Please do - I'll help where I can although it is legalpickle who is the expert here and who helped me.

Webby I sent the letter below by recorded delivery following help from the kind people on this site. They refunded me in full within a couple of days of receiving it and were pretty apologetic. I suspect they get people threatening legal action all the time then just coughing up the "admin charge" for a quiet life. Try not to get stressed about this. I am not a lawyer but I am confident, given their response to my letter below, that they know their agreement is not enforeceable and they don't want a judgement against them. Take care out there! On 5th September I sent you written confirmation of my intention to cancel my agreement with Rich Dad Education signed on 31st August. You responded on 8th September confirming that, as I was within the 10 day cancellation period, you will provide me with a refund. You also requested that I sign a letter to allow you to deduct all fees applicable to the processing of the payment which would not exceed 5%. I have now had confirmation that you intend to charge me the full 5% (£200) to cover bank charges and administration costs. This charge is excessive, unreasonable and, as such, is effectively a cancellation penalty. In addition, I would like to bring your attention to the following: - I cancelled within 5 working days of the agreement - When I asked what the cancellation terms were I was told that I would receive a full refund within the 10 working days “cooling off” period – no mention was made of any cancellation charge - I was not given an opportunity to take the contract away and read it contract properly before signing as there was significant pressure to sign up to obtain the discounts on offer. I contend that the 5% charge is an unreasonable penalty. As the "course" you provide is not personalized to specific persons, and my cancellation was so near the signing of the contract, I contend that you will not be incurring any charges from your financial institution. Even if you are, I contend that 5% is nothing less than a rip-off and extortion, as no financial institution charges such a penalty for cashing and making cheques out, indeed such charges are about 40p per transaction beyond 12 to 24 months of free banking. I therefore contend that this charge is blatantly illegal. I have also been asked to sign a letter which has additional clauses which were not in the original agreement, namely: "By my signature I agree with the terms described above and acknowledge that Rich Dad Education Ltd has handled this matter to my complete satisfaction. Furthermore, I shall keep the existence and terms of this refund settlement strictly confidential. Neither party shall divulge said terms to any third party in any matter." I fail to understand why I should sign a letter with an additional clause which will not allow me to disclose your blatant rip-off to other persons to advise them of your terrible customer service. I further fail to understand why I should sign a letter to waive my legal rights, when you have not done anything to deserve this. If you wish for me to sign a contract that these details are not disclosed to anybody then you will have to pay me for such a service, the cost of which will be £750. In conclusion, should I not receive the full refund with absolutely no deductions taken, within 7 days, I will have no choice but to issue court action against Rich Dad Education Limited to recoup all my losses plus interest [at 8% per annum pursuant to s69 of the County Courts Act 1984], court fees and any other costs I may incur in the process. Should you wish for me to sign a confidentiality clause, please send a separate cheque of £750 and upon clearance I will send you by special delivery a confidentiality clause signed.

Good news!! I sent the letter to RDE by Special Delivery last Wednesday and received a call yesterday stating that the full £4,000 would be credited back to my credit card today (Wed). I have just received another call stating that the refund was done at 10.45 and that I would be receiving a letter in the next day or so to confirm this. Their tone was almost apologetic and they seemed very keen to let me know how quickly it would be done to ensure I didn't start proceedings. I'll now share this info with the other people I know who are pursuing a refund. Thanks so much for all your help in this.

Legalpickle Thanks very much for your help with this. I have a few questions about your suggested amendments which I hope you don't mind me asking. - I understand your view that the letter should be as simple as possible but if the clause referring to the 5% admin fee in the contract is drafted in such a way that it prevents them from levying the full 5% charge (unless I sign the letter which amends this clause) is it not crucial to my argument to mention this? - Whilst I like the idea of levying a charge on them isn't the suggestion of them paying me £750 to comply with their requirement for confidentiality a bit "over the top" and likely to antagonise them? - I was intending to fax the letter to them. Do you think it is better to send it Special Delivery? Thanks again for your help.

