REBEL UK v Barclays : settlement imminent

[Rebel UK]

Hi All,

 

Since some people have posted referring to the banks using delaying tactics when asking for details of charges, I have tried to cover these angles so my letter is as follows.....

 

Oh, in addition, I took the letter into the bank, with a form I made up, requesting a signature of receipt I have it signed with a name and date, so hopefully, no fuss over supplying the information, when I present my demand for repayment of charges, I shall do the same again.

 

*****

[my address]

 

[bank address]

 

[my reference]

 

 

Data Protection Act (1998) disclosure request

 

 

The Manager, Barclays Bank plc ******** Branch

 

Dear Sir/Madame

 

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER:

Branch Sort Code:

 

 

Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my bank account since 28th February 2000. Alternatively a complete set of bank statements for that period will be acceptable. (Please do not insult my intelligence by informing me of charges for statements, under current law you cannot charge me more than £10.00 for providing this information) Also I will remind you that the DPA covers ALL forms of recorded data, INCLUDING microfiche.

 

(FYI: bank statements are covered under the Data Protection act 1998, I refer you to Durant v FSA, in which the judge ruled that bank statement information is 'personal' information and thus covered under the Data Protection Act)

 

Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.

 

If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.

 

You have 40 days in which to comply.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

[name]

[Natasha]

I like it!

 

Thanks, shame i've already sent my one to abbey but i can use it for barclays and capital one.

[katchambers]

I like it too! I am going to use that one I think.

 

Kat

[Linedancer]

56rJKtrE4

 

Hi, mnay thanks for that! I am just about to start the proceedings for my son who has paid £1000s in charges - I have been telling him to sort out his finances for ages, and now he will have to listen as he has to sign the letters!!

I shall include this and send it today!!

[Rebel UK]

Hi All, Update.

 

Barclays sent me my statements with the following Letter :-

 

**************

 

Dear mr XXXXXXX

 

About your request for copy statements (ed. I never requested copy statements, but sent the standard DPA letter ammended to suit my needs, start of thread)

 

I am pleased to enclose a copy of the bank statements you requested.

 

You'll notice that a copy is not an exact duplicate of your original statement. This is becausecopies are produced in a slightly different way. What we enclose here includes all the details set out in the original statement

 

You may find however, that the copy includes entries from a number of past statements. If so, a dotted line shows when a statement has been issued to you, and just abovethe line you'll find the date it was issued and the statement number. The particular statement you requested will appear between two of these dotted lines. (ed. they must think I'm dense)

 

As previously explained, there is a small charge for supplying copies of statements to help cover ourextra admin costs. Your account has now been debited with £5.00.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us using the phone number shown on your bank statements.

 

Yours sincerely

 

(signed here) sm c/l (whatever that means.)

 

***************

 

Gone through my statements and sent the following letter, well, it'll be delivered by hand and a receipt will be requested as before.

 

***************

My Ref: xxxxxxxx

Request for repayment of charges

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx

Sort Code: xxxxxxxx

 

 

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 (March 2000 to March 2006)

 

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.

 

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.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £1,670 with my calculation, including 8% interest per day on these unlawful charges £392.21 being a Total of £2,062.21

 

Additionally IF you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosities caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account.

 

In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.

 

 

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

 

Yours Sincerely

 

************

 

I now await the standard 50% offer which I'll promptly return asking them to actually READ my previous letter and that they now have xx number of days in which to comply.

 

Rebel

[Spiceskull]

Crack that whip!

[Rebel UK]

***UPDATE***

 

After not having a reply to my lba for 21 days, last friday I sent a letter informing them if I didn't hear from them within 14 days I'd be taking court action.

 

Today I received the standard letter offering £675 of the £1,670 they unlawfully stole from my account. Interestingly the form they sent with it for me to accept goes as follows :-

 

Customer Acknowledgement

 

Thank you for your letter detailing your response to my complaint.

 

I accept the sum of £675 in full and final settlement of my complaint with Barclays Bank PLC.

 

Full Name (insert my name here)

 

Date:................................

 

Signed:.............................

