Finbob vs Halifax

[finbob]

Hi all

 

Firstly id just like to say how very very good this site is. I had posted a thread starting everything off a few weeks ago before going on holiday to find when i got back that ther was an error in the thread so it never posted .

 

The gist of it is, ive been watching this site for more than a month now and have been looking at peoples threads etc,note ive 'READ THE FACTS' aswell. I had already all my bank statments (only needed 1 year of them) and had sent the peliminary letter 28/09/06 with the list of charges (£1282) as recommended. I got back from holiday and they had already sent two letters,the first to say they were passing on my complaint..... and the second offering me six month of the charges back (£977!). I have been very tempted to take the money but am determined not to!

 

The thing is, ive incurred more charges since the letter.along with it ive paid a few bills like planned and am now 120 over my limit again.Ive also a few things comming out over the next few weeks which will snowball my account cus there no money (this has happened to me a couple of times which acounts for 90% of my charges). Because of this im really tempted to take the money cus itl sort my immediate problems out. I applied online for a new bank account today but with me being over my limit i cant see them offering me what i need.

 

Ive also a credit card with them that ive had a few charges which i havent tried claiming yet. The letter they sent with offer has a signed agreement at end of it saying that if i take the mon i agree to future charges with ALL my halifax accounts.

 

I guess what im saying is they owe me a about 450 or so including credit card bills at minute more than theyve offered and there will prob be a bit more in a few weeks.

 

Sorry for the long detailed story readers.just thot it would be better for those who read this know better how to help me.lol

Any suggestions on what to do please?

[sarahpp]

You can keep adding charges onto your spreadsheet right up until you file your claim with the court.

[bearo]

My opinion is just that....personally I would only take what I am owed, nothing less, why leave it in their pocket? I can COMPLETELY understand that it is so tempting to be offered a sum of money you really need right now, but boy will you be annoyed when it has been spent and you think about how you could have held out for more...

 

Simply what you need to do now..you have two options

 

You can accept their offer of £982.00 but I would strongly recommend that you do NOT sign the form they sent you, they are settling with conditions, why should you agree that yes you can have your money back but we will charge you unfairly in the future if we feel like it.....instead compose your own letter accepting the money and dont add the text regarding agreeing to them being able to charge you in the future, when they settle in full they send a letter saying this is an end to the matter, you have been a naughty boy in the past and if you are naughty in the future we will look closely at your account..nothing about not reclaiming more charges!!

 

Option 2.... send the rejection letter from the bank templates, it simply says in it that you will accept their offer of £982.00 as a PARTIAL settlement, but you WILL pursue the rest in court if necessary....ask them to send you the £982.00 via cheque, (or whatever way you wish to be paid) and i bet you anything they don't send it, they know you mean business and will settle in full soon after you issue your county court claim.

 

As you have incurred charges in the meantime you can still add these to your schedule of charges, right up until you issue a county court claim against them, just send them a revised version of your schedule with your rejection letter.

 

I am sorry I cannot make your mind up. that is ultimately up to you, but I do hope you hold out!! If it helps... (i am assuming you need to issue your ltr before action next) you are 15 days away from filing a small claim, and in my case I issued on a wednesday and checked my balance on a monday and they had paid up.....food for thought....of course there is no guarantee this will happen to you and they may will decide to be stubborn and enter a intent to defend the claim which will hold it up a little while longer!

 

 

If you need anymore advise just shout!

[finbob]

Hi there

 

I have decided to take the advise given folks- i am continuing the quest for all my charges back.

 

As you can see it has been a while since I last posted though since then I have opened a new bank account with Alliance & Leiseter whice might I add have even more extortionate charges!Though hopefully when I get my charges from halifax back i wont have to worry about that.

 

I sent a letter to halifax accepting their offer as a partial settlment on the 12/10 - i then sent my LPA on the 13/10 (prob could have sent it all in the one letter but sure - lol). I received a letter from them on friday saying I refused the offer, they will not be refunding all my charges since opening my account, they stress all my future charges will stand, i can take it up with the ombudsman but I have to do it within six months of original letter and they reserve the right to close my account if I do not manage it properly!

 

I have been looking thru others threads and it seems that once you decline the offer they dont normally respond after that which in my case they have. Also they sent the offer which was for six months of charges before the LPA was sent which seems a bit unusual. I think ther prob trying different tactics but sure - who cares right?

 

I have a couple o questions that I like to ask which are:

1.I see in the template for filing your MCOL that your supposed to send the banks a list of charges before you file. In my case all 3 letters Ive sent there been updates in the charges, do i have to send them a further updated version since i will have probably incurred even more or is what ive sent OK?

