Have had statements sent for 3 accounts after 2 lots of requests - several years were missing first time round. We have sent the first 2 letters requesting payment and their time runs out on Monday. However today we receive our first response saying that they have reviewed our account and the charges would not be refunded.

 

I called the number given and was told by a team leader that the Halifax does not repay charges and give in to demand letters. They have not paid out any moneys in light of the recent hype in the media and are not changing their banking practices in any way. And they have not been taken to court by anyone and lost to date.

 

It did sound rehearsed and in light of this should I now proceed with my claim through court. If you have had a full settlement from the Halifax can you let me know.

 

 

 

Can anyone

If they've had your LBA and the time has elapsed, then take it to the next stage and then you'll find out that they DO pay up. They haven't LOST a case in court - because they haven't BEEN to court!

I can't tell you how pleased I am - I have been s****ing myself today!!!!

 

Thank you soooooooooooooooo MUCH!!!!!

 

I have just paid off my overdraft which I have been pestered about and will do the necessary tomorrow (donate etc etc)

 

I am now going home and can't wait to tell my husband who said this morning that he still does not believe that Halifax will pay ...

 

Tomorrow I will issue proceedings on my current account ...

 

PS: MODs please changed the subject to SETTLED in FULL

Well done!

Have you had your fees and interest back as well? My first two MoneyClaims went in today - not long now...

This is my opinion on the costs to the bank of these transactions.

For a bank to stop an internally initiated payment (SO, Online Payment, ATM) will cost as much as 0p - the computer decides that it won't do it and doesn't - no cost at all.

For an incoming request for payment (Cheque, DD) there may be a cost of up to 20p to reject the request - although in truth it will be a lot lower than that due to the way they aggregate incoming and outgoing costs between banks.

For a payment to be made when there are insufficient funds - no more cost than if there were sufficient funds - or approx 0p.

For being over your limit - 0p. There is no cost, and in fact the unauthorised rate kicks in and more than compensates them for the 'inconvenience' of lending you a bit of money (unsecured loans available at 6.9% APR - unauthorised rate of 29% APR).

The only cost left then is the letter which is automatically printed out (pre-signed), folded and stuffed by a big machine and put into a prepaid, walksorted envelope and posted at heavily discounted rates - cost 25p. If you have online letters and statements then the cost is so close to 0p that you would need a lot of decimal places to represent it - just a tiny amount of storage space for the letter and a minute bit of bandwidth to send the notification email.

The rest of their charge - profit, shareholders payouts, directors payouts, greed and profit. Oh - and did I mention PROFIT? :o:o:o

Both MoneyClaims filed today (needed to get a payment together first ), so they've had a couple of days extra time. I'll notify BF when I get the claim numbers through.

Had a call today asking when I'd be paying off my overdraft (all charges), so I told them "When you refund my charges". First parachute account ready for my wife to be paid into in her new job next month, just need to sort one out for myself.

Cheers for the advice, but it's now brought up even further questions!

 

Is is best to use the Money Claim website approach or the old fashioned way and visit the court. After looking at both the Money Claim way seams to limit the amount of information you can submit, where as by using the N1 pdf gives the opportunity to enter better details of the claim.

 

Plus, this is going to sound a real 'blonde' question - appologies to all you blondes out there - but where do you get the daily rate of interest from???

 

I'm obviously having a bad week, either that or I'm going to be the first of us to actually lose a claim - lol!

I used the N1 because I wanted to attach a printed list of charges and avoid the restriction on the amount of text. It costs £10 more for my level of claim, but I'm expecting to get that back.

Multiply your total claimed by 0.00022 to get the amount in pence to add as a daily rate.

Hi,

I'll type up my claim text shortly (see my PM to you). On the form you should be claiming for the charges plus the amount of interest charged on those charges. You also claim back the cost of the DPA (if charged) and I'm also adding about £5 in postal charges (special delivery, etc.). In the box marked Value on the N1 PDF I have amounts for the following: -

Charges

Interest on Charges (using Vamp's extended spreadsheet)

Subtotal (total of the above lines)

s69 Interest (8% interest on subtotal calculated using spreadsheet)

Postage (if applicable)

DPA (if applicable)

Grand Total (Sum of everything from subtotal downwards)

and a note showing the daily interest (in pence) that will be added each day until settlement.

I'm not sure if the Moneyclaim site form works the same way. I used a variation of the text from Bankfodder's guidance note on filling in the Moneyclaim form http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=634 as my Brief Details of Claim, and used a version of Bankfodder's particulars of claim http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=681 to fill in the Particualrs of Claim on the reverse of the form. I assume that is correct...?

Well I've had the standard response, sorry to hear blah blah blah....will get back to you shortly...

 

Should I give them time to respond formally (saying no I guess!) or should I send them the LBA immediately?