 

Of course I'm not accepting nor signing this at all, I shall send it back informing them that my demand was for FULL payment of the funds they unlawfully removed from my account, and that they now have 7 days after which I will persue the matter through the courts.

 

Looks like next week I shall be filling out my moneyclaim form

 

As an aside, they refer in their letters to their complaints procedure, the Financial Ombudsman and phoning them to discuss any matter regarding this issue or any information related to this issue. I will not phone them, nor will I or do I have to persue the matter under their terms. I am making the terms, not them, don't let yourselves be coersed into going down their road, force them down yours, it is YOUR money, your complaint, your Rules.

 

Rebel

[Rebel UK]

Because Barclays are pushing as far as going to court but once the date arrives they are settling in an 'out of court' agreement which includes the claimant does NOT disclose the conclusion publicly, i.e. They are preventing anyone from giving the claim result against Barclays in order to reduce the number of possible claims.

 

Lets face it, if you get offered ALL your charges, interest and expenses, out of court on the understanding you do not disclose publicly, what would you do ?

 

I'd take my money and be pleased but keep shtum ! no point being taken back to court because you reneged on the agreement when your prime objective is to get your money back.

 

I think there are about 3 or 4 cases due to be heard on or around 4th, 5th, 6th of May, yet nothing is posted as concluded in the Litigation Forum.

 

Any thoughts ?

 

Rebel

[Bookworm]

Lets face it, if you get offered ALL your charges, interest and expenses, out of court on the understanding you do not disclose publicly, what would you do ?

 

Tell them to take a high jump, which is exactly what I did to Natwest, and will do to anyone who tries to put conditions on giving me back MY money.

 

They took MY money when I needed it the most, charged nearly 30% interest on it, which I let them keep, I get my money back with an 8% interest, and they would make me shut up as well?

 

HELL NO!

 

.

[kaznelson]

Perhaps, as I cant see any other reason for Barclays getting as far as a hearing. But I still think that Barclays (as well as other banks) treat this as a game of pressure and hope that some ppl will drop the cases when they realise that they will have to attend a hearing.

 

They must be fully aware they dont stand a chance at a hearing

[dave]

They all treat it as a game of pressure.

 

However, I 've been treating it the same - we all know they have much more to lose than us by going to court - especially when we're in the right.

 

It's just good business practice - they have an obligation to their shareholders - just giving in, wouldn't be doing them much favours - many people, for instance accept 50% offers.

 

In fact, it's my belief that Barclays are the only ones with a clear policy at the moment - and fair play to them.

 

They will lose in the end and they know it, but have a read of the "banks damage limititation tactic" announcement.

 

Abbey tried to get me to keep quiet.

 

This site was the response.

[Rebel UK]

Thanks Guys I'm glad to hear that (from your posts). I now have the forms to make a court claim, so I'll be sure to tell them where to go if they try to stipulate any conditions at all.

 

Thanks again.

 

Rebel

[mahala]

.

 

Abbey tried to get me to keep quiet.

 

This site was the response.

 

 

 

oh to be a fly on the wall when that was being explained to the bosses. "Did he go for it?" "Wellll, not exactly ...."

[CrispDust]

Ha ha nice one mahala, i haven't stopped sniggering for the past 30 minutes thinking about it.!

[Tinkerbelle]

Yes.... that is quite funny.... certainly brought a smile to my face!! hahaha

[Rebel UK]

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

 

Barclays failed to respond favourable so today filed my claim at Moneyclaim.

 

Details :

 

Rebel vs Barclays Bank plc

Filed 09/05/06

Claim No. 6QZ29649

 

Await the outcome now, so, must gen up on presentation

 

Rebel

[Rebel UK]

Hi All,

 

Been browsing through the forum today, I noticed several claims going on that are under £600 now I don't know if this is any use for people with claims up to £675 but, Barclays offered me £675 of the £1670 I am claiming. If they can offer me this much, would it be beneficial to anyone claiming less than this to have a copy of my letter being offered £675 to produce in court, should it go that far, to show how inconsistent Barclays are being. Surely if they offered me £675 they have no excuse not to pay in FULL anyone who's claim is less than this sum ?

