Vesuvio vs First Direct **WON**

[Vesuvio]

Comrades,

 

This is my first posting on to the Forum, but my claim for refund of overdraft and excess overdraft fees is already progressing well.

 

I recieved six years worth of statements on two accounts with First Direct (one sole, one joint) very swiftly after my initial request.

 

I them sent them a first letter (one for each account) totaling £2,110 pounds. I got a reply within 3 days asking me to breakdown the dates and amounts of the charges. I duly did this and 5 days later (that's today) I've got reply that reads as follows:

 

Thank you for your letter dated 12 October requesting a refund of £xxx bank charges.

 

In circumstances where you have authorised a payment that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or to exceed an agreed overdraft limit, we have to consider whether to make this payment. A fee is payable for this service provided by the bank, details of which are clearly set out in our Account Terms and Condiitions, a copy of which was provided to you when you opened your account. We are confident of our position and believe that if your claim for a refund proceeded to Court, we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees.

 

First Direct is, however, mindful of the management time and irrecoverable legal costs we may incur inrelation to cush aclaim. For those commercial resons alone, and without any admission of liability whatsoever, First Direct is prepared to make a payment to you in the sum of £xxx in full and final settlement of this matter, which I believe is a fair and resonable offer.

 

If you accept our proposal please sign and return the enclosed declaration to us in the prepaid envelope and we will arrange for a refund to be made to you. This offer will remain in place for 10 working days from receipt of this letter.

 

However, should you wish to escalate your concerns to the next stage, you may write to RK, Customer Relations Manager, at the above address.

 

Complaints we cannot resolve may ultimately be referred to the Fiancial Ombudsman Service..'

 

Having read the FAQs section, I will be accepting this offer that runs to £1,795 pounds out of the £2,110 claimed - but only on the condition that it is a partial settlement and that I will continue with my claim to recover full funds.

 

So my question is, please could someone on the forum tell me if there is a template letter that would contain the phrases I need to include in my next letter.

 

Many thanks,

 

Vesuvio.

[nathal]

by the sounds of your post you did not include a schedule of charges in your prelim. Make sure that you do include this.

 

There is a template for accepting partial settlement

 

It mainly says i will accept your offer of £xx as partial settlement and will pursue with my claim for the full amount

[Vesuvio]

by the sounds of your post you did not include a schedule of charges in your prelim. Make sure that you do include this.

 

There is a template for accepting partial settlement

 

It mainly says i will accept your offer of £xx as partial settlement and will pursue with my claim for the full amount

 

Dear Friends,

 

I followed up the partial settlement with the acceptance letter (pursueing for the full amount) as suggested by Nathal (thanks for the reply Nathal ) and posted that on Saturday (21st October). With a remarkable turnaround of 24 hours, FD sent a reply offering us the full and final sum of £2,110 as originally asked for. Of course their first paragraph stated that they were still 'confident of our position and believe that if your claim for a refund proceeded to Court, we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees' - but they were 'mindful of the management time and irrecoverable legal costs we may incur...'

In other words an identical letter to the one from just 3 days earlier when they were offering about 80% of our claim.

 

I'll send another message when the money goes into my account. But cannot emaphise more to all you other claimants, to hold your nerve on first or second offers and just hold out in true poker style for the Royal Flush of a 100% claim.

 

So FD nearly there, now I'm about to kick Co-op butt for several hundred they pilfered from me over the past six years. In the words of Chuck D: Fight the power, fight the powers that be!!

 

Peace,

 

Vesuvio.

[Vesuvio]

Dear Fellow First Direct Customers,

 

This is just to follow up that I successfully won my full claim of £2,110 - the money came into my account whilst I was out of town on Friday! So all in all the process took about a month.

 

I'm now moving on my claim with the Co-Op.

 

Good luck to all you other claimants!!

 

Vesuvio :grin: