Re-starting my claim against Natwest

[emmajacques161]

Hi all,

 

I have been charged in the last year £430 in charges, and have sent a letter requesting all charges to be refunded. I have given them 7 days to respond. I also have a second letter to send should they refuse to action my request.

 

I am wary that I will get my money back as I have been complaining so many times over the last year and being told that I have gone over the allocated number of goodwill gestures!

 

I am prepared to take this to court but was worried about costs should I lose the case. Is anyone able to tell me how much I would be expected to pay to Natwest, and how much it would cost to make a claim to the small courts?

 

Has anyone here taken Natwest to court and lost?

 

Any information is greatly appreciated and very much needed!!

 

Thanks

 

Emma.

[Guest Lueeze]

You need to give them 14 days not 7...

 

It soundsl ike you have not read all the FAQ's ect fully yet.

 

The costs vary for court action check the MCOL site for amounts.

 

If you lost (which is VERY unlikely as you would have to get to court 1st) then you will not be liable for costs as far as I know, you would just loose your claim fee.

 

Louise x

[emmajacques161]

Hi guys,

 

I have been trawling through the very many threads here, and my eyes are officially dried out! What I want to know is has anyone filed a claim against NW and actually got as far as a court room? Also is there anyone who has lost a claim? I have worked out I have been charged £795 which I am claiming back.

 

Sorry if this is discussed somewhere else but a good hard shove in the right direction would be great!!

 

Thanks guys!!

 

Emma x

[wemfish]

I asked the same question here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/11266-have-you-gone-court.html

[emmajacques161]

Hi Guys,

I have received a reply from NatWest today with this letter, I was wondering if this letter was the ‘norm’. This reply is in response to my preliminary letter sent with a schedule of charges for a total of £795.42.

 

Dear Miss Jacques

Thank you for your letter of 30 June 2006 and I apologise for any dissatisfaction caused by the application of charges to your account.

We believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff which, we are satisfied, complies with all applicable laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give our customers about the operation of our products.

We have considered the Office of Fair Trading’s statement of April 5th 2006 and do not accept its findings in relation to the setting of credit card fees. We are concerned that the Office of Fair Trading has publicly called into question the setting of charges applied to other products, including current accounts. The Office of Fair Trading has restricted its investigation to credit cards and made no attempt to consult with the RBS Group or the industry in relation to other entirely different products.

Consequently, against that background, we must differ with the views you have expressed and, having reviewed your account, I can find no instance where charges have been applied when they were not properly due. They have all been associated with a lack of covering funds in the account at the time items wee presented for payment. Accordingly, the charges have been applied to your account must stand.

I am disappointed to note that you are contemplating legal action against the bank. Whilst I hope you will feel able to reconsider, should you decide to go ahead, please ensure that any Proceedings are served on our Registered Office address, which appears at the foot of this letter.

I suspect that this is unlikely to be the answer you might have hoped to receive but nonetheless thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Higley.

The letter wasn’t signed by Him personally but by someone else. I assume that this is the bog standard letter and I have my second letter to send, but was wondering if I should send a copy of the schedule of charges form again.

 

MODERATED: 3 threads merged

[Michael Browne]

Send a schedule of charges when you send the LBA on the 14th July

[Guest NATTIE]

Yes

[claudiaamber]

Just received an almost identical letter today from our bank manager (so yes it is the 'norm'. We had only asked for £180 as we were preliminarily 'testing the water' and had not been able to go through all the statements last week. We have now done so and will be writing to request a refund of the further amount (over £1500). Anyway, the only difference between our letter and yours is that ours is signed (in biro) by the branch manager and as of paragraph 4 it continues:

 

'Consequently, against that background, we must differ with the views expressed in your letter. Despite this, we have taken the opportunity to review the charges that have been applied to your account and as an exceptional matter we have agreed to refund £132 as a gesture of goodwill. Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to our charges.

 

If you agree to accept my offer on this basis, please sign and return the copy of this letter in the enclosed prepaid envelope. Once returned, arrangements will be made immediately to credit your account.

