chrisjb98 v Barclays

[chrisjb98]

Hi there. After successfully claiming £155 from my current bank - HSBC, I have decided to try and claim from my previous bank - Barclays whom I had a student account with for 4 years - and I know I got hammered for charges.

 

I sent a £10 cheque requesting a list of charges, and had a letter back three days later with the cheque returned saying that they could not provide this info - but they could send statements. 37 days have passed and nothing!! My guess is that that every week that goes past - another charge is unrecoverable as it is going past the 6 year mark - the SWINES!

[christobin]

alrite mate im the same as u with barclays.can u get charges bak on ur loan account??

[chrisjb98]

I think that you can do it with all types; store cards, loans, credit cards etc. as long as the charge is unreasonable (£12 or over I think the threshold is) Nothing to lose though so anything worth a try!

[gordonhall]

The amount isn't set at any amount. The reason £12 is bandied around is that the Office of Fair Trading said they would not persue any company (bank/credit card) who had amounts lower than this.

 

However, it is still for a company to prove that the amunt charged is a fair one and is the ACTUAL cost for recovering the default/late payment etc...

 

Hope that helps.

[chrisjb98]

After immediate success with HSBC, I have attempted to recover charges from Barclays (current account). I recieved a letter 3 days after my initial request, returning my £10 cheque and stating they could not provide a list of charges but would provide statements for free. 45 days has passed and still nothing - I am surprised as the amount is likely to be relatively small. Do I write to them as well as report them for breach of DPA, or just report them - I cant seem to find a sample letter!

 

Chris :?

[MARTIN3030]

Chris this is Unusual for Barclays they do return the fee sometimes but if they have said they will send them .....?

 

 

Call them direct at Radford Hall ..........01565 614000 Peter Townsend or his pa whose name I think is Emily.

 

Ask why youre still waiting and clarify that the statements were ordered.

 

[chrisjb98]

Thanks Martin, I will try that.

 

Chris

[Holteender]

I faced a similar situation last week..

 

They initially returned my cheque, but I wrote back to them resending the cheque asking for a full subject access request.

 

36 days went by without hearing anything, so I faxed P Townsend (01565 613 583) reminding him of Barclays' statutory obligations.

 

On day 41 (yesterday) DHL knocked on the door with a big bundle of paper from Barclays. Obviously somebody had forgotten to send the stuff, so they called in DHL in a panic.

 

I hope it cost them a fortune

[MARTIN3030]

I got mine on the 40th day !!

 

[MARTIN3030]

They KNOW they are going to have to pay out in the end but they do seem to take every step till the 11th hour.

 

I am sure this is because they dont want to part with any money 1 day before they have to:mad:

[chrisjb98]

After requesting a list of bank charges using the standard letter, I recieved a standard letter from Barclays returning my cheque and stating they would send me statements in "the next few weeks". My letter was sent to the 30 June, and their letter was dated 05 July. I sent two further fax reminders to Peter Townsend at Radbroke Hall dated 15th and 17th August.

 

I make that at least 45 days, and no statements or contact has been made, so I have written to the Information Commisioner explaining the situation.

 

Do I still need to chase up Baclays or leave it with the IC to do? What does this now mean in replation to my claim - how will the bank be punished for this?

 

I'm sure that as each day passes, another fee goes past the 6 year mark and this is their reason for delay. Has anybody else had this trouble - is it that they are overworked beacuse of this site and the amount of requests?!

 

Any Ideas?

 

Chris

[hagenuk]

Returning the cheque appears to be a ploy to avoid the 40 day limit and could indeed be intended to avoid charges, however, I would doubt it is in any way deliberate and down to nothing more than incompetence.

 

The £10 fee is the statutory maximum and there is no minimum, should the bank choose not to take the payment that is up to them, they are still bound by the DPA requirements to provide you with the information within 40 days.

 

You should send Barclays the following text, adapted for your circumstances.

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Section 7 – Data Protection Act 1998

Dear Sir/Madam

Account Number:

You have failed to comply with my Data Protection Act Subject Access Request dated (date)

If you do not comply within the next 7 days I shall seek a Court order obliging you to do so together with damages at the discretion of the Court and without further notice to you.

Yours faithfully

 

 

Further you should claim all charges from the date you became aware that they were unlawful, not from when you were sent the information.

[chrisjb98]

Help!

 

Schedule of progress below. I had no luck so far and am concerned that I was not sent an allocation questionnaire - just a hearing date. I am particualrly concerned about Defence item 1 from Baclays stating that "the particulars of claim do not provide details or particulars of the amount in question and / or the precise charges alleged to have been unlawful" etc.

 

My scehudule of charges was set out as suggested (as shown below), giving a date and fee amount only.

