Barclays Finance ***WON*** Charges being refunded

[SAINTDP]

I have recieved all my paperwork yes. Have not sent out my request for the charges to be dropped yet, have been mad busy again lol

 

Letters from BPF & Mercers have now stopped, other than a letter saying there looking into my complaint??

[londonrunner]

What comes next once you have received the SAR?

[slick132]

Hi LondonRunner and welcome to CAG.

 

Can you start your own thread here in the Barclays forum.

 

Give us a bit of background info, and we'll answer any Q's you have on your new thread.

 

Edited September 1, 2011 by slick132

[SAINTDP]

Right, Just done my calculation of charges and it comes to £672.50. I am not going to add any interest on to my claim as I was never charged any with the finance.

 

Just about to send the Letter Before action letter out, is there anything I have forgoton to do?

[slick132]

Hi Saint,

 

Re the interest, that's your prerogative, of course.

 

But surely they are charging you interest now on whatever balance is left on the a/c.

 

Have you put the charges onto a spreadsheet to see what the difference would be if you claimed compounded int't on top.

 

[SAINTDP]

At 8% it goes upto £733.52 and at 24.9% is goes to £869.80.

 

I dont really want to go down the route of taking it to court. The extra couple of pounds would be nice but hopefully they will just accept this and write off the balance??

[slick132]

Hi Saint,

 

Yes agreed.

 

The benefits of claiming compound interest increase significantly with older charges. If the charges are more recent, the benefits decrease.

 

So you would be sensible to forego the extra amount if it saves you having to take court action.

 

However, if they refuse to refund what you are asking for now, there's nothing to stop you seeking compound interest IF you are forced to take court action.

 

[SAINTDP]

Thats what I thought. Will give them the option to pay with no interest, if they dont I can then add it after.

 

Letter in the post today.

 

Thanks for all the help & advice.

[SAINTDP]

UPDATE: Just had a phone call from Barclays, they have received my letter and are looking into my claim. She has passed my details onto a diff department at she can’t deal with it?? She also said that it could take up to 8 weeks to look into my claim.

 

I said that my letter said they have 14 days to deal with my case before action of which she said we are entitled to take up to 8 weeks in line with the ombudsman or something??? I just said Ill look into it and await a reply.

 

Not sure what to do now, do I wait till my 14 days are up or wait to see what they come back with.

[slick132]

Stick to your timescale as per your last letter to them.

 

Knowing them as we do, you'll wait 8 weeks for them to come back saying, "No, the charges are fair but we'll offer to repay just some of what you claim."

 

Re her comment that they are entitled to take up to 8 weeks to respond, that sounds like the ridiculous amount of time the FOS give them.

 

They can take all the time the want. But, if they fail to respond in the very reasonable 14 days you gave them, start court action.

 

[SAINTDP]

UPDATE: Not been on the site for a while and not kept upto date with my claim. ()

 

Anyway, sent a new letter asking for charges to be repaid again. Got the usuall no go. Then sent a legal letter.

 

Received a letter over the weekend saying as a "gesture of goodwill" they will deduct £392.90 from my charges. Which is nice.

 

Since my original first dealings with Barclays, I was under the impression that my account was up to date and all that was outstanding was the charges. I have now been told that my balance is £696.90 and £655 is for charges.

 

I have no problem in paying the £41.90 diff but am not sure what my next move is clear the remaning balance of charges.

 

I have read a couple of post about people going through the FOS instead of the courts. How does this work?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[slick132]

The FOS will be of little help to you and they'll take forever to tell you the bank's £12 charges are within guidelines.

 

When you sent BC a list of charges, what was the total of charges only.

 

If you also wanted compound interest back, how much was this on top.

 

Can you reconcile the a/c balance of £696.90.

 

I assume the difference could be interest that they've charged you.

 

[SAINTDP]

I originally asked for £630 looks like another £25 charge has been added lol I didnt ask for any interest. If I send them another letter saying pay in full or I will add the 8% interest and take it to court, do you think this will help? This adds another £92.55 on top.

 

I was sure that I had paid upto date as I stopped paying them. I will have to double check my statements.

[joncow75]

Having been in a similar situation please have a look at my thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?315743-Barclays-Partner-Finance-Clydesdale-PPI-amp-Charges-***WON***-with-full-refund I sent in a complaint to the FOS and a copy of all the letters that had gone back and forth with Barclays Partner Finance. BPF coughed up without too much of an issue once I had got half of everything back myself. BPF charged £15 a time for late payment fee's and charged twice a month. Also they keep charging untill you are caught back up, hence why your balance will be so high. Good luck

[slick132]

Hi SDP,

 

If there is any balance left on the a/c, whether it's made up entirely of charges or not, BC will still be adding interest.

 

The only way to get this back is to reclaim the charges PLUS compound interest. If you do this, you will probably have to make a court claim as you'll see in other threads.

 

Otherwise, you will only get back your charges and perhaps a flat 8% on top. So, if there's any shortfall, you'll have to pay the balance.

 

[SAINTDP]

Just checked my account and it look like I may have 1 more payment of £26.86 outstanding. Which I am happy to pay.

 

so the £696.90 is £655 worth of charges 1x £26.86 (oustanding) and 1x £15.04 which I dont know what is for.

 

Going to send a letter back refusing there offer and will add 8% to the claim. Hopefully this will then get them to clear the balance.

[slick132]

Hi Saint,

 

You could reject their offer and confirm that, unless they agree to refund the full amount of charges of £655 (plus any more recent charges) within 14 days, you will file a court claim for the charges plus compound interest in restitution.

 

Remember you can't add 8% Statutory Int't until you make a court claim. So threatening it is pointless unless you're going to file a claim..........

 

..........and, if you ARE going to file a claim, you may as well go for Compound int't anyway.

 

[joncow75]

Just as a heads up, based on my experience with BPF, they hadn't added any interest to my balance at all. Once the initial interest in the contract was added (mine was a buy now pay later contract) all they added was the charges which I wrongly said were £15 a time (they were in fact £22.50 twice a month!!!!) I did get mine to balance correctly though. Check you dont have any D/D return charges etc. You should get every penny back from them to put you back to the point as if no charges were added. Please do make sure you read my thread.

 

However as slick says - if you are going to sue, go for the compound interest!

[SAINTDP]

Update: Im looking to go down the FOS route with my claim.

 

I have just been reading through my most recent letter and have noticed somthing. On the letter I sent to them I mentioned about the office of fair trading statement of charges being unlawfull. In there reply the have said "I would like to point out that the Office of Fair Trading statement produced, regarding charges, applied to Club accounts only. As you do not have a Club account, this would not apply to you"

 

ANyone know what a Club account is?

[joncow75]

I wouldn't worry too much about what they class as accounts. BPF told me that the change to £12 charges only counted for Credit Card charges and as this was a loan they could do what they like. They seemed to make it up as they went along. Anyway they still paid out in the end once the FOS got involved. Angel_Islington had the same success so hopefully not long for you to go now

[slick132]

Hi Saint,

 

Based on the experiences of others with similar cases, the FOS route may get you the outcome you want. But it can be a slow process.

 

Court action will get you a better outcome financially if you go for compound interest as previously discussed.

 

Barclays' arguments about "Club Accounts" are without merit as far as I can see. These are unlawful penalty charges and they will repay them in full when pressed.

 

[SAINTDP]

Just putting my FOS complaint together now.

[SAINTDP]

Im not to bothered about the time scale, I have been waiting long enough to sort it out. Another couple of months wont hurt.

[SAINTDP]

bump

[SAINTDP]