I was wrong! Barclays finally replied to my original letter (kind of) - luckily before I'd posted the one I wrote yesterday. The letter is dated 8th October, but it's interesting that it took until the 14th to arrive, during which time three other pieces of correspondence have managed to arrive which were clearly deemed more important... First of all, the letter was nothing to do with 'changing my details' - It clearly, unambiguously stated that I was excercising my right to opt out of the personal reserve. The signature was exactly the same as my regular signature, although it was scanned into the computer and then printed. As one can opt out by telephone, a signature is clearly not required in any case! Clearly a delaying tactic designed to waste customers' time. As I'm currently working abroad, visiting my nearest branch is not going to be possible - I think I'm going to send them an amended version of the letter I planned to send yesterday,

Update time - I sent Barclays a letter on September 29th, signed for on October 1st, which gave them clear and explicit instruction to remove the personal reserve service from my account. Statement dated October 5th still shows the Reserve in palce, as does a letter informing me of further charges for the period 5th-11th October, and a 'red letter' demanding repayment of the overlimit amount dated October 8th. Clearly my letter has been completely ignored, so I've sent them another one once again telling them to remove the reserve, and to backdate that action to the 1st, when they recieved my initial instruction - and to cancel any charges applied after that date, as there should have been no reserve present after October 1st if they had done their job properly. They can add on all the charges they like, but as far as I'm concerned, I exercised my right to cancel the personal reserve on October 1st, and I'm not liable for any charges incurred after that date resulting from their negligence and/or failure to carry out my instruction. I await their reply (or lack of one)...

Haha yes, I can just imagine the look on their faces if the proceedings got moved to Seoul...

Just a quick update I submitted a defence to HFO's claim at the end of August, and the Court replied telling me that HFO now have 28 days to inform them if they wish to proceed with the claim. I spoke to a very helpful lady at the Court today who said that HFO have not contacted them at all, and therefore the claim is stayed and effectively barred until further notice. Apparently HFO could decide to proceed further at a later date, but they would first have to apply to have the bar removed, which would entail them providing evidence that there's some merit in the claim; and it would then go to a hearing. Since I rather suspect HFO won't want this one to go to a hearing, given the 9-point list of reasons why their claim isn't valid that I sent them last time, Hopefully that will be the end of that... A couple of quick questions for experienced posters - 1) I sent HFO a Part 18 request, which they failed to respond to. Have they broken the law by doing this, and if so can I (and is it worth) pursuing them over that? 2) The lady at HMCS seemed to think the case would just sit there indefinitely now with a bar on it, unless HFO decide to apply to lift the bar and pursue things further - an apparently there's a fee for them to do this. How much would it cost them to get the bar lifted, and is there an 'expiry date' on the claim - if they don't respond within a certain time frame, does the whole thing get thrown out altogether? I guess the Statute of Limitations will kick in in 6 years in any case, but I wondered if there's anything before that? Thanks once again to all the fantastically helpful posters on here who helped me; and Good Luck and don't worry to those still being hassled by HFO - Just don't take any cr@p from them, don't waste your time arguing, let them file a claim and then defend it and theyshould eventually go away - they're like a bulldog after a trip to the dentist - All bark and no bite

Fantastic - Thanks for the insights, Lewtus! It's great to see someone from the banks on here offering really useful help 8-) Much appreciated! I work abroad so unfortunately popping into my local branch isn't really an option, as the nearest is about 10,000 miles away ;-P But I've sent them a letter, being careful to get all the details correct - hopefully they'll be able to get it removed. I'll post the letter up here if it's successful for others to use as a template.

Yep, I saw that... Thanks! from what I've read of different people's experiences, it looks as though you CAN opt out at any time, but in some cases Barclays tend to lie about this in order to keep customers on the more lucrative (for them) charging regime... I plan to write to them to opt out, hopefully they will do this straight away without playing silly games. Either way, I'll make it very clear in my letter that I am not prepared to acknowledge or pay any fees accrued after the date I canceled the Personal Reserve.

