This morning I've received the form N157 "Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track". Although the court date is still "to be advised" is this where I forward the letter etc mentioned by barty under 3rd July post above or should I still wait for a court date to be advised efore doing this?

Just today received a letter from LTSB 'Customer Service Recovery Centre' in Andover, which I haven't seen mention of on any of the posts so far. It states: "Complaint Reference xxxxxx I wrote to you four weeks ago to update you on our investigation of your complaint. I am really sorry we are still not in a position to respond fully to your complaint. because we have not responded fully yet, I want to ensure you understand your rights. So I am enclosing the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) explanatory leaflet, which sets out their role and how to make contact. You will see from this leaflet that you do have the right to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman if you are unhappy with the delay. However, I would be grateful if you could please bear with us for a little so that we may try to reach an amicable conclusion. I will continue to monitor the progress of your complaint and would like to take this chance to thank you for your continued patience. Yours sincerely," I have a couple of comments about this: 1) It wasn't four weeks ago that they last wrote, it was on 16th May; 2) Grammatically it's not the best English I've ever seen! 3) they are obviously not aware of the actions that have taken place via MCOL and their own solicitors, or are chosing to ignore them; 4) At the end of the day, this is surely just another delaying tactic aimed at preventing me from continuing my action through the legal system isn't it? If anyone else has experienced this, can they advise why happened next? Cheers

Actually the link under post #23 above New---after 28 Days - Maybe No Aq!!!!!!! is good for a nudge letter as well as other info once you reach the point that you now have. Hope this helps.

Try this link, which should provide some assistance http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/lloyds-bank/93835-tina9776-ltsb.html Still searching for others!

Hi Again, It won't cost you any more as you have gone down the small claims route. The only cost that you will incur is the court fee that you have already paid, whatever LTSB do next. However, because your claim is in excess of £2000, it seems that some courts are going down this 'Notice of Directions' route even though you are still under the small claims threshold. Above all, don't worry though! it sounds as if you have followed correct procedure to the letter so far. I have seen this 'Nictice of Directions' being used before in a couple of threads but in each case it seems only to have confirmed that the small claims track is to be used. I have also seen a 'nudge' letter used at this stage, to try and persuade **** to pay up now. It might not be a bad tactic. I'll try and find the threads that I've seen these in and post them up here.

Hi Zoeyarscott, I'm waiting with baited breath now for the next step. I'm hoping that it won't be the Notice of Directions hearing as this isn't always required. When it is, it is usually to decide which track your claim will go in. It is usually only done for bigger claims. How much are you claiming back? From reading other postings, I don't believe that you need to take a lot with you to this hearing, as it will be simply for the judge to decide (almost certainly) that you belong on the small claims track. However, it may be prudent to have your court bundle ready just in case, although it is not normally needed until you are requested to forward it to the court and **** prior to the actual case being heard. Hope this helps but perhaps other site members can reinforce, confirm or correct what I have said.

Thanks Barty. Will therefore wait for a letter from my local court any day now. You're such a help to so many people on this site. I'm sure it's appreciated by all of them and it's most definitely appreciated by me. Thx again.

Thanks for the info Barty. Seems clear enough. However, do I do this straightaway or wait for comminication from my local county court first? It seems a bit presumptuous to send this to them almost before they realise that they have been given the case?

Hi, Yes, you're right. Today I have received a 'Notice of Transfer of Proceedings' from Northampton transferring the case to my local court, together with LTSB's defence (known on this site, I believe, as the "standard 9-point defence). I also have a notice from the court advising that the filing of the AQ be dispensed with. As I understand it from all the other threads that have got this far, I still have to wait for the court to ask for the information that I intend to rely on, or should I just send it to the court and **** now?

Hi All, Just a clarification required from me at the moment. I have followed all the rules in claiming to date, as this thread will justify. The Black Donkey has until next Saturday (8th July) to lodge a defence. I have now noticed on MCOL that the status has changed to 'Defence' and MCOL states that I am unable to take any further action on this claim online. it also states that the matter will be referred to the appropriate court for continuation. However, I have not received any more in the post (even taking the post office strike into consideration) and am wondering if I am supposed to do anything at the moment. Having read a large number of posts now, it seems that I must wait until I either receive an AQ from the court or some other formal request for evidence etc, but I don't want to find myself in the position of one of the other threads here whose claim was struck out because they didn't provide information in time. Can anyone clarify for me? Thx

Sorry to pester but I wondered if this was new information of use to anyone or whether it is already common knowledge. I've now recovered correspondance going back to mid 2006, including a set of Ts & Cs (similar to those posted by 'shadeofblue') valid from October 2004, and the expressions 'your contract for an overdraft' or 'This is a contract for an overdraft' appears on subsequent pages (2 and beyond) on most of it. Reading earlier posts, this seems to be the evidence that we need so is this required by anyone else for back-up at all? Thanks again all.

