Read this thread for ammunition re: Microfiche. I know it's to do with Abbey, but I would expect you can use the same argumenst with Barclays. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/campaign/24002-information-commissioners-office.html It saddens me that the banks are doing everything they can think of to avoid doing the decent thing here. The line in the LBA template about losing confidence in them as my fiduciary always struck me as a great line but nothing I really believed, but every day, and every time I read more about their tactics, I am all the more disappointed. Vince

This is my explanation of the interest question: There are three kinds: Overdraft Interest, Section 69 (statutory) interest, and Contractual interest. Overdraft interest (you can claim for this from the beginning): Scenario A) Let's say your account was a £0 and you incurred a £30 charge. This would put you £30 overdrawn and you would incur interest on that amount. You should be entitled to claim all of this back (whether it amounts to a sum you're interested in is up to you) Scenario B) Let's now say you are £30 overdrawn (not because of a penalty charge) and you incurr a £30 charge, putting you £60 overdrawn. You would now incur interest on the £60 but would only be entitled to claim 50% of this. Here, it becomes more complex to calculate the amount of OD interest cause by unlawful charges and it is up to you whether to pursue that amount) Statutory Interest at 8% (this ONLY applies once you have initiated court proceedings): Let us say that you are initiating your claim today and 100 days ago , he bank charged you £30 and 50 days ago they charged you another £30. You can claim for statutory interest on your court claim as follows: Charge 1: £30 * (0.08/365) * 100 (ie charge amount mutiplied by 8% per year / 365 days in a year multiplied by 100 days since charge was levied = 66p) Charge 2: £30 * (0.08/365) * 50 = 33p Total interest charged up to date of claim = 99p PLUS daily interest at £60 (total charges excluding interest) * (0.08/365) = 1.13pence per day until the claim is settled (so the longer the bank draws it out the more you get) Obviously I'm working with small numbers here, but on larger claims these number can run into £100s with additional daily rates at £1+/day. There are spreadsheets that do all the hard sums for you on these: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html Contractual Interest: This one's a bit thorny, and has not really been fully test yet (AFAIK). basically, instead of charging the bank statutory interest at 8% as above, you charge them at their overdraft interest rate, (15% or whatever). The calculations are the same as above, only you substitute for example, 0.15 (for 15%) in place of 0.08 (8%) in the sums. The logic here is that the banks are entitled to charge you interest on money you have borrowed from them without authorisation at the rate published, and that in the spirit of recipricocity (SP?) you are entitled to the same rate for the money they have unlawfully borrowed from them. There is a long discussion of this at : http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/18313-why-no-one-claiming.html HTH Usual disclaimers... Vince

No1, To my mind I'd send it to the address you have been using all along (Churchill place/square - off the top of my head) - I seem to recall reading that KJ is no longer dealing with these claims (can't find the thread right now), so I wouldn't address anything to him by name. Vince (usual disclaimers etc... yeah yeah...my own opinion... not a lawyer...and all that)

No1 Wow, I'm just about to start MCOL against Barclays and I guess it'll end up in Leicester too - I'm quite worried about that whole "we lost the paperwork" bit... Maybe I'll get my payout next Summer.... Vince

You have a choice: a) Accept their offer and leave it at that (but you don't really want to do that) or b) Accept their offer as partial settlement, stating that you will continue your claim for the remainder of the money owed. Do this using your own letter (ie do not sign their form). They will in all likelihood retract their off with a "well if that's the way you want it, let's see you in court" letter - This is where it gets interesting (literally). You then start small claims proceedings against them using MCOL for the full amount plus statutory interest at 8% plus costs, with a daily interest rate until the claim is settled. Then sit back and wait for the blustering from Barclays. Vince The above information is taken from reading around this site and learning of other people's experiences. IANAL.

Sorry, to actually answer your question, if you believe that they switched you onto an Additions account without your consent, then you can reclaim these fees, otherwise no you can't.

Tricky one this. In essence they're correct (they did the same to me) and if you look closely, you'll see that it's about to go (or just gone) up again. I believ like me you have Additions plus What they say is that the interest you pay on a £1000 OD on a standard account is less than the interest you pay on a £1000 OD with additions, where you pay the monthly fee but only interest (at a lower rate) on £750 of the £1000 (because you get £250 interest free OD). I recommend you ring Barclays and ask for this to be reduced to their Additions Basic (I think it's called) - only £6.50 instead of £13/month - they will try to sell you stuff like gadget insurance (yeah, I'm sure gadget is a legally recognised term that falls outside contents insurance), will writing & breakdown cover and all that, but they will drop your account down to the lower Additions type. Vince

Well, stone me. 14 days since LBA posted is nearly up (14 days since posting ends tomorrow) and no word from my good old friends at Barclays towers. Against my better judgement I'm giving them til Thursday to reply (like they're going to) then its off to MCOL I go. I love the fact that they'll see the debit card transaction before they get the papers served. (oh, and they can add the three charges from October as well) (Sorry, am I supposed to be enjoying this as much as I am or is it like recycling?) Quick question ref parachute accounts: I'm off to talk to the co-op in a couple of weeks, is it wise to point out that I know their OD charges to be unlawful when I sign up? (not that I intend incurring any any more) Vince

An evil thought occurs, we should claim for the unlawful charges, plus interest, Plus 5% for CAG donation (and spell it out in the claim) See how the buggers like paying for their own downfall... (no, I don't mean this seriously - or do I?)

Actually, I believe some folk have gone for £9.50 an hour for time involved, but you have to get what you can. The only caveat I'd add is that you've now just nudged over the £1500 threshold, meaning you'll need to pay an addidtion al fee when it cones to court time. Buy you get that back from the bank anyway, so what's the problem? Yay!