 

Anyone with Legal knowledge care to comment ?

 

Rebel

[maforduk]

Hi All,

 

Been browsing through the forum today, I noticed several claims going on that are under £600 now I don't know if this is any use for people with claims up to £675 but, Barclays offered me £675 of the £1670 I am claiming. If they can offer me this much, would it be beneficial to anyone claiming less than this to have a copy of my letter being offered £675 to produce in court, should it go that far, to show how inconsistent Barclays are being. Surely if they offered me £675 they have no excuse not to pay in FULL anyone who's claim is less than this sum ?

 

Anyone with Legal knowledge care to comment ?

 

Rebel

 

I have asked a similar question before:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5348

[Rebel UK]

Understood mayford but...

 

My point is IF it get's into a court hearing, then it isn't settled is it ? and the Banks liability will be in question hence them then being in court. Also, an ongoing claim is not resolved and therefore they have not concluded on liability.

 

Rebel

[Alleycat]

Problem is from what I gather, is that although they are offering partial payments, they are not actually admitting liability and calling it a gesture of goodwill. Yes it looks dodgy to be offering such an amount but still not admitting anything. What we need is something in writing from the bank to say that the charges are not an accurate reflection of the costs involved and that they are making a profit on the charges.

[Spiceskull]

There are a couple of points to note:

 

As Alleycat points out, the banks will NOT admit liability, and will consider any offer as either a goodwill gesture or an 'ex gratia' payment.

 

Each claim will be judged on it's own merits, and in all fairness this is the way the bank should treat claims. This begs the question "why don't they judge each account on it's own merits when applying charges and also when sending out hopelessly worded template responses..."

 

Finally, having a letter to another customer could be seen as breach of contract against that person. This could have a negative effect in more ways than one, not least of which is that this could be seen as 'collusion' to gang up on the banks...

 

Whilst the spirit and logic may have merit, the reality is that having supporting documents of this type would jeopardise any claim being made.

 

I'm sure others will pass comments, but I feel most would agree that the answer is no.

[Rebel UK]

I can't see it as 'colusion' since the banks stated to the Government last February that all charges are placed to cover their losses and costs of recouping those losses worldwide, this indicates the Banks are coluding to regain their losses from anyone who banks with them, and their wholehearted reluctance even then to explain to a government commitee what the charges are made up of i.e. as an automated system issues notice of the charges and there is no actual cost for the bank not paying a DD or honouring a cheque, what do the charges pay for (asked by government official, of the banks) The reply was 'That information is sensitive' LOL. Also, how is it a breach of contract to divulge your own information regarding your money and how an established bank deals with it. You are under no obligation to uphold any Banking Code Rules, they are not the law and are not applied to the consumer. They are the Banks code and they don't even appear to abide by them themselves. Is this not part of the reason why we are reclaiming these unlawful charges.

 

I don't think any establishment has the right to tell me what I can or cannot divulge publicly about my own financial affairs unless they specifically request it, and in this case, I'd like to hear their argument for making such a request!!. Then I would challenge that request based on the Freedom of Speech act.

 

Rebel.

[Rebel UK]

***** Latest Update *****

 

Claim Filed 09/05

Acknowledged 18/05

Barclays have 28 days to file defence

 

Some people will have results before my claim goes through so I eagerly await their outcome and wish them luck

 

Rebel

[Rebel UK]

*******UPDATE*******

 

Barclays filed defence on 12 June, I must return questionnaire by 1st July plus fee. Their defence is basically the same as others already posted here, however, and this makes me chuckle, they refer to me as 'her' when opinionating on my account......... I don't recall having a sex change, it'll be funny to get to a Judge and point out their error since I've had an account for 21 years as a Mr. I might even add I'm offended by their inference and insulted by their incompetence (btw I'm not sexist, just using their incompetence against them)

 

Questionnaire will be returned by the weeks end after I've read up here on a few pointers for answering the questions.

 

Rebel

[Janet-M]

Awwwwwwwww they must be so busy filling all these questionaires in