Welcome Yes you are in the right place, all the info you will need is here. Please remember the following: It is your money, you will set the time scales not the bank It is your money, so its your responsibility It is your money, but we are here to support and guide you Please use the FAQs, print them out so you can refer to them at leisure, beleive me you will need them often!! ;-) Start a thread in the relevant bank forum, that way you will get answers from people dealing with the same banks (as they do differ slightly in some ways) If you have anthing urgent, or just fancy a chat then come along to the chat room, someone is always there Good luck

Hi and welcome In my opinion if you receive any monies from claiming your charges back you will be expected to pay it off your debts. Is any of the debts with Natwest? If so then they could use the money claimed towards their debt. If not then you will receive the monies owed and it will be your responsibilty to inform your creditors of your windfall. I have now found out you dont have to tell your creditors of your refund...sorry and hope this helps Hope this helps Good luck

Hi and welcome Whe the banks submitt a defemce it then gets allocated to a court. The next step will be allocation to a track. Small track is normally under £5000. You will complete a questionaire on which your views will be asked as to which track you fel it should be heard, yu will also be asked iof you want the court to be heard locally. The banks will also do this. Tere is a fee at this stage of £100 payable by you to the court, however you can claim this back as costs. The banks will normally refund the m,oney before the allocation stage, however there has been cases where the bank hangs on till the last minute (days before the hearing). If you and the bank disagree on which track it should be on then the judge can make a decision, and you may be asked to go to a allocation hearing. Normally the bank will not go to this as it means paying out for the solicitor. So to recap 1. Fill out the allocation questionaire and send it back to the court, with the fee. (if your fee exempt you wont have to pay this) 2. Wait for the court to tell you the bank has filed their questionaire. 3. If they dont it you can apply for judgement Why not start a thread on the relevant banks forum, there you will be able to read others stories and also by putting yours there you will be able to help other newbies!! Hope this helps Good luck

HI and welcome You seem to have it all in hand, maybe just a pointer....start a thread in the relevant banks forum. There you will be able to read others stories and also by writing your journey in there you will be helping other newbies Good luck

Hi Family and welcome to CAG First of all please read the FAQs (link below) I cannot express how important it is to fully understand the process Remember it is your claim and your responsibility, we are here to support and guide I see you have been using templates from martins site, can i suggest you use the ones from here in future, as we know the content of them and therefore we will be able to advise more specifically. Ok i think you have sent the pre lim letter asking for your charges back...in that case if you have not received a reply you can then send the letter before action which will give them a further 14 days to respond. If they dont respond or do not refund the money then you can file your claim with the court. There are 2 ways of doing this, either online or at local county court. I prefer at local court as you can put more onto the claim form than what you can do online. Going to court is not the big frightening thing every thinks it is, and to be honest the closest you will get to having to attend court will possibly be handing your paperwork in!! Also start a thread in the relevant bank forum, you will get lots of advice specific to your bank and be able to read what others in the same position have gone through, also by doing this you will be able to help other newbies as they will read your journey too. Good luck

Hi Amanda and welcome to CAG Well you have been a busy bee and well done for not just jumping in!! A little pointer, have you tried posting in the relevant forums, that is a great way to get questions asked amd also a fantastic way of keeping a record of what you have done with each bank. It can be confusing when letters are due when you are dealing with a few banks why not keep a journey record. If you have any ERC you wish to claim, please read the mortgage forum first before you staart anything, there have unfortunately been a number of losses in this area and until more work has been done by the authorities int his area on here we are advising people not to start any claim, although it has to be said this is of course your decision. Good luck and keep us posted

Hi Rosie and welcome to CAG Before you do anything you MUST get yourself acquainted with the process and understand exactly what it is you are about to do. This is your claim and your money, we are here to support and guide but you must take responsibility for your claim. First things first, read and print out the faqs (see link below). You will need to refer to these on a nymber of a#occasions so why not save them to your PC for easy reference. Then start a thread in the forum of the bank you are dealing with, there are so many people who can help you and other stories you can read and get advice from, plus by telling your journey your helping others too (see your giving something back already!) You will find the A&L thread in the main forum. Hope this helps, oh and dont forget there is always someone in the chatroom if you need some quick advice or an answer to something urgent Good luck

Hi and welcome to CAG First of all have another read of the FAQs (link below) you will find most answers to your questions there. Also start a thread in the banks forum as you will get answers to your questions from people who are dealing with the same bank as you. The next stage for you will be letter before action which gives them a further 14 days to settle. I really advise you to print out the FAQs and read them over and over to endure you really understand the process. Remember it took years for the bank to take the money, taking a few more weeks to understand what your doing wont harm Have a read of this link too which deals with Scottish cases http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/ Good luck

