HURRAH! i managed to settle out of court for the full amount minus interest-i just rang them and politely asked for the full amount and they said fine!

i just did this myself, not wanting to go through the full court process and settled for the full amount-(not the interest) right there on the phone.

ok, i've deleted the last line in the letter(offering 14 days) and removed the 'if neccesary'. The court claim will be going through in the next few days. thanks for your quick advice Michael.

i never actually sent the lba template from this site but sent this instead(from moneysavingexpert): 7/12/06 Dear Sir or Madam, Re. Account number: ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxx SORT CODE: xxxxxx I refer to default charges applied to my account amounting to £596.74, which I have requested you pay back. I wrote to you on 24/11/06, making the original request for a payment in settlement of my claim. As I have not received a satisfactory response I am writing to inform you I intend to claim the full amount claimed together with interest up to the date of judgment and court fees in the proceedings through the county court. This is based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, as I believe these default charges are unfair and not proportionate to your costs, and therefore the Brighton County Court will rule in my favour. I have attached a full schedule of the charges and interest with this document. I look forward for a full response to this letter within 7 days, otherwise I will commence court proceedings to reclaim my money. Yours faithfully, xxxxx Now i am wondering whether this letter and the letter i am about to send today(it hasnt been posted but is sitting in an envelope) are sufficient before i continue with the court judgement-this is today's letter Thank you for your letter dated 20/12/06 I respectfully decline your offer of settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account, totalling £596.74 (£513 + £83.74 interest at Statutory rate, the amount the court will award) I will accept the sum offered (£350) only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary. You have until 14/01/07 to respond before Court action commences. You are reminded that there will be no extension to this timescale. Is all this ok or should i amend it?-sorry to sound like an idiot but i know at this crucial stage i need to make sure all my wording is ok. jonathan

ok, thanks for the advice so far, this site is a godsend! I thought i'd give an update. I received a letter on 20/12 stating that i could have a partial settlement of 350 quid as long as i signed a document stating i considered the whole affair to be settled. I was actually tempted by this but have stuck to my guns. I sent them a letter today(31/12/06) (the standard template from this site) saying that i would accept it as a partial settlement but would be pursuing the full amount(513+83.74 interest to be awarded by the court) if they didnt offer me the full amout by 14/1/07. I have a query. I was speaking to a friend who has gone through the full process and he seemed to think that i should not be asking for the full amount(596) at this stage as it was still the court's discretion to award the 8% interest and that if i asked for the interest at this stage the court would throw the claim out. Now in todays letter and my previous letter i have said i was asking for 513 +83 which the court would award. My friend says that i should write a letter to the halifax stating that my claim is for 513 only. I'm not sure what to do now but i did put in my letter the following paragraph: I respectfully decline your offer of settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account, totalling £596.74 (£513 + £83.74 interest at Statutory rate, the amount the court will award) This paragraph was also in my initial claim letter. Am i doing things right? Should i send a letter saying the claim is for 513 only or is my friend wrong? thanks again for everyone's help. Jonathan

i decided that going back further than 6 years wasnt really worth it as i wasnt incurring many charges back then. I sent my request for 596 quid in and got a quick standard response back referring me to a complaints leaflet and ombudsman and telling me to sod off;). Today i sent the threatening legal action letter so now i wait and prepare to get my court summons on the go!

i've finally got all the statements going back all the way to 1995, im not sure whether i should ask for the interest or not really or whether its pushing my luck, what do people think?(the full amount is approximately 550 pounds.)

Thanks for your advice, i've read a fair bit and will keep posting here progress and/or if I get stuck or unsure what to do next.

hello everyone, i've been struggling a little financially over the last 3 months and got charged 3 times which got me very angry and despondant, until i found this site, next step is getting the data protection letter sent, i hope i can sort this out as im pretty sure there have been a fair few charges over the past 6 years....