RDE have now asked me to communicate my response in writing. I have drafted the reply below - any thoughts before I send it much appreciated. I may well be wrong here but I noticed when re-reading the contract that the clause which theoretically allows them to claim 5% as an admin charge appears to have been misdrafted. It says the following: “Any refund awarded will be subject to Banking and administration charges, and will be levied against payment but will not exceed 5% of any separate transaction charges.” Surely this means that they can only charge me 5% of the charges they have incurred? For example, if they have incurred £200 charges then they can only charge me £10. I have reflected this point of view in my response below: On 5th September I sent you written confirmation of my intention to cancel my agreement with Rich Dad Education signed on 31st August. You responded on 8th September confirming that, as I was within the 10 day cancellation period, you will provide me with a refund. You also requested that I sign a letter to allow you to deduct all fees applicable to the processing of the payment which would not exceed 5%. I have now had confirmation that you intend to charge me the full 5% (£200) to cover bank charges and administration costs. This charge is excessive, unreasonable and, as such, is effectively a cancellation penalty. In addition, I would like to bring your attention to the following: - I cancelled within 5 working days of the agreement - When I asked what the cancellation terms were I was told that I would receive a full refund within the 10 working days “cooling off” period – no mention was made of any cancellation charge - I was not given an opportunity to take the contract away and read it contract properly before signing as there was significant pressure to sign up to obtain the discounts on offer. I have reviewed the contract and, specifically, Clause 4 under Payment Policy which states that “Any refund awarded will be subject to Banking and administration charges, and will be levied against payment but will not exceed 5% of any separate transaction charges.” This clause states that the maximum I will be charged will be 5% of any charges which you incur not 5% of the amount outstanding. Hence if you have incurred £200 in charges (highly unlikely) then the maximum you can charge me is 5% of £200 which is £10. I have also been asked to sign a letter which has additional clauses which were not in the original agreement, namely: "By my signature I agree with the terms described above and acknowledge that Rich Dad Education Ltd has handled this matter to my complete satisfaction. Furthermore, I shall keep the existence and terms of this refund settlement strictly confidential. Neither party shall divulge said terms to any third party in any matter." I do not see why I need to sign a letter with these additional clauses which would appear only to act in your favour and severely disadvantage me. Furthermore this letter would appear to amend the contract terms to allow you to charge the full 5% admin charge and hence refuse to sign it. In conclusion, I refuse to pay the 5% charge or sign the letter and require that my refund is paid in full within 7 working days of this letter. If you decline to process my full refund within this time I will have no option but to pursue a legal action to recover my costs.

Dear lhfort01 Thanks for your response. It is clear to me that the clause in question falls foul of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 as the 5% charge is clearly disproportionate (£100 bank charges plus £100 admin charges to refund £4000 - ludicrous). I intend to pursue them for the full £4000. Given the size of my claim, if they were not prepared to settle out of court, would this be something that I could pursue through the small claims court?

Hi I recently signed up to a Rich Dad training course and paid a £4,000 deposit. I decided to cancel within the 10 day cooling off period. RDE have written to me to confirm they have accepted my right to cancel but have asked me to sign a letter which confirmed their right to charge me admin fees which will "not exceed 5%". The letter also contains the following slightly worrying clauses: "By my signature I agree with the terms descibed above and acknowledge that Rich Dad Education Ltd has handled this matter to my complete satisfaction. Furthermore, I shall keep the existence and terms of this refund settlement strictly confidential. Neither party shall divulge said terms to any third party in any matter." I phoned them to say that I would not sign anything until I knew exactly what they were intending to charge me, the reasons for the charge and how long it would take to process my refund. They have responded by stating that I will be charged 2.5% banking charges and 2.5% for time incurred by RD in processing my refund making a total of 5%. Armed with the information in this post (many thanks!) I have refused to agree to these terms - I am awaiting their response. My questions are as follows: - is it worth me pursuing them through the small claims court to recover the full £4,000 they owe me or should I swallow the £200 (or whatever they reduce it to) admin charge and put it down to experience? - should I sign the letter with the additional terms and conditions given I have already signed an agreement with them? Thanks