The Druid v Barclays Bank

[BankFodder]

It simply means that you have to file your bundle by the 10th of January, prepare at a skeleton argument by the 21st and be ready to the hearing on the 31st.

 

If you miss any of these deadlines when you lose your case.

 

I suggest that you start preparing now. It is all quite straightforward.

Even though the likelihood is that the bank will settle, you should not assume this and you should be completely prepared and confident..

[BarmyBlu]

Well done the Druid

You certainly got the balls for it,Have just sent off my first prelimanary letter asking for my charges back so am watching your case with the utmost interest.

The best of Luck

BB

[The Druid]

Received From Barclays Today 06/01/2007

 

5 January 2007 Barclays Legal & Compliance

Litigation & Disputes

Level 29

One Churchill Place

London

E14 5HP

Our Ref: **/**

 

Dear Mr ******,

 

Claim against Barclays bank PLC, ****** County Court,

Claim Number: ********

 

I refer to the above proceedings.

 

As you will have seen from our defence, we consider that your claim lacks merrit and that it will fail. In particular, we disagree with your legal analysis that the charges levied to your account with Barclays amount to penalty clauses and are unfair. We do, however, recognise that the sum at issue between us is relatively modest and as such, it is not cost - effective for either party to take this matter to trial. Therefore, in order to

avoid the inevitable time and cost associated with pursuing the claim to trial, we are prepared to settle your claim upon payment of the charges applied to your account,together with statutory interest and costs totalling £3,342.94 subject to the terms set out in this letter.

 

This offer to pay £3,342.94 is in full and final settlement of your claim and is strictly without any admission of liability on our part. By accepting this offer, you also agree that the existance and the terms of this offer are confidential between us.

 

If you agree to the terms of this letter, please sign and return a copy of this letter to me at the above address within the next seven days. You will also need to notify the County Court, in writing, that you have discontinued your claim against us.

 

Please forward a copy of your letter to the court when you return a signed copy of this letter to us.

 

Payment to be made to your Barclays account.

 

Should you decide to reject this offer, then we reserve the right to disclose this letter to the court.

 

Please contact me urgently on receipt of this letter.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

 

Anthony Lombardi

Legal clerk

 

ARE THEY TAKING THE P**S OR WHAT !!

 

So far, my costs to date are as follows:

 

Paid referalls, unpaid cheques etc.:- £3,075.00

Plus interest @ 8%:- £702.69

So called "account fees":- £581.50

Plus interest @ 8%:- £152.49

Minus £118.00 received :- £118.00

Overdraft interest :- £429.79

Plus interest @ 8% :- £133.64

Court costs :- £220.00

GRAND TOTAL £5,177.11

 

And now, because of this last letter, I've a mind to REALLY twist the knife, and tell them on court day that they can pay me the days wages I've lost by attending court, too !!!

If, when receiving a letter from Barclays telling me they were charging me £30.00, I'd have phoned them up and offered £15.00, you could well imagine what they're answer would have been !!!!

So, were do they get the effrontry and the gall, to expect me to accept anything different ???

As you can see from the above, there would appear to be something SERIOUSY wrong with Barclays grasp of basic mathematics, which I find somewhat disturbing, considering that we have trusted them to look after our financial affairs !!!!

 

WATCH THIS SPACE for my reply !!!

[The Druid]

HERE IT IS PEOPLE !!

 

Although I say so meself, it is a thing of beauty !!! LOL

 

6 January 2007

Barclays Legal & Compliance

Litigation & Disputes

Level 29

One Churchill Place

London

E14 5HP

 

 

Dear Mr Lombardi,

Thank you for your letter, dated 5 January 2007, received today.

 

If, on receiving a letter from Barclays bank telling me that they were charging me another £35.00 for a paid referall, I wrote to the bank offering to pay £15.00, you should be able to well imagine what their reply would be.

 

Were do you get the effrontery and the gall to expect me to be any different ?

 

Your offer is rejected in its entirety.

 

 

You will note, from the contents of the court bundle I have already dispatched to you, that, as of todays date, I calculate that you owe me the sum of £5,177.11

Your paltry offer does not even repay the sum I am claiming for paid referalls etc.,let alone the interest I am fully entitled to claim, OR the court costs I have already expended, OR the so called "account fees" that were removed from my account without my knowledge or consent, OR the interest charges and their attendant interest at 8%.

 

You may well think that the sum in contention is relatively modest, I do not. As far as your comments concerning the avoidance of the inevitable time and cost associated with pursuing this claim to trial; I have already informed my place of employment and put that time aside. With regard to the inevitable cost; my day in court is already paid for and, if that is the way it must be, I will get my moneys worth.

 

With regard to your "confidentiallity" clause: I WILL NOT be gagged or hoodwinked by ANYONE, much less Barclays bank. Did the mentaly challenged individual who came up with this "[problem]" (that is worth £4 BILLION pounds a year to the high - street banks), not consider that one day, it may come back and bite you in the backside ??

 

With regard to your threat to disclose this letter to the court should I reject your offer: SO BE IT.

I will be more than happy for you to do so, it will add ammunition to my case. In any event, I shall be making your letter public to the court myself, along with all the other correspondence I have received from Barclays.

 

I expect and require you to repay to me the full sum indicated as a total charge on the schedule of repayments you have already received from me, the amount to be modified in accordance with the date it is settled by.

 

I would respectfully remind you that you now have 25 days left to respond to my offer, to which there will be no extension, or modification.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

So, what do you think people? Is it good, or what !!!!

Also, for your further information, the case has been sent back from Cambridge to be heard in Harlow County court. So thats another result.

I hope the B******s DO decide to take this one to court.

 

BRING IT ON !! I'M READY FOR YA BOYS !!!!

[dickeggsy]

brilliant mate ,send it in.been following your thread for a while and have a quick question.

have you sorted out your court bundle and if so what have you included in it i.e. bookwoorms bundle or jonni2bads and have you included any extra.

any reply greatly appreciated and good luck.

[The Druid]

Got no help at all from the mods on that one, so I cobbled together what I thought was the best material from both bundles. Hope that helps

[dickeggsy]

certainly has mate.i haven't got a court date yet but i am trying to get together as much as possible as soon as possible to save rushing at the last minute.

worse than christmas bl**dy shopping this lark.lol

thanks for your help and good luck.

[Fullyskinted]

WOW!

 

Ill be subbing to this thread now too!

 

Thats a 'kick em in the balls' letter if I ever saw one LOL

[Lady Efferverscent]

Hello people

 

This is my first posting, but i have been following the druids adventures with a keen eye as I am also trying to get Barclays to cough up.

 

My question is... What is going on now? The last entry was 7th Jan... has anything happened since or are you just waiting for the court date now?

 

Good luck and thanks for going through your case in such detail- this will defintely help me.

[BLESS]

rofl. your rejection letter is brilliant! i'm at work laughing my ass off, stick it to 'em druid..

[diesel_diva]

oopsies i cocked up !! see below post !!

[diesel_diva]

Hey Druid, and to all others a friendly how do !!

 

Only 3 days ago i posted my first letter requesting the documention of all my charges for the last 5 years. Financial i got myself into a hole whilst being a student, and due to the constant charges the snow ball effect was a complete nightmare and as a result i've had to take a year off uni to pay my overdratf back to Barclays. I'm currently paying them £250 a month which is a fair old wad, however only last month i went 20p over drawn and they slapped i big fat £30 charge on my account, thus proving further what utter bastards they are.

It was my dad who first told me about claiming back by charges which i thought was a made up concept and considered he'd been on the jack daniels but after further research through sites like this it has given me the knowledge to feel this is something i can do !!.

 

Anyways now to my point, i just wanted to say thank you, as reading your thread has installed alot of empowerment, and i feel i have the confidence to kick ther arses!!! and i hope you don't mind if i ask you afew questions along the way?? unfortunatly i gave up a law degree to start a fashion one (yes i know random) so im abit clueless, yet look fabulous whilst being so !!

