Your Thought On This Lloyds Letter Plz

[xbeanx3000]

Hi,

 

I sent off the PAFR letter with some changes, and the response I got is below. Also, below is the original letter I sent just so you can see the changes I made (sent to my local branch in hope of geting a personal reply, and I did). Any thoughts on the letter(s) would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

"Thank you for your letter regarding the refund of charges to your account.

 

You quote various recent articles made by the Office of Fair Trading which relate to credit card default fees, not to overdraft charges.

 

As a bank we disagree entirely with the comparisons being made between credit card default fees and current account overdraft charges as the legal and commercial basis for charging is different. We will not refund our overdraft charges as a result of customer complaints unless we have incorrectly applied the charges.

We make all our charges clear to our customers, both on thier statements and in our banking charges leaflet. By using our Telephone banking, Internet, ATM and free mobile banking text services, our customers can manage their accounts to avoid overdraft charges.

 

We have deleted or waived charges on your account on several occasions, and also explained on various occasion how the charging structure works and when charges will be applied to your account.

 

We take our responsibility to customer and customer service extremely seriously. We strongly believe that our policies, guidelines and processes treat our customer fairly and provide clear infomation. Our charging policies are constantly reviewed to ensure that we comply with all parts of the banking code and any relevant legislation.

 

I hope I've been able to answer the points you've raised with us. If not please let me know what else I can do to help.

 

We have done our best to resolve your complaint. But if you're not happy with our response for any reason, I have enclosed a copy of our leaflet 'how to voice your concerns' which gives you details about what to do.

 

You don't need to reply to this letter unless there is anything else you'd like me to help you with. If you need to talk to us again about this please contact us by 9th October. this is so we can get your infomation quickly. If you do contact us after this time we will, of course, still be able to help you but it may take us longer to find the infomation we need"

 

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That's everything. Now my letter below:

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My request

I have charges earmarked for September totalling £60 for going over my agreed overdraft, but it has come to my attention that these charges are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. Therefore could I please have them removed or, if you have responded after they have been taken, refunded? If you say that they are lawful, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

 

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them in the past.

 

Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now

 

What I require

I understand that I could have charges refunded dating back a full 6 years, but this is not my intention. Therefore could you please just cancel/refund the current £60 earmark/charge only, and the other past charges will be forgotten.

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive resolution.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

Yours faithfully,

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Should I send the second letter now? Have I made any errors with the changes to the original PAFR letter?

[lee6370]

Seems fine to me, go for it.

[xbeanx3000]

She makes it sound like I'm getting certain laws for credit cards confused with overdrafts. Kind of scares me.

 

I'll send the second letter now then.

 

Is this court business all done over the internet, from that Claim website? I'm disabled and wouldn't be able to make any outside appointments.

[moltonbrownqueen]

you can file your claim online no probs. Should the need arise for you to actually attend court, i'm sure there is a way that someone can represent you. there is a buddy system onsite. don't fret about it yet though, still some way to go (sorry)

regards

[xbeanx3000]

Thanks for that, moltonbrownqueen. One last thing before I leave it for now. So far all of this is an 'earmark', should I wait until the money is taken (I can't really afford this), which would be in September? If so, it'll push me over my 14 day Prim letter I sent them. My concentration isn't too good and I might be making mistakes already.

[lee6370]

If they have taken charges before then you can send your next letter, and only detail those charges that have been taken.

 

Then when and if you need to issue a claim, by that time they would have taken the money that has been ear marked, so you can then include that amount as well.

 

If on the other hand they have never taken charges in the past and those that are due to be taken in September will be the first, then you'll need to wait until they have taken them.

Don't worry about going over your deadline, it's your deadline so if you don't take the next step for 3 or 4 weeks then thats fine all you have told them is they have at least 2 weeks, it's their good fortune that you will extend the deadline.

[xbeanx3000]

Just a final update. As a result of refinancing my existing Lloyds loan (merging my overdraft into it), Lloyds has removed all the penalty earmarks on my account as a 'good gesture'. I'm not sure if this is a good thing as I didn't want to pay back my overdraft so soon, but I'll go with it.