24/2/07 request S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) (received statements within 40 days sent special delivery) 4/4/07 sent letter to nationwide requesting payment of £721 (without interest added) 15/4/07 received letter back saying ...eh...na (dated 13/4/07) 30/4/07 sent LBA to respond within 14 days 16/05/07 claim issued MCOL this time i added the statutory interest for each charge so total claim is now £981.86 plus court costs of £80.00. (claim will be served on 21/5/07 they have until 4/6/07 to respond) 16/5/07 posted 2 schedules of charges with the template letter to court to attach to claim and send with claim when served to nationwide 17/5/07 received another letter from nationwide saying sorry but we still not giving you your money. Really..didn't see that coming.... anyway, thats me so far on this particular claim. thanks for looking and wish me luck!

How do you know when they would have received the letter? They could have rceived the letter 2 days after posting then it may need to go to a different dept and all other delays added on..You haveto draw the line somewhere and 14 days from the date of the letter seems plenty of time ot respond to me. I agree with PPMAN, send court threat when unsatifactory response is received, thats what i have done. I've just issued my claim on MCOL on 15/5/07 after sending my court threat letter on 30/4/07 (thats 15 days!) and receievd a letter from nationwide today telling me...guess what..! Yep, they are very sorry bla bla bla but they will not be refunding my charges...bla bla not fair on other customers whose charges stand..sound familiar? This is the 2nd letter i've received from them saying the exact same thing (i received first after my initial request) At the end of the day its your choice as to when you want to start your timescales from....this is just my opinion. Good luck!

thats very good news..thanks

Hi all, I was just wondering, especially with the LTSB fresh in our minds, that their written defence in court stated that the charges are for a service not default charges..what line of argument can we put up to argue that they are default charges and not for a service...If thats the way the banks defences are going to go now. Also, how do i get an original copy of t & c's from when i first opened my account...i've been with nationwide for 25 years and just put my claim into MCOL yesterday and anticipate them going all the way. One thing i did think of is when i got the first letter from all of the companies i'm claiming from refusing to pay, i dont believe any of them referred to the charges as a service..anyone else have any other ideas?? Also, roughly how long after first issue would you be loking at a date in court if it goes that far? many thanks

hiya, no, not yet..maybe i'm jumping ahead of myself a bit! Just assuming that they will try and take it all the way after yesterday (hasn't put me off btw!) shaz

started procedings through MCOL last week..how to i pm a moderator or site helper with details? thanks

Title is self explanatory really! Just wondered if anyone had actually won compensation...Is it true that banks/BS are less likely to close accounts now? I was reading a thread on moneyexpert about someone who had won in court and got their charges back but during the court process their account had incurred more charges so they started a new claim with the BS who then wrote to them and basically said 'you cant have a free account and if you try and reclaim again we are going to close your account' As it was only £60 they didnt bother,but surely the whole point of this excercise is that the charges they are charging are too high?? If the banks/BS haven't learnt that lesson after having to repay charges then thats their problem surely? All they need to do is reduce charges to be realistic and fair! shaz

thankyou very much for your swift reply. I've just finished a reply to them which i've C & P below and just wanted to see if its ok to send..ie i haven't put my foot in anything with the wording... I write with reference to your letter dated 10/5/07 regarding unlawful charges made to my above account. Firstly I would like to advise you that as I did not receive a full response by 7 may 2007 as promised in a letter from steve bailey dated 19 april 2007, I have now filed a claim for the full amount plus 8% statutory interest which I am entitled to do, in the small claims court on 11/5/07 and also sent them a full schedule of charges I believe to be unlawful. However, you are fully entitled to enter a defence where I am sure you will be able to evidence and itemise the ‘substantial costs’ you incur, to the judge. Thanyou for the goodwill gesture of £83.00 but as previously stated I will only accept the full amount plus costs as a settlement. is that ok?

hiya! well i started my claim through MCOL on the 11/5/07 against MBNA as they hadn't responded to any of my previous letters..they did write to me in april telling me they would respond fully by 7/5/07..needless to say they didn't which is why i started my court claim. Anyhoo, i received a letter from them today..actually from the assistant vice president rachel claridge (does this mean anything?) giving the usual bla bla about how their charges are 'vaild, fair and enforceable' and they want to offer me a goodwill payment of £83.00 (total owed is £191.73 and wouldn't accept their offer anyway).. i just wanted to quote to you some of the contents of the letter to see what you all think "when customers pay late, we incur substantial costs in dealing with their default. Similarly, we have set credit limits carefully for each customer for good reason" "If a customer goes over their credit limit, he or she is using the card in a way they are not allowed, in effect obtaining unauthorised bororwing. We, therefore, lend more than we agreed to, and take on risks, which were never accepted in the first place. In the case of both late payments and overlimit usage and also where a chq has been unpaid..we set charges reflecting our costs of dealing with such defaults of customers overall, as do all other major credit card providers. This approach allows us to be clear and upfront about all default charges and the the basis on which they are applied" I intend to reply to this and want to ask exactly what are these substantial costs they incur and advise them that i have already put a claim into the small claims court and would be happy for them to offer a defence where they can evidence exactly how much and where they incur 'substantial costs" I will also be refusing their partial offer of £83.00. the letter also goes on the say that MBNA disagree with the OFT interpretation of the law and continues to maintain that default charges have always been fair... Please please give me your comments and advise if this is the standard type letter and whether they have made any ambigious comments in the letter. thanks! shaz

great thanks for that! Can i ask a really dumb question? I'm trying to get to grips with the abbreviations on the threads..one that has stumped me is LBA? its probably really obvious but my brain is slowly turning to mush with all the info! thanks again shaz

