Joy! £231 was paid into the bank account yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't start the court claim soon enough for all the charges that happened after I started this process last December, so we won't be able to do anything with those until the test case is decided. Oh well, I'm glad to have fought them and won every penny plus costs and interest! We are closing the joint account with Lloyds as my husband and I are separating. I'm only going to keep mine as long as it takes me to pay off the overdraft and then close it too, as I've got A&L as my main account now.

Further updates on my situation: The Woolwich County Court was so behind on their judgments that we didn't actually receive a copy of it until August, dated 31st July (it was supposed to have been over a month before that!). We had called and called to find out what was going on with it, because you can't enforce an order unless you can actually get a copy of it. A copy would have been sent to Lloyds, but they of course lose everything and will make you fax their lawyers, [problem], a copy of the judgment. I faxed a copy of the order with a letter demanding payment in full by no later than noon on 10th August (I believe I gave them a week's notice). On 7th August they put in £613, which was the amount they owed WITHOUT the costs that had been awarded at court, which were specifically noted in the order (total amount of order was £789). Then they had the cheek to send me a letter saying they'd paid the order in full and I should write to the court to tell them! On 10th Aug I checked the bank, and as the missing £176 hadn't turned up, I filled in the Request for Warrant of Execution form (available from the HMCS website), got a postal order for £55, and sent it to the Woolwich County Court. Got a letter yesterday from the court dated the 14th saying the Warrant had been ordered. Now what should happen is, Lloyds will be given 7 days to pay the court (plus the fee). If they don't, bailiffs will be sent to their registered address to seize property of sufficient worth to get me my £176 + £55. I was slightly worried they'd pay up before the warrant was ordered and I'd lose my fee of £55, but who am I kidding--they'll never pay up if they think they can get away with it! Will let everyone know how it goes with the Warrant.

@nestie, they can't make me wait, they've only got till 5th July and then I get to send bailiffs! Got that straight from the judge's mouth!

Great news everyone! I went to court today and took along a letter and schedule of my costs in preparing the claim, which came to about £176. The judge said she wasn't expecting to see me as [problem] had sent the court a letter saying they were settling. I explained what happened (as above), and she looked at it, decided Lloyds had behaved unreasonably and awarded me the costs as well as the judgement. Lloyds now have until 5th July to give me the money, or I'm able to send in the bailiffs! Hooray!!!!

So today's the court date, here's a run down of what's happened since last time I posted: 27 March: Sent court bundles and statement of evidence to [problem] and Woolwich County Court (where case has been transferred). [problem] has 28 days from receipt to send their court bundle to me (have evidence they rec'd on 28 March). 11 May: Sent letter to [problem] (cc'ed to Court) saying I had not received anything from [problem] and they had 7 days to send their court bundle to me or I would ask the judge to make an order before the hearing. (I dropped the ball on this! Forgot to do it!) 11 June: Received letter from [problem] dated 7 June stating that they were settling the claim and would deposit money in my account within 5 business days. 19 June: Still had not received anything, so phoned [problem] who said they hadn't paid because I hadn't responded to letter! I pointed out that letter says NOTHING like I have to contact them, it only requests that I notify court WHEN MONEY IS RECEIVED to cancel hearing. They ask me to send copy of the letter by fax which I do. Letter with fax asks for payment by no later than Noon on 20/06/07 and for me to be contacted if this will not happen. 20 June: No money received. Phone [problem] who say they can't find anything, don't know where my fax is, don't know if I'll get any money paid in, making excuses about the volume of cases, etc, etc. I say it is now to late for me to notify court of settlement. They say I will have to go to court. I ask if anyone will be there representing them. They say 'I can't comment on that'. 21 June: Phoned the court to explain situation. They say to come to hearing and bring schedule of costs if I want to apply for them. So there's where I'm at, due in court at 2pm today in Woolwich, so will have to take afternoon off work....grrrrrrrr!

Debs, I'm nearly there! So annoyed with him! We were doing so well, and then he managed to transfer £250 OUT of the joint account instead of IN! We got 6 direct debits returned plus went overdrawn! And would you believe, he's trying to say it was my fault because I was probably 'shouting' at him to make the transfer, and he did it on Lloyd's quick transfer thing too hastily.....GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! I can't think about it anymore, or I will start googling 'quickie divorce'.

