Bean's Timeline (Monument)

[Bean]

Hello all,

 

I have other claims running. Starting a new thread here as I have just sent a Data Protection Act Subject Access Request to Monument.

 

For completeness, the address I sent it to was the one in the 'sticky' for this forum: Emma Hayward-Smith (Customer Relations), Monument, Portland Building, 25 The High Street, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1BG.

[Bean]

Data Protection Act Subject Access Request was delivered to Monument on 14 July 2006.

 

I received a reply yesterday 25 July 2006, dated 19 July 2006 which reads:

 

"I am sorry that you have had to contact us about concerns regarding your Monument account. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to do so.

 

I am looking into your concerns and will let you have a response or update as quickly as I can but no later than 11th August 2006. In the meantime if you need to speak to me please call on ***** *** ***. I have enclosed a leaflet explaining how Monument works to resolve complaints. I hope you find this helpful.

 

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

EF

Customer Relations

 

Enc. Complaint Leaflet"

[nancies]

Hi Bean

I got a letter back from Monument offering me a refund of half the charges and advising me that they would not refund the full amount. What do I need to do now, send them a letter thanking them and then stating that they refund me in full within 14 days but what letter do i use?

Thanks

M

[Bean]

It would be best for you to read the FAQ's section, get familiar with the process and start your own thread e.g. "nancies progress (Monument)" in the Monument forum.

 

You have three choices:

1. Accept this as full and final settlement - if you already have plenty of money, have problems finding where to put it all, and don't mind kissing goodbye to the other half of your claim figure.

2. Accept this as a partial payment, but state that you will be pursuing the remainder of your claim as previously stated.

3. Decline their offer while proceeding as originally intended.

 

It is entirely your call, but I would not entertain anything less than an offer of full repayment. Here is my reasoning:

 

There are some problems with accepting a partial payment:

 

1. Your Preliminary Approach for Repayment presumably said "if you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall ... Letter Before Action...begin a claim against you...". Accepting a partial offer is not in line with what you said you would do.

 

2. If you deduct the partial sum from the full claim sum before you receive it, you will be removing the heat from that part unless within the partial settlement agreement you set very clear and specific terms for it's payment (e.g. whether it's to be paid by cheque or direct to your account, within 48 hours or 7 days, etc.). From what I have read, given a chance some banks seem to pay as slowly or as late as possible even for payments which are the subject of a County Court claim, just prior to the hearing or other critical point.

 

3. If you wait for them to partially settle before continuing with your claim for the remaining sum they have succeeded in stalling your claim.

 

4. What are the terms of their offer? Any agreement of partial settlement would have to address these. If they are akin to 'will pay x into your account, you must attend account review, all to be confidential, in full and final settlement' you need to decide which terms to accept.

 

Hope that helps,

[Bean]

I phoned EF in Customer Relations to prompt a response to my Data Protection Act Subject Access Request - it is in no-one's interests for them to exceed the 40 statutory compliance period. I was assured that my data would arrive within the period.

 

I received my data 16 August 2006, 32 days after my request.

 

Sent Preliminary Approach for Repayment letter on Friday 18 August 2006, delivered Monday 21 August 2006.

 

Claim is for £672 in charges plus £123 to date in credit card interest on those charges. Total £795.

[Bean]

Received a reply dated 23 August 2006 from EF in Customer Services:

 

"I write further to your letter of 18 August 2006 in response to my letter of 15 August 2006.

 

You are requesting a refund of late payment, unpaid paid payment and overlimit fees that have been applied to your account in the total sum of £672.00, as you state the charges in question are unfair. You have further requested a refund of the respective interest charges that have been accrued on the fees in question and an amendment to the records held with the credit reference agencies in respect of your Monument account.

 

As previously advised in my letter to you of 15 August 2006 I have concluded that Monument has acted responsibly in the management of your account. [They concluded that before I even asked for my money!! I specifically left out reference to claiming back charges from my Data Protection Act Subject Access Request.]