 

Thanks for in inspiraton

 

Hayley x

[Coombep]

Druid - thats an awesome letter. A piece of litery genius.

 

This is my first post...been following your progress albeit quietly as a how to do it (so many thanks for that). Was all going exactly to plan, until Friday when i received notification from Lambeth CC that my case was being transfered to the London Mercantile Court. Wasn't really expecting that but after some weekend reading of this site am alot more comfortable with it now.

 

Can't wait to see Barclays response...bring it on Lombardi!!!

[wildcat77]

You must be nearly there Druid, they'll be settling any day now.

Fingers crossed for you mate.

[The Druid]

Nothing further to report since sending my rejection letter to Barclay's legal stormtroopers !!! They're probably licking their wounds and wondering how to screw me BIGTIME !! As I said in my letter, my day in court is already paid for, so, BRING IT ON !!!! If I win, it's a result. If I don't, then, you don't miss what you never had !!!

If the legal-seagulls want to play brinkmanship, who will you lot bet on to blink first ?? LOL

I can assure you all, IT WON'T BE ME !!!

Please, if my thread has helped any of you at all, click the scales and leave a recommend. It means a lot to me to know that you are all rooting for me. Thank you all.

[wildcat77]

Aw mate, by now you must be pacing up and down like I don't know what.

I keep having a peek to see how you're getting on, still nothing? Fingers and everything crossed for ya! Let us know ASAP.

[gel1]

hi druid just been reading your thread my date is on the 19th feb.really good read think it will help alot of new people on the site hope you get all your money good luck.

[The Druid]

Received Today 25/01/2007

from 'arry lombardi !!!

Dear Mr ******,

Claim against Barclays Bank PLC, Harlow County Court.

Claim Number ********

I refer to the above proceedings.

Thank you for your letter dated 6 January 2007, please find

enclosed another settlement offer for £3,938.83.

The offer of £3,938.83 includes all charges placed on your account, interest at 8% and court costs to date.

Having noted the contents of your court bundle, there seems to be a number of items listed on your schedule that do not constitute bank charges payable on breach of contract.

In total you list £718.44 of account fees and interest at 8%.

As stated above these do not come under the realm of

bank charges payable on breach in fact the account fee is a fee levied for services provided to you by the bank.

As well as account fees, you include £519.84 of

overdraft interest charges and interest at 8%. Clearly you will recognise that the bank will charge a higher rate of interest for the use of your overdraft which is again a service provided,

we therefore do not regard such interest as being recoverable under this claim.

I would be grateful if you would call me on 0207 116 4523 so that we can discuss the matter with a view to reaching a settlement.

Should you decide to reject this offer, the we reserve the right to disclose this letter to the court.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Anthony Lombardi

You'll all notice that they've upped the offer from the original £3,342.94. This arrived by special delivery. He also says that he would be grateful if I could call him to discuss this matter. He's got more chance of growing a second anus than getting a phonecall from me !!!

I think Mr Lombardi's pucker factor has just increased by a small margin. Was that a flicker of his eyelids I saw ? LOL

I shall post my reply to him next. You will note that it's toned down somewhat from my last missif, but makes things quite clear that there will only be ONE winner in this fight, and he'll be running second !!

[The Druid]

My Reply.

 

Dear Mr Lombardi,

 

Thank you for your letter, dated 24 January 2007, received today.

As of todays date the sum I am claiming is now £5,194.12.

I have enclosed a copy of the schedule of charges for you

convenience, and perusal.

 

With regard to your contention that the so - called

"account fees" are for a service provided, I will call your

attention to the following letters, sent by me dated, 23/8/2006, 24/8/2006, and your letter to me dated 23/8/2006, copies of which I enclose.

 

As previously stated, I have never signed up for, or agreed to any payments being removed from my account for so - called "sevices" that you say these payments are for. I made it abundantly clear in my letter, that I would accept the £118 offered, in part - payment of the full amount of £581.50.

 

As my request was totally ignored, I have no alternative but to seek repayment of these fees, in full, by virtue of a court order if necessary.

