Hi Pugsley Many thanks for the link, I will go ahead and send it to them. Also, many thanks for pointing out the fact that I hadn't removed my account no. Ooops!! I've just edited it. Thanks again. Lisa

Me again! I've just phoned Abbey to tell them that our account is in dispute and to stop them sending my details to default and they have just told me that they have put £1125 into our account! Apparently they sent out a letter yesterday (haven't got it yet), telling us that they have paid this £1125 into our account as a "good will gesture" and that they have declined the rest (this being £1307.26!!!). Obviously, I'm not happy with this and told them that they owe me the rest and what they have done is illegal, then I got told that it's in the terms and conditions (I don't remember signing anything because we've had this account for over 20 yrs!!). Anyway, do I still go to court to claim for the rest? I'm guessing I do, but wanted to check it out with someone in the know before I go ahead. Many thanks again for all your help. Lisa

Thanks very much. Will go ahead and contact my local court. Thanks again for the info. Lisa

Here's a copy of my 2nd letter.... 15th August 2006 Abbey Prescot Street London E1 8RP LETTER BEFORE ACTION Dear Sir/Madam, ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXX I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond to my letter of the 1st August 2006. I now understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations. I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law. I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary. I calculate that you have taken £1590 plus £77.26 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Plus £765 of charges you wish to take out of our account on 26th August 2006. Total £2432.26. I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original letter of the 1st August 2006. Additionally I feel that you may have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account. In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable. I require repayment in full of this money and removal of the default notice. If you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus a claim under ss.7 and 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998 plus my costs and without further notice. -2- Furthermore, I shall submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT upon the basis that you have failed to comply with the OFT's direction of 5 April 2006 and are therefore not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act. If you do not understand what this means then seek advice from your legal department. Yours faithfully, Mrs L J Salo That's as far as I've got. What should I do next? I received a letter yesterday from Abbey explaining that it's taking longer than they had hoped!! Many thanks for your help. Lisa

Hi Glenn Here's a copy of my first letter... Abbey Prescot Street London E1 8RP 1st August 2006 Request for repayment of charges. Dear Sir/Madam, ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXX My request: I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 7 months. I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs. Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary. Your responsibilities: Considering I have been an account holder at your bank for over 20 years, I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way, as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary. I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them. Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now. What I require I calculate that you have taken a total of £1590.00 (deducted £50 refund) in unpaid DD’s, and going over OD limit, which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken, dating back to December 2005. I was given a measly £50 refund earlier this month, and notified the bank of having difficulties 2 days prior to the refund. This refund clearly wasn’t enough! I enclose a schedule of all the charges which I am claiming with this letter. Due to these charges being made, it has made it even more difficult to keep up with the household bills, thus causing us to fall behind with the payments and letters being received from companies chasing for their money. My targets to resolve this matter I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets. I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment. If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments. After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline. Yours faithfully, Lisa Salo

Ok, just checking. Do I need to fill in the N1 form now? I know I keep getting told to read the threads, but the more I read, the more I'm getting confused. I just don't want to send out the wrong letter and have it all backfire on me. If I do need to do the N1 form, do I then take it to my local court house and get them to stamp it? I am COMPLETELY new to this and completely confused. Sorry to be a pain in the ....! Please help. Lisa

Many thanks all, for the info. Will now go off and find the 3rd letter that I need to send. Lisa

Thanks. Is there an example of the letter I should now send? Many thanks again. Lisa

Hi I sent my 2nd letter to Abbey on 15th August. I got a reply from them saying that if they don't reply within my 2 week timescale, then to give them 4 weeks to investigate. It's now in the 3rd week, and I'm not sure what I need to do. Since sending these letters, we have changed accounts and money is no longer going into our Abbey account. However, now no money is going in, they have now cancelled our overdraft and have sent us 2 letters, one explaining why they cancelled it (gone over the overdraft limit, not our fault, their charges of £765 for August took us over the agreed overdraft!!!), and the 2nd letter was saying that we need to contact them to discuss repayments. I realise I have let it go over the 2 weeks I gave them in my 2nd letter, but am now sure what I need to do next. I have looked at other threads and to be honest, I'm now getting confused. Could someone pls advise? Many many thanks

Hi Many thanks to both of you for your help. Will keep you posted. Lisa

Hi Many thanks for your quick reply. Much appreciated. I sent Abbey the prelim. letter on 1st Aug, and will be taking the 2nd one down there tomorrow (the one that starts off as: I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond to my letter of the 1st August 2006. I now understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations. etc etc). My only concern is that my cheque book has Prescot St on it, so I addressed it to them, but we took it into our local branch. I will be taking the 2nd letter into the local branch aswell. Have I sent it to the correct address, or I did notice somewhere on here that someone has given out the address for Customer Satisfaction Centre in Milton Keynes. Should it go there? Sorry about all the questions! Many thanks Lisa

I sent the first letter to Abbey on 1st August, not yet got a reply, so am going to take in my second letter to them tomorrow. What happens if I don't get a reply to my 2nd letter? What do I do then? After looking at alot of the threads, I am starting to get confused, sorry, I know I sound thick!! So far, they owe us £2432.26 in charges since Dec 05!!!

Hi Welly Many thanks for your help. Will look at sending the 2nd one on Tuesday. Wish me luck! LOL Lisa

HELP! We are having money problems at the moment (husband is self employed and didn't get a wage in April, thus knocking our finances out for a month, and finding it hard to keep up). I have been through our statements from Dec 05 (we're with Abbey!), and have calculated that they have charged us £1640 in charges since then. I did speak to someone in July and told them that these charges are unfair and all they gave us was a measley £50 refund!!! I had a look through the threads and have sent them the first letter stating the charges they have entered on our account and that I am giving them 14 days since the date of the letter (dated 1st August) to reply. Well, they have 3 days left and I haven't received anything from them. Also, I mentioned on the letter that I have had my account with them for over 20 years, and up until now, we have had no problems with them. Also, since sending the letter, we have received the new statement showing that they want to charge us £765 at the end of August for unpaid DD's etc. aswell!!! They have really put us in dire straits, considering the month before was over £500 charges, and the month before that was over £400! All this money was to go towards paying bills which are now behind, and am now receiving letters chasing for payments on. My husband spoke to them 2 wks ago because their charges took us over our agreed OD, and the only way they say that could help is if we sent back out debit cards and cheque books and they would issue us with a cash card each. We've done that now, but am annoyed because I can no longer make payments with cheques and everything has to be done by either DD or cash! I even spoke to them today and asked if we could have our cheque books back without a guarantee card, in order for me to be able to pay bills by cheque, they refused saying that we've been over our OD too many times in the last 4 mths, I explained that they put us in that situation because of their charges!!! I will now send them the 2nd letter on Monday if I don't receive a reply by then. Is there anything else you can suggest please? Can you pls confirm which 2nd letter I need to send pls? Also, I'm not sure if I may have mucked it up a little bit, because I addressed the letter and envelope to Prescot Street, but we handed it into our local branch, and my husband said that an account manager needs to see it, rather than sending it to Prescot Street. Should I send the next letter to our local branch, or send it to Milton Keynes (Customer Satisfaction Centre)?

Hi Many thanks for the info. I've initially requested a Current Plus account, in the hope that we may get that, but, if not, then I will go for the Step account. Many thanks again. Lisa