Spaff Vs FD, - Bit of help please :)

[Spaff]

Hi Guys n’ Girls.

First post so an introduction– I'm Spaff, I’m a happy twenty something, living in Sunny Brighton and working in the video games industry.

 

I've spent the best part of the afternoon reading through your many FAQs, documents and other people's successful claims, and now It's my turn to request a bit of help and guidance form you kind folks.

 

The Story so far:

 

I Have already requested 6 years worth of bank statements from First Direct, received the letter and then courier delivery containing a huge waste of paper.

 

I've gone through these statements and totalled some charges, but I have a few questions before I progress onto the next step:

 

1. Are all overdraft fees applicable, including excess ones?

2. Must I remove £12 per charge? (which is something I read on the site which led me here in the first place.)

3. Is the 8% charge applied before or after I mail them again?

 

Actually, what is definitively the next step?

 

Thanks in advance for any help; I will now return to poring over the site for information.

It’s taking a while, I’m not too hot on my legal knowledge J

[kohoutec]

Hi Guys n’ Girls.

First post so an introduction– I'm Spaff, I’m a happy twenty something, living in Sunny Brighton and working in the video games industry.

 

I've spent the best part of the afternoon reading through your many FAQs, documents and other people's successful claims, and now It's my turn to request a bit of help and guidance form you kind folks.

 

The Story so far:

 

I Have already requested 6 years worth of bank statements from First Direct, received the letter and then courier delivery containing a huge waste of paper.

 

I've gone through these statements and totalled some charges, but I have a few questions before I progress onto the next step:

 

1. Are all overdraft fees applicable, including excess ones?

2. Must I remove £12 per charge? (which is something I read on the site which led me here in the first place.)

3. Is the 8% charge applied before or after I mail them again?

 

Actually, what is definitively the next step?

 

Thanks in advance for any help; I will now return to poring over the site for information.

It’s taking a while, I’m not too hot on my legal knowledge J

 

1) Yes, as long as they're not "arrangment fees" or suchlike

2) no, sting them for the lot

3) You only add the 8% on if you have to file a claim at the court

 

Next step is to draft a letter asking for your money back, use the template in the library...FD will no doubt tell you to bugger off, unless its a smallish amount. When they do, wait another 14 days and send them the second letter...get told to bugger off again, wait another 14 days and file your claim

[Spaff]

Thank you very much

I shall now proceed with the letter of demand!

[kohoutec]

Thank you very much

I shall now proceed with the letter of demand!

Good luck! I'm nearly there, just waiting for FD to acknowledge my claim...

[Spaff]

Hi again, OK after a long weekend, it's time to get this done

 

But first, I have another question for those with the greater knowledge and experience!

In the prelim letter, it says:

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX . I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter

 

I have calculated that FD owes me £1,972.50 in overdraft and excess overdraft fees.

 

• How do I calculate the overdraft interest? I thought the interest of 8% was only to be added later, so what should I add here?
  
• Should the schedule of charges simply be a list with dates, charges and amounts? Similar to the spreadsheet that calculates the 8% interest?

Thanks again!

 

Spaff.

[Spaff]

Ah OK, silly me, after re-reading the FAQS here some more I worked out what was going on

 

After talking to FD, the interest on my overdraft is 19.9% O_o .

They couldn’t tell me if it had always been that, so I'll assume that it was, but the thought of going through the statements for six years again to check for any time is was charged whilst overdrawn makes me weep. heh.

[kazzaw]

Personally I wouldn't bother with the overdraft interest. It doesn't make that much difference & it's very complicated.

 

You can claim the 8% interest when you get to the Moneyclaim stage.

[Spaff]

That's what I was thinking, cheers

[Spaff]

Right.

Prelim letter about to be sent, asking for £1,972.50 in overdraft and excess overdraft fees

04/07/06

 

I will send the standard letter from this site, slightly reqorded in places, along with a spreadsheet break down of the charges.

 

Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last six years.

 

I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you believe these charges to be lawful then please demonstrate this by supplying me with a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

 

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported so on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.

Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £1,972.50 in overdraft and excess overdraft fees over a period of six years.I require repayment of this amount as outlined below. I have enclosed a breakdown of the charges I am claiming along with this letter

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

 

Does this go to any specific dept, such as customer services?