Slick132 - As far as I can tell, the only charges I might incur without a reserve are £8 every time a transaction is refunded or a guaranteed transaction is paid above the limit. (plus interest, I assume). I work abroad so I only use the account for transferring money to the UK and for buying online - I have no standing orders or DDs; and I'm moving my day-to-day banking to another account with the Co-Op, so this shouldn't be a problem as there won't be any more transactions on the account from now on.

second attempt... Website 1 http://yfrog.com/j5barclayswebsite1g Website 2 http://img828.imageshack.us/i/barclayswebsite2.gif/ Letter http://yfrog.com/9ebarclaysreserveletterp T&Cs http://img831.imageshack.us/i/barclaystcsusefulbit.png/ Extra information from T&Cs http://img441.imageshack.us/i/barclaystcsotherusefuli.png/

Grr! Stupid images aren't showing up!

I've just been looking at Barclays website, the letters they've sent me and the Terms and Conditions for the account. Nowhere does it state that you cannot opt out of the Personal Reserve while over the limit. However, in several places, it clearly states that you can opt out at any time. Website 1 Website 2 Letter http://img338.imageshack.us/i/barclaysreserveletter.png/ Barclays Account T&Cs As far as I can tell in this last one, the section i've underlined in blue only refers to CLOSING the account, not to removing a service from it. However, I wonder if this applies, seeing as it's not a 'Service for which I applied seperately' (as everyone was forcibly opted in - noone actually applied for it) Also, this might be of some use to people who are fighting these charges... I wonder what arguments could be constructed around the charges being 'in fair proportion' as 'reasonably estimated'; and whether there is 'no increased cost to you' and it is 'not to your disadvantage'... certainly a change in fees from £8 IF the transaction is accepted to £22 every 5 days regardless, would appear to be an 'increased cost'... Personally, I think I'm going to call Barclays and demand to be opted out immediately, which I expect they will refuse to do, and follow that up with a letter confirming it, referencing the wording in the images above and stating that I am prepared to repay all charges accrued up until today, but I refuse to accept the validity of any further charges as I have now opted out of the Personal Reserve as I have a right to do. Then if they try to add further charges, I might well call their bluff and see how far they want to push it - I think four seperate pieces of evidence clearly stating that one can cancel the reserve at any time, and not one single mention of having to repay the outstanding balance before the reserve is canceled, should stand up as fairly strong evidence in court... Thoughts, anyone?

Hi, I currently have a Barclays Personal Reserve which is costing me £22 every 5 days in charges. I can't afford to pay it off to get back in the black for another couple of weeks, but according to Barclays website, one can cancel it at any time. Does anyone know if I call and cancel it, will I still be charged £22 a week because I'm over the limit? or will cancelling it stop me from being charged any more? (I appreciate I will have to pay it back eventually, and will presumably be charged interest on the overlimit amount, but I'm trying to minimise the cost until I can afford to do so) Thanks Andy

Sorry, yes, I meant 2.3 - although since the address on the claim form is for HFO Services, not HFO Capital who are the claimants, they've messed up 2.2 as well...

Excellent - So it looks like they've fallen foul of 2.2 then, given that they were made aware well before the claim was issued that the address was incorrect... Thanks!

Right, this is the important one... So still no response from HFO to the Part 18 request, after almost a month now... However, I filed my defence with the court and received this reply last week http://yfrog.com/cacourtletterp (Incidentally this was sent to my parents' address, not to my address in Korea, despite the court having been informed several times that that address is incorrect :-[ - I suppose to be fair they could have copied it to both and it's not yet arrived overseas) Anyhow, this is dated August 31st, so allowing a couple of days for postage to HFO/TR, they've got until October 1st to respond to my defence, or it'll be stayed. Let's see if they can be bothered to respond to me now - I'd love to see how they're going to justify their claim, being as 1) I'm outside the country 2) They've never sent me an NOA 3) The wrong company name is on the claim 4) They've yet to produce a credit application 5) They've yet to provide any proof that this debt even exists 6) They've yet to prove that anything that does exist isn't statute barred 7) They've failed to respond to the Part 18 request, as required by law Should be fun... Out of interest, what's to stop HFO from simply producing a bunch of forged documents as they often seem to do in other cases, not bothering to send them to me and just submitting them to the court as their 'evidence'? I assume in that case the court will give me an opportunity to submit a revised defence?

