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The order says - "Please be advised that the District Judge has directed that all bank cases be stayed until the end of February 2008 due to a test case pending in England. There will be no need for your attendance at court on Monday 03rd September. Notification will issue in due course of your Court date for February/March '08" Yours sincerely Maria Boyle

The order says - "Please be advised that the District Judge has directed that all bank cases be stayed until the end of February 2008 due to a test case pending in England. There will be no need for your attendance at court on Monday 03rd September. Notification will issue in due course of your Court date for February/March '08" Yours sincerely Maria Boyle

Can I appeal a stay if the judge has directed all cases to be stayed against banks?

Banbridge court in Northern Ireland has just sent me a letter which I received today (court date on Monday) to say that the District Judge has directed that all bank cases be stayed until the end of February 2008 due to a test case pending in England. No need for attendance at court on Monday. Notification will issue in due course of your Court date for February/March 2008!!!!

Hi I have a court date for 4th September. I have printed out all the info to include in the bundles, which I take to the court with me because I rang the court and they said I don't have to send them in advance. I have been contacted a couple of time by COx solicitors in Northern Ireland for info like my account number, email address, phone number etc but that was before the OFT announcement and all the stays in courts everywhere in England. I rang the court last week and the lady said the case was still going ahead. I have heard nothing from Abbey the solicitors or the courts and am assuming I should still go. Could someone please help me with information about what I should do next. Should I have extra information now about appealing a stay and I read that someone had a defence against Abbey saying about a breach of contract? I know I need copies of the bundles for me, the court and Abbey/solicitors and I have used Bankfodder's info on what to include in the bundle but I can't find out from reading through the site if anyone else in Northern Ireland is in my position in Northern Ireland and if so what to do? Thanks

Hi I have just received the letter from Arthur Cox too and was posting here under my own thread and Pming folk & everything to check all was ok and your last posting (Inspector Clouseau) is step for step how I did things and how I will continue to do so! Delighted you got your money.

Just to update - I received a letter today from Arthur Cox solicitor on behalf of Abbey along with a Notice of Dispute. The letter states that Abbey deny any wrongdoing and want me to produce evidence to the contrary. Do I do up some sort of a court pack now and wait for a date for court? I checked online and there is no new info on the small claim site. Do I do up a pack for me, their solicitor, and the court and take them to court with me or do I send the packs in advance? Hope someone can help - I am in Northern Ireland by the way.

Hi I have started my claim through the small claims online service in Northern Ireland and have received a "Query" which I can reply to online apparently - it reads as follows - I am unable to process your documentation until the undernoted matters are attended to: Your small claims application requires service in England/Wales. I have endorsed the application with the required certification, which you are required to sign and date before returning. Before you decide to proceed with the application it is important that you are aware of the following factors: 1. It takes longer to obtain a decree as additional time is required for service outside the jurisdiction. 2. If you are sucessful in obtaining a decree and wish to enforce it, you can only enforce it through the enforcement procedures in England/Wales. 3. It is possible in most cases to initiate proceedings in England/Wales where the defendant resides. If you would like further information on the registration or enforcement procedure in England/Wales you should contact the Queens Bench Action Department of the Central Office of the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL (Tel No 020 7947 6089). However, if after considering these factors you decide that you wish to proceed in this jurisdiction, please return the forms and I will process them for service. Yours sincerely Emma Boyle CIVIL PROCESSING CENTRE Po Box 882 Chichester Street Belfast BT1 3JF Telephone 028 9072 4566 Fax 028 9072 5956 DX Number 456 NR Belfast E-Mail [email protected] Web Northern Ireland Court Service Is it ok for me to say yes to go ahead - or have I made some sort of processing error? Is it because Abbey is based in England and that is the address I gave for them instead of my local branch? Please help!!

Well the time is now up for Abbey to pay and they haven't. I have looked at the site to see how to file the claim and am confused. Firstly I live in Northern Ireland need to know if I can use the online service? If I do use the online service do I still need to send in information to a court and if so which one? When I sent Abbey the charges I was claiming I listed all the charges on my account but have read today on the site here that I should not be claiming the interest on the charges and to use a spreadsheet but the only spreadsheets I can find state they are for people in England and Wales only? I am shaking in my boots here because I want to do this but don't want to mess it up but I am now at the point where I cannot see the forest for the trees and really need someone to help me please?? The total amount I put on the list I sent to Abbey was £1925 - most of which was charges and maybe £50 - £75 was interest I need to send the claim to the court asap to keep on schedule so any help would be much appreciated and please don't be afraid to speak to me as if I am a 5 year old child whilst explaining things to me as I feel I have regressed to that level of understanding right now!! Thanks in advance! xo

Thats great - I will send a letter before action to Mr Nanson - fingers crossed!! (Jez, I'm such a chicken, talk about shaking in my boots!!)

