Barclays Partner Finance - Reclaiming late fees

[SB100]

Hi, I've just completed my spreadsheet to claim against Barclays partner finance - under what circumstances do I claim restitution interest rather than the contracted interest? The difference is circa £400.

[slick132]

Hi SB,

 

Post moved into your own thread that you can use for this reclaim.

 

Please look through the BC **WON** cases here that mention compound or restitutionary interest - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?97-Barclays-BCard-and-Woolwich-successes

 

Also see here for a more recent case - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?368541-trancyb-vs-Barclaycard

 

Reclaiming BPF penalty charges are the same as with BC chgs.

 

As regards your question, you can claim restitutionary interest (I suggest you use the rate of 24.9%) but Barclays will almost certainly refuse to refund this. If you want the extra back, you'll have to file a court claim and take it as far as necessary. You may need to prepare and submit court bundles (your evidence) in support of your claim if Barclays Litigation fail to settle before the bundles are required.

 

Can you confirm what approx what amount are the chgs and what is the simple 8% int't and the compound int't figures.

 

I assume that the chgs are relatively recent or the difference would be more than the £400 to which you refer.

 

[SB100]

Hi, thanks for that.

 

The agreement is still live, what's forced me in to action is that there's a DN about to time out tomorrow, the figure stated as outstanding (not the overdue figure) includes the illegal charges

 

I'm going to struggle to pay it so was considering speaking to mercers and telling them, hoping they'll re-issue and I'll have another 14+4.

 

The figures in rough terms are £1400 in charges and c£350 in compound interest at contracted 11.6%

[slick132]

Hi SB,

 

Firstly, if you're claiming restitutionary interest, you don't have to use the contractual rate they charged you. You can use a nominal rate, to reflect that fact that the money the bank took from you was used in their business to make profits.

 

The figures you mention still don't make sense to me. Can you confirm the period over which they've added charges.

 

Can you also use this spreadsheet to produce 2 sets of figures - http://www.shweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/interestcalcs.xls Copy your dates and charges data onto it and use interest figure of 11.6% and 24.9%. Then please let us know what the respective int't figures come to.

 

Do not bother speaking to Mercers at all as they'll do nothing to help youl. They'll not be interested in what you have to say and they have no discretion to change what they do. They are simply BC's in-house collection arm.

 

Can you confirm approx what is still owing on the loan. This will help us decide how to deal with the overall situation.

 

[SB100]

Hi, 48 month loan term ending December 13 / Jan 14.

 

The charges are spread over pretty much the entire term- the wife got cancer two months after we took it out and we've struggled ever since.

 

Charges total 1452.50. According to the spreadsheet, @11.6% £297.31, @24.9% £695.35.

 

The balance is c£2200 (less the £900ish I have to try and find for tomorrow) or c£3700 in their world!

 

Thanks for your help

[slick132]

Hi SB

 

Did you put your figures into the spready I linked above.

 

I know I don't have all the right data but I still think the compound int't should be a bit higher.

 

I'll send you a PM with contact details so you can send me a copy of the spready to check, if that's ok with you.

 

Have you made BPF aware that you were in Financial Difficulty.

 

Have you asked them to stop adding interest and/or penalties.

 

Have a read here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?557-Letter-for-an-application-for-consideration-for-hardship

 

However, DO NOT send them the letter in this Article for now.

 

[SB100]

Ok, email should be with you. Thanks again

[slick132]

Great, I'll pick it up when I go to my PC as I'm on the lappy at the mo.

 

[slick132]

Checked the figures and they appear to be ok. It is because the charges are fairly recent that the effects of compound interest are not so significant as they would be for older charges.

 

I think you should now send BPF a Prelim Claim letter - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?605-Credit-Store-Card-Letter-Template

 

Enclose your spready using 24.9% interest. Where the template says :-

 

I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in interest for the sums which you have taken. Total £XXXXX

 

Replace it with :-

 

I calculate that you have taken £xxx.xx in penalty charges and I also claim restitutionary interest at 24.9% of £xxx.xx Total £xxx.xx. Restitutionary interest is claimed as per the case of Sempra Metals v Inland Revenue Commissioners.

 

Your claim will be run in the exact manner as for a credit charge reclaim and, when you file your court claim with CCMCC Salford, the Defendant will be Barclays Bank PLC.

 

[SB100]

Am I likely to have to file to get them to credit it to the account?

Letter through this morning stating that as a gesture of 'good will' (lol) they're crediting £565.

Will see what they do when they get this one... I'm not going to re-do the figures though as they've not credited it yet.

[slick132]

If their letter is a response to your Prelim Claim letter, you can now send them your LBA.

 

It's the same letter as the Prelim, but headed with "Letter Before Action".

