What a reasonable, balanced and sypathetic view! Congratulations on the win!

did you ask for default removal in your POC?

Would the bank amend a schedule to account for the post? Nope. They had no problem giving me 48 hours from the date of the letter to repay a debt then sending it on a friday so the deadline was passed before I got it. Don't feel sorry for them, stick to your schedule

Exactly, you should find that the FO are currently offering the banks two options - tell us your real costs or settle in full. This is according to the guy in charge

In order to answer your question of how people can get into the situation of incurring huge charges, please consider this scenario. You are a student, or somone on a low income, or someone who has suddenly had a large, unexpected bill to pay, or who has recently lost their job and is waiting for benifits to come through, or any one of a million other situations in which your average person might find themselves a bit short one month. Despite your best efforts you only have £29 in your bank to cover a £30 direct debit. The bank don’t pay the DD, but do take a £30 charge (they decide you do actually have the money to pay a charge as long as it’s to them). This leaves you £1 over your overdraft limit. The bank charge you £30 for this which they take out immediately. You are now £31 overdrawn, £60 down and you still haven’t paid your £30 direct debit. You are managing your money on a tight budget, and you now have to absorb £90 of charges for being £1 out in your calculations. Being on such a tight budget, you can’t just come up with £90 so the next month you can’t cover all your payments. You get charged another £30 for each one returned, plus if this pushes you further overdrawn you will get another £30 charge on top of that. Now bear in mind that each of these times you are paying £30, it is costing the bank in the region of £1. This is against the law. It is not a loophole that will be closed, it is the law. Not only can a company not profit from penalty charges, any charge or service must be fair and reasonable in the eyes of the law. The banks are high street businesses, and high street markup tends to be 100%. By your logic Dixons should start charging a 3000% markup on all their washing machines, and anyone complaining is exploiting a loophole. Nobody is claiming that the bank’s can’t charge, they are merely suggesting that their charges need to be legal, the same as any other business in the UK. Not only are these charges not legal, they specifically affect those members of society that cannot afford to pay them. You seem to be under the impression that people are quite happy to incur any charges as they can just claim them back. This is ludicrous. Nobody wants to get charged – claiming them back is a big effort and doesn’t do you any good when you have no money to buy food as it takes months. The reaon people run up such huge charges is that many people are not fortunate enough of being in a position where they can shuffle money between accounts to sort these proplems. Many people’s finances simply cannot withstand these charges, and for these people once they start they are very difficult to stop and they soon get to the stage where they are at hundreds of pounds a month. To give you an example, when I was at university I got charged due to my student load not coming through when I expected it leaving direct debits returned. I then got charged every month because despite working when I could I could never meet the cost of living and pay a hundred or more pounds per month in charges. I switched banks when I began the claim to get my money back and have not been charged since. The month before I switched I was charged £180. Had I left my finances with that bank, I would not have been able to pay the £180 and have money left for bills and food. This would have continued indefinitely. incidentally in relation to your point about T&Cs, I opned my account when I was about 8 years old - no I didn't read through them

So what exactly have you and your board of ex-civil servants (I thought you were legal professionals earlier btw...) set your fees at? Incidentally I think hoping for a positive reply is rather like a bank representative coming on here and asking us to agree with their extortionate charges for no discernable service. Maybe you should stick to "helping" old ladies, they tend to be more easily convinced by this sort of scheme.

Are you a registered member at UKNova? They will have it uploaded. If I had a broadband connection at the moment i'd grab it and host it but i dont so I cant. Maybe someone else can?

Well i'd sack them if they've told you that banks like to do things as quickly and cost effectively as possible when it comes to these charges. I think most of the 100000 members here could have have told you the truth about that for less than that £100k

Names? Ah that will be why they are imparting all sorts of information to a company whos business plan is to help people sue them. We all know this getting sued and having to settle game is a real moneyspinner. lol the banks want to save time?! Don't suppose you could have a word with Lloyds for me could you, they've taken months dragging out my claim Sure they've got practically endless resources to consult with the finest legal minds, but you seem to know something the legal profession doesn't...

Contractual interest is as of this moment relatively untested and therefore risky. Most people would be advised to stick with statutory interest (but you know this, you've done the research...). Professional fees - hmmm, surely you mean you would lose out on professional fees?! Other claimable costs? Do elaborate...

A default is information registered with one or more of the Credit Reference Agencies to the effect that you have not paid a debt which was owed. If you incurred one as the result of charges, and can prove that, you may be able to get it removed but I imagine its a fairly complex process and I dont know how likely you are to succeed. As far as I'm aware they expire after 6 years at which point you can get them removed.

There is a guide to filling out the AQ in the library section, its what I used and it did the job nicely.

What service are you actually providing? What are you charging for this service? What level of expertise can you bring that your regular layperson doesn't have? So far all you have done is touted some unsubstantiated and frankly highly dubious figures without any facts or real information, yet you expect to be taken seriously! My guess is you heard about this whole thing a couple of months ago, signed up here and like a few others, decided you could try to charge for this info. It seems that anyone spending £100k (!) in researching the matter would have joined a free website with this much info long before setting up meetings with the banks and getting them to pour their hearts out to you. How much of that £100k did the banks charge you for "telling you when they'll settle" btw?! Love the way the banks have told you, someone starting a business the sole purpose of which is to "help" people sue them when they will settle but they remain adamant to their regulators that they will not settle as they are justified in what they are doing! Sorry, until I'm shown some substance I remain unconvinced

You're right, how niave of me to suggest that the banks would be willing to pay £4m to just the members of this site who have filled out the questionairre. How niave of me to suggest that practically 100% of all claims brought against the banks are settled out of court for the full amount. How niave of me to suggest that even the most convincing of defences can be easily picked apart in an evening by a complete layperson with access to this site's resources (been there, got the t-shirt). Yep, you got me on this one, the banks really do appear to be beating us. If only we had some greedy company to charge us for doing exactly we could easily do ourselves, that would really send them running with their tails between their legs. Or perhaps it would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. I could have saved you considerable time and money there with a one sentence answer. "The banks will settle before the claim gets to Court". And I find it very funny that the banks resist even official regulatory body's attempts to sort this matter yet they will happily entertain the views of a small start-up company with no experience, authority or reputation. Made me chuckle for a few seconds anyway.

