Welcome Neb!! It absolutely infuriates/astounds me how bank employees feel that they have the moral high ground in situations such as this. I would freak if anyone dared to challenge me in such a way. Good luck Mrs Neb at the bank! Rachel

Dan As Caro said we got this far with my Mum and then suddenly received a rejection of judgement note from the Courts, despite Moneyclaim saying to the contrary (at which point we were v excited at the prospect of the 1st victory!) I hope that yours will have a far better outcome - will keep everything crossed for you If not I guess you'll just revert back to the same old timeline and just wait with bated breath like the rest of us. Rachel

Some postive (I think) developments. We received this morning a letter from Doncaster County Court in which the Judge has ordered that the claim is stayed until 11 August 2006 to enable the parties to attempt settlement. It goes on to say, on or before 25 August 2006 one of the following steps must be taken: either 1 the claimant must notify the Court that the whole of the claim has been settled or 2 the claimant or defendant must write to the Court requesting an extension of the stay period, explaining the steps being taken towards settlement and identifying and mediator, expert or other person helping with the process. The letter should confirm the agreement of all the other parties. or 3 all the parties must file a completed allocation questionnaire at the Court (This has already been done on my part) Where a settlement of some of the issues in dispute have been reached, a list of those issues should be attached to the completed questionnaire. The list must be agreed with the other parties and must indicate that it has been agreed. Date 17 July 2006 I guess I just hold on and wait and see what happens? Any advice anyone?

Had another letter from the Court about the 2nd claim against Lloyds TSB just to confirm that it has also been allocated to the Small Claims Track, but the court date will be confirmed to me! I guess we just carry on with the waiting game :o)

Hello Turt77 Me and My Mum (who's making the Claim) have also had a letter from the big guns, Kirstie Ross she's called Senior Corpporate Lawyer for UK Legal, basically Clydesdale Banks In-house Solicitors. Dont let them scare you, thats all they are trying to do! Best of luck. Rachel

Well, talk about delaying tactics, by the Courts though! We have now got a letter from Doncaster asking who signed my Mum's Allocation Questionnaire!!!?!?!??! I phoned them on my Mum's behalf and asked what was the meaning of the query, all the Claims Section could advise me was that my Mum's signature looked like a C as the initial instead of a G, I explained that she was both arthritic and left handed, and they have asked for confirmation in writing. Totally bizarre! On a brighter note we have had a court date of 27th September allocated for one of our other claims against LTSB so things are still moving along albeit veeeerrryyy slowly! Rachel

Hello, We have finally heard back from the Court who have allocated a court date of 27th September for one of Mum's calims against LTSB - the day after my 29th Birthday!! I have just spoken to the Court as the other Claim was raised at the same time, and I wanted to check whether they had join them both together, but they havent so I will assume therefore that should LTSB wish to defend against my Mum they will have to make 2 separate trips to Doncaster!! Assuming they dont settle beforehand that is. Not worrying too much about it at the moment as it seems a lifetime away, but will quietly get on with loads of reading/fact finding etc. Rachel

Just phone Doncater County Court to ensure they have received the 2nd copy of the Allocation Questionnaire. I am happy to report that they have and was indeed informed that it had gone through to the Judge - whatever that means!! At least things seem to now be back on track.

Found out why no further action as yet, as I ahve received a General Form of Judgement or Order from Doncaster County Court saying that if they dont receive the Allocation Questionnaire by 4pm next Thursday that the case will be srtuck out. Having sent the original Court Allocation Questionnaire by recorded delivery and it shows as delivered at the beginning of the month, I am obviously most perturbed! I will therefore fill in the 2nd Allocation Questionnaire, and compose a small note to accompany it and hand deliver it to the Court myself. Hrrmph!

Hi there, I have just received back (on my Mums behalf) over £2k from Citi, we had less problems with them than Yorkshire Bank and Lloyds TSB which are still ongoing. It got as far as issuing Moneyclaim to Citi which they duly acknowledged, and then about 5 days later a cheque to my dear old Mum arrived from their Solicitors! Keep to your timetable and I am sure that you will reap the benefits Best wishes Rachel

Hi Pattymayo Welcome aboard! I am claiming back on behalf of my Mum against Yorkshire Bank Card Services, we are currently waiting to see whether they will settle in full, as YB have lodged a defence at the Courts. Its not easy and the best advice is to be patient, as with most things it takes time and can be frustrating when they seem to try and stall you at every opportunity. We are all in it together though, so as Mahala says read the FAQs, read some of the posts on this sub-board and you should have all the guidance you need to begin. Best of luck Rachel

No court date as yet, feeling quite chilled about it all at the moment. I feel that they have made a partial offer so why not full offer. Will see if my wishful thinking pays off!

Hey Caro, The bloke in Scotland is who has sent the recent letter to my Mum offering 25% in settlement - yeah right!!! Now that I have had my fisrt success on behalf of my Mum with Citibank I am a bit more relaxed about it all, and will be happy to hand hold and offer advice on MC if you need it. If I was you I would continue to send original letters to your branch and copies to Scotland if you want to. When I was at this stage I was just dealing solely with some Customer Services people in Leeds, the recent letter from Scotland is the first contact from them. Rachel

Just a quick update, letter sent back to YB respectfully declining their offer of £178.00 in full and final settlement, and again requesting repayment in full inclusive of the court fees etc. I also took the liberty to have a go about him about allegations of default notices, and the fact that he is clearly getting his correspondence and cases mixed up. For good measure I sent a copy also to the in-house Solicitor who is dealing with it for YB for her records. I guess the waiting game continues!