[Spaff]

I just got back from holiday, but whilst I was away I received a letter with a leaflet enclosed stating that they would "ensure you receive a reply shortly, certainly within 10 working days."

 

Is this the standard initial reply? I don't recall this particular letters on my previous reads. 10 working days from the date of the letter ends tomorrow and so far I have heard nowt.

 

I assume I should proceed with the next letter once the time limit I provided them with is up, which will also be this week. Is this correct?

 

cheers again

[Fernanda]

I am at the same stage as you... their 10 day time limit finishes on Friday so will send second letter with further 14 days...

 

Not sure what the second letter should be though, need to have a look...

[Spaff]

OK, I'm going to send the letter before action today as i just received their defualt reply failing to acknowledge my claim.

 

21/07.

 

04/08 that means that is the date I will set for the court claim.

[Spaff]

Also please can an admin / mod rename this thread, it no longer requires that request for help methinks

 

Thanks!

[Spaff]

Received another standard letter the other day and a lovely new leaflet. "we hope you do not feel you have to take this action" etc.

 

Today is the company summer party, so I'll sort the money claim on Monday.

[Spaff]

OK, I'm about to send this money claim, I'd appreciate a quick reply to make sure I'm about to do this right:

 

Moneyclaim site, submit claim using excel spreadsheet, with 8% interest calculated from the date of the first letter.

 

And I use the text from here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/681-particulars-claim-hard-copy.html

 

is that all correct?

 

Thanks

 

------------------

 

OK, so i now understand that the above template is more for the postal version than the online one. And whilst there is a guide for creating a smaller version that would fit in the 1080 allowed character space, I'd feel a lot better if someone would possibly share with me, the text that they used in the Money Claim box.

 

If anyone is out there, I could do with some assistance please... please?

[Spaff]

How's this look?

 

The Claimant has an account (numbered 2xxxxxblah) with the Defendant which was opened in approximately 1998 and which is conducted under their standard terms and conditions.

 

The Claimant claims the return of money taken by the defendant in the way of charges over the last six years. These charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law.

 

Further, as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

Para.8 and sch.2(1)(e).

 

In the event that the charges are not a penalty then they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15.

 

The Claimant has repeatedly asked the bank to justify their charges but they have declined to do so.

 

The claims:

a) £1,972.50 taken in Overdraft and Excess overdraft fees taken at various dates between 05/05/2000 and 06/05/2006.

b) Court costs.

c) Interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year on charges outlines above.

[Spaff]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

I'm just gonna go ahead and see what happens then.

[kazzaw]

Just noticed everyone's been ignoring you!!

 

Everything seems fine with your claim. I'm sure it won't be long till you reap the benefits!

 

Keeo us posted - I'll be watching!

 

K

[Spaff]

Thanks Kazzaw:)

 

I submitted the claim yesterday, 08/08

 

now we play the waiting game... again! heh.

 

oh , should I also mail the claim to FD?

[kazzaw]

I didn't, I just left everything to the Court.

 

It's time to sit back & wait for either Acknowledgement & maybe a Defence or an offer of settlement letter from the Solicitors.

 

In the meantime read as much as you can in other people's threads so that IF you do end up in a Courtroom you know what you're talking about.

 

Keep us posted

 

K

[englishrose]

Good luck i posted my claim on the 2nd and am just waiting now. Reading everyday to keep myself updated. Good luck

[Spaff]

cheers

 

Are there any threads in particular in the First Direct forum where people have gone to court, so far I have seen none...

[PhilipR]

Hi everyone, my first post but am currently claiming £665 from first direct. They sent me an offer letter for £555 of it. Can anyone help me in terms of what I should do next? Should I go straight to the moneyclaim website or write to fd again?

 

Been watching this thread with interest, as all the advice pretty much applies to where I'm at.

 

Good luck with the court claim...let us all knw how it goes.

[Spaff]

Today: Claim acknowledged, offer of half from D&G.

 

Will fax the letter back ASAP refusing the offer, and informing them i will pursue through the courts.

 

I think that's the correct thing to do anyways, I will double check first... whether to fax, post call or whatever

 

*smiles*

[englishrose]

I faxed my half offer and posted it, but my full offer i faxed yesterday forgot to post letter and i have letter today stating money will be in my bank in 7 days.