We've received our court date for 21 June, and by 28 March I have to send in the court bundle. It looks like the judge took the suggestion I made for directions verbatim! In the meantime, my husband managed to screw up the account so we have £170 more in bank charges....need to figure out what to do about those now!

I'm sure I've read about others having this problem, how did you deal with it? My stupid darling husband used the online quick transfer and mistakenly transferred £250 OUT of our joint account instead of IN! So when all the bills came out, they all got returned as unpaid Direct Debits plus we got charged for going overdrawn. The grand total for this was £170 in bank charges! I phoned up Lloyds and explained this situation, but they were completely unhelpful and said there was nothing they could do. The money is slated to come out of the account in two weeks time. The ongoing claim I have is already at the stage where I have the court date and need to send the court bundle by the end of this month. I don't want to do anything to jeopardise my chances of getting that claim paid in full. Anyone have any advice? Should I start the whole process all over again for these charges? Or is there any way to add these to the existing claim at this late stage? I've already amended the claim once because I calculated the statutory interest wrong, so not really keen on doing it again. Do you think if I write the head office and threaten to take them to court a second time they'll give it back? Am I even allowed to make a second claim or is there no limit on the number of claims? Help please!

Sorry haven't updated in a while. As stated above, I did mess up my MCOL. I didn't claim enough statutory interest, shorted myself about £90! You can read on the other thread all my hemming and hawing about what to do with it. While I was waffling, the Defence from Lloyds solicitors [problem] arrived, via the Northampton County Court. It was bog standard, I've posted it in full (complete with typos) for all to see. They also sent a notice that the proceedings were being transferred to the Woolwich County Court (where I live) and sent me an Allocation Questionnaire. So, I finally pulled my finger out and got to work. I used the New Strategy for Allocation Questionnaires when filling out my N149 form, writing 'Please see attached' in section G and then copying the statement helpfully prepared by others on this forum, and also attaching the draft order for directions. Next I pulled out my notes from when I spoke to the MCOL helpline people about amending my claim. I printed off the claim I previously made, crossed out the errors and wrote in the corrected info in red biro as instructed. Then I filled out an N244 Application and attached the schedules as they should have been on 08/01/2007 when I filed the claim. Finally, I wrote a letter to the Woolwich County Court. I explained that I was sending an application to amend the particulars and amount of the claim, and that I was enclosing the allocation questionnaire as well. I also stated that I had received £750 as a goodwill gesture from the defendant, but that this was only accepted as a partial payment and would be applied at the time the full settlement was made. Will post the entirety of the letter if anyone interested. I know there's been lots of discussion about when/how to apply the goodwill gestures. It entered my account on 19/01/07. I did try to go to a Lloyds branch and get them to remove it, but they were totally useless and confused and ended up having to call round loads of places as they couldn't figure out where the money had come from. In then end someone from another part of Lloyds phoned me back and also said they weren't able to take the money back and that they thought I should phone [problem]. I didn't bother, I don't expect [problem] to give me correct advice! The people at MCOL helpline thought it was fair to apply the £750 once Lloyds agreed to do a full settlement--but I may have misunderstood. MCOL helpline was the ones that said I should try to get it removed from my account, but it doesn't seem possible. Oh well, it's pretty much spent anyway! My letter was copied to [problem], and since they are acting on behalf of Lloyds I'm assuming I don't have to write to LLoyds directly about the £750. [problem] now has the info that I got the payment and am only accepting it as partial. The letter didn't say anything about it being a full and final settlement, but that it was their 'final response' and I could go to the ombudsman if I didn't like it. I've posted the application for amendment (with £35 cheque), the allocation questionnaire and the letter to the Woolwich County Court, and copies of all of the same to [problem]. As far as I'm concerned, that should be me done until the hearing is ordered and directions are sent out, correct?

Having a giggle at the name Abe Froman--knew who it was even before I read 'The sausage king of Chicago'! Ferris Bueller, you're my hero!