I have a question that you may be able to answer. According to the courts leaflets, the court allocation questionaire requires payment of a £100 fee. Did you have to pay this fee as well as the £120? ______________________________________________________________________ We didnt get as far as Court Allocation Questionnaire stage with this one, it had merely been acknowledged in the Moneyclaim system. I think if it had got that far we would have had to pay the further £100 as the claim was for over £1500. Citi have been by far the easiest one to deal with, couple of letters both ways, filed Moneyclaim on 15th May, cheque and letter dated 6 June - I think it has taken approximately 6 weeks in total. Incidentally I have just logged on Moneyclaim out of interest and it says the Citi have filed a defence! Going to get the cheque paid in sharpish!

Right I have now got the letter that my Mum has received from YB. It has infact come from one of their Customer Relations Managers in Glasgow. Basically it apologises for the lack of response to correspondence back in March 2006 and states that it was due to an adminstrative error that the complaint wasnt properly reopened and referred for independant review. After further investigation, I would reiterate the comments of my colleague, blah blah blah, charges incurred could have beeneasily avoided. They have been levied in accordance with the Banks tarriff etc etc. I would refute the allegation that a default notice has been entered against your credit record in relation to charges leved to your account. If you have evidence to support this please forward this to me and I will of course review this for you. Whilst I am unprepared to accede to your request for a full refund of fees which have been applied as a result of your management of the account, I am willing as a gesture of goodwill to reimburse £178.00. This offer is made in full and final settlement of your complaint and is open for a period of 30 days for the date of this writing. I am aware of the Particulars of Claim lodge with your local court and do appreciate that the Court Order will proceed if this offer is not accepted. ____________________________________________________________________ Now what is laughable about this letter is; 1. All correspondence has been responded to in a reasonable time scale 2. We have never alleged that a default notice has been entered, as one never has been! Am I correct in thinking that they are just trying to use stalling/scare tactics to get my Mum to accept a lower offer? Any suggestions as to how I should respond? As far as I was concerned this matter was now being dealt with by their Solicitors.

Our first success!!!! I got home last night to find a letter addressed to me enclosing a cheque made payable to my Mum for £2081.46 in full and final settlement :o) Mum was made up, she had seen the Trevor McDonald programme which renewed her belief in what we were trying to achieve was correct. I am so thrilled for her, just waiting for LTSB and YB to cough up now, shouldnt be long I wouldnt have thought - fingers crossed. Will get Mum to make a donation to the site as soon as possible. She said that she wanted to take me and my Sis and our other halves out for somethign to eat but I would rather ther donate 5% here instead. Best of luck to those still fighting the good fight with Citi!

Sent the above letter to the Solicitors. Got a copy of their allocation questionniare, and sent back both of ours to the local County Court. This was done on 27th May before I went away for a week, as far as I know my Mum hasnt heard anything further.

Just back from my hols, to find that Citi have acknowledged the claim. Will have to wait and see what happens from here on!

Hello, Just back from a lovely holiday in the Yorkshire Dales! The allocation questionnaire arrived last Saturday before I left so I quickly filled it in and returned it to the Court. Whilst I have been away, Mum has received a letter from YB offering a partial settlement, something like £150(!). I haven't got the exact details at the moment, as she is ringing me this afternoon, in anticipation of what they have said I will be drafting a letter back telling them that its not acceptable! Rachel

Moneyclaim now showing my default judgement request as REJECTED- ho hum!

The allocation questionnaire has not been received for this as yet, I am assuming that it may be in the post today. As soon as I receive it I will complete it and dispatch it back to the Court Thanks for your input

Having re-read the defence at home (on hols now for a week - yippee!) I think its interesting to note point 5.1.c, is it me or is that more or less saying that they dont have manual intervention and it is all automated?

The defence in full ____________________________________________________________________ Dear My Mum 1. The correct name of the Defendant as set out in the acknowledgment of service is Clydesdale Bank Plc trading as Yorkshire Bank (The Bank) 2. On or about 17.09.1990 the Claimant entered into a Credit Card Agreement regulated by CCA 1974 with The Bank (The Agreement) 3. At all material times the Contractual relationship between the Claimant and the bank was governed by the condition of use pertaining to the Agreement. At all material times the conditions of use provided that a late payment fee would apply should any amount fail to be paid when it was due under the Agreement. At all material time conditions of use set out the banks tariff of charges. The Bank will refer at trial to the Agreement and the conditions of use for their full terms and effect 4. During the period 01.07.2000 to 01.02.2005 the bank charged the claimant with late payment fees at the rate at which such charges were from time to time payable under the conditions of use (the Charges). The charges amounted to the sum of £488.00 as set out in schedule hereto. 5. It is denied the Charges or any of them were penalty charges as alleged in the particulars of claim, the charges were a genuine pre-estimate of damage resulting from the Claimants failure to make payment by the payment due date. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing; 1. The conditions of use were fair having regard to the following matters (a) the cost to the Bank of maintaining administrative systems relating to unpaid balances for the purpose of keeping the level of overdrawing under review and controlled as far as possible (b) the increased risk of loss to the Bank arising from such unauthorised transactions and the associated cost of enforcement and recovery systems © the need to operate standard procedures and to set standard charges in order to avoid the substantial cost of individual assessment in relation to each particular case 2. The conditions of use complied with all relevant requirements of the Banking Code as the Banking Code was in force from time to time. 6. In the premises the Claimant is not entitled to the relief sought or to any relief Dated 24.05.06 Signed: KAR ___________________________________________________________________________ What does anyone think?

Mum has now got a copy of the defence this morning from YB which was dated 24th May 2006, surely they are still out of their time? Will detail the defence later on, for dissection!