I'm dealing with several other claims too. I've cashed the cheque and stipulated it is accepted as part payment only. The N1 will be posted tomorrow.

Ok, template letter 2 was sent and still there has been no response. It is a concern that the missing statements are from when my wife's account was in her maiden name, but I really can't see why they won't send the statements from then. I have asked that if they require any info as to identity that they say so (as per the templates) but I have had nothing back.

I suppose the only way forward is to go to court over the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)/Data Protection Act? Is it worth going down the Information Commissioners route, or is this just likely to delay the process? Have others had any success with a court action? And are we really looking at several months just sorting the Data Protection Act, before several more months with the claim? It's infuriating that NatWest simply do not comply with the DPA!

Thanks again.

I've got everything together and am submitting to the court today. Just to double-check; I should also send a copy of each of these documents including the AQ to Cobbetts, right?

After this I assume I must send copies of all the statements to both the court and Cobbetts too? Anything else need to go with those? I already included the T&C with the original claim.

No, I've not posted it yet, I plan to deliver by hand anyway, and have a couple of days yet.

Yes, the location of those items would be great Also, I didn't realise that I also have to send a copy of the AQ and attachments to the defendant!

About to send my AQ off today (deadline 9/7/07), but I have a quick question. Is this (from the template library) only needed if the claim is above £5k? Would it be worth using some of it to highlight the current situation anyway, or best to just omit it completely as my claim is under £5k?

You may wish to add reasons why the case is more suitable for Small Claims Track if your claim value exceeds £5' date='000 or provide reasoning why the other side should provide evidence of their costs! You could include similar text to this....[/b']

I am respectfully requesting that my claim be allocated to the small claims track. This issue is not a complicated one; it is an issue of fact and not of law. The issue is only whether the money levied by the Defendant in respect of its customer’s contractual breaches exceed their actual costs incurred. I am happy to pay their actual costs and I am surprised the Defendant did not counterclaim for these, because I would have paid them without argument.

 

However, the continuing problem is (in common with the 100s of other cases currently being brought by other bank customers) that the banks refuse to reveal the details of their penalty-charging regime. As the banks have a fiduciary duty towards their customers, they have a duty to deal straightforwardly and in utmost good faith.

 

Accordingly, I would respectfully ask that the court in this case, not withstanding allocation to the small claims track, order standard disclosure. I understand that it is in the courts discretion to do so. I believe this would bring a rapid end to this litigation.

Phew! Thanks for the reassurnce, it helps a lot! I must admit, after seeing others had received a similar letter I was a little more relaxed too. It doesn't help that a family member is worried that it's got to this stage and thinks I should have accepted the offer, but I was determined to stick to my guns!

I think the letter makes a lot of sense, thanks for the template, though I won't c&p it wholesale - Cobbetts might not appreciate it!

Although Natwest have only offerred me the charges (not fees or 8%) I have received a similar defence. Is this a standard defense/response?

Could relly use some advice on this! I'm worried that I may have made a mistake and will totally lose out, though why they'd offer me the total charges in this case I'm not sure!?!?!?!

Anyone?

NatWest Current Account

19/4/07 - Checked statements. Owed £1237 in charges.

19/4/07 - Phoned Natwest and asked for money back - no joy.

19/4/07 - Sent Prelim letter based on template.

26/4/07 - Received 'looking into it' letter from NatWest

03/5/07 - Sent LBA

21/5/07 - Submitted N1 form at court

05/6/07 - Received Acknowledgement of Service from Cobbetts

07/6/07 - Received Notice of Issue from Court

08/6/07 - Received Defendant's Acknowledgement of Service from court

09/6/07 - Received offer from Natwest to pay me 100% of charges

11/6/07 - Offerred to accept charges+court fees

19/6/07 - Received defence from Cobbetts

Ok, I sent a letter saying I would accept charges plus court fee but have received a response saying that their offer was the only one. I have also now received a defence from Cobbetts, so looks like I'll be going to court!

The gist of the defence seems to be that "the particulars of claim do not discolse reasonable grounds for bringing a claim against the defendant to recover bank charges" and that "if the claim is not properly particularised then the defendant will apply to strike out the claim and/or for summary judgement in respect of the same."

The defence also states that "on allocation the defendant invites the court to direct there be a case management conference in order for the court to consider the making of appropriate orders to give the claimant the opportunity to properly particularise the claim."