Hi all, I'm new here and have already received invaluable advise from chloe jane regarding MCOL amongst other things. I can understand why a lot of people prefer to go to court the 'old fashioned way' as MCOL can be really daunting and there is no way i would have filled it all in correctly had i not come here for advise first...Also the link CJ gave me explaining the MCOL procedure was fantastic. I would have easily overlooked the fact i needed to send 2 copies of a schedule of my charges to the court before the claim is served had i not read that. Also the templates are fantastic too..thankyou so much. I just wanted to pick your brains regarding the legality of banks/building societies closing accounts after settling in court. I read a thread on moneyexpert which stated that nationwide (who one of my claims is against) told someone that as they are not abiding by T & C's of contract they will be closing the account in 28 days...do they haveto give you 28 days notice or can they just close the account when they please. I have a £1000 O/D with my nationwide account and have opened a parachute account with alliance and leicester but with no O/D as due to unforseen circumstances (ie. ex husband emigrating and no longer paying child support) my budgeting has gone up the swanny and i have gone slightly over my O/D by a £ or 3 and the A & L state that you haveto have at least 2 days a month in credit which i do and also stay within your O/D limit which unfortunatly for the last 3 months i've tipped it by a couple of quid for a day each month so dont really want to activate the acc til i can get the O/D sorted...which i will monitor meticulously for june ( yes i've already buggered up may). hope someone can advise many thanks shaz

hi again! I just did it! i went back and removed the brackets and replaced them with full stops and this seemed to work. the MCOL site states my will be submitted by 10am the next day so do i then wait 5 working days after that so the papers can be served, then 14 days after that, i can apply for judgement in my favour if mbna dont respond? I need to pick your brain about something else if you dont mind...with my nationwide claim for £721.00, i'm curretnly at the stage where i have received a letter telling me they will not reimburse me so i have responded with the letter asking to pay up withing 14 days or i will take to court...I'm presuming they will want me to take it to court as i've heard nationwide generally does this...I digress, when i made my original request to nationwide it was without interest..if it goes to court can i then add the interest for each charge at this stage even though my original request was for charges without interest? I'm thinking what the hell now! i didn't ask for interest as i hoped they wouldn't close my account down but looks like they may go all the way anyway! thanks again CJ just editted to say is it 5 days or 5 working days that the papers are served? ta!

hiya, have taken your advise and used template from this site, although when i go to submit my claim, there is an error messge stating i have used & and in the text which i cant find! have you heard of this before? dont really want to submit with these errors..but i cant see hwere they are to rectify them! Thanks again CJ you have been so helpful

i downloaded from the martin lewis moneyexpert website. o no is it wrong? i'm a bit crap with sending links in messages but will try and send you the link to the whole statement letter thingy http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/redir/a510628b i hope i've done that right! think i may be getting the hang of this ... ...understanding i mean..not the links thing! So basically i request that i add on another 8% of the total amount i'm claiming and then this accrues interest everyday til judgement and if successful, i'm assuming this will all be calculated at the end? i'm going to go on the moneyclaim site tonight to do this..is it wuite easy to follow on there or is there a big chance i will bugger it up? I understand its all about specific days notice and i haveto keep my eye on the dates etc

i'm just rereading again your reply and also the template letter from moneyexpert and i think point 4 means the total of my charges incl the interest i've already included because point 5 actually says my total charges plus 8% on top of that..is that right? i've c & p point 5 below 5. The Claimant asks the court to enter judgment in their favour for [insert total charges] plus interest, totaling [insert total charges plus interest]. thankyou again for your patience!

thankyou so much for your reply..i've looked over the template letter i downloaded from moneyexpert to send with my court application (i'm doing this online with the moneyclaim website) and i've copy and pasted point 4 which is the point that has confused me. As i've already added the interest for each charge from the date it was charged i'm not sure what interest charges i'm supposed to be adding..does it mean adding 8% interest on top of my total charges (incl interest i've already added?) If so, from which date..would it be from the date i originally asked for my payment? what does the 'date i was deprived of the money' mean? because i've already incorporated those interest charges into the original request for payment. sorry to be a pain 4. Under the County Courts Act, the claimant is entitled to interest of 8% per annum from the date they were deprived of the money. This totals [insert amount of interest as calculated with the bank charges calculator], accruing at the daily rate of 0.021% until judgment or payment.

hello all, This is my first post so forgive me if i waffle! I'm in the process of reclaiming bank charges from nationwide (£721), mbna credit card (£246), capital one credit card (£191)and barclaycard (£140)..i'm at different stages with each claim. I downloiad all teh letter templates from martin lewis moneyxpert site (great site!) I'm just about to take mbna to court as they haven't responded after the specified time and am being a bit thick when trying to understand the letter template. It states in the letter that i will be claiming interest upto the court judgement but how to i ask for the interest claim amount when i dont know when the judgement date is? in my original claim i am also claiming statutory interest for each charge..i've done this in all of my applications except nationwide. Also, i've heard that nationwide have a habit of closing accounts down after claims have been made..i've been a customer for over 20 years and also have savings accounts with them..(nothing in them) does this make a difference? i've already opened a parachute account with alliance and leicester. Also, unfortunatley, i've been charged since my claims have been submitted..could i ask for those back too in a seperate claim? both times i went £27 over my overdraft limit with DD's. crazy thing is, all of my charges are dated back to over 2 years ago and due to unforseen ex husband not paying child maintenance and buggering off to new zealand problems in last few months, its put a strain on our finances which is why we have gone over O/D again. I know this is long winded and would much appreciate advise on above. many thanks shaz