Hey Torigirl - thanks for that. I sit patiently and await my money!!!

Hey Guys I'm still fighting this cause with Barclays. They offered my dad £1100 minus £600 which was owed when the account was closed. This is way less than I requested so have not accepted their offer. However they have failed a defence and counterclaim against my claim with some pretty hefty wording. My dad is not denying the £600 so doesn't mind losing out on that bit but they still owe him about £1645. " 1. The Particulars of Claim do not provide details or particulars of the precise charges alleged to have been unlawful, or the date thereof. To the extent it is alleged that the Claimant incurred bank charges on his account for unauthorised borrowings (whether unpaid fees for returned cheques, "Paid Referral fees" or any other such fees), the Defendant puts the Claimant to strict proof of each charge and the date thereof. 2. The Particulars of Claim are summary in nature. Accordingly, this defence is summary in nature and the Defendant reserves the right to amend this Statement of Case in due course. 3. The Defendant is entitled to charge the Claimant for unauthorised borrowings by reason of its standard terns and conditions. The Claimant accepted the same when the account was opened, including (in particular but without limitation) the following terms and conditions (which are summarised) : a. The Defendant's right to charge a "Paid Referral Fee where the Defendant pays an amount (either by compulsion or election) which causes the account to become overdrawn - £30 per item (previously £25). b. The Defendant's right to charge an administrative fee if any cheque, standing order or direct debit cannot be paid because of insufficient cleared funds in the account - £35 per item (previously £30). c. The Defendant's entitlement, if the Claimant becomes overdrawn without an overdraft limit, to charge interest at the unauthorised borrowing rate on the excess balance. 4. The Defendant's standard terms and conditions give the Claimant a fair and transparent view of those terms and the charges applicable for unauthorised borrowings (including where the account is overdrawn without an overdraft limit or where the Claimant exceeds his authorised overdraft limit). 5. If and to the extent it is the Claimant's case that the failure to make necessary payments and / or failure to remain within authorised overdraft limits and / or failure to arrange an authorised overdraft constituted a breach of the terms applying to the account and that the contractual entitlement to debit charges from the Claimant's account constitutes a liquidated damages clause, the same is denied. The charges constitute payments the Claimant agreed to make by reason of the terms and conditions of his account and were consideration for the Defendant advancing credit to the Claimant, which the Defendant was under no obligation to advance. The Defendant was entitled to impose such charges and interest when the Claimant incurred the overdraft. 6. Accordingly, it is denied that the legal principles relating to liquidated damages clauses and penalty charges are relevant or applicable to the facts set out above. Further or alternatively it is denied that any such charges constitute unlawful penalty charges or are in breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, or are in breach of 9.4 of the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 (or any other provision), or are unreasonable within the meaning of s.15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (or indeed any other provision). 7. Therefore, it is denied that the charges were unlawfully debited from the account. 8. If and to the extent the Claimant incurred charges on his account, this was caused by the Claimant having gone into overdraft without having agreed with the Defendant an authorised overdraft facility or to increase the overdraft facility and/ or his failure to make payments to bring the balance of the account back into credit . 9, It is averred that the said charges and interest are and remain lawful and enforceable and that the Defendant was entitled to debit the same. 10. The Defendant denies that it is liable to the Claimant for the sums claimed and interest, as pleaded or at all. In the alternative if (which is denied) the said charges are unenforceable and constituted a breach of contract by the Defendant, those charges which were applied to the account prior to 20 March 2001 are not recoverable because they are time-barred under the terms of the Limitation Act 1980 in that more than six years have elapsed since the accrual of the cause of action. 11. In the alternative, and without prejudice to matters stated above, if (which is denied) the said charges and interest or any part thereof are unlawful or unenforceable as alleged by the Claimant or at all, and the charges were a consequence of the breach of contract by the Claimant, the Defendant has nonetheless suffered loss and damage as a consequence of such breach of contract in allowing the account to go into unauthorised overdraft. Accordingly, in the event that the Defendant is unable to rely on its express entitlement to enforce the charges as set out at paragraphs 3 to 4 above, it will seek to recover to the extent necessary such loss and damage as it actually suffered, which will not necessarily be limited to the value of the said charges, and the Defendant seeks to set off such sums against any liability owed hereunder to the Claimant. Barclays Bank PLC" Can anyone help me with this? 1) Do I have to respond? 2) They make a claim that I am time barred, however my original letter was dated 19th February and I claimed everything from 21st Feb 01 - surely I am within the time limit? Any advise the wise world of the consumer action group can provide would be great. Thanks

Cheers mate! Even quicker then - kool

Guys can I just check something please. Is 40 days 40 days or 40 working days??!!

Guess what guys....................that's right I WON!!! Got home last night and there was a special delivery card left by the postman, so on my way to work this morning I popped to the local office to pick it up and low and behold Natwest have decided to pay me £1576.18 (to be precise:D ). Needless to say this has just added to my valentines, as my fiance also surprised me this morning with flowers and a card that made me weep!! I just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped and given me advice. I'm off to the Woolwich thread now to start my proceedings with them!! Wish me luck

Many thanks MSA will check out your thread

OK thanks for that Michael I will do some reading and see what I need to provide.

OK guys - I now have a court date of 23rd April. WHAT DO I DO?? I thought that they would back down by now. Has anyone actually been to court against Natwest?