This is because there is a point at which had you not been charged at all, you would not have been overdrawn. When you reach this point any further interest you are charged is entirely down to the bank's unlawful charges as without them being applied you would have been in credit. Does that make sense? EDIT: should have read the next post I see you got it sorted

Well firstly it's not down to them to decide how you spend your money. Secondly, you are perfectly entitled to decline their offer, so quite what they are getting at there is beyond me. You only have to accept full settlement and even then you can specify how you want it paid. Do not be intimidated by them, I would reject their offer in writing on the basis that it is not the full amount and not paid in a cheque. Tell them that these are the needs that will need to be met in order for you to withdraw legal procedings, and then stick by your guns. I'm sure they will give you what you want.

You will have a problem using MCOL for contractual interest by all acounts as there isnt enough roomto include the necessary info in the POC. You may have to use a N1 form. I've writted some POC for contractual interest, found here if that's of any use. And congrats Gary, another victory to add to the tally! Enjoy your money

I'm not at all familiar with endowment policies etc, but surely you would have had to sign a credit agreement to take out a loan. As far as I'm aware this a legal requirment and there are very strict guilines governing it. I assume you didn't sign any such agreement as you weren't aware of the loan?

is the amount Lloyds are demanding less than or equal to the amount of charges they have taken? If so, write to them again, referencing their letter demanding payment, and explain in simple terms (they're not very bright) that the amount is in dispute. Tell them that unless they repay you, you will be starting a claim against them at the County Court. One of two things will heppen next. They will either apologise and pause any attempt to reclaim the debt (unlikely) or they will continue to bully you (more likely). This is where it becomes important that you stick to your guns. Do not be intimidated by them. They can be very underhand and devious. You are doing the right thing by posting here before acting if you are unsure - if you continue to do so you will find plenty of support and advice from those further down the process that have had to deal with them. If they apologise and cease action, all well and good but make sure you keep a copy of the letter. If they want to bully you, stop talking to them on the phone so you have written evidence of everything they say as they are not above lying (see my thread in my sig!). This will also be useful for forawrding to the FSA, banking Standards Board, the OFT etc. Ensure all of your correspondance is sent recorded and include a reference number with each of your letters to make things easier to keep track of. Have a read through the thread in my sig as we have had to deal with many of their bully tactics. An important thing to remember when it comes to dealing with their bullying is to absolutely not let it interfere with your schedule for getting your charges back. If you are not fully familiar with the process, read through the step by step guide in the FAQ section and write down a plan of what you need to do and on what date. Do not be put off from this - that is the point in their bullying. You've sent your prelim, so in 14 days from then send your LBA then in 14 days submit your claim. Do not be deterred from this schedule! Good luck, remember there are plenty of people here to help so dont be concerned about asking lots of questions

The step by step guide is here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31460-step-step-instructions.html

Hmm, could have saved yourself £100k (!) and just browsed this site for a few days The members here seem to be pretty damn succesful when it comes to taking on the Banks with the free information made available here. Still haven't managed to find a web site or any other record of your company incidentally. BTW, a nice example of a business offering the necessary advice for free: BBC NEWS | Business | How to claim back penalty charges

I didn't include charges to be levied at a future date in the schedule of charges, only that we reserve the right to reclaim any further charges levied. There is an important distinction as you cannot ask for something in settlement which isn't included in your POC. Unless I'm misunderstanding and you're referring to previous letter? Lloyds have never cancelled any charge as a result of our letters. They have only ever responded to us with complete rudeness and arrogance. If you got charges cancelled, i would say you are one of the lucky few! As soon as these cases are closed we will be starting others for any further charges incurred since the claims were files. In the case of our joint account this amounts to only interest incurred due to charges (about £50) but in both of our sole accounts we have had more charges (incurred due to their own charges being debited in the first place as we havent used the accounts for months) which we will be claiming back. Although the amounts are comparitively small and the interest will more than cover them, it's a matter of principle that we want to get back everything we're entitled to. We are also looking into starting a claim for the DPA non-compliance as well as submitting an estimated claim for my Credit Card. We're not quite done with Lloyds yet!

I dont view you with scepticism and chastise you for trying to help people, I do it for taking information and resources made freely available to you and then charging others for it rather than helping them for free in turn. You can play the honerable intentions card all you like, there are tens of thousands of us here who happily help each other and anyone else for free. I don't quite know what reaction you expect to get when you are so clearly trying to part people from their reclaimed money for reproduced information that you didn't even come up with yourself.

Yes you most certainly are. What has happened since doesnt change the fact that the bank debited unlawful charges. You may even find you can persue the recovery company. Im sure people have done it but it's not something I have any experience of personally. Plenty here that can help though I'm sure.

Yes at that stage it would be a bad idea to try to ammend you claim imo. You really need to include contractual interest right back at the prelim stage, but certainly on the Particulars of Claim when you file. All the banks rates are published on their websites.