 

However, putting this issue to one side, [sorry, we're not putting this to one side, it's staying centre-stage], as a gesture of goodwill on this occasion only I am prepared to refund £336.00 which represents half of the charges in question. I hope you will agree this is a fair and reasonable offer. If you would like to accept this offer, I would request confirmation in writing and upon receipt I will arrange for the appropriate credit to be applied to your account. I have enclosed a pre-paid, pre-addressed envelope for your use.

 

In addition, I can confirm that Monument will not be accommodating your request for a refund of the respective interest charges that have been accrued on the fees in question.

 

I can confirm and clarify that Monument is obliged to ensure that the records held with the credit reference agencies are accurate and as such your request for an amendment of these records will also not be accommodated.

 

Please note that to remove any information from the records held with the credit reference agencies an amendment would be required."

 

I shall be declining their offer in my Letter Before Action, to be sent imminently.

[Bean]

Letter Before Action, including my declining their offer of £336, was delivered on 8 September 2006.

 

I have today received their "FINAL RESPONSE" letter which reads as follows:

"I write further to **'s letter of 23 August 2006.

 

The investigation of your complaint has now been completed. I am very sorry that we have been unable to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution, as we always strive to provide excellent service at all times. In the circumstances, for the purposes of the Financial Ombudsman Service you may regard this letter as Monument’s "Final Response".

 

In summary the results of our investigation are as follows:

 

You have requested a refund of late payment and overlimit fees that have been applied to your account, as you state the charges in question are unfair and represent a penalty. You have calculated this sum to be £672.00. You have further requested a refund of the respective interest charges that have been accrued on the charges in question and the removal of any adverse information that has been reported to the records held with the credit reference agencies.

We have explained to you that under the Terms and Conditions of the account which you agreed to be bound by when applying for the Monument ** card; a late payment fee is applicable if you do not make at least your minimum payment by the payment due date and a overlimit fee is applicable if you exceed your agreed credit limit at any time. Further to this we have confirmed that interest is applied to any outstanding balance on your account at the contractual rate each month.

 

You have suggested that the charges levied by Monument could be penalty clauses and thus unenforceable. You have also raised the operation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and the Office of Fair Trading who have written to a number of credit card issuers to discuss the issue of default fees.

 

We are aware of all the information to which you have drawn our attention. However, we disagree with your legal analysis. We have advised you that we do not believe that the charges levied under the contract that you have with Monument equate to penalty clauses. We equally do not agree that the contract between us is unenforceable or that our Terms are unfair.

 

We have informed you that at Monument we believe it is fair that when a customer pays us late or the balance of the account exceeds the agreed limit, the costs we incur are borne by the customer.

 

We have advised you that we would remind customers that fees are easily avoided by making payments on time and keeping within the agreed credit limit. Setting up a direct debit payment and by using our telephone balance service can also help.

 

Furthermore, we advised you that fees and charges are made clear to customers in the Terms and Conditions when they apply for a card. Information is also included every month on our statements.

 

We have concluded that Monument has acted responsibly in the management of your account.

 

However, putting this issue to one side, as a gesture of goodwill on this occasion only we have previously advised you that we are prepared to refund £336.00 which represents half of the charges in question (up to ), which we hoped you would agree was a fair and reasonable offer. If you wanted to accept this offer, we requested confirmation in writing and upon receipt we advised that we would arrange for the appropriate credit to be applied to your account. In our previous correspondence we enclosed a pre-paid, pre-addressed envelope for your use.

 

In addition, as previously advised, Monument will not be accommodating your request for a refund of the respective interest charges that have been accrued on the fees in question.

 

Consequently, I understand that you are dissatisfied with our responses of 15 and 23 August 2006. However, I can confirm that Monument’s position has not changed and your requests will not be accommodated.

 

We have also previously confirmed and clarified that Monument is obliged to ensure that the records held with the credit reference agencies are accurate and as such your request for an amendment of these records will also not be accommodated.

 

To prevent further late payment or overlimit fees being applied to your account, we have advised you to ensure that all payments are received on time and the balance of your account does not exceed the agreed credit limit.