For everyone! Please advise. Searching through as much old correspondance from LTSB as I could find (unfortunately I only recently destroyed a llot of the older stuff) over the weekend, I found a letter from them dated mid-2006, and at the top of page 2 it states something along the lines of: "This is the contract for your overdraft" This must be an admission that an overdraft is indeed a contract, as we have all suspected from the start, and therefore exceeding it is a breach. This being the case, would it be helpful for anyone to have a copy?

Just realised from an earlier thread ('Getting MCOL right') that I should have sent the Schedule of Charges with a covering letter to SC&M when I received the Notice of Acknowledgement (issued on 15/06). I have done that today, having only actually received the Notice of Acknowledgement around 6 days ago, but will it cause any difficulties for me that LTSB have now filed a defence (albeit only on MCOL - I haven't received any paperwork in the post yet) before I sent their solicitors the SOC?

Sound like yet another 'scare' tactic from the Black Donkey. If you're sure that the information provided is the same as for other claims, I'd sit tight and just continue with the process as with all the others.

Well, we're moving forward! Checked MCOL and The Black Donkey has now filed a defence with 18 days to spare! Is that unusual? Will wait for official paperwork through the post before doing anything else but am now in the 'End Game; and stragely excited by it!!

You're quite right Kazzie. I used the MSE forms before I found the CAG site but can now see everything in one place, had I been starting the process now.

Fear not - you're just at the beginning of the game. LTSB's response is their standard one, designed to put off people who don't know better. You're best bet now is to send an immediate reply back along the lines that their response is not acceptable (see moneysavingexprt.com for precise wording) and that if they don;t repay your charges within 14 days you'll take them to court. When they don't (and they won't yet) then look at the above site and other postings on this site for the next steps to take. While it ill take a while, there's loads of good help and 'best practice' on this site, but you do need to take some time out to read it all in order to make the rest of the process easier.

Thanks JB1. Didn't want to ask questions that were already answered but am just checking at every stage to ensure that LTSB can't wriggle out. Will happily wait for your posting with the scanned Ts & Cs as it's not that urgent yet. Will look for them later in the week. Cheers

Hi All, Received in the post this morning a 'Notice that Acknowledgement of Service has been filed'. Having read many of the posts on this site, I'm under the impression that I still don't have to do anything until (and if) LTSB actually file a defence and I am them asked by the court to send through my supporting documents, but can anyone confirm that to me, just to put my mind at rest. I now have most of my court bundle ready, in case it goes that far, and am grateful to a recent posting with 2004 Ts & Cs which appears to support all of our cases. However, if anyone has older ones (I haven't found them on the site yet) I'd be grateful as I'm still hunting (in vain so far) through my own archives for them.

Hi Barty, Thanks for the heads-up. Having read this, I am now despatching in today's post two copies of my schedule of charges, with the claim details etc on top, plus a covering letter. As I understand it, I don't now have to do anything until / if I get a Notice of Acknowledgement? Cheers

After all the exchange of correspondence etc (during which I sent a detailed list of the charges being claimed to my bank) which then lead to the MCOL claim, I listed what I was claiming in summary under the 'Particulars of Claim' section on the claim form, detailing out the actual charges, the interest that I was claiming and then the accruing interest percentage up to date of settlement (all obtained from moneysavingexpert.com). I was not planning to send a detailed list of the claim until and if I get a court date, when I will then include it in my court bundle. Can anyone advise if this is OK or whether I should be doing something in advance of any court date being advised?

Would seem to be the case. Northampton's no where near where I live but my claim (against the Black Donkey) has gone there too.

JB1, There is something on the LTSB website regarding the fact that they might not charge the first time if you haven't gone over your overdraft in the past 12 months, but that is definitely new. I have letters from way back where they didn't adopt that policy and charged straightaway so that at the very least shows that they have only recently changed their policy. Perhaps, again, this demonstrates inconsistancy or changes to suit circumstances which may act in everyone's favour. Rgds, Steve

I don't know if this is of interest or not but I recently exceeded the overdraft limit on my Lloyds TSB Premier account by £1.42. The bank's response was to increase the limit (without a request to do so) by an extra £50 for a period of one month. Every other time that this has happened over the last few years they have slapped in a charge (£25; £30 - whatever it has been at the time) straightaway. Could it be that the action that I am now taking and recent correspondance has had any effect on their decision! If so, there's surely inconsistancy being demonstrated here, isn't there? Does this help the cause at all?

Hi GaryH, I've read elsewhere on the site about advising a moderator of my litigation. Would you be someone I could advise this to and do I do it via this thread or some other way? Cheers