I wouldn't worry, I would suspect the courts are getting wise to the tactics of the banks and are just trying to rationalise what they do. My case was set for 14th February at 2pm but the letter said there are other cases due to be heard at the same time. I took this to mean that the court knew Natwest would settle and the hearing would not actually take place and so block booked us with a more important case. Otherwise imagine how many time slots the judges would need to keep re-scheduling. Natwest settled today by the way, exactly 14 days before the date of the hearing. Good luck

Well, On the day I was "expecting" a copy of the material they intend to rely upon for their defence I get a cheque. Not for the full amount on the MCOL claim but for that and the additional extra couple of hundred I asked for when I turned down their 50% offer. (revised interest calculation and latest recent charges). They have complied with the 'no conditions attached' as I requested in my 50% offer rejection. Interesting to note that the date on the cheque is a week before the date on the letter, suggesting to me that they are lining up everything to pay out and then just playing brinkmanship with the timing. Anyway I'm a happy bunny now. I just need to decide whether to give it back to Natwest to pay off my £5 overdraft and then move my account or get the new kitchen we desparately need.

OK thanks, I will leave the photocopying to the last minute, and will only do it if necessary. Also, I will obviously accept any offer that at least matches that on the POC, and will not expect them to pay any regard to my offer rejection letter where I asked for more.

Thanks Nattie, I obviously haven't changed the claim at court, just in the refusal of their offer I said 'full and final settlement would now cost them more because of their prevarication'. (that's when I added the recent charges and changed the interest calculation. I did this because they said some of my charges occurred more than 6 years ago (Between my first letter and the MCOL some charges fell off the end July 2000 to November 2000). As for the 8%... I notice the excel template here uses simple interest and this was also similar to the formula I used. =(C9*0.00022)*E9 used by Vampiress and =(D$1-A9)*8%/365*C9 used by me in my submission These give the same result but neither take account of interest compounding as it builds up over time - ie it is simple interest. In my letter I changed the formula to give a method that can compound the interest either every day or once per year (or any other period) ie using the Future Value (FV) function within excel. =FV(8%,(D$1-A9)/365,0,C9,0)*-1-C9 compounds the interest annually. Or better still.... =FV(8%/365,D$1-A9,0,C9,0)*-1-C9 compounds the interest every day. For a £25 referral Fee on 23rd April 2001 these 3 methods give an interest accumulated of: simple = £11.53 annual = £13.97 daily = £14.65 You can see when added up (and 90% of my charges occurred 3 to 6 years ago) it can make a big difference to the claim (£209 in my case). It's going to be a real pain to photocopy 6 years worth of statements, there are 282 of them. Surely there must be a way round this? Natwest must have access to copies and I don't mind handing the judge the originals.

Yep, your Particualrs of Claim looks very much like an initial letter you should have sent to the bank. The example above is good but would have been a bit long for the MCOL box.

Hi, another Newbie here, but although I am new here I am quite advanced with my claim. Unfortunately I didn't know about the templates here and so have used my own letters etc. My claim is for just over £5k. After reading through a few of the more popular threads, I don't really have any questions, but would like to summarise what I have done to date see if anyone has any comments. Sent 1st letter - not as good as the one here, hence, point blank refusal. (Initially only asking for recent £114 charged on one day) Meeting with personal NatWest advisor - merely wanted me to take out a loan. She actually said the charges are a penalty. 2nd letter with threat of court - again not the one here and another point blank refusal. No S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) as I had all my original statements. Created my own spreadsheet with columns for Statement No., Charge Date, Charge Amount, Charge Description and another for calculating 8% simple interest. MCOL for £5000 application, cost £120 Acknowledged on-line by Cobbetts on the very last day. CPR18 and Defence from Cobbetts. I Answered CPR18 in Full with Spreadsheet etc. - would have sent Sod off letter if I had known!! Tranferred to local court cost an extra £100. Offer of 50% from Cobbetts - Refused, said they should now pay compound interest and I added recent charges. Saying unless they paid the now £5276 I would complete the AQ. Recieved their completed AQ (they didn't tick they had paid the fee) My Allocation Questionaire completed - allocated to Small Claims. Court Date 14th Feb 2007. Request from court to send everything I will rely upon to the court and to Cobbetts. - This is when I started to worry and found this site. Bundle to be delivered 14 days before Court date. Have now made a nice bundle with: all correspondence; spreadsheet; Caselaw examples; copies of relevant Acts UTCCR, UCTA and SOGA with my argument as to why Natwest contravene each one in turn (depending upon how they plead). Looking back I do have a couple of questions.... Should I photocopy all of my original statements for the court? Should I have claimed 8% compound interest as it works out at £200 more? Can I continue to claim charges and more interest as time passes, between the original submission and court date? I have 15 statements missing and so didn't assume (or claim) there were charges on these (even though I am sure there would be some). I have claimed all interest they have charged me as most of it is default interest, is that OK or should I have seperated out the normal interest on my authorised overdraft? Why do I get the feeling I will be the one they decide to take all the way???? In a way I hope they do... after reading all the stuff on this site I have renewed confidence. Thanks to everyone, and I look forward to being in a position to donate from my windfall which is due sometime before Valentines Day.