 

With regard to the interest charges I am claiming; because of the obscurity of the bank's charging regime, and a complete unwillingness on the banks part to make these charges transparent for all to see, and, more importantly, understand, I am more than ready, and willing to take this case before a judge and let him decide what is fair, or unfair, claimable or unclaimable in the case I am bringing before him.

 

I shall also take this opportunity to draw your attention to a decision recently handed down at Lincoln County Court.

 

"The Court of its own motion is considering striking the Defence out as an abuse of process on the basis that it has settled all previous claims of this nature. If the Defendant objects to this course of action it is to file at Court within 14 days, a Schedule setting out a list of all claims it has pursued to trial and all claims it has settled." (dated 28th December 2006)

 

I shall be asking the judge, not only for full disclosure, but also for a similar decision to be handed down in this case.

 

So, Mr Lombardi. Your choice.

Either pay me the charges I am claiming, in full, or we let a judge decide. I am more than happy to pursue this case to a hearing. My groundwork is complete. I shall be happy whichever course of events occurs.

 

When we go before the judge, please be advised that I shall also be claiming a days loss of earnings from you, in addition to my reclaimed charges and court costs as of

31 January 2007

 

I look forward to seeing you at Harlow County Court on Wednesday the 31st , at 10:30 AM.

Yours sincerely

 

So, we're almost down to the final furlong peeps. Like I said in a previous post, and also to 'Arry, I've got nothing to lose, my day in court is paid for.!!!

 

STAY TUNED TO THIS CHANNEL, as they say !!! ROFLMAO

 

If my thread has been any help to you folks starting out, please click on the "scales" and give me a boost. Thank you all.

[Fullyskinted]

Paid referalls, unpaid cheques etc.:- £3,075.00

Plus interest @ 8%:- £702.69

So called "account fees":- £581.50

Plus interest @ 8%:- £152.49

Minus £118.00 received :- £118.00

Overdraft interest :- £429.79

Plus interest @ 8% :- £133.64

Court costs :- £220.00

GRAND TOTAL £5,177.11

 

Hmmm. Id prefer a better breakdown of costs from him to be honest. Like you supplied him (above).

Im still not sure you can claim the account fees (assuming its for a privelege account etc (Options/Additions whatever).

 

You do drive a hard bargain though! thats for sure!

 

I hope youre softening him up for when I start my negotiations with him! PMSL

[Laineybelle]

Hi Druid,

 

Absolutely fab thread mate. I have been reading it and laughing a lot (not at you of course).

 

Not sure if your letter is slightly different from what you have typed as I saw you had put Friday 31st? I know your date is January 31st which is a Wednesday. Is it just a mistake on your post as I wouldn't want you to put the wrong day down.

 

Best of luck and kjeep us posted.

 

Laineybelle

[The Druid]

Thank Gawd you posted Lainybelle.

I had it in my head that the 31st was on Friday. Your posting saved me from making meself look a right "tit". Fortunately, I hadn't posted the letter off to 'Arry lombardi, so was able to amend it in time. Again, thank you.

Fullyskinted, I have made it quite clear to Barclays from the start that I require them to pay back the account fees too. It's something I or my wife have never authorised, or signed up for. If you read prvious posts from me in this thread you will see that they have already acknowledged that the fees were debited without my consent, and have already paid me back £118. which is just a bit short of what they took in the first place; i.e. £518.50

[Fullyskinted]

Sorry Druid. I have read the whole thread previously. That bit must have skipped my mind...

 

Carry on beating the cr@p out of him for me. My case will seem small fry compared to yours :D:D

[rubberlips64]

The very best of luck The Druid, am due in court 13th Feb .... bring it on..... your thread is very encouraging, thank U

[Laineybelle]

Hi Druid,

 

I'm glad I caught you before you sent the letter as I was so amazed by your thread I too didn't want barclays to have anything to query with you, you sound so professional!!

 

I almost wasn't going to put anything as I thought I would sound like a right one!

 

can't wait to read your next installment.

 

Regards

Laineybelle