 

Start the letter off by rejecting their offer and say :-

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate offering to refund only £565 as a goodwill gesture and I reject this offer. If you have credited any amount to my account, you can remove it.

 

Then continue with the rest of the LBA.

 

[SB100]

Nah, it came with my request detailed list of charges with no fight whatsoever

[SB100]

Ok, quick update-

 

Fired the LBA off last week, which was refuted today.

What's my next step?

Quite happy to fight this but don't want to expose myself to massive costs and worsen the position!

 

Thank you

[slick132]

If they've replied negatively to your LBA, you should now prepare to file your claim at court.

 

BC tend to settle cases before a court hearing. In some cases, they may even settle before you have to file and serve your court bundles.

 

We can give you no guarantees about costs. However, from experience on other successful cases, costs should not become an issue as BC settle before a final hearing.

 

Make sure you get your POC right, before filing via the CCMCC Salford office.

 

See other successful BC claims for all that you need. They are here and in the *Barclays Successes* forum.

 

[SB100]

Hello everyone, I'm sorry- events overtook me and I never got round to filing.

 

I'm not quite sure what Barclays are up to- final payment should have been made in December, although I wasn't able to make it. I've now got a DN for what appears to be Decembers payment, plus one for January, and what looks like £400 of charges.

 

I have written to them to clarify but to date have not received a response, and the DN remedy date is Monday 27/1/2014.

 

I'm pretty sure the DN isn't worth a carrot as it includes charges, and I've made t clear I consider the account to be in dispute.

 

However, I really don't want another default (last one is 5 years old now so nearly clear).

 

If I don't pay the full amount I'm pretty sure that they'll register the default and it'll be a pig to get it removed even if it was inaccurate.

 

I could always pay the lot, which would be a massive stretch, then issue for the charges, but I'd rather not do this.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks muchly

[slick132]

Hi SB,

 

If you want the charges repaid, you will have to file a court claim. This is the only way the bank will take you seriously.

 

The only way to challenge any adverse credit data or DN for the a/c and, hopefully, get it removed is to include CRA data removal as part of the court claim and include this in any settlement negotiations.

 

If you don't pay the bank what they want, they will continue to post adverse data and take collection activity.

 

I very much doubt the bank will ever agree to set off the charges against the arrears. That's not the way they work.

 

Edited January 21, 2014 by slick132

[SB100]

So in essence I need to pay the charges then issue proceedings? No way I want to chance another default that potentially I couldn't remove, although the dn clearly does include unlawful charges.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi SB,

 

If you want the charges repaid, you will have to file a court claim.

 

The only way to challenge any adverse credit data or DN for the a/c and, hopefully, get it removed is to include CRA data removal as part of the court claim and include this in any settlement negotiations.

 

[Fallman]

Hi SB I tried to pm you but your message box is full as I wanted to know how your court case I read about in another thread with MBNA went. I have a card from 1997 with similar anomalies on the terms and conditions so it would be helpful to me.

 

regards

Fallman

[SB100]

Hi Fallman, message box should now be ok

[SB100]

Slick, I'm going to have to pay this today as it's 'time-out' date on the DN.

 

However, am I within my rights to exclude the charges, or will they default me anyway if I don't pay the full amount?

 

I'm guessing I should be able to get a DN that includes charges removed from the CRA's- any idea how hard this is?

 

If I have to pay the full amount today then I'll do so, but it's going to be a struggle- the (unlawful) charges (which I'll claim back) are c£800 alone!

 

Thanks..

[slick132]

Hi SB,

 

If you don't pay what they say they now require, your CRA file will suffer.

 

The only way to get the charges back is to reclaim them via court and include CRA data as part of your requirements.

 

So, if you have to pay now, do so and then concentrate on the reclaim process.

 

[SB100]

Guess I'll have to pay up, look big and then issue!

Thanks again for your help

[SB100]

Ok, so I paid up.

I paid the final and 48th payment, plus the £200 completion fee, or whatever they call it.

 

They're still trying to collect the monthly payment, plus £200, despite my complaints, and still threatening defaults. I've had three letters within the last three weeks, all with different amounts on them...

 

It looks like the minute I complained they started allocating payments to fees and charges rather than repayment.

 

How do I proceed? Presume I need to issue, so I'll get a full statement from them then update the spreadsheet?

 

Thanks in anticipation...

[slick132]

Hi SB,

 

So do you know how much more they still want from you, and are you sure it must all be penalty charges.

 

You will get nowhere with them until you start court action, but you need all the data about the penalty charges they've levied before you proceed.

 

Get the charges on the Compound Int't spreadsheet using the contractual rate for the a/c.

 

[SB100]

I think I'll need to SAR them, they're still after £2000+ even though I've paid the 48 instalments...