Citi's Threat

[hondamad21]

Hello everyone. . .

 

Received a reply from Citi after sending a LBA to them. They basically have refunded me the difference between what they charged me and the OTF stated “fair charge” of £12.

 

They have also added a thinly veiled threat that should I proceed with the court action they will ask for it to be transfer to their home court which is Salford.

Saying “ The legal presumption id that justice should be local to the defendant as the defendant is deemed innocent until proven guilty and ought not be disadvantaged in defending itself.”

 

As the 14 days for the LBA were up I submitted a claim in Edinburgh Sheriff Court a day before I received this letter

 

Can anyone help out how I respond to this? Specially making sure that the claim is not transferred to Salford!

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Hondamad

[hondamad21]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have looked through some of the other Citi threads and got a few copies of letters from people. Have now put together a response and will be sending the letter this afternoon.

hondamad

[hondamad21]

Ok received a reply from Citi . . .

 

Would love peoples thoughts on how to reply !!!

 

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your . . . Given the fact that you have already issued proceedings I shall confine my comments to the following points:

 

1. Your account was operated for a mere two years yet in that time, through no fault of my client, you amassed 29 default charges (I know my bad, I plead stupidity being a student at that time) The OTF report did not find that default fees per se were wrong merely the level. Accordingly my client introduced a lower level and offered refunds which is the fairest means of dealing with the situation. However, according to your analysis, my client should have simply allowed you to run your account in any way you saw fit without incurring any costs whatsoever. That is the logic of your demand for the return of all charges. I am sure that you will agree that it is not a sustainable business proposition.

2. As you will appreciate the actual cost of breaches to my client is a commercial secret which other institutions who are competitors would like to know. In the event that we attend court, we shall disclose it there and ask the court to rule against wider disclosure. I apologise for this but I can assure that the cost to my client is in excess of the OTF limit of £12. (yeah right!!!)

3. The court has discretion where to remit a case. I shall seek to persuade the court to exercise it in my client’s favour.

4. My client conducted itself within the laws at all times and no-one has made any suggestion to the contrary. The OTF made an interpretation that did not, contrary to your claim, have force of law. I suggest you reread the report and you will find it acknowledged by the OTF itself that it would have to seek a court decision on its interpretation.

5. I disagree with your assertion regarding my analysis, it is not a misrepresentative. I would be grateful for your analysis on this.

6. Blah blah solicitor for 10 years. I believe I have some degree of understanding of the law and disagree with your view as I am sure that OTF would.

7. More blah blah report my client to OTF, I shall of course defend it on the basis set above.

8. Please be assured that my client will defend any action you bring as it has continued to do in England. (I live in Scotland!)

 

Yours,

 

Brian Smith

[hondamad21]

Ok, Have decided I am going to reply by just acknowledging the receipt of letter from Brian Smith and say that I look forward to meeting him in court nothing else.

 

Have received the court papers, the return date is 3/10/06 and the calling date is 10/10/06.

[hondamad21]

Ok I know I said I am going to just acknowledge receipt of the letter. However I could not but help pointing out one thing to Mr Smith . . . me bad!

 

 

Thank you for letter dated 16th August 2006.

 

I understand your argument, having no interest in arguing the validity of my claim with you and not wishing to waste any more time in this pointless to-ing and fro-ing, I will simply let the judge decide when we meet in court who is correct.

 

There was one point that I cannot help but commenting on. I have recently found out the charges levied by you client in Germany:-

 

Cost for Customer at fault going overlimit = 4,– EUR

 

Costs of action for Payments in arrears

1. Service letter = 3,– EUR

2. Service letter = 3,– EUR

3. Service letter = 3,– EUR

plus postage = 0,90 EUR

Non payment/Late payment of Monthly Invoice amount = 10,- EUR

 

If you dispute the authenticity of this please feel free to go to . . .

http://www.citibank.de/downloads/doc/preisubersicht.pdf?miSID=3FDEE4F7-E7A6-4AC7-BCF3-7AFAAD326886

 

With this in mind how can your client claim to justify charging £20-25 for fees in the UK? Even the new fee of £12 is many times higher that what is charged in Germany.

I really look forward to the court date so that I can see your argument for this.

 

Unless your client in prepared to pay back in full the charges levied against me as stated in my claim, I have no need for further communication from yourself and look forward to meeting you in court.

Yours sincerely,

[hondamad21]

All credit for the German charges from Citi goes to Rbphot. He is the one who did the investigation.

 

Hondamad

[hondamad21]

Hi adamski,

 

The return date was 3/10/2006. Citi failed to respond.

They are given a further 14 days to respond after the return date. Checked last week with Edinburgh Sheriff Court and they said that the 14 days have passed and they will send out the judgment in my favour on the 25/10 (today).

HOWEVER from what I was told even thought I get the paperwork to chase citi up for payment they still have another 14 days from the 25/10 to respond to the case!!! :x:x

 

Anyway, hopefully will receive the papers from ESC tomorrow will send them to the nice Mr B Smith and see what happens.

 

Any one else had any luck????

[hondamad21]

Hi Robertxc,

 

yes I had to fill that in the after the return date of 03/10/2006.

 

Hondamad21

[hondamad21]

To Mr Brian Smith, Don't be so nosy and stop reading my thread !!!!!!!!!!!!! :o:x:o

 

 

 

Hello everyone else,

 

Ohhh, if you don't get the line at the top, I yesterday got a letter that confirms that Mr Smith monitors the CAG!!!!!!!

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your letter . . .

 

As you know from the Bank Action Group website, my client Citifinancial Europe plc, defends all cases brought against it. It therefore would have defended yours has it received the summons. The reason no defence was filed in this case was because I did not receive a copy of your original summons to which the above relates although I recall you mentioning that you had issued one in your last letter.

 

I would, of course, normally issue an application to set the judgement aside in these circumstances. However, I note that you have obtained judgment against Citibank International plc, a company I do not have instructions to represent or accept claims on behalf of and with whom, as far as I can ascertain, you did not have a credit card agreement, the contract for the same having been assigned several years ago to Citifinancial Europe plc, my client

 

You must have been aware of this as you have previously written to me at my clients company address on two occasions and have received statements and notices of variation etc over the lifetime of the agreement from that company, not from Citibank. . . I therefore believe you have inadvertently sued the wrong party. As such you cannot enforce the present judgment.

 

Please try to accept that in pointing this out my client is not attempting some subterfuge or legal trickery. You have sued a completely different legal entity to that with which you had a contract. I shall write to my colleagues in Citibank and to the Court informing them of the error.

 

Yours "faithfully"

 

Brian Smith

 

I have spoken to a few people in regards to this, the feed back is positive and I shall be putting the advise in to action over the next few days.

However I do not wish to write it down here, as that with warn Mr Smith of what I am about to do.

 

If anyone has any advise at all please PM me.

 

Thanks for everyone’s help in advance,

 

hondamad