Hi and welcome to the mortgage forum Before you do anything please read http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/62003-important-mortgage-claimants-please.html It wil of course be your choice as to whether you reclaim the ERC, however there has been more losses than wins unfortunately. It may be advisable for you to hang fire a few months to see what happens with the petition to Gvnmt and if a few more cases are won. Sign the petition here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/74382-sign-petition.html I have my own case going at the moment, however this is for charges and not ERC. If you have charges maybe try reclaiming them for now. Remember it took 3 years to realise you could claim the ERC back another few months wont do any harm Good luck Mrsfoot

Why not send a link for the petition via email to everyone you know? I have done this and have had a few more names added

Waiting game then martin!! Oh how i know how that feels after my journey with Swift lol

First of all have a look a the contracts for both. I think it might say if there is any surplus from the endownment and you have any debt owing to them at that time they can then use that excess to reduce your 2nd loan However if it is not stated on the contract then in my opinion they have to give it you Contact CAB or family solicitor for more advice

Send you DPA SAR to them before anything else. They do have a large rate of interest due to the fact the are lending (in most cases) to ppl who have adverse credit history (CCJ's to me and you) but in my argument I have included that they received interest on top of the charges at above bank of england base rate which is unfair. Dont go for the ERC until there have been a number of success there is a link on this forum that you must read before taking action on ERC Good luck

Hi, going to keep this thread so i can remember what stage my brother is up to lol 28/2/07 sent DPA SAR 16/3/07 letter received form citi asking for a form to be completed for the information to be sent. It asks for 2 forms ID....but brothers address is same as when they had the CC with them so i think this is stalling tactics. has anyone else had to complete this form?

Signed

Hi and welcome As far as i know there have not been any other cases. Is this for ERC or charges??

Update Arrived in court early and waited for the defence to arrive. 20 mins early the DJ called us into his oofice for a pre trial meet. there were his comments: 1. DJ felt embarassed that the laim had not been settled before today and had resulted in this court hearing 2. DJ has had 200-300 similar cases with banks for charges of a "penal inclination" (his words not mine) and none had ended with a trial 3. DJ felt it needed to be adjourned on the rounds that he was not up to date with the case law stated in the claim. He felt this would disadvantage both parties. Barrister stated at this point he felt the claim would take "no more than 2 hours to decide" 4. DJ suggested to both parties the claim be transferred to multi track. He also suggested a commercial judge would be better to hear it and suggested a Judge Chambers QC who sits in Chester to take the case. He then asked for some time to decide the course of action and to make some calls. On return the DJ asked me was it ok to take direction from the barrister and he would relay anything that i wasnt ok with and only make it a direction once i fully understood. The following happened: 1. The Defence asked for the claim to be struck out on the grounds the MrFoot was not a party. They stated as we were both liable for the debt we were both entitled to any sum of money arising from it. As MrFoot hd not been on any claim they felt this was not correct. DJ looked directly at me and OH and said "would MrFoot mind being a prty to the claim" to which he said no, i dont mind. The look on the barristers face as he had not been told by his team mrfoot was there as my mckenzie friend was priceless and so this failed. 2. The defence then stated they would prefer the claim to be heard in multi track on the grounds that it would mean a longer time to digest the info. I then said that I had suggested small claim and the D had requested fast track. I felt it was nfair for me not to have the safety barrier of fast track with regards to cost. The barrister than said it would be necessary to be multi so it could take the full day and a half. I argued he had said no more than 15 mins ago that this case would take no more than 2 hour and yet noe he wanted a day and a half (obviously he wanted multi so more costs). The Dj agreed and between the lines suggested the barrister had contradicted himself and that the case would stay in fast track in order for me to have some protection. 3. I explained i had asked for further info (report used in barry paul case) where their witness stated that this report showed there was no profit from swift advances with regards to the charges as the analysis they hhad completed showed a parity. I explained this had been refused. The DJ then said it seemed it was a very imprtant doc and that it should have been disclosed. I explained that the paul v swift case had relied heavily on it and in fact this was what BP lost the case on....they had the DJ summary in bundle. I stated it was used in the sworn witness statement as well as the defence. The DJ agreed that it should be disclosed....and was about to write the order when the Barrister was interrupted by solicitor and manager of swift. A little conference occurred and it was explained this report was not actually based on figures from swift advances but was from swift 1st. The Defence was not happy at all! 4. The barrister told the DJ that i was about to bring another case for ERC, (this was told when the DJ was mentioning wasting courts time) i went on to explain that at allocation it was made very clear that i would not be starting any action for ERC. again the barrister loked shocked and not impressed. Result is the case is being transferred to commercial Judge in Chester and staying on fast track. the bundles are going to be merged (mine into theirs for simplicity) and I have to send to them the info i was relying on that they did not have. I will of course check the new file they send against the old bundle for any changes that may have occurred. I am very happy with this....although i would have liked to bring this to a close. The date for the final hearing has not been decided. But i feel more confident now than before.