If the balance of your account exceeds the agreed credit limit we have advised you that you must pay the difference between the balance and your limit along with your minimum monthly payment.

 

Should you no longer be prepared to accept and wish to be subject to the account Terms and Conditions and close your account, we have requested that you advise us. We requested that you note you would liable for the outstanding balance on your account.

 

As previously advised, you may be able to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and in that regard, I hope that you find the enclosed Financial Ombudsman Service’s "Explanatory Leaflet, to be helpful.

 

Please note you have six months from the date of this letter to refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service for investigation. Monument’s previous offers will lapse and the Financial Ombudsman Service may make an alternative award, not necessarily similar or larger than our offer.

 

Should you wish to reconsider our offer, then please contact ** at any time before 15 March 2007 after which the offer will lapse.

 

I would like to apologise that on this occasion we have been unable to provide a satisfactory resolution as providing a high level of service is top priority for us. We take complaints very seriously and I would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention.

 

Yours Sincerely

**

Customer Relations Manager

Enc. Financial Ombudsman Service – "Explanatory Leaflet".

 

So, my County Court claim will be filed against Monument at my earliest convenience, at any time after 22 September 2006.

[Bean]

N1 County Court claim form submitted to local County Court today.

[nancies]

Hi Bean

What is the difference between N1 form and Moneyclaim as Monument have ignored my request for Full refund.

Thanks

M

[Bean]

...What is the difference between N1 form and Moneyclaim as Monument have ignored my request for Full refund...

 

The N1 County Court claim form is the form you use to file your claim.

 

You can either file 3 paper copies with your spreadsheet over the counter at your local County Court, or you can file an electronic version at "HMCS (Her Majesty's Court Service) Money Claim Online" see www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

 

There are some restrictions with Money Claim Online - for example:

 

1. Money Claim Online is for money claims only, whereas an over-the-counter claim can add other aspects.

 

2. If you are receiving qualifying benefits, you can demonstrate this over the counter with an award form and be 'fee exempt', or get a reduction in some circumstances. You can not file a 'fee exempt' claim via Money Claim Online.

 

3. You can file three copies of your paper N1 form with your spreadsheet over the counter, whereas online filing requires you to fill in the electronic form and post your spreadsheet to them to support your claim.

 

4. The electronic form has a limited number of characters so you have to tailor your entries to suit, whereas with a paper version you have more room and can add supplementary sheets.

 

I hope that answers your question. I wish you well with your claim.

[Bean]

Arrived today:

 

"Notice that Acknowledgement of Service Has Been Filed

 

The Defendant filed an Acknowledgement of Service on 10 October 2006

 

The defendant responded to the claim indicating an intention to defend all of the claim..."

[philread1]

Hello Bean

 

Have you got any further with your claim, ie. AQ etc.?

 

Thanks

Phil

[Bean]

Hello philread1,

 

I have just received AQ for completion, along with a copy of their Defence. Court form says Notice of Counterclaim but there is no separate document from Monument.

 

Monument has tagged on an item at the end of the Defence about recovering their losses and damages which will not necessarily be limited to the charges. Essentially (exact text later) they're attempting to obtain their actual losses against what I am seeking to recover...Funny that, I thought the idea was that they were only supposed to be charging me for their losses in the first place?

[Bean]

I have contacted the court. As expected, the N152 "Notice that a Counterclaim Has Been Filed" that I received from the court, was confirmed as an error. The N152 should have read "Notice that a Defence Has Been Filed".

[xirago]

Hi Bean,

I'm just preparing to send my SRA to monument and so would be interested to hear how this is progressing for you.

[Innocenti]

Hi Bean

 

Please can you give us an update. Monument had issued a defence to my N1 on the 17th December and had until Dec 25th to file a defence. Obviously with Christmas I have to give a bit of leeway. I still havent received a copy of their defence from the court yet either. Monument never replied to any of my letters.

[Bean]

Hello xirago, Innocenti, and all,

 

I received a "Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track (Hearing)" dated 17 December 2006.

