Been a while since I posted but quite a lot occurred! I've had a reply from the court saying that there will be a mediation hearing in June to try and settle this- has anyone had similar? I've decided, through one thing and another, to accept their offer of the full amount without interest as I'm in the process of moving house and finances are a bit thin. Would I send the original offer acceptance letter back (Which I received just after logging on MCOL) or would I send this leeter / a different letter to the solicitors- Cobbetts and Co. Do people think they would accept this? My guess is that they would as it's saved them about a grand and a drawn out legal case. Is there any chqance that they wouldn't honour their offer from January??? I'd appreciate any commebnts from people who've done this as I don't want to mess up this far down the line! Thanks

Hi all, Quick question- regarding (b) of request. It's going to be a nightmare for us to copy all the statements- initially I was tempted to just send the originals I'd got when first starting out. Obviously, this isn't the best as it leaves you with none. What about ordering another copy of your statements, paying the £10 and asking for them to be forwarded to Cobbetts- saves you a lot of time, you can add the £10 onto your claim and both sides get originals with any ommissions being the fault of the bank! Am I a genius or a fool? History will decide...

Hi Atlantic I'd avoid filing in Scotland- they have a much lower limit on the amount you can claim so you have to open multiple cases. As Mcuth said, you can lodge it with any office carrying on the business of the Defendant. The only issue is if you do live in Scotland, you'd have to be prepared to travel to an english court if it comes to it Thanks

Ummm... Thanks Willow. I have been posting fairly solidly (granted not 1,500 like yourself) since I started my action against RBoS- keeping this log updated with what stage I'm at and adding to other logs. I have read and do read the FAQs quite a lot and did know that this was likely to happen. I just hoped that they would settle rather than fight it! If you search for 'Cobbetts' there are a lot of threads and many of them give different avenues to respond to the defence logged. I've been trawling through them trying to find a definitive response (which is why I didn't type the whole letter in- it's been logged on this site many times)- which I'm then going to post a link to on this thread- I was merely asking if anyone else had done this already. My last post is quite clear that I'm doing this for myself- not just posting the odd thread here and there expecting everyone to tell me exactly what to do. If you read through the whole thread, hopefully this will be clear For everyone who is in the same position- this is the best I've found so far. There's a post by Pezza01 on 7th December that gives a full letter to send: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/51279-cobbetts-defence.html Thanks

Pete H- your response to Point 3 (sending all our bank statements to them). Can't we just send the spreadsheet we've already done- this has all the dates / name of the charge and amount on it. As I understand it, the only extra info they want is how much we think they should be charged? [EDIT: This ihas been answered since I updated the page!]

Damn- they've lodged a defence! I'm sure other people have the same letter- asking whether I think that I shouldn't have been charged and if not, how much should I have been charged. Also asking me to be more spcific about the laws I'm claiming under. I'm just about to go and check the FAQs for respnse to these but if anyone knows where they fell free to let me know! Looks like this is going to drag out :o(

Hi Furzle, icklePeach is spot on- I'd filed the claim before they made an offer- this now puts them under the jurisdiction of the courts- whose rules are- you charge them 8% interest from the date that the cost was incurred. If it was to go to court and I was to win then the court would include this in the total amount owed. Also- I had to pay £120 to log it with MCOL- this is the court costs that the losing side pays for. (Have you seen those ads: 'Have you had an accident at work?...It wont cost you a penny'- they make their money by building up huge costs that the other side have to pay!)

I've replied to the offer with the standard, 'I will be pursuing the rest but please feel free to give me that for now' I've had a letter to say that it isn't their policy to pay Interest and Court charges (I wish I could say the same to them!) but that the offer still stands. They have filed an acknowledgment of my court claim and stated they will be filing a defence with Cobbetts solicitors. They've got another 2 weeks to file this defence. Anyone got any experience of how long this part takes? Do RBoS generally file the defence and if so how long do they drag it out for before offering full settlement? Thanks

Woo-Hoo!!! Got home to find an offer for my full amount - but not including the Interest added since filing MCOL! So just got to get that added but battle won! One slightly amusing aspect of this- it's quite clearly a standard letter that they send (the 'Our charges are clearly laid out and we dont think they're wrong.' letter) When it got to the part about the offer it reads: However, having reviewed your case and as a gesture of goodwill and without admission of liability or error, in this instance we are prepared to offer the amount of £x [direct quote] paid direct to your account. It wasn't till I got to the part that I need to return that an amount was actually put in! Brilliant.

Just read Chezts latest response to the letters we've all been receiving Feel fine now Just a momentary panic that it's going to come crashing around my ears! They've got to the 28th to respond- which is a Sunday so really the 26th. Do you literally just write to the court with your claim ref and ask for judgment? It all seems so simple, almost too simple...

Just faxed off the full list of charges including the 8% interest and tried to ring Sandy Watt to confirm receipt. I got an answerphone message for the Cust Relation team saying, 'Sorry no-one is available to answer your call' blah blah blah. But then it went on to say that if it was regarding charges we assure you we will be in touch by 31st January. The banks are obviously going to be trying to stop these claims going through- is this the deadline they've set themselves? If so, what will the outcome be? A blanket 'Here's your money back' or a standard defence that they're going to start going to court with to get a test case through? Am I being overly worried? Anybody with any further info? My concern is that they need to lodge a response to my MCOL by the 28th- so I'm either going to get through just before or I might be the case they go to court with. Sprint to the finish!

