My claim against Natwest

[dazza12]

I sent my DPA letter yesterday, just checked on the Royal Mail website and it's been delivered. The clock is now ticking.

 

One thing I didn't do was state that I authorise them to debit the £10 charge. I'm sure they'll try to stall by sending me the official form. Of course, a reply to this will simply be an update authorising them.

 

Of the 4 years I've traced, I'm looking at over 2k. I had the majority of my problems prior to that, so I'm hoping there's at least another 1-2k for the previous couple of years. I'm just annoyed I didn't find out about this earlier, I'm sure the banks have robbed me of over 10k since the mid 90s.

 

After that I'm going to start on the other banks that screwed me at the time. Hopefully they're still within the 6 year rule, but even if it's a tiny amount I'm still going to pursue it!

 

I will keep you all updated.

[BankFodder]

The DPA request does not take effect until the money is paid. You should deal with this.

[dazza12]

I think Natwest may have just changed their stance on refunds/stopping charges.

 

I've just noticed a couple of DDs that were due out today, that took me over my limit. Normally the bank would charge me twice for them (both are less than the charge itself). If I called to ask the charges to be refunded, I'd end up having to jump through hoops and if the charges were refunded, being told it was 'just on this occasion as a gesture of goodwill'.

 

This morning however, I asked if I was being charged, they told me they'd pay the DDs and wouldn't charge me. Totally different approach to what I've experienced over the last few years. And for once, the lending team were actually pleasant to me. I'm wondering if the DPA letter I'd sent a couple of days ago has triggered a marker on my account and that they're expecting a claim soon.

[BankFodder]

No, it's just an accident and I expect that the staff involved will be given their cards before the end of the day

[dazza12]

The DPA request does not take effect until the money is paid. You should deal with this.

 

Should I send another letter to them with an additional paragraph authorising them to debit the £10, or try to contact them separately?

[richardc]

I would send another letter with a cheque or postal order.. The department which deals with DPA requests may not have authority to debit your account.

[dazza12]

This might sound like a stupid question, but should I be making this payable to Natwest Bank plc or The Royal Bank of Scotland plc? The only reason I'm unsure is because the address is in Edinburgh and I'm assuming it's at the RBS head office.

[BankFodder]

Your bahk is Natwest so everything is addressed to Natwest

[dazza12]

This morning I received the response to my original letter asking me to send either £5 for statements or £10 for the full SAR.

 

They also state that the full SAR doesn't include statements.

 

In the meantime, I've also sent an amended letter enclosing a £10 cheque.

 

I am however concerned that they are currently arranging to produce an SAR without the statement data. Having searched the forum and in this section, it is clear that they are wrong on this, and I have written a letter that I will fax to them later this weekend.

 

Can you cast your eye over this and advise if it's acceptable? I've read through it and it sounds ok, but just wanted to check I've got my point across to them and got my facts right about it.

 

==============================

I refer to your letter of 16th March 2006 in response to my earlier letter to you.

 

You may have noticed that I have sent an amended letter in the last few days enclosing a cheque for £10 and asking for a full SAR. I note your comments in your letter stating that a full SAR does not normally include bank statements.

 

You may be aware that in case law (Durant v Financial Services Authority [2003] EWCA Civ 1746) it has been held that data does include statements.

 

I would remind you that you have fiduciary duty towards me under which you are obliged to exercise the utmost care in the accuracy of statements which you make to me and that to make a false representation would be a serious breach of this duty. If you persist I may bring the matter to the attention of the Court as well as the Information Commissioner when I make my complaint. You also have a contractual as well as a statutory duty to comply fully with my reasonable requests under UK legislation (the Data Protection Act) and this may also be brought to the attention of the Court.

 

I would also like to remind you of my further request to provide data relating to any event in my account history over the requested 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 kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.

 

You now have 38 days in which to comply with this request.

 

==============================

 

Thanks for any advice you can give.

[dazza12]

I got as far as sending both the preliminary letter, then the letter before action.

 

Then, real life events took over. Broke up with the ex, and one of my kids fell ill. As a result, this got put on the back burner, and I didn't end up submitting the court claim.

 

Will I need to start again from the beginning?

 

During that time, I've accrued another couple of hundred pounds in bank charges. Is it possible to send an amended 'letter before action' and take into account the additional charges?

[dazza12]

I've decided to start again from the beginning. Since my original claim, the resources and information on this site have grown, and there is a lot more material to get answers for my questions.

 

I've also just bought the Small Claims pack from this site, which should put me in a better position when the claim gets to court.