 

It reads:

"The court must be informed immediately if the case is settled by agreement before the hearing date.

 

Each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents (including any experts' report) on which he intends to rely at the hearing no later than 14 days before the hearing.

 

The original documents shall be brought to the hearing.

Claimant do by 4.00 pm on the 12 January 2007 file and serve a detailed reply to the points raised in the defence and in particular do give full details of the claim."

 

Hearing date is 9 February 2007.

 

Happy New Year,

[xirago]

Hi Bean,

I'll be watching this thread with interest over the next 3 weeks.....

I'm just a newbie to this, so I'm going to approach capital one first as a trial run, from what I've read in the forums they seem to settle with less fuss than monument. So printed + posted my SAR to capital one today & will see how that goes, momument is next on my list though !

Good Luck & Happy New Year

[Bean]

Hi xirago,

 

You are right to take this steadily.

 

Familiarise yourself with what to do, and take it one step at a time.

 

It will take a while to recover what is rightfully yours, but it is worth it.

[innocent]

Hi all,

 

Been subscribing to this thread for a few months, getting reading to submit MCOL later today for monument (having already won at natwest and cap1)

 

Just a thought Bean?

 

* Monument = Barclays... and I appreciate we claim against Monument

 

* Reading many of the barclays threads they are very similar to the barclaycards in how they tackle the cases; is it reasonable to expect monument will be the same?

 

* I think it is within Welshmans thread (a Barclays case WON) he has provided a phone number and name which you phone ONLY after you receive a court or hearing date! Others have done this and "Barclays, Barclaycard (and therefore I presume Monument)" are settling there and then on the phone...

 

Have you tried?

 

 

 

Rgds

 

Innocent

[Mike220359]

I've sent the LBA just before Xmas, but am trying to save the money up to take them to court, but I'll be watching this with alot of interest.

 

Mike

[Bean]

...Just a thought Bean?

 

* Monument = Barclays... and I appreciate we claim against Monument

 

* Reading many of the barclays threads they are very similar to the barclaycards in how they tackle the cases; is it reasonable to expect monument will be the same?

 

* I think it is within Welshmans thread (a Barclays case WON) he has provided a phone number and name which you phone ONLY after you receive a court or hearing date! Others have done this and "Barclays, Barclaycard (and therefore I presume Monument)" are settling there and then on the phone...

 

Have you tried?...

 

Innocent

 

Thanks for the tip Innocent, I phoned Barclays Legal Department:

Barclays Bank PLC Litigation, Level 29, 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP on 020-7116-4523 to ask who is handling my claim. Mr. Anthony Lombardi told me that it's Ms. Rebecca Connelly. She is out today so I will phone tomorrow. I will keep you posted.

 

Incidentally the "Notice of Allocation to the Small Claims Track (Hearing)" has, for the first time during the progress of the claim, a reference in the "Defendant (including ref.)" box. It is "RLC/LIT" which presumably stands for "Rebecca L Connelly / Litigation".

 

Hi Mike220359, I wish you every success with your claim. Remember to recover from the Defendant any court costs for your claim, and the £10 Data Protection Act Subject Access Request fee if you paid one.

[innocent]

Any news?

 

Just got my hearing date for barclaycard (feb 19th) so Im going to try and phone tomorrow (today?) too.....

 

(Barclaycard I am claiming 8%.......... however been up all night reading about contractual interest for my monument claim.... Ill have to submit another LBA but worth £350 extra)

 

(Oh and by the way my earlier thread referred to Welshmans thread; quote 186 within it; for those wondering what was on about)

 

 

Looking forward to your good news

 

Rgds

 

Innocent

[Innocenti]

I have rang the courts and they have filed a defence. My AV is in the post. Was hoping they would settle early but doesnt look like it. Typical

[Bean]

I phoned Barclays Litigation dept. on 5th, 8th and 9th January but had to leave a message each time.

 

RC replied by phone later on 9 January - she said that they have many of these claims and that they are in priority order. She expects to get back to me by the end of next week, i.e. by Friday 19 January 2007.