FSA suspended timetable for dealing with bankcharges complaints???

[dafini]

I received an answer to my first letter to the Bank Of Scotland after only sending it away on Friday!

They write

"please be advised the bank (along with a number of other banks) has now become involved in legal proceedings with the \office of Fair Trading (OFT) in relation to bank charges which we beleive will resolve issues regarding the fairness and legality of your bank charges."

"......we have asked the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints, and the FSA has agreed to this request subject to conditions that protect your rights":-x

Are they trying to trick me here?

How can I answerr them or is this correct?

[marko2002]

Yep, that's about the norm at the minute, and to be honest it's up you whether you want to take it to the court anyway or not. I did actually get my day in court, although the bank didn't even bother to turn up and just asked for the case to be "sisted" which the sheriff agreed to, despite having argued my case that this was an English test case and should not be upheld in any way by a Scottish court. Basically, I was wasting my breath as I believe the sheriff was always going to sist it anyway.

 

If you do go ahead and raise a case, it's more or less up to each individual sheriff as to how they proceed with it - some are sisting the cases, some are not. If you are lucky enough to get a sheriff that won't sist the case chances are the bank will pay before it goes back to court, although you will have to attend court for the prelimanary hearing where the bank will most probably request it be sisted. The other matter is having had the letter from the bank, the court may not be too pleased with you by still going ahead and raising a case (again, this is just personal opinion from each individual sheriff) although the worst that can happen is that they sist the case anyway although you could obviously use the arguement that this is a test case running in England and that this shouldn't apply to the Scottish courts, although this didn't cut any ice in my case at Airdrie Sheriff Court!. it's always good to get your claim in I suppose and then let the legals fight it out, but do follow the sound advice on this board regarding raising your claim and follow each step to the letter! and good luck!!

[Douglas52]

I think you should reply to the bank that the test case is in an English court and therefore not relevant to Scots Law then threaten to procede with your small claim.

[marko2002]

I dont think threatening the banks will do anything as they are by now fully aware of the fact that some courts are sisting and some are not, and in any circumstance they will take their chances in court at a preliminary hearing and even if the sheriff doesn't sist they can then just payout (eventually) - to be honest I would myself probably just get the paperwork in and at least have it in the system and take my chances with the sheriff, you never know they might actually allow the case to go forward in which case you can expect a payout just before the case comes back to court!.

[Douglas52]

Of course proceed but I've found its better to show you know what you're talking about- in my cases no sists were requested.