I have won!! £3550ish I actually won a couple of months ago but have been holding out until Natwest confirmed the confidentiality clause wouldn't be pursued! Thanks, on to RBS now, their big brother...

*Update* Cobbetts have offered £1700 as a goodwill gesture (approx. half). Just about to write back accepting it as part payment and confirming that I will pursue them through the court for the rest.

NO!!! I haven't won. They have refunded the charges OUTSIDE the parameters of my MCOL claim... I'm still waiting on the county court (who have had both allocation questionnaires for nearly two weeks.) How weird is that? has anyone else had that?

Natwest have refunded all of my charges 'outside the parameters' of my court claim. Basically a couple of charges from just after I issued the first letter, before MCOL. Letter signed by Stuart H. Funny huh?

I spoke to Stuart Higley on the phone today... I don't know if that is normal. I called the Borehamwood call centre and asked for him... they just put me straight through. I have to say, he's a thoroughly nice guy!

*Update* Recieved defence from Cobbetts and Allocation Questionnaire from the court... The Cobbetts document is about 8 pages long, with a CPR Part 18 request. Sounds similar to the response everone else has been getting. They said I haven't supplied details of the accounts and that made the claim invalid or something. Frequent use of 'without prejudice' too. Do they think we're all stupid? ...Here we go!

*Update* Cobbetts have filed a defence with 7 hours to go! Boooo I'm quite looking forward to going to court though. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a court date? and how far in the future they tend to be? ...Adamandi

NatWest have acknowledged my moneyclaim ON THE DAY IT WAS SERVED! How annoying.

Thanks... I did wonder about that paragraph, I put 'As I understand' as a substitute for 'without prejudice' just in case I was wrong. I've taken it out but I'm still sending a letter regarding their delay...

I have my 'personal letter' from Stuart Higley... It's basically a personalised paragraph apologising for the delay and then all the standard stuff about the charges being completely legit and that they won't refund. Plus 'they do not accept' the OFT's findings and make it clear that they were referring to credit cards, not current accounts... I wrote back to Mr Higley today: Dear Mr Higley... ...Thank you for you letter of 10 July. I appreciate that you have had to do some extra investigation into the particulars of my complaint, but your complaints procedure (and your letter of 16 June) clearly state in that instance you should have written to me by 30 June to explain the delay. In response to your comments regarding the OFT’s statement; As I understand, it isn’t relevant whether you accept their statement or not. It would be naïve to assume that by using credit cards as an example the OFT weren’t planning a blanket policy on punitive charges across all financial products and services. I think the future of their findings and recommendations is easy to predict and I imagine your standard letter template is simply an attempt to deter claimants from taking their cases further. I have made all reasonable attempts to settle my claim for the unfair charges to my account with you directly. It is with regret that, further to your refusal to refund them, I confirm my court claim has been submitted and served to your registered office...

I've just read a few postings about the state of the envelope that NW bank statements arrive in. Mine too were re-packed by Royal Mail after arriving in a cheap (torn) and unsuitable brown envelope! Surely they're not so desperate that they have to tear the envelopes in the hope it'll come apart in the post and delay your claim?

I've kept relatively quiet on here whilst absorbing all the information and serving the banks with all the letters – But I thought you’d like to know that NatWest may be struggling to cope with the influx of refund requests… I sent Natwest the first letter requesting a refund and they wrote straight back saying they'd "respond within three weeks" (which was one week longer than I had given), they also said they'd write if there was going to be a delay. Their own deadline came and went and they didn't respond! So I wrote again (LBA), this time giving them 7 days to respond. I followed it up with a phone call to ask why they had breached their own deadline… they blamed workload. 7 days passed (today!) and this afternoon I got a call from a ‘customer services manager’ apologising profusely for the delay and informing me that STUART HIGLEY (lol) had written to me personally and it was in the first class post. The guy on the phone was very pleasant and we had a long chat (without prejudice), he said that they had received ‘literally thousands’ of similar complaints and blamed the OFT’s statement for the rise adding that they had only commented on credit cards and not current accounts. He later added that they were waiting to hear the OFT’s next statement and expected that they would lay down new guidelines on future charges And veto claims on old charges. He also said that the letter headed my way was probably not what I wanted to hear but that it would “allow me to take it to the next stage”. I joked that we both new what each other's next 4 moves would be... he just laughed and reiterated that the letter was on it's way... An admission perhaps?! By the way... with interest they owe me £3263.21 (all from University) Money Claim ALL DONE! I still bank with them too.