 

However, our Terms and Conditions will continue to apply and any charges that accrue in the future must stand. Thank you once again for taking the trouble to write and I hope that your concern is resolved to your satisfaction.'

 

 

Other than that it is identical to yours. Suffice to say we will not be accepting a partial refund and will be continuing our action to claim the full amount outstanding. They won't shift us that easily!

[emmajacques161]

I did start a claim a few weeks back for just under £500 but then I decided to get my bank statements and found that I had been charged much more. When I first got my reply i had a similar response to you Claudiaamber but they crdeited my account with £38 the day before i got the letter, suffice to say I declined that offer.

 

So here goes round II, and tomorrow i will send off my second letter to them.

 

The only thing I am very worried about is that 1. they threaten to close my account, and 2. I am scared that if this does go to court like it may well do I won't have a clue about the court system. I have read threads on here about filling in defense response forms etc which are worrying me so if anyone can help me get my head around it that would be great!!

[claudiaamber]

Just written my second letter too (also to be posted tomorrow), still missing a few bank statements but total now comes to over £2000 - I was worried when I read the threads about filling in the response forms etc. too, but there's some advice on that stuff in the section of this site with the templates and so on. Also, lots of people for us to refer to! (I'm just trying to take it one step at a time whilst also being ready for the next step if you see what I mean)

 

Re. them possibly closing your account - set another one up as a backup just in case. Natwest and other banks do what they call basic accounts where you can't have an overdraft etc. and unless you've gone bankrupt or something really awful like that they have to accept your application. If you've got an overdraft at the moment and then they close your account then you could always pay it off when you receive your money back. Alternatively, you could just open an ordinary account elsewhere and apply for an overdraft on your application. I guess it would be best to do that now and be prepared! (although I think it's quite rare for them to actually close your account from what I've read)

 

If it makes you feel any better, from reading these threads Natwest use Cobbetts solicitors - I dealt with them last year over repossession of a property and despite the fact that the person whose mortgage it was hadn't paid a penny for nearly two years, and despite my lack of knowledge and experience with these things, we came out on top. Not only that but the judge had a few choice words to say to Cobbetts representative in court and they didn't seem at all prepared...so here's hoping our second encounter will be just as satisfying...

 

Good luck with your letter!

[emmajacques161]

I have my letter ready to send, I also have set up another bank account so I am prepared if they do decide to close my account. Is it true though that if they send me notice of closure that they cannot enforce it until the dispute is cleared?

 

Also, a few years ago I had a credit card with Natwest that was cleared through a debt collection agency and I remember being charged by them but because it was several years ago I don't have any of the details. Does anyone know how I can go about getting these details?

[emmajacques161]

Hi, I called Natwest for details of a credit card account I held with them which got closed a few years ago and was told that if I wanted copies then it would cost me £3 per statement. I am confused because when I requested my current accounts statements it only cost me £5 for the lot.

 

Is this amount of £3 per statement correct?

[callumsgran]

No they're pulling your plonker, its £10 max for all 6 yrs. good luck

[emmajacques161]

That's what I thought.

 

Because the account was closed about 2 years ago, I don't have the account number so I have requested that the advisor arrange for me to have all my statements sent to my current address, I don't have much faith as I had to remind the girl to take my address and phone number. We will see though.

[emmajacques161]

Hi all, I did post a thread on here a while ago about a Mastercard account I had with Natwest but I can't find it:-| .

Basically I called Natwest credit card services up and requested all my statements thinking I had lots of money to claim back off them. Statement came today but they were a Photocopy of my statements and not the originals. Now this doesn't really bother me but shouldn't they have sent me the original ones? I didn't send any money as they told me that it would be free of charge (Yipee!) but if I should have to have my day in court would I need the originals?

 

Have also worked out that my millions I thought I could claim only come to £78, so I wanted as naughty as I thought! Still £78 is more than I have in my pocket!!

[emmajacques161]

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