There is more, but it seems asthough it's long the same lines.

Where do I go from here? What are my obligations at this point? Should I receive information from the courts as to what happens next? Seems to be getting particularly serious now!

I've been in the process of closing the account during all this and today I received a letter saying the account will be closed soon - but that the positive balance will be sent to me as a cheque. However, this 'positive balance' is merely the difference they want to refund me, which naturally I'm not accepting. However, can I just take this cheque and continue my claim (with an adjusted figure at the N1 stage if it goes that far), or should I just send it back to them clearly stating again that I do not accept it?

Excellent, thank you.

So did you not ask also for the s69 interest to be included in the figure? Or had you already accounted for interest in your main claim?

Thanks for the prompt replies guys. If I don't accept (and that's what I'm thinking at the moment) do you think it's worth replying to their letter saying I don't accept, or just ignore it?

Ok, firstly I received the copy of my claim back from the court on Thursday with the Notice of Issue. Friday I received Notice that the Defendent filed an acknowledgement of Service on 4th June, giving them a further 28 days days to file a defence.

Have I understood this correctly? There is nothing I need do in order to comply at this point is there?

Then today I received a letter from NatWest dated 5th June. They offerred to repay the charges in full to the penny! £1237. I'm pretty happy!

However, the s69 interest and the court fee are not included in this offer, which totals a further £351.66. Is it worth hanging in there for this? I am aggreived that they didn't make this offer before I paid the court fees and would have accepted it, but as I've had to spend £120 (a lot to me as I'm now out of work) I would like to get that too, and the s69 interest would also be nice. Is it a standard tactic for Natwest to offer the amount for the charges at this stage? Do they ever make n offer including s69 interest and court fees without going to court?

Any and all advice appeciated.

NatWest Current Account

19/4/07 - Checked statements. Owed £1237 in charges.

19/4/07 - Phoned Natwest and asked for money back - no joy.

19/4/07 - Sent Prelim letter based on template.

26/4/07 - Received 'looking into it' letter from NatWest

03/5/07 - Sent LBA

21/5/07 - Submitted N1 form at court

05/6/07 - Received Acknowledgement of Service from Cobbetts

07/6/07 - Received Notice of Issue from Court

08/6/07 - Received Defendant's Acknowledgement of Service from court

09/6/07 - Received offer from Natwest to pay me 100% of charges

Sent a prelim letter and schedule of charges on 18/5/07 and received a letter on 30/5/07 saying they'd refund the difference between the £20 charges and £12 per charge.

Writing LBA right now.

This was in another thread along with my own claim, but I wanted to keep it clear and so moved it to a new thread.

The 40 days from the SAR are now up and Natwest have only sent statements from the past year.

Time for me to read up on where to go from here!

Natwest Current Account

23/4/07 - Sent Data Protection Act letter.

02/5/07 - Received partial statements

03/5/07 - Received 'as soon as possible' letter

18/5/07 - Sent follow-up letter to SAR

05/6/07 - SAR 40 days up and no further details received

Received Acknowledgement of Service from Cobbetts today. I guess that means they have a further 14 days.

Also, I've edited the first post to remove other claims as I don't want it to get confusing! Starting a new thread for my wife's claims as they haven't sent all the information from the SAR and the time is up.

Nice one - and thanks for notifying me by replying in my thread too - this will really push me on to follow-up my claim now too. Well done!

BTW - what was the interest you charged? Statutory 8%?

NatWest Current Account

19/4/07 - Checked statements. Owed £1237 in charges.

19/4/07 - Phoned NatWest and asked for money back - no joy.

19/4/07 - Sent Prelim letter based on template.

26/4/07 - Received 'looking into it' letter from NatWest

03/5/07 - Sent LBA

21/5/07 - Submitted N1 at Court

-----

Well, the N1 form has now been submitted with copies of the T&C and Schedule of charges (all in triplicate). Fingers crossed!

Thanks Hedgey, I think I will go to the courts on Monday in person.

One other question, in light of the Lloyds/Berwick case, do you think it is now advisable to include a copy of the T&C when submitting, or is this more suitable if there is a hearing? (In which case I potentially have more time). The account has been a Graduate and CurrentPlus account, and was opened in 96, so it could prove difficult for me to get copies of the T&C.