Thanks all thanks Alan, i have that article ready. Even if i do say so myself, my closing summary is FAB and have included it in that. All i can say is im hopeful but not over confident, as its very easy to get carried away, however a nice point to bear in mind is the defence have NOT dislcosed any case / law / regs even though they have quoted plenty in their skeleton argument, so when they start quoting im going to be rejecting on the base it was not dislcosed to me in accordance with the order so all they have disclosed are the correspondance from the start of the claim and the mortgage application stuff whe we took the loan out. will update as soon as possible

Hi Bona Just a little note, the Act you refer to is from the Irish Statute book SOLICITORS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1994 SECTION 71 according to the web and i dont think they are applicable in this case, but thank you anyway and i would be interested in finding out how you get on using it. Good luck

Just little update...court date tomorrow is still on so here we go! No order for bundle from me to court or defence but have done anyway so we all on an equal footing....some mind games from defence but thanks to Hag they have not been successful in making me feel intimidated! Will update thread as soon as i can tomorrow

Hi Gooner Yes you can amend your disclosure list, I had to when i found i have left my own Witness Statement off lol 3 more sleeps till court, well that would be the case if i could sleep lol keep having thoughts at 3 in the moring as to what i think i they will say and what i need to come back with lol Good luck

Hi before you do anything please read http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/62003-important-mortgage-claimants-please.html At the moment you are probably best waiting, although some including myself are claiming the arrears charges and many have been successful in claiming exits fees back. Read this for more info http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mortgage-companies/71299-mortgage-exit-admin-fees.html There is a link on that thread which will tak you to the mortgage provider that you are dealing with and will explain roughly how much you can expect back

Blimey, what on earth will they think of next. In the current climate of debt in this country i cannot believe they are actually penalising ppl for NOT using them!!

Hi and an update from todays meeting From the last meeting we picked a few points to lead from and the main was how to get recognition and more importantly how to get things changed. 1. It was important for me that we didnt push the banks into charging a standard fee for accounts and this wil only hit the lower end of the spectrum in the financial world, and only people with less than a certain figure (£1500 was mentioned) would pay the fee, and therefore only the lower end of thepayscale and benefits would be paying the fee (rich getting richer comes to mind) so MP told me the PO card account will not be closing, rather it will be changing format and will still be available for benefit receiver to get money via a PO. 2. He has asked for some form of analysis to be done and Im asking Bankfoddder how this can be completed and for the results to be snt to me as we need to get behind this one. If we have actual numbers of who is affected and where it will stand more of a chance to get recognised. 3. He as asked for ALL member to write a personlised letter to YOUR MP. This must be what you have gone through, your personal experience at the hands of the bank and what you have done to get your money back. I wont be setting a standard letter as i really believe the more personal it is the more it will be looked at!! 4. I am gathering info from my area, and taking it to my MP at the next meeting. We are then going to write a letter to OFT asking for an investigation. Now MP told me that OFT are part of Trade and Industry but are independant in many ways and cannot be told by and MP what to do, however the can be encouraged! so lets get the MP to encourage them to investigate. 5. We need to set some objectives as to what we want to happen. this cant be just "the banks to stop charging" 6. MP has been in talks with IFS on the inclusion of financial management in schools. 7. He suggested I work with CAB and credit agencies in the local area. Setting up a meeting when i call them on monday. I think some of us could do something like this. We are great at firefighting the problem. however would it not be better to also help people not to get into the vicious circle with financial management sessions. I am a qualified teacher and would be quite happy to put together some presentations if anyone wants to go along this approach. If your interested in approaching your local CAB or credit agency, then let me know. Thanks for taking the time to read this and any comments are most welcome

You can claim them back. Follow the same procedure for the banks, only using the info on mortgages from this forum Good luck