Ok, finally sent my letter to claim £1925.00 and received a very quick response from Abbey - I sent my letter on 7th March and received theirs dated 13th March. The letter reads: "Dear +++++ Thank you for contacting us and I am sorry that you have been so unhappy that you have felt you must complain. One of my team will be responsible for investigating your complaint and I have enclosed our Complaints leaflet, which explains our procedure for doing this. High quality customer service is of great importance to us at Abbey and we will do everything we can to resolve your complaint in a timely and satisfactory manner. I know it is important to you that we resolve your complaint quickly, but we want to complete a thorough investigation and sometimes this can take time. If we have not contacted you before then, we will write to you in four weeks to let you know what is happening. If you have employed someone to handle your complaint on your behalf, please note: employing a third party complaint-handling firm, or a solicitor, or financial adviser does not affect how we review your complaint. Please be aware that: * Abbey does not charge you to investigate your complaint * Abbey will not be liable for any costs incurred if you do decide to employ a third party to handle your complaint during this review * Abbey, in general, will only make payment directly to the account holder (s) if your complaint is upheld and redress is due Although I do not know what the outcome will be, I do hope that we will be able to find a solution that you are happy with. Yours sincerely Andrew Nanson Business Manager" This letter was sent from "Banking Specialist Team, PO Box 5885, Milton Keynes, MK10 1FA. I am now due to send my letter before action - should I go ahead? Should I reply to the name on the letter? Has anyone else received this letter? They say they will not be responsible for any costs - can I still claim the court costs and the Small Claims Court filing fee back? A friend of mine has done this too a day or two earlier than me - we both live in N. Ireland and she received exactly the same reply even though she got her letter off MSE.Com and I used the template from here - the letter from MSE incidentally is flawed in that the person requesting a refund does not give the bank a time frame to reply AND in a positive manner if simply requests a reply which the bank can then satisfy but string the applicant along for as long as they like because they haven't been given a 2 week deadline!! Thanks in advance for any help that can be provided. I need to reply with my second letter very soon.

Thanks Welly - I guess I have no more excuses now - I will post the letter today!

Hi, I have been registered here for quite a while but am incredibly slow and in this instance a bit scared of the process but am now ready (I think) to proceed. I have copies of most of my statements (natural hoarder), with the exception of a couple of missing ones. However I am happy to proceed without the ones that are missing because I live in Northern Ireland and any more charges would put me over the £2000 I am allowed to claim in small claims anyway. Since I have the amount I want to claim I have opted for the letter (from the library) asking for a refund of charges within 14 days and if a favourable response is not received then a letter before action for another 14 days and then proceed to the court process. I have listed the monthly charges i.e. statement number....amount charged on a separate sheet which I will attach to the letter. I have a couple of queries and am hoping someone can help. 1. Am I correct in all I have stated above? 2. Am I correct in that I do not claim any interest unless this proceeds to the court route? 3. Is there any further information I need to include? 4. Is Abbey's address to send this letter to : Abbey National PLC Abbey National House 2 Triton Square Regents Place LONDON NW1 3AN If all is well, I want to send this letter as soon as possible so that I do not chicken out for the 100th time. The money I get back won't even over my overdraft but is the vast majority of it (2100 OD). Thanks in advance.

Sending letters via the post office and asking them for a "Proof of posting" would probably be sufficient since the banks reckon they loose stuff anyway. As long as you have proof of posting each and every letter then this would seem to fit with what others here are saying? The service of "Proof of posting" is free, unlike the recorded delivery. BTW - has anyone seen the poll on NTL homepage? Have your say Would you try and claim back unfair bank and credit card fees if it was possible?Yes No

Looks like I'm on my own! N. Ireland!

Hi all (Great Site) I have read alot of the site with interest (including the FAQ's) and can most certainly distinguish between "Their" "They're" and most of the other Q&A's. :? My query, before I get too excited about the prospect of getting my money back from Abbey is; since I live and bank in Northern Ireland, do the same laws and procedures exist here? We are supposedly part of the UK but it seems quite often when it comes to matters of law (and order) we tend to be excluded from England's laws. Abbey regularly takes money from me and my worst experience in recent times was that 2 months in a row they took over £300 a month from me! I am a single parent on WFTC!! They charged me the money one month because I spent £21 on Amazon via my card, mistakingly I put it through straight away instead of into my shopping basket til payday! Amazon put the purchases through separately (6 of them) and Abbey charged me £35 a pop even though they all went through at the exact same time to the exact same person (Amazon) I was horrified as this is a 1/3 of my salary and ended up crying like a baby to some foreign guy whom I could barely understand! Needless to say my Overdraft is now massive and the 2nd months charges were incurred because of the Amazon episode!! They would not even entertain giving me back ANY of the charges! So even if I cannot claim back under these laws I certainly hope the rest of you can and I will applaud EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!!