 

I will start the process off again this weekend. However, now I plan to claim overdraft interest on top, with the help of the new excel spreadsheet in the library. May as well claim as much as I can from the bank!

[dazza12]

Hi,

 

I attempted a claim earlier last year, but ended up giving things up at the time due to life events that got the better of me.

 

Late last year, I decided to have another go at the process. This is where I am so far:

 

8th December 2006 - Sent Preliminary Approach letter with schedule of bank charges;

22nd December 2006 - Sent LBA with schedule of bank charges (updated).

 

The date of the court claim would have been 5th January, however I've not been able to afford the court costs until this week. However, something occurred to me which I thought I'd run by you guys.

 

Shortly after the 8th December letter was sent, I received bank charges of approximately £114. This was referred to in the 22nd December letter, and an amended letter was sent to the bank.

 

I'm aware that I need to have sent the bank two copies of the schedule of charges before I claim via MCOL. Bearing in mind the fact that I submitted an amended copy, does this still need to be done? If so, I'll forward another copy to the bank today, with a covering letter advising that I'm sending the copy which will correspond with the claim (or words to that effect). I'll then submit the claim via MCOL later this week / next week.

 

With this in mind, does it matter that I didn't submit the claim on or shortly after 5th January? If the bank hadn't made me so poor in the first place, everything would have been done on time!

 

The total of the claim (including interest to be applied at court time) is about £4200, so it should put me back in the black for the first time in 10 years.

 

Thanks for the recommendation of the Small Claims pack and Judge Pearl's guide - both have been invaluable, and I recommend anyone starting this to buy these through this site - it helps the site and answers a lot of common questions.

[dazza12]

I'm just about to submit my claim via Moneyclaim, however it's not very clear whether I should be putting my branch as the defendant or Natwest's head office.

 

Does it matter which? If so, which is the best to use?

[angela1606]

no its the 135 bishopgate , london, ec2m 3ur good luck

[dazza12]

Would it be advisable to send a second copy of the amended schedule of charges to the bank, or would the one copy already sent be enough?

 

Thanks for the help, hopefully I should have the case running this afternoon.

[Deller]

You can never send too many copies of your schedule........although Nat West or Cobbetts always seem to come back stating they have'nt seen them. Send everything recorded delivery that way you have proof of posting.

[dazza12]

I'm sure this is a common occurrence. I've done a search, but can only really find situations where the charges amount is over 5k, not the situation that I've described.

 

Bearing in mind the original amount is less than 5k, can this still go through the small claims track? The interest is what takes it over 5k.

 

If it's better to slice the claim amounts up into two separate claims, does it matter that I've sent the total amount to the bank in the two letters?

 

Many thanks,

 

Darren.

[steven4064]

I would keep it as one. If and when it comes to allocation you can ask for it to be allocated to small claims - claims over £5k can be if they are 'simple'. I can't see the defendant objecting - the last thing they would want is allocation to the fast track because full disclosure is ordered as amatter of course and they don't want that!

[dazza12]

Many thanks for your advice.

 

Just one other quick question:

 

I'm currently filling in my N1. I'm following the POC guide, but I've got a query regarding fees. For less than 5k, it shows 1 fee, and for above 5k it shows another. Is this amount the total amount including the 8% interest, or should it be without? I'm aware that the 8% is only applied at the discretion of the court, so wondered if it was included.

[steven4064]

You leave off the 8% interest in calcualting the fee

[dazza12]

Sorry - I should have looked at the possibilities before I submitted this, as another couple of questions have arisen).

 

My charges claim in total (without the 8% interest) is £4934.55. It's just shy of the 5k limit, so anything's going to take it over. With the court fee, this also takes it over. I'm assuming this is also left out of the calculation for fee purposes. Sorry for the confusion, but my brain tends to err on the side of caution and asks too many questions!

 

A quick one regarding the N1 POC:

 

***

c) The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from [date when the money became owed to you] to [the date you are issuing the claim] of £ [amount] and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of [enter the daily rate of interest]

***

 

The section [date when the money became owed to you] is a bit confusing - as charges are made on several dates, how would I word this? Also, the [enter the daily rate of interest] I'm assuming I should state the daily rate in pounds and pence which works out at about £1.09.

 

I'm hoping to go to the court later today or Monday, and hopefully can breathe a sigh of relief and relax (until Natwest start playing games) at that point.

[steven4064]

dazza

 

Yes you leave out the court fee in the fee calculation.

 

I would reword c)

 

The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year up until [the date you are issuing the claim] of £ [amount] and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of [enter the daily rate of interest]

 

The amount is the total of the 8% interest on all the charges from the spreadsheet

[dazza12]

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