...And 20 posts. There we go.

sorry again (unless you're HFO looking in, in which case I enjoy :-P )

Sorry about this...

This is ridiculous - I want to post a link to an image of a document but apparently you need to make 20 posts before you can post a link?!! Surely that must hurt virtually all new posters trying to post links to their POC images?! I'm going to have to post 3 pointless filler messages now so I can post the important message.

No, you shouldn't be worried at all. If your last payment was in 2004, the debt will probably be statute barred (or soon will be), and they can't enforce it. I'd suggest sending three letters :- 1 - Letter to HFO telling them to stop calling your phone and make all future contact by mail only 2 - To Barclaycard, along with a £10 postal order or cheque, for a Subject Access Request (to find out exactly when your last payment was) 3 - To the Information Commissioner, also copied to Trading Standards, the Financial Ombudsman and your local police, making an official complaint about HFO's use of photos etc as an intimidation tactic - this is illegal and they need to be hit hard for it, so the more complaints the better... Templates for the first two are on this site (do a search) and the third, I'm sure people will be able to help you with

Fantastic - Thanks, I'll add that point to the defence then - So it now looks like this : The defendant is confused as to the identity of the claimant. The Claimant is named on the Particulars of Claim as HFO Capital Ltd of Roxburghe House, Lavendar Park Road, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14 6YZ. However, the text of the Particulars of Claim refers to "The Claimant HFO Services Ltd". As HFO Capital Ltd. are to the best of the defendant's knowledge not registered with Companies House in the UK, and as the Claimant appears to be unsure of their own identity and by extension cannot be certain of their ownership of the alleged debt, the defendant would respectfully suggest that their claim would therefore appear to be without merit. That sound OK?

Great - Thanks BA! I'll add this as point E then, right before the paragraph about the lack of assignment notice, and move everything else down one : The defendant is confused as to the identity of the claimant. The Claimant is named on the Particulars of Claim as HFO Capital Ltd of Roxburghe House, Lavendar Park Road, West Byfleet, Surrey KT14 6YZ. However, the text of the Particulars of Claim refers to "The Claimant HFO Services Ltd". The defendant would respectfully suggest that as the claimant appears to be unsure of their own identity, they by extension cannot be certain of their ownership of the alleged debt. Their claim would therefore appear to be without merit. Does that look OK? or am I pushing it a bit too much...?

Hi, Could somebody take a look at this and tell me if it's OK to submit to the court as a defence? It's basically an edited version of a couple of other similar defences I've found posted here, with an additional paragraph pointing out that I live abroad and HFO served the claim to an incorrect address... Thanks, Andy

Hi there, I hope you're all well and enjoying the summer, Just a quick question about what I should do next with HFO. I need to submit a defence to the court this weekend as it'll be two weeks on Monday since I filed the acknowledgement of service. I also informed them that I'm living abroad and they should send any correspondence to my address in Korea. I wrote to HFO with a Part 18 request and with a letter telling them yet again that I don't live in the UK. So far I've heard nothing whatsoever from either HFO or the Court, to either my address here, or sent to my parents' address. I plan to phone Northampton tomorrow to check the status of the claim, but what do I need to submit as a defence? I guess an Embarrassed defence as HFO haven't sent me the info I need to properly defend myself? Are there any templates or anything for this? Thanks! Andy

HFO have recieved the Part 18 request and the letter telling them once again to update their records to show that I live out of the country... Court have the Acknowledgement of Service form, I have until the 29th to mount a defence, so let's see what HFO do with it now... completely ignore it, is my prediction...

Just a quick update - I've sent HFO a Part 18 request and another letter telling them I'm not in the country and they need to update their address information, and that I don't believe they have grounds to claim. Thanks to all who've helped so far, particularly vjohn82, Broken Arrow and Patrickq1 - Your help and support is much appreciated! Andy