Hi All I have recently started the process for my dad by requesting copies of his bank statements. I wrote to BB on 29th January and received a letter today where they basically returned my cheque and stated that they will send copy statements over the next few weeks. However they mentioned that if my dads account was opened before 2000 then this data will be stored manually rather than on computer and that this will increase the time required to collate the information I have requested. My questions are 1) if I don't receive the copy statements within the 40 day timeframe what do I do as my dad no longer has copies and I wouldn't be able to "guestimate" charges? 2) seeing as I am only allowed to request 6 years worth (and my dad closed the account about 2 years ago) do I write to BB making it clear that I am only requesting 3 or 4 years worth so that they do not delay the process longer than they have to by looking for data further back than 2000?

Thanks stansfield5131, will send to head office on Monday. Wish me luck everyone as it sounds like Barclays is one of the more difficult banks to deal with!!

Hey guys I'm just about to start this process for my dad. Do I send the letter to his local Barclays branch or the head office at Lomard Street?

Hi Sidelady - thank you very much - I'm getting married this year so the money is really gonna come in handy!! Yes I did file judgement, but they included that cost in my final settlement figure.

Hey guys - just wanted to let you know that I received a letter today from Halifax advising that my money will be paid into my account within 7 days!! I WON I WON I WON. I am so excited. I started a claim with Natwest bank in November which has a court date of 23rd April, so this is my first real win and I wanted to thank everyone on here for all the advise that I have been reading throughout the different threads. For those of you new to this - please stick with it, it is most definitely worth it. xx:D

Hi DaveMac My advise is to go ahead and start court proceedings. They have had there 28 days (total) to response. This is simply a stalling tactic. Start as you mean to go on and show them whose boss and that you mean business!!!

Hi Guys I've been reading through some of the threads and wanted to share my experience so far............... I have just (and I mean just!) hit the submit button on Money Claim Online. So let's see what Halifax have to offer. Story so far: 11th Dec - request for Bank Charges Letter Sent 15th Dec - received bog standard letter saying it will take them 30 days to investigate (at this point I'm like yeah yeah yeah!! ) 27th Dec - sent LBA Letter giving them 14 days 29th Dec - received letter saying they think their charges are fair however they are willing to refund £623.00!!! (I'm like heelllooooo - you owe me £1,095) 10th Jan - submitted claim to courts So right about now I'm sitting back, chilling hoping that they will send me a big fat cheque with my money rather than having to go to court!! Lets see what happens now................

Cheers eggopp - Should I not bother sending the letter below then? I just found it within another thread!!?? Ms Janet Heaton Halifax Plc Customer Relations PO Box 548 Leeds LS1 1WU Dear Ms Heaton ACCOUNT NUMBERS: xxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxx Thank you for your letter dated 29th December 2006. I respectfully decline your offer of settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on these accounts, totaling £1,192.31. I will accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary. My letter before action sent previously (27th December) indicates that you have until Wednesday 10th January 2007 to respond before Court action commences. You are reminded that there will be no extension to this timescale. I trust this clarifies my position.

Hey guys just out of interest, do you still start court proceedings after the 14 days, after you've sent your LBA? Reason I ask is that Halifax wrote to me today and offered me £640, which is about half of what I am claiming. Do I write back rejecting that offer or just start the court proceedings after 14 days which will be up on 10th January?

Well done Jacky21130 what a great New Years pressie! I've been watching your thread closely as we had similar dates and I also received a copy of Cobbetts AQ just before Christmas. Fingers crossed I will be celebrating just like you in a few days!!!

Hey Guys Been away a couple of days but just got back to a letter from Cobbetts attaching their AQ. Whilst I wrote to them last Monday (11th) rejecting their offer letter and on the 5th advising that I would not be completing their CPR 18 Request, they have stated in their AQ that they are awaiting a reply to their request for further information!! I take it this is normal??!!

Ahhhhhhhhh I'm crap with maths - many thanks. Should I state this amendment in my letter to Cobbetts as I orginally stated £0.82 which was obviously wrong!!! Will they challenge this?

Total charges are at £1094. But is there a fixed daily rate? Because in my inital letter I requested £1332.61 including interest.

Hi I've just realised that my POC below stated a daily rate of £0.82 but the letter I am about to send says £0.63. I originally sourced the POC text from another thread. Did I calculate this wrongly and is it the same calculation used in the spreadsheet? Which one should I use, I wouldn't want Cobbetts to use this as a technicality issue!! The Claimant has had an account ?956070? with the Defendant since 2001 conducted on their standard terms and conditions and is seeking the return of money taken by the Defendant in the way of charges over the last 6 years. The Defendant's charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable under the Unfair Contracts Terms Act 1977 S.4, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 Para.8 and Sch.2(1)(e), and at common law. In the event that the charges are not a penalty they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15. The Defendant has repeatedly declined requests to justify these charges. The Claimant claims interest under Section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 28/09/01 to 31/03/06 of £245.11 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of £0.82= £1,094.00 x 0.00022.

OK many thanks.

Thanks deller1 for your advice, I have one quick question though. Cobbetts letter didn't refer to the Limitations Act 1980 do I still need to include that bit, or is that referring to the 6 year time limit that we are allowed to claim within? Cheers

Hi Guys I'm hoping to get some advise here. I've recently received a letter from Cobbetts (NatWest solicitors) offering me £750 as long as I withdraw my claim from the court. From reading other threads I know that I should reject this offer but should advise that I am willing to accept it as partial payment. My question is do I use the same "Rejection of Settlement Letter"? This letter refers to the points "that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary" and also "that you have until xx/xx/xx to respond before Court action commences." As I have already started court proceedings is there a different letter that I should be using? I just don't want to miss anything. Any advise would be appreciated. Many Thanks:confused: