Court Preparation

[Tobes]

Hi guys - Yasmin, the Forerunner as she shall now henceforth be known Eek, and myself have all received court dates (mine's mid-September) so I thought it would be quite a good idea to discuss here what we're going to send to the court and to Egg, and maybe to discuss a gameplan or tactics or intentions or whatever...What do you think?

[lee6370]

There's certain evidance we can use thats generic to all claims.

[All8pne]

I think a going to court pack would be really useful. Thats the scary bit isnt it? I know most of what is needed is already here on the site, but bringing it together would be really good. I'm miles off court as yet, still waiting for my SAR to be fulfilled. but has anyone who has been to court or has settled and done their homework just in case, got anything to add?

 

Remember the 5p's

 

Preparation

Prevents

****

Poor

Performance

[Matheos95]

Wish you all the luck with your court cases I used to work for egg lol and love reading all these posts - knowing them Im not surprised that they are going all the way they like to think themselves better than all the rest and they are not!! Im not quite sure why they think they are going to win when all the other institutions know they wont lol. All the very best for the court cases (if it even gets there)

[sarey331]

im planning to rely on 1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) and 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act.

im filing my MCOL with HSBC next week so anyother bits of legislation or arguments i can incorporate into it would be nice

[Tobes]

Matheos95 - thanks for the encouragement

 

You wouldn't be able to confirm for us (obviously anonymously, without swearing on a bible lol) that their processes ARE automatic, would you? The letters they send - they appear to be unsigned, automatically produced letters, their charges appear to be added automatically by the system etc etc?

[Matheos95]

I cant really part of the exit was a confidentially agreement - but lets put it like this do you think any large bank nowadays does any manual application of standard charges to ALOT of accounts - I DONT! The letters well I would guess that many CC companies have a list of standard letters by number in their system that they could request instantly via a computer system i would imagine there could be anything upto 50+ letters to choose from, but i would also guess that there is alot of manual letters that go out to!! sorry cant help much but still have my fingers crossed for you.

[Tobes]

Thanks for trying, matey

[sarey331]

well ive written to hsbc telling them that actually their justification of the charges being set out in t&cs is erroneous because these charges are illegal under consumer legislation 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act as well as 1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) and this is why the OFT is investigating and your customers are taking action against you. As a consumer I am protected by Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs) and it is under this legislation that I believe a court would rule in my favour.

the OFT website has a very useful section in there about what is an unfair charge and it clearly states that a punitive charge is an unfair charge.

overdarft charges are punitive becuase they dont reflect the cost of generating letter becuase as it has been said these things are done by automated systems.

as there is no clarification made on statements between what is a manual intervention and what is automated, the customer does not receive full transparant account of what they are being charged for.

i have also read that:

Under 1977 Unfair Terms (contracts) Act, the sheer fact that ALL banks make these charges makes this a breach of the act (the example given is exactly that)

i want to look into this and find out exactly how that works but it does make a convincing case doesnt it?

[Yasmin]

Hi Tobes, Not long now.....Don't forget to include the O F T report, April 2006 Calculating fair default charges in credit card contracts. If you prepare properly and adhere to deadlines, even if they don't, it could prevent yet another adjournment.........????

[Tobes]

thanks guys, yup I'll try and prepare everything properly and in advance!

[Glenn UK]

You might like to consider how much they charge for statements or letters that are not part of their obligation under the Data Protection Act.

 

Not sure if egg are trying that, but the other banks are saying that their system isnt a relevant filing system and its a real pain to gather the data (ive only had an acknowledgement of my S.A.R from egg so far). Hence 3 quid per month or similar.

 

But they charge 20 quid or so for automatic letters and charges, cleary weird since manual intervention to provide microfiche statements would be quite time consuming, according to the banks and therefore the charges should reflect a commerical rate based on the time and effort dont you think?

 

Not sure this coud be used with egg but im sure it would interest a judge for banks that do this.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

 

PS if you wan to see what i wrote check out Glenn vs Barclaycard, having re read it i would make some changes but then i always do that.

[Tobes]

That's actually very interesting Glenn, thanks a lot

[Glenn UK]

YW

 

It came to me when i got the letter from barclays saying how they didnt understand about smith vs lloydd or whatever its called.

 

I wrote and asked how they could justify theyre chagres bearing in ind the disparity between the effort of the two actions.

 

Wonder if anyone will read it at barclay card or it will end up in the 'not satisfied pile'!!

 

Like to be there if if they do just to hear what they say.

 

Glenn

[Yasmin]

Hi Tobes, Want any support in court? Know it's September ;-) . Just let me know!