Just faxed off the full list of charges including the 8% interest and tried to ring Sandy Watt to confirm receipt. I got an answerphone message for the Cust Relation team saying, 'Sorry no-one is available to answer your call' blah blah blah. But then it went on to say that if it was regarding charges we assure you we will be in touch by 31st January. A few thought son this: 1)

I think Sandy Watt has just been 'promoted' to this position- I've had 3 letters from her in the last week acknowledging all my correspondence and it seems everyone else has as well- she's either been brought in to come up with a solution or she's just having to wade through all the repsonses so that they can try and stem the flow. Having logged my MCOL (woo-hoo!) they now have 28 days to log a reponse- my guess is, since the recent media, people will be swamping them with claims that aren't neccesarily correct- especially with the way RBoS hide a lot of their charges by lumping them in with (legit) Royalties charges. If they don't get a defence in within 28 days- people can move for judgement and I guess this is happening before they've had a chance to check legitimacy. Either way- I wouldn't want her job! What targets does she have to meet? Try and give away less than a million??? Has anyone spoken to her or got anything more detailed than the standard 'Thank you for your letter, please bear with us' response?

So with all these extra cases going through- does anyone have an idea of what timescales are like for actually getting the cash back?

Just got a letter today acknowledging my first letter dated 29th Nov. They apologise for delay and ask for some time to look at the details. I've already given them the 2 weeks to answer then sent my 2nd letter (LBA) and given them the 2 weeks plus I've given them an extra 8 days to allow for Christmas. I think it's time to file my MCOL!

Congratulations mate- well done. Have they said anything about any conditions. Eg. closing account, closing overdraft etc? January is a good time of the year to get a late Christmas present like this!

Thanks T4ff, will do!

Thanks T4ff- however, I disagree about the court claim- I DO want to make one for several reasons: 1. the more cases against a bank, the more likely they are to make some changes to their charges- I don't want them to hide away in un-recorded settlements. 2. Once it goes to a claim it adds the 8% interest - which for me adds about £800. This is obviously a good thing for me financially, but also puts them under the same pressures that they put us under. However, I do acknowedge that it's a busy time of the year and, despite the fact that they've happily charged me £60 referral charges in the week before Christmas for 3 of the last 6 years, I don't want to do anything that might jeopordise my case. I'll call them this afternoon and see if I can get some timescales, but if I have no joy then I'll be opening proceedings. As ever, I'll keep you informed

No response from them yet. My deadline for them is 28th Dec- time to start an online claim! Anyone have any idea what sort of timescales RBoS claims take? Are we talking weeks or months?

I'm not hearing anything back from my letters either- is this a stalling tactic? I've had them delivered registered post so I know they've received them- sent to my branch and Manager of Customer Relations. You seem to be about 2 weeks ahead of me Biffinplate- so I'll be tracking your progress with great interest- good luck!

Long time, no write. It took ages for me to work out what the charges I should re-claim were. I ended up adding acouple of columns to the spreadsheet showing what the monthly charges for my various Royalties accounts were and subtracting this. The final figures is about £3700- I was going to not bother trying to split out the payments but I'm glad I did- it's added about £1000 to the overall claim! I sent the letter on 1st Dec (makes it easier to track timescales!) and am just waiting for a response. Having read a few other posts, I'm not confident of a quick resolution (pity- Jan's going to be a long month). I'm slightly nervous of contacting them now for normal, everyday stuff (I need a new card- Christams has given it a bit of a bashing) but I keep reminding myself that it's them that should be sheepish. I'll let you know how I get on

Just done as advised and gone through all my copy statements checking the top for the name of acc (eg'Royalties PRemiere; Royalties Gold') but for one of my statements it just says 'Royalties Account' for every statement. Does anyone recognise this as a specific acc and know what the agreed monthly charge (if any) applies. thanks

Where do you live? If you live in Scotland, you can only put a max claim in of (I think) £750 at a time so you have to break it down into several claims or you can put the claim in in England for the larger amount- but you must be prepared to travel to England for the court case (if it comes to it). If you live in England then put the claim in England- then there's no problems! See the FAQ for full details and to check the amount you can claim in one go in Scotland- I might have that figure wrong.

Hi Furzle, I struggled with this for a while- have you got a Royalties account- either gold or any of the others? Does it say 'Charge to [date]' for each one? If so, you'll need to deduct the monthly cost from the charge. It should say at the top of the statement what type of account it is. This link really helped me: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/royal-bank-scotland-bank/42749-bit-help-you-rbos.html Thanks

Found this link about the varying charges from RBoS - basicaly- they do merge the Royalties Charge (un-claimable) with excess use charges (claimable). This is kind of what I was building up to do- but T4FF has done it for me- thanks- and useful to anyone else considering the same: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/royal-bank-scotland-bank/42749-bit-help-you-rbos.html