My thoughts: Someone has clearly mixed up the ' key with the ? And some other random thoughts: 2---I take it we're meant to stop moaning about these charges because they give us cheques which can hardly be used anywhere these days? And I don't get statements, I'm paperless! 3---I love how they've clearly just cut and pasted the text of the leaflet 4---huuuhhhh? don't really get their logic 5---If I warn someone by letter that I'm going to punch them in the face at the end of the month, it's still wrong 6--deny away..... 7---"We don't have to be fair"

Just thought people might like to see this in full. From what I've read, they use the same defence on nearly everyone. I've tried, to the best of my ability, to leave in all of their weird typos and wonky formatting so you can sneer at it with me! 1. The Defendant Lloyds TSB Bank plc (the Bank) is a Bank whose registered office is 25 Gresham Street, London ECV2 7HN. It is admitted that the Claimant has been a customer of the Bank at all material times. 2. By opening an account with the Bank, the customer enters into a commercial arrangement with the Bank for the provision of banking services. The Bank is entitled, as part of that arrangement, to charge for those services. At account opening a customer is provided with details of the Bank?s charges, currently in a leaflet a guide to our banking charges. By using the account, the customer acknowledges that the charges are incorporated into the contract. For personal customers, a number of services are provided for free, notwithstanding that they are an expense to the Bank. Such services presently include, but are not limited to, providing; cheques bank statements the facility to make payments by direct debit and standing order debit cards ATMs (cash machines) 3. By maintaining the account in credit, or within any limit agreed with the Bank, the customer may avoid most if not all charges. If the customer fails to ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account to cover payments, whether by cheque, debit card, standing order or direct debit, the customer makes a request for a payment to be made from the Bank?s own funds. If the Bank makes payment, or returns the payment, it provides a service as specified in the leaflet and makes a charge in accordance with the terms of the contract. On page 1 of the leaflet, the Bank explains that ?there are normally no charges for everyday banking at Lloyds TSB when your account is in credit. When you use an agreed overdraft, there is no monthly fee and we only charge interest on the amount you are overdrawn each day. Where you go overdrawn without an agreement or where you use special services, such as copy statements, we will make a charge. This guide explains how these charges work, and when they will apply. If you want to use a service that we haven?t listed, we?ll tell you the cost of that service before you give us the go-ahead?. 4. There is no breach of contract; the charge cannot therefore be a penalty, consequently there is no requirement that the charge be a pre-estimate of the Bank?s loss. 5. The customer is given advance warning of charges being imposed; statements show the charges, if any, the customer has incurred during the course of a month, and which will appear as debits on the following month?s statement. Customers are warned by letter when they go overdrawn or over their agreed limit without arrangement with the Bank. If the customer fails to remedy the position, and payments such as standing orders and direct debits are refused then again the customer is warned by letter. 6. The charges are fair and reasonable, and it is denied that they are unlawful. 7. The customer is notified of the charges in plain intelligible language at the conclusion of the contract, and on each monthly statements. The charge are terms which relate to the price payable by the customer for a service provided by the Bank, and pursuant to Regulation 6 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, are not subject to the assessment of fairness. 8. In the premises: 8.1 the charges are for banking services, and are not damages nor a penalty; 8.2 the Bank is entitled by contract to impose the charges, which are fair and reasonable; 8.3 it is denied that the charges are unlawful or contravene any statute or regulation. 9. The Claimant?s claim is denied in its entirety. It is further denied that the Claimant is entitled to the sum claimed or to any sum from the Bank.

me too! they wrote a really long defence but all of their apostrophes appear to be question marks, weird! Looks like they cut and pasted from many places as it starts referencing "the claimant" in one place, then "you" in other places....I'm inclined to type the whole thing out for everyone to see and sneer at....

okay, change of plans, I'm not going to send the letters as above. I spoke to the very helpful people at the MCOL helpline, and they've got tons of experience with these claims so I'm pretty confident the advice they gave was sound. Here's my NEW plan of attack: 1. March down to the nearest Lloyds TSB Bank and demand that they remove the £750 gesture of goodwill, as I'm not accepting it and am going for the full amount. 2. Copy my N1 particulars of claim to a new form, amending the details that need it with red biro (as instructed). 3. Fill out an N244 application to have the particulars of claim amended. 4. Sending both forms and a £35 fee to the County Court. 5. Writing to Lloyds & their Solicitors telling them that I've had their goodwill payment removed and want the full amount, enclosing the schedules again with the statutory interest as of today. 6. Writing to the court and asking for the schedules to be attached to the particulars of claim (separately from the N1 and N244 forms). Whew....it's gonna be a long day! Lunchtime now, heading off to do battle with Lloyds! I think it will be worth it....I only claimed £156 in statutory interest, when it should have been £238. I can't claim back the £35 for amending the claim, but I'll still wind up about £50 better off for taking the time and trouble to do this. Plus it's experience to share with others

Help please, messed up the MCOL! I've started a new thread to deal with the matter, would appreciate your thoughts on it!