My Mum vs Lloyds Card Services

[rachel2609]

Its 40 days on Friday since we sent the original letter requesting statements under the DPA. We have sent another letter since reminding them that the clock is ticking and still no response. Both have been received as we sent them recorded. So not only have they not responded but they are also in contravention of their own Complaints procedure.

 

At the moment Mum is still a customer, though we are shortly transferring the balance onto a 0% card as the were the only ones who almost laughed in her face when we sent letters as advised by the CAB to tell them of her circumstances. Circumstances that they have contributed to in no short measure

 

In the 12 months or so of statements which we have they have charged over £200 in late payment fees etc. Obviously if we dont receive the statements by Friday should I send a LBA with a guesstimate i.e. 6 x £200 = £1200 for the 6 year period??

 

I think I already know the answer, but some reassurance would be helpful.

[Dammam]

Have you tried emailing them Rachel? It seems unusual not to get any kind of response - most of us even had our statements sent without the £10 charge.

[rachel2609]

Just going to try emailing them now.

 

The problem is that I live 50 miles from Mum and so can only get to see her at weekends to try and sort this out. She is a complete technophobe, she can turn the computer on but the internet baffles her so trying to tell her over the phone how to email would test the patience of a Saint!!

 

I think emailing is the way to go as she gets flustered on the telephone, and will only end up agreeing to something she shouldnt.

 

Will report back later if I get a response.

 

Rachel

[Dammam]

I understand. But there's nothing stopping you from sending the email in your mothers' name and asking for the forms to be sent to her address. As long as you have all of her banking details of course.

 

Good luck both of you.

[rachel2609]

Just set Mum up with a Hotmail account which I have sent the emails from on her behalf. Sent it 5 times for good measure, copying it to my work email as well so that I know that they have been sent, they are all sat there in my in-box

 

Will wait and see if I get a response.

[BankFodder]

Its 40 days on Friday since we sent the original letter requesting statements under the DPA. We have sent another letter since reminding them that the clock is ticking and still no response. Both have been received as we sent them recorded. So not only have they not responded but they are also in contravention of their own Complaints procedure.

 

At the moment Mum is still a customer, though we are shortly transferring the balance onto a 0% card as the were the only ones who almost laughed in her face when we sent letters as advised by the CAB to tell them of her circumstances. Circumstances that they have contributed to in no short measure

 

In the 12 months or so of statements which we have they have charged over £200 in late payment fees etc. Obviously if we dont receive the statements by Friday should I send a LBA with a guesstimate i.e. 6 x £200 = £1200 for the 6 year period??

 

I think I already know the answer, but some reassurance would be helpful.

 

It would be helpful if you could keep running your claim in one thread rather than starting new ones, please.

 

However, I don't like claims for indeterminate sums. In this case you have definite figures for a year so I think that you should begin a claim for this but inlcude also a claim for their breach of contract in failing to carry out their statutory duty of making a DPA disclosure to you.

You will probably find that the mere inclusion of this in your calim will produce a rapid discloure. We will work out the wording when you make your claim.

At the same time begin a complaint to the Information Commisioner.

 

Did you send the £10 with your DPA request?

 

Also and at the same time begin another DPA request sending the £10 so that you have a second request in. Don't worry about the £10 as you will claim it back.

If they make the disclosure eventually then you can amend your claim - or else you can start another one and go for the rest. If they really won't disclose after all that then make an inflated indeterminate clim and let them protest in front of the judge.

All you are doing here is piling on the pressure, demonstrating their contempt for their obligations and for the various authorities. It all builds up into a pile of shame for the banks. Enjoy.

[rachel2609]

Thanks for that and apologies for my error! It must be hard enough to monitor these threads without chumps like me double posting, I have to admit I had forgotten that I had posted originally, sorry

 

I will speak with Mum this afternoon when she is home from work with regards to sending the pre-lim letter on Friday claiming the 1 year we know about and pointing out their breach of contract - is this correct?

I will prep the letter in anticipation.

 

£10 sent but not cashed as yet, but as I said we have the Track & Trace printouts from both letters that have been received by Lloyds.

[rachel2609]

How does this sound? I have put a final para about the non-complinace with my DPA request, is this sufficent or should I put something more regarding them being in breach of contract with reference to the DPA disclosure? I need to get it sorted to be able to get it over to Mums in time for Friday should no communication be forthcoming.

 

 

Request for repayment of Charges

Account Number:

 

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account for the period November 2003 – November 2004.

 

I understand that the regime of charges you have applied to my account in relation to late fees are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in manner which complies with UK law. I am shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I have always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

 

I calculate that you have taken a total of £200.00 in fees over the 12 month period November 2003 – November 2004.

 

I will give you 14 days in which to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and to let me know a date by which I will receive payment. I will accept no further delays and if no response is received by 7th April, 2006 I will commence court action, as previously stated in my letters dated 13th February and 8th March respectively.

 

Please note that despite two separate requests (copy letters enclosed) for further information on the charges levied on my account I have yet to receive the information as requested. You are in contravention of the Data Protection Act in withholding this information from me, and I will therefore be reporting your non-compliance to the Information Commissioner.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

My Mum

[BankFodder]

Thanks for that and apologies for my error! It must be hard enough to monitor these threads without chumps like me double posting, I have to admit I had forgotten that I had posted originally, sorry

 

I will speak with Mum this afternoon when she is home from work with regards to sending the pre-lim letter on Friday claiming the 1 year we know about and pointing out their breach of contract - is this correct?

I will prep the letter in anticipation.

 

£10 sent but not cashed as yet, but as I said we have the Track & Trace printouts from both letters that have been received by Lloyds.

 

Yes, correct - except that their faliure to diclose will be included in any future claim.

[BankFodder]

Please note that despite two separate requests (copy letters enclosed) for further information on the charges levied on my account and in respect of which payment has been made to you I have yet to receive the information as requested. You are in contravention of the Data Protection Act in withholding this information from me, and I will therefore be reporting your non-compliance to the Information Commissioner. Furtherore, as this failure clearly amounts to a breach of your contratcual obligation to comply with your statutory duties, I shall be including a claim for this contractual breach along with my claim for the charges which you have taken unalwfully from my account.

 

Something like that

[rachel2609]

Cheers for that Bankfodder!

[rachel2609]

I have been on the Information Commissioner website this afternoon and have printed out all the relevant info and complaint form which I shall fill in tonight for Mum with instructions of when to send it. I am thinking next Monday after the 40 days expires on Friday??

 

Have also finalised the draft of the letter before action to Lloyds TSB and have got that over to Mum with all her instructions.

 

I sometimes think that I am patronising her with the easy user instructions etc, but more and more as time goes on and me and my sister keep referring her to articles, etc about this I think she is gaining more of an understanding.

 

If any of her potential cases do come to court, I feel that she will have enough information by then to argue her corner

[rachel2609]

Have received a response to the emails sent earlier this morning as follows:

 

Thank you for the e-mails.

 

I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy over the level of charges you have incurred on your Lloyds TSB Creditcard account and that you do not appear to have received a response to your previous letters.

 

Under the circumstances, your e-mail has been passed on to the Manager of the Complaints Unit within Card Services and have asked that he/she notes your comments and issues raised and arranges for a response be sent to you at the earliest opportunity.

 

Regards and apologies again for the delay.

 

Keith Boden

Lloyds TSB - Service Recovery

Birmingham

 

You couldnt make it up - they dont even know whether the Manager of their own internal Complaints Unit is a man or a woman!!

 

Regardless of the content of the email I am still going to go ahead with the LBA and the Info Commisioner compliant as detailed above as I doubt they will meet the deadline of this Friday. They have had 2 opportunities and have chosen to ignore both despite the letters definately being received as we have proof of delivery.

[BankFodder]

Modify the LBA to show that you will be putting in a claim for non compliance with their statutory duty.

[rachel2609]

Well DPA Day has arrived!!

 

I will speak to Mum at lunchtime and see if anything has arrived in the post. If not off will go the already completed complaint to the Info Commissioner and the LBA for the 12 months of fees that we are aware of.

 

Will post back this afternoon.

[BankFodder]

Let me now when yu do your calim. I think that you shd=ould include the DPA failure in the claim.

PM me with the draft of your particulars and I'll suggest something

[rachel2609]

Hi Bankfodder

 

I have already got a note in my diary based on your previous comments to appeal for your help when we submit the claim

 

The support of all on here is much appreciated!

[rachel2609]

Well the postman has been and all he has brought my dear old Mum is her new council tax charge for this year

 

The letters are being enveloped as we speak and will be dispatched later this afternoon.

 

How long does it take for the Information Commissioner to come back to you about a complaint and what happens if we subsequently receive the information after todays deadline has been passed??

[Seminole]

In my case it took him three weeks to acknowledge the complaint and say that he will investigate it.

[rachel2609]

Poop, just spend 10 minutes typing a reply to delete it by pressing the wrong button!!

 

Anyway, have received a letter from LTSB this mornign, dated 22nd March so before the deadline of Friday but still late - migth charge them £20 for the inconvenience :o)

 

Letter goes something like this, the most long winded 'get lost' letter I have ever known!

 

Dear My Mum

 

I refer to your letters dated 13th February, 2006 and 7th March 2006, which have been passed to me for my personal attention and response.

 

Firstly, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your letter dated 13th February 2006.

 

Your complaint is that Lloyds TSB Bank have debited your account with £623.00 of charges. I enclose copy statements as requested, which will also confirm any manual intervention.

 

I feel it important to tell you that when you applied for you’re the credit card account, you signed a Credit Agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, agreeing to be bound by its Terms and Conditions.

 

You are required to operate your account in accordance with the Terms and Conditions that govern the Credit Card Agreement between you and the Bank. The Bank is confident that these Terms and Conditions are legitimate and fair. We also clearly publicise our charges for the benefit of all our customers.

 

Given your views on our charges, you could at anytime have chosen to end the agreement by repaying the balance in full and yet you have chosen not to do this.

 

The Bank does not accept that there is any merit in your request to refund all the charges. Finally it is important for you to consider that the Bank will continue to apply charges to your account in accordance with its published terms in the event that you do not operate the account within the Terms and Conditions that govern the agreement. If you are unable to agree with this, then I must respectfully suggest that you will need to consider whether to continue to hold a credit card with Lloyds TSB Bank Plc.

 

I hope that I have been able to fully answer the points you have raised with us. If not, please let me know what else I can do to help. A copy of our leaflet ‘How to voice your concerns’ was sent on the 16th March 2006 for your attention (Was it? Have never received it!), which explains what to do if you are still not happy. There’s no need to reply to this letter unless you want me to do something else for you. If I haven’t heard anything from you by 17th May 2006 I will close my file.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Carol Whitehead

Senior Officer

Service Recovery Centre - Brighton

 

I guess the next step considering we sent a letetr on Friday claiming the £200 we knew about is to write back to Carol Whitehead claiming the reamining £423????

[richardc]

Yes, do that.

[Bookworm]

I enclose copy statements as requested, which will also confirm any manual intervention.

 

Does it? Where? How? Please let me know!

 

I guess the next step considering we sent a letetr on Friday claiming the £200 we knew about is to write back to Carol Whitehead claiming the reamining £423???

 

Double check your statements, make sure that's the right amount, don't take their word for it, and make sure there's no duplicates in there (my NWB ones did, and I'm not sure convinced it was an accident).

Then LBA, 7 days. It's clear they're not going to pay up, so no point in pussyfooting around.

[BankFodder]

Have they confirmed some manual intervention? We would be interested to know what form it takes

[rachel2609]

Bookworm - have cheked the statements they are correct though there were duplicates!! I have fished all of those out and added it all up, totals £623, so less the £200 claim already in with the LBA, makes £423.

 

No manual interventions as far as I can see!! These manula interventions are a complete mystery!

[rachel2609]

Hello,

 

Not been on for a week or so as Mum has been up in Scotland on a half-term break so no access to her mail in her absence. Needless to say there has been no response from Lloyds TSB in regards to the original claim for £200 or the subsequent further claim for £423, therefore I am going to start the ball rolling with Moneyclaim.

 

Bankfodder (if you are here?) you suggested that I sent you details of the claim that I was placing for the DPA non-compliance, is it still OK to PM you with them?

 

Thanks