 

Has anybody else got this far and had a settlement? I cant believe it is worth their while to go to court over approx £200. My initial claim with HSBC was for a similar amount and they paid straight after the first request.

 

 

30/06/06 - SAR

05/07/06 - Reply from Barclays- statements will follow

15/08/06 - Fax to Barclays - Where are my statements!

17/08/06 - Fax to Barclays - Where are my statements!

18/08/06 - Reply from Barclays - saying they have lost my details

21/08/06 - Letter Sent to Barclays - send me my statements now!

24/08/06 - Letter sent to Barlays - Why have you lost them!?

29/08/06 - Letter from Barclays - they still can't find my details

01/09/06 - Letter to Barclays - additional account details / addresses

10/09/06 - Statements recieved - FINALLY!

11/09/06 - Request for repayment of charges

 

Schedule of Charges

10 August 2001 £25

04 November 2002 £30

02 January 2004 £30

22 February 2005 £30

01 March 2005 £30

 

15/09/06 - Letter from Barclays - Sorry your not happy - will be in touch

11/10/06 - Letter from Barclays - Were not going to pay!

16/10/06 - Letter before action

21/11/06 - Small claim issued - Total with court fees and interest £209.15

26/11/06 - Claim served to Barclays

08/12/06 -Claim acknowledged

08/01/07 - Phone call to local court - Why have I not recieved an allocation questionnaire?

09/01/07 - Recieved: General Form of Judgement or Order

09/01/06 - Notice of Hearing (22/02/07, 10AM)

09/01/07 - Letter from local court - "It does no appear as though the court posted the allocation questionnaire to yourself, as a copy of the questionnaire appears to have been left on file"

 

Present.

 

 

Thanks.

[whoareya]

This is the norm as far as I can gather apart from forgetting the AQ.

Read the advise given about filling in the AQ, this will answer your first question about this:

"the particulars of claim do not provide details or particulars of the amount in question and / or the precise charges alleged to have been unlawful"

Good luck and keep your thread up to date

[ryjayel]

Seems fine to me to be honest...

 

I am going to court on Feb 6th with Barclays, it has taken a long time to get here, and I have a communication stream similar in length to yours!

 

Good luck at dont give up...thats what they want!

 

Ryjayel

[why!!!!!!]

Hi,

With regards to the defence did you use this detailed schedule of charges from the template library? http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

Also was your claim done via MCOL? if it was did you send the detailed schedule of charges to bank and court, if not it may be worth while sending (or just printing it out just in case) them along with the hard copy of the particulars of claim.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/681-4-particulars-claim-n1.html

Claire

[heidiK]

Hi

 

Your first point of call re: A&Q.. call the court. They are helpful. They may have sent it and it could have been lost in the postal system?

 

Secondly, I had the same information on my letter of defence from Barclays... well... they have to say something ! Don't worry it is the norm.

[chrisjb98]

I did phone the court about the missing AQ and recieved the following letter - which from what I can make out it says I wont be getting one as they forgot to send it:

 

09/01/07

 

"Thankyou for your telephone call of 8 January 2007. It does not appear as though the court posted the allocation questionnaire to yourself, as your copy of the questionnaire appears to be left on file. The District judge has now made an order in this matter dated 04 January 2007 in line with other bank charges claims, which provides further directions. As such, I have not enclosed an allocation questionnaire with this letter. I have however enclosed a copy of the defendants defence, which you state you did not recieve."

 

 

The "General form of judgement or order" reads as follows:

 

"IT IS ORDERED THAT:

 

1. This case is to be listed for hearing on Thursday 22nd February 2007 at 10:00am.

2. It will be listed with all other outstanding claims for refund of bank charges etc.

3. The parties shall file and serve witness statements with copies of all relevant documents annexed by 4.00pm on 7th February 2007.

4. The judge will use his case management powers to decide in each case whether to make any agreed order, give directions for the further concuct of the case, or to proceed there and then with the hearing.

5. It is liklely that any case seriously contested will be given directions and a later hearing date.

6. It is probable that the judge will deal with cases in batches where there is more than once case against a particular defendant.

If a party fails to attend the judge may strike out the claim or defence as he sees fit and enter judgement accordingly.

 

Dated 04 January 2007.

 

 

 

 

I didn't send a spreadsheet with my small claim as there didn't seem any option to send attachments on MCOL. I will fill that out and send it to the defendant and local court.

 

My POC read as follows. I shortened the one from the library as it would not fit in the space allocated. Funny, as the banks defence is about 5 times as long as my POC.

 

PARTICULARS OF CLAIM

 

1. The Claimant held a bank account with the Defendant. Between the dates of 08/10/2001 and 03/01/2005 the Defendant applied numerous default charges to the Claimant’s account.

2. The charges applied are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. They constitute an unfair penalty. The amount charged does not reflect the true breach cost.

3. Furthermore, under the law of penalties, the charges are unlawful as they do not relate to the true cost of an item.

 

4. Despite numerous written requests, the Defendant has failed to pay the said sum.

4. As outlined in the County Courts Act 1984, the claimant is entitled to interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date they were first deprived of the money to the date of this claim. This amounts to a sum of £34.15 continuing to accrue at the daily rate of 0.021%.

 

5. The claimant therefore asks the court to enter judgment in their favour for the sum of £145 plus interest, amounting to a total of £179.15.

1. The Claimant held a bank account with the Defendant.Between the dates of 08/10/2001 and 03/01/2005 the Defendant applied numerous default charges to the Claimant’s account.2. These charges are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations. They constitute an unfair penalty. The amount charged does not reflect the true breach cost.3. Under the law of penalties the charges are unlawful as they do not relate to the true cost of an item.4. Despite numerous written requests, the defendant has failed to pay the said sum.4. As outlined in the County Courts Act 1984, the claimant is entitled to interestat the rate of 8% per annum from the date they were first deprived of the money to the date of this claim. This amounts to a sum of £34.15 continuing to accrue the daily rate of 0.021%.5. The claimant therefore asks the court to

enter judgment in their favour for the sum

of £145 plus interest, amounting to a total

of £179.15.

[whoareya]

Seems unfair you haven't had the opportunity to state further information in your claim, however I guess the courts have received so many of these they probably dont really need AQ's anymore.

 

The reason why their defence is so big is that they didn't fill theirs out online. MCOL is good for ease of use however looking back at the whole process it would've been better to fill out the N1 form myself

 

Check out my thread to see what I've put in response to my General form of judgement or order, although my form is slightly different to yours.

 

I think you need someone further in the know about what you do next

[chrisjb98]

As suggested, I am going to submit a fuller schedule of charges to the court and bank. 2 problems:

 

1.

[chrisjb98]

Help with schedule of charges!!!

 

As suggested, I am going to submit a fuller schedule of charges to the court and bank. 2 problems:

 

1. The detail on the statement simply states "unpaids" and does not indicate what the charge was actaully for

 

2. When I calculated the interest using the quick calculator on this site, I didn't notice it was using american formatting. Now that I have completed the prinatble excel version (taking off days that have passed since i issued the claim), it comes to £181.45 - - a couple of £ more than before. Do i submit this and accept my mistake or just leave it all together. If the claim amount changes now it will mess it all up wont it?

[chrisjb98]

So I have a court date, but never sent a schedule of charges with my MCOL claim. Neither did I ever recieve an allocation questionnaire - after being told by the court they weren't going to send me one.

 

After being advised to send off a schedule of charges, I filled in the excel sheet provided. The quick calculator I used from somewhere on the site to calulate the figure of the claim is giving a different figure to the excel sheet. The calculator I used (its on here somewhere) seems to have used Americal formatting, therefore my new figure is a couple of pounds more (even though I used the same date - the MCOL application date)

 

What do I do - If I submit a schedule the figure will be different to the claim figure. If I don't send one, could they argue that I havn't told them what the charges are for? In any case, all the bank statement printouts said was "unpaids out" and didn't describe ther charge.

 

Moderated 7 threads merged .. please keep to this thread when updating or asking questions , thanks

[livelylad]

So I have a court date, but never sent a schedule of charges with my MCOL claim. Neither did I ever recieve an allocation questionnaire - after being told by the court they weren't going to send me one.

 

After being advised to send off a schedule of charges, I filled in the excel sheet provided. The quick calculator I used from somewhere on the site to calulate the figure of the claim is giving a different figure to the excel sheet. The calculator I used (its on here somewhere) seems to have used Americal formatting, therefore my new figure is a couple of pounds more (even though I used the same date - the MCOL application date)

 

What do I do - If I submit a schedule the figure will be different to the claim figure. If I don't send one, could they argue that I havn't told them what the charges are for? In any case, all the bank statement printouts said was "unpaids out" and didn't describe ther charge.

 

 

You have 2 choices either.

Submit the revised one with a cover letter explaining that the claimant has limited techological knowledge and IT resources as opposed to the defence but has taken the time to have the whole thing re-checked so as to not have to waste court time.

 

Or you can submit the N244 which obv incurs a charge and is subject to the Judge viewing and therefore delays the process.

Going down to the court and speaking to the senior spervisor or court manager may give the answers.

There are some judges who would be happy to accept an explanation and allow the changes,while others will insist in the N244.

Either way you should send a revised schedule to the defence asap.

I would not enclose a covering letter and see what happens.