P.S. The AQ says I only need to pay the £100 if the claim is over £1500. Now my claim is for £1470, but if you add the ORIGINAL COURT FEES from the MCOL to that then it is for £1620. So which is it? Sorry for all the questions. Cheers, |ZZ|

Last stupid question: On section G: "OTHER INFORMATION" should I write anything or leave blank? Sorry for being so dull, I am not yet 100%, have a billion things to do and I am tired! Cheers, |ZZ|

I have just found the Court Form. (It was in with my Toys R Us statements in my finance folder - go figure!). Ok - my date is 21st March, so I still have a little time. Couple of stupid questions: 1) This hundred squid - we get that back don't we? Abbey will pay that to us??? 2) When you say I should write to Abbey - just a simple letter rejecting their offer? 3) What roughly will be the gap between the AQ and the Judge's Directions? Cheers, |ZZ| Cheers, |ZZ|

Just to clarify my previous post - I haven't got a court DATE, I have paperwork from the COURT to fill in, with which they are asking for £100 (which is not lying around to be fair!) Cheers |ZZ|

Ok, got the copy of defence from Abbey. Got the offer of 50%. Nick, could you tell me the 6 numbers that... never mind... Got letter from the COURT with form to fill in. Got ill. Missed a few days from doing anything. Now panicking... looking for forms for court. Now they want ANOTHER £100 because I filled in the MCOL first time round and this is for my local court. Is this normal, can someone advice? Also, am I against the clock now, because I have an OFSTED inspection on Wed and I need every second to make them think I am organised? Can I just leave the court thing for a couple of days? Please advise. Thanks so much. Cheers, |ZZ|

Well, Mad Nick you must be psychic. I have returned from India yesterday - didn't check the mail (except for the Dominoes Pizza coupons because there was nothing to eat in the house). Sitting here tonight wading through the mail, I found my letter from the Court confirming Notice of issue, and the confirmation that Abbey intends to defend and the snotty letter from Abbey saying "how ever, you have provided no details as to how this sum has been calculated. Similarly, you have not provided details of the £199.06 claimed by way of, interest showing how that amount is made up with reference to each charge." Talk about tortuous use of English! In addition, this letter is actually from Abbey National plc. Well, that is who it says it is from. It even has a signature of an "A". Can you get over that? Not a letter from head of complaints or from legal, no - Abbey itself has sent me a letter! So I have penned a letter back basically saying that if two times was not enough to be sent my full schedule of charges, then I have enclosed it a third time. Thank you for the £150, but it is accepted as partial settlement, and that I have prepared my paperwork for the court which I will send them a copy in due course. Is there anything else I need to do at this stage??? Thanks so much for your help. |ZZ|

Hey all... I found an excellent template on Money Saving Expert (letter 7 to be precise)... I have filled in the Court Claim and paid the £120. Hey - I am now a claimant in a court case. For the first time in my life. A bit exciting. The irony was that I didn't know where I was going to squeeze the £120 for the court case from, but Abbey paid me £150 as a gesture of good will so I have used that to pay the court. That I really like. Anyway, do I need to write to the Abbey again at this point? If so do I need to: 1) Accept the £150 as PART payment? 2) Inform them anything about the court case? 3) Wind them up and slag them off about paying me about 10% of what I have asked for? Any advice from someone who has been there would be welcome. My other problem is I am in India 10th - 18th Feb... will I miss anything exciting being out the country? I worked out that the court has 5 days meaning (from Monday 5th) Monday 12th. Then Abbey has 14 days = Feb 26th so I should be back with plenty time. Could someone please tell if my maths is correct. Thanks so much... |ZZ|

Ok, I will write to Abbey and let them know. No problems. Help needed though... I do I get my bank claim into under 24 lines and 1080 characters. I have tried several by I can't quite manage it... anyone got a template to use? Cheers, |Z|

Ha! I got a letter from Stephen Lavery Senior Customer RESOLUTIONS Manager Surely a RESOLUTIONS Manager tops a Relation manager? ZZ

Sent letter before notice. Got a reply today. They put £150 in my bank. Now, I know I have to start the court proceedings and I am about to do so now. Do I now need to write to abbey as well and tell them that their £150 was a nice start but actually less than 10% of what I expect them to pay... Cheers, Ben

After saying that Abbey had no reply. After 14 days, I get a letter from them. It says not: HAVE YOUR MONEY BACK Not even: HAVE SOME MONEY BACK... More like: Let us work out how much we think we owe you in our own time (about two months) and then that will be okay. We are in a better position to know than anyone else, and best of all - our services are free! Its exact wording is quite patronising. So, I am going to ignore it and post the Letter Before Notice in the post Monday morning. Cheers all, ZZ

Well, well. The 14 days have passed. Have Abbey offered me anything? NO Have they threatened anything? NO Have they done anything at all? NO So, maybe they hope I have forgotten about the £1400 they owe me of my money... Er... no... Second letter to Abbey being penned now... Wish me luck, fellow bank charge reclaimers... Zzub

Wouldn't imagine so. They would have to start asking ... you could spin it out for a while. Can't you get an overdraft on your parachute account just in case?

I haven't done anything similar (read Ben vs Abbey - I am about the same place as you), but a bank cannot mess up your credit rating just for leaving an account open. They may do it out of spite (I guess they could), but to do it in a general way you would have to do far more than just leave your overdraft alone. I don't know much about credit ratings really, but I used to work for a credit company approving loans and things, and you would have to do something fairly serious for the bank to put a note on a credit reference. Cheers, Zzub

After paying Abbey £10 not once but twice - and waiting a little while - to get hold of my *own* bank statements, I find out that they owe me £1271 in charges. Most of that is from the one year about three years ago that their charges kept putting me back over my OD limit and then they charged me £20 for each charge that I couldn't pay to them from my bank. Go figure. The worst was the £150 they took out on Christmas Eve - not because I didn't pay my Christmas but because I hadn't paid them for the month before in charges! Anyway, I have done the maths, and posted the letter today. Let's see what happens next. This is my first post into this forum, so any advice, common sense, or even just some moral support would be nice. I have opened a lovely parachute account, but I went into that bank today just to check the account was ready and the (ONE - Saturday after Christmas!) person was not the smartest beastie in the shop, so I hope Abbey don't close my account. However, have a great new year everyone. This money will certainly help me have one myself. Cheers, Ben