2.My account is seriously overdrawn and im not sure whether the amount im claiming will put me in the black and I also have a cc with them that has a 4 figure balance on it. They phoned me about a week ago after a cheque came out and said this was cheque abuse etc and they will withdraw my facilities if more come out in future(this is funny cus its happened loads of times before and nver been threatened with this saying they always get ther money back within the month).If they pay up but close my facilities or my a/c what way are they likely to want repayment?

3.In the template for the MCOL there is only a couple of actual paragraphs that actually goin the claim. Is it that simple? I havent registered yet but i would imagine that there are quite a few questions etc.

4.Since ill be claiming between 1500 and 2000 what would the charge for filing be likely to be?

 

Again i write a long story - bound to make your eyes sore - lol. Please help:)

[finbob]

Sorry, i forgot to mention another few questions in my last message.

 

1.What way will filing my MCOL work saying i live in northern ireland and the halifax are from england?

2.I had all my bank statments when I started my claim so i went straight to sending the 1st letter with a list of charges that I had just drafted in ms word. I now have looked at the proper spreadsheet that ill be using to calculate the interest and ive noticed that each charge has the description of what it acually is. On my bank statments it only states 'charges as notified'. I know that all of them are ok to claim back but what do i put in the schedule of charges when im making my claim saying i dont accually know which is which?

[annetteb]

I am claiming back £3500 from the Halifax for the last 4 years of overcharging. Thus far they have offered me £2083 as a'goodwill gesture' ( whenever do banks make 'goodwill gestures' I ask myself?) - I have refused this and so they say sadly they will give me nothing!! I shall be filing at the county court this week and will let you know what happens next. By the way i cannot get my downloaded spreadsheet to add interest onto the most recent chatges, since I first put the charges in - any assistance gladly taken on this?

Annette

[Guest bluecloud]

Hi finbob,

 

As far as I know, you can only use MCOL if you have an address in England or Wales. Unfortunately, Northern Ireland and Scotland don't have an equivalent.

 

I assume you live in Northern Ireland which means the maximum you can claim through the small claims court is £2000. If you wish to claim more than £2000 (excluding fees and interest) then you may need to split the claim. This is easy to do as long as you file any subsquent claims AFTER the previous claim is SETTLED. So don't make claim 2 until claim 1 is closed.

 

As far as the schedule of charges is concerned, "charges as notified" is a perfectly valid entry. After all, if the bank sees it as a proper description then so can you. Whilst on the subject of the schedule of charges, make sure you use the spreadsheet from this site as it will provide you with the correct ammount of interest to apply for each charge.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html#post750

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

.

[finbob]

I need a bit of help please.

As blue cloud has pointed out there is no MCOL for northern ireland so i have went down to the local court to get an N1 form thinking that it could be different aswell instead of downloading it. Ofcoarse it was - its a form called 'form 125'. It has on it the following:

 

NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR A SMALL CLAIM

 

Part A

Applicant: Respondant:

Full name and postal..... Full name and postal........

................................. ....................................

.........BLOCK CAPITALS ..............BLOCK CAPITALS

<........empty box.......>

Take notice that I, the above named applicant, intend to apply to the Small Claims Court at _____________________ for a decree in respect of:-

My claim for £________

Interest* £________

The court fee £________

Total £________

 

_________________________________________________________________

*Only include a figure if you wish to claim interest and you have given details of the rate and the period covered.

_________________________________________________________________

 

Please describe in simple terms the details of your claim:- also include the date the debt arose and, if interest is claimed, the amount rate and period covered.<..........................empty box...................................................>

..........................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

.........................................................................................................>

The rest is the stament of truth and part b to be completed by the small claims court.

Could someone please help me fill this in as is is slightly different from the N1 form. Some of it is self explanitory and though it is similar to the N1 i just want to make sure that I word everything correctly.

 

I have a few questions on top of that which are:

1.What address do I put in for the respondant?Is it an english one saying the case is in northern ireland?

2.Do i need to send an updated version of the schedule before applying for court as ive incurred more charges.

3.Ive realised in my letters that I sent that the schedule of charges are inaccurate.As stated in previous posts i just drafted them up on word like a dippo and had calculated an extra £30 on the first letter which I just updated with extra charges on the next two which means all 3 are £30 over,though each date and charge on it are accurate - its just the total.Will this effect my case?

4. Is there any other differences in the northern ireland system that you know about which I need to know.

 

Help would be very much appreciated.

THANX

[finbob]

I am going to file my claim tommorow. I woulod just like to clarify a couple of things before I do if anyone can help.

 

One is, on the form that is used in northern ireland instead of the addresses being allocated to the 'claimant' and 'defendant' it is the 'applicant' and 'respondent'. In the instruction in filling out the n1 form it states defendant or claimant when talking about either of the two.Do i write appicant and respondant were the other two would be just to keep everything formal or just keep it the same?

 

The other question is - do i put the daily rate just on the spreadsheet somewhere or somewhere in the particulars of claim?

 

If anyone could answer these I would be greatful.

[finbob]

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