 

Thanks

 

Pete

Is there something in the way these offers are advertised, though? I thought that the APR had to include all associated costs and charges. In that case 0% with a fee is not equal to 0% APR, and doesn't the law say that the headline rate in a advertisement should always be the APR?

An excellent letter - I know a company that might be receiving a similar one soon (not Halif*x this time though).

On the subject of is he real, I would suspect not. Without revealing too much, I used to work for a company that, by the nature of it's business, received literally millions of complaints a year.

 

This guy was made up specifically to deal with complaints, for the simple reason that if anyone decided to sue him, the company could ask "sue who...we don't employ anybody by that name..."

Just like the Readers' Digest's "Tom Champagne"!!

Glad you like the "Pratt " line. I was quite proud of that.

:D:D Excellent - I know Westcot, having worked for one of their suppliers in the past. The call centre manager at that time was a total PRAT of the first degree!

Cheers, Dinghy - that's what I wanted to hear - I have statements that cover the period over the six year threshold, so no probs with proof.

I'll go for the full amount then!

He confirmed that "in the majority of cases" a human intervened in imposing a default charge.

The banks' mouthpiece is talking out of his ( * ) as usual!

I had assumed from the original discussions on this topic that this gave us a valid reason to pursue charges older than the six year threshold now, rather than allowing the date of claim to extend into the future.

Would it be immoral, or more to the point, would it be beneficial for me to claim the full £400.00, hoping they won't notice the £200.00 they've refunded on separate occasions.

 

Worth a shot?

Quite possibly immoral, illegal & fraudulent! Why ruin the chance of recovering the £200 they owe you by being greedy?

The Limitation Act 1980 section 32(1) states that:

 

.... where in the case of any action for which a period of limitation is prescribed by this Act, either-

• (a) the action is based upon the fraud of the defendant; or
  
• (b) any fact relevant to the plaintiff's right of action has been deliberately concealed from him by the defendant; or
  
• © the action is for relief from the consequences of a mistake;

the period of limitation shall not begin to run until the plaintiff has discovered the fraud, concealment or mistake (as the case may be) or could with reasonable diligence have discovered it. ....

Hi Alan - I've read this through a couple of times now and I'm not sure how to interpret the red bit. Does it extend the period? I have been charged for well over the six years, but although I have on occasion written complaining about the high level of charges and had some small refunds, it wasn't until May that I realised that the charges were unlawful and started the process to recover them.

In the case of the MC I am about to raise I am claiming back charges that include many that are over the six year limit. How far back can I go using the provision quoted? Would it be advisable to limit the MC to six years and then go for a further attempt to recover the older charges once that has been settled?

hello all am new here have gone over all the statments i can find and have found 4 charges on current account and 4 on credit card can i combine them in 1 preliminary letter or do i have to separate them ?

 

also i seem to have incomplete records (my own) will they take me seriosly if i have missed anything?

 

 

any info and links to which letter and so on much apreciated!

Hi, it looks like you need a bit more time to read up on the FAQs and threads for your bank. You are best off starting with a DPA letter to get the missing data. THere's nothing wrong with under-claiming initially, you can always add on extra charges as and when they come to light up until the MoneyClaim stage.

Good luck!

The thing is i have already sent a LBA to her so if i send another practically the same wont it look rarther wierd.

Note that this refers to illegal acts (i.e. criminal), rather than unlawful acts (i.e. civil) and therefore may not have an implication here.

If this is to be your Letter Before Action (LBA), then use the template LBA and add the extra paragraphs at the beginning.

You may get either. If you are not comfortable with them trying to negotiate with them on the phone then make sure you tell them that you wish for all communication on this matter to be by letter and don't let them talk you out of it. Read a few cases and see what others have done - it will increase your confidence. Good luck!

Keep on going - I'm raising my first court action tonight, so I'm at about the same stage as you.

Does anyone know how to word such a letter as not very good at his sort of thing and really dont want to mess it up as i have got this close to getting my money back .

 

thanks in advance

Something along the lines of: -

Account No: 00000000

 

Thank you for your offer dated dd/mm/yyyy. I do not agree to the terms of the stated offer on the basis that it precludes me from reclaiming any further unlawful charges applied to other accounts held by me with the bank.

 

If you are prepared to remove that restriction I will be happy to accept the amount of £000.00 as settlement of the claim for penalty charges against the above numbered account ONLY.

Same again really - accept what they are offering as settlement of the account in question ONLY without surrendering any rights to claim other charges on other accounts.

Hi - I am also not convinced on the Durant case. I have just read the appeal transcript and I cannot find any explicit mention that bank statements (or credit card statements) are personal data. Are there any lawyers out there who can help clarify this?

If bank and card statements are not personal data perhaps we should ask the banks to stop associating our debts with our names and addresses! :o