"why don't they settle these things earlier, they'd save themselves a further 8% + costs !!??" I can't help but think that myself, I also keep wondering if I should just say in one of my letters "look, I'm going to be following the well-trodden path as forged by Dave & BF at CAG, I know you're going to pay up before we get to court, you know you're going to pay up before we get to court, why don't you just save ua ll the hassle and pay up now eh? You know you want to." But then I remind myself that that's just not part of their game, they're probably cheering each time someone accepts their 35% offer or doesn't go to court, but not as loud as we cheer each time the settle in full. Vince

when/if* they finally pay up, I assume I ask for the money they took, the interest up to the day the make the offer, the money paid to MCOL (£120) and the money I paid with the AQ (£100)??? *That'll be when then. And yes, you want all of it. ALL OF IT (D'you hear?) (If we shout loud enough, the banks may start paying attention)

Fantastic job Bookworm, will these banks never learn? so are you starting again for the 'new' £60?

Hannah, Welcome to the site, you need to do a couple of things. 1) Read the FAQs and the step by step guides, so that you can see what you're getting into (don't worry, so far no-one's been to court AFAIK) - basic process for Barclays seems to be : a) Subject access request (to get your charcge info) b) Preliminary letter c) Letter Before Action (LBA) - threatening court if they don't pay up d) 50% offer from Barclays e) Claim through Moneyclaim Online (MCOL) or at your local court (at this point add 8% statutory interest & costs) f) Barclays submit defence g) Receive allocation questionnaire (AQ) h) Wait for court date to be issued j) Wait until a few days before court date k) Get settlement from Barclays l) Go to the pub and celebrate on Barclays If you already have your statements going back 6 years you can skip a) 2) Read up on as many of the threads on here as you can (look for the longer ones as they have a more complete story running through them. 3) Start a new thread in the Barclays folder called "Hannahlt vs Barclays" and use it to keep all your posts together - this way future users will be able to follow your story just like you did in step 2 above, and also it is a useful way of keeping track of your claim (you will have noticed that Barclays dig their heels in at every stage and the claim can take a couple of months). If you need any help you can post any questions in there and someone will be able to help 4) Once you've created your thread, you'll see a link above yor first post that says "Permalink", click that and then bookmark the page, that way you don't have to keep paging through everyone else's post to get to your thread. 5) Send your letters to Barclays head office in London: Freepost RLTA-CSUE-TCHC Barclays Bank plc Head Office Customer Relations 1 Churchill Place London E14 5HP See, you don't even need a stamp! But once you get a bit down the line you may want to use recorded delivery (cost about 60p) Hope this helps Vince

Just a question, What

Nothing to add to the discussion except: Kudos to Glenn, Dad, Birdy Bookworm and everyone else who has helped unpick this issue. (Also to BF and Dave for starting the whole thing). - Hang on this isn't an Oscar speech... Although my own claim is against Barclays (not Abbey National), It fills me with awe and confidence that we can overcome any hurdles the banks throw in our way. The way you have approached this problem is simply inspiring. Sorry to gush Vince

AFAIK, It would seem reasonable to add a sentence to your LBA suggesting that if there is no positive reply from then bank, then your claim will be for £xxx (original amount from prelim letter) plus interest plus costs (all of this as per the LBA template) and then add word to the effect "...plus any further unlawful charges incurred up until the date of claim/settlement" At this point all you are doing is telling barclays what you will be claiming for at the next stage, so yes, go ahead and add them on at this stage, changing the amount after you have submitted the claim may be more difficult. Vince This is only my opinion, and I would appreciate anyone else's thoughts

To tell the truth I don't know anywhere near enough about buying shares to know, but a group of people must be able to combine to buy shares in a company mustn't it? Here's hoping someone more knowledgable on the subject (and this forum is full of them) can jump in to assist.

OK second thought: (I was reminded of this by the Mark Thomas gig I went to last night). Buy shares in the bank. As a shareholder you are entitled to attend the Bank's AGM, and can raise the issue in the belly of the beast. (MT did this with Balfour Beattie to stop their involvement with the Ilisu dam project, and succeeded) - I'd need to look a bit further into it, to find out how many shares you need to table a motion at the AGM, but it could be quite good fun.

Maybe we should all apply for jobs with he banks, After all, they're going to be snowed under with requests, so they'll need some help with the filing / licking envelopes etc, and we can just OK payment in full on request, saving the banks a wad of interest and court fees and getting the claims paid quicker. Seeing as we some of us know the process backwards, we'd be ideal candidates. Plus, it would be a little handy extra income come christmas. Win-Win! Vince

(sorry, finger slipped) ...I notice you're in God's own county of Leicestershire as well, I take it that I'll be taking them to Leicestershire county court, that's near the station isn't it? I'll take a stroll down there this weekend to familiarise myself with the place (and pick up the N1 forms)

Will do - in fact I've been reading through the longer threads on Barclays for a while yet so I think I know what's coming, and I have to kep revising my idea of wen I'm going to get paid (Christmas ? New Year? Easter? My Birthday?...), but as many posters have added, the longer they delay, the more interest they pay. I notice you're in God's own county of Leicestershire as well, I take it that I'll be taking them to Leicestershire county court

LBA in the post today

Can you imagine how much I would LOVE to see that! Two blokes in puffa jackets marching into Barclays and demanding the cash, or the computers, or the furniture...

ETA: I will of course change "I calculate that you have taken £1295.00 from the period of " to "I calculate that you have taken £1295.00 for the period of "