Alex v Barclays **WON**

[Mr lex]

All right everyone, Here we go !!

 

Up Date To Date;-

 

D.P.A. request plus £10 chx sent 31st Oct 2006

Barclays returned my Chx with fob off letter 04th Nov

Barclays send statements out 06th Nov

I received statements 09th Nov

 

I have just received two large envelopes of statements going back to Feb. 1999. The next stage is for me to go though this little lot with a packet of high lighters and work out how much these nice people have removed from my account while I wasn't looking. I suppose the best way is to mark any charges first, then enter them on a spread sheet. From there I can produce my Preliminary Letter for Repayment. this letter is at:- http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=671

 

Then I can send this to Barclays at

FAO Andrew Walton

Retail Banking Customer Relations

Leicester

LE87 2BB

 

and see what response I get

 

I will up date this thread when I'm ready to post it

[darling]

Well good luck with you're quest, will keep watching and waiting.

[sbryant44]

hi im new to this forum and am just about to write to Barclays asking for my statements and stuff, once i get them back its easy enough i would think to work out my charges but how do you work out the interest that i here others say they claimed as well?? would be grateful for any input thanks sue

[Mr lex]

Hi Sue,

I think you don't start to charge interest until you file for court action, unless you can prove that the banks charges put you in a position where you where overdrawn. once you file you can claim 8% interest on your claim. this work out at *0.00022 per day. A'm I right on this folks ??

 

Alex

[Mr lex]

Sorry, I Repeated this comment

[Welshman]

hi im new to this forum and am just about to write to Barclays asking for my statements and stuff, once i get them back its easy enough i would think to work out my charges but how do you work out the interest that i here others say they claimed as well?? would be grateful for any input thanks sue

 

Hi Sue, before this goes too far, please go here to open a thread of your own. Scroll down and, on the left, you'll see the link.

 

But to answer your question, here's how to use the spreadsheet:

 

I used the England Simple Excel spreadsheet from this site which is found here.

 

I don't want to seem to be trying to be like a schoolteacher here but I am concious that others learning their way around this system will read this thread and this post and learn from them so I am explaining it in Laymans' terms from the very beginning so please forgive me.

 

When you fill the spreadsheet in, you overtype what's already there until you've covered all your charges. Dependant on how many entries you have then you may have to add some rows or delete surplus example entries below.

 

All entries you make are in three columns. These being:

 

"In Respect of", "Amount" and "Date Incurred". At the bottom of the "Amount" column you will see a total. That's the one without interest, and that's the one you use at Prelim Letter and LBA stage.

 

The spreadsheet will have done its own calculations in the other two columns which are entitled "Days since Offence" and "Interest 8% APR". You don't touch those at all. The days since offence column calculates the number of days since the bank made the charge and which appears on your statements up to the day you are viewing the spreadsheet. If you look at one column on two consecutive days, you'll see the totals have gone up by a day. So will the interest.

 

Now at the bottom of the interest column, you will see two totals. The top one is the total Interest @ 8% which is re-calculated automatically by the spreadsheet each day and the larger total below it is the total sum at the bottom of the "Amount" column plus the subtotal at the base of the "Interest" column.

 

When the spreadsheet is produced for the Prelim and LBA stage, it is printed out excluding the last two columns and totals. There are several ways to do this, the easiest being to go to "File" at the top of the page and go across to "Print Area" in the drop down menu then "Set Print Area". Set the area making sure that you include the Total under the "Amount" column but exclude the last two columns. When you need to include the 8% interest in the future, you obviously set the print area to include everything.

 

[Mr lex]

Hi Welshman,

On behalf of myself and anyone else using this thread, thank you for your last post. Filling in the spreadsheet seems to be a major stumbling block to a lot of people and very daunting.You have been able to simplify that task enormously. I even think I understand it now !!, thanks again.

 

Alex

[Allyxia]

ok alex I see you are back on track now!!

 

Will watch and see!!!

[Mr lex]

My First request for payment letter is now ready I hope,

you can find the template for this @ http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/671-2-letter-preliminary-approach.html

 

( with thanks to Bankfodder )

 

Here is a copy of my letter. Would someone be kind enough to cast an eye over it, and see if you can think of anything I have missed

 

To

 

Barclays Bank plc

Head office customer relations

1 Churchill place

London

e14 5hp

 

 

 

 

Request for repayment of charges

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: 111111111

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 6 years.

I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.

Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £ loads of money.00p from my account

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

Alex.

Thank you for looking,

Also, on my list of charges I have used barclays own words to describe the deductions i.e. unauth o/d fee, unpaids out, paid referral etc.

I take it that is correct ?

Once again everyone, A big thank you in advance.

Alex

 

 

 

 

[Allyxia]

yes that exactly what I have done, I copied then directly as they described. Letter seems fine what was changed?

[Mr lex]

Hi Allyxia, Thank you, Welshman and Rooster, for overseeing my thread,

The only changes, to the template letter, I have made is to omit the following passage which does not apply

 

'plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX .' and the passage in red that reads

 

'Additionally you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you or was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied unlawfully to my account.

 

In addition to full payment of the sum mentioned above, I require that you remove the default entry from the register. Please note that mere correction or amendment to the entry will not be acceptable.'

Again, this does not apply in my case

So now, Lets see what happens in the next 14 days, not a lot I guess !!

Alex ( with thanks to my guardian angels )

 

 

 

[Allyxia]

Nah they may reply early who knows!!!

[Mr lex]

Right then, 1st letter has been sent off to barclays on Sat 9th of Nov, they will receive it on Tues. 12th. It was sent it rec. delivery so I will be able to track it. We will see whats happens next, in the mean time I will start work on my L.B.A ( Letter Before Action ) the template can be found here :-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/92-3-letter-before-action.html

 

(with thanks to Bankfodder)

[Allyxia]

Aye thats it!!!

 

You are an eager beaver I see!!

[Mr lex]

As aways Allyxia,

Thank you for your continued support, it always helps to know you have someone watching over you !

[Mr lex]

So the game is afoot !

A letter from barclays has arrived saying ' Hope to get back to you after you have lost the will to live etc '

I will be sending L.B.A letter on the 28th Nov.

 

Lex

[Allyxia]

Yes Alex. They do this usually with something like a four week deadline ignoe them and stick toyour own timescales. Remember you are in control here not them - the cheeky mares!!!

[Mr lex]

For those of you also chasing Barclay's, I have posted the letter I received.

I will not respond to this, I'll just wait out the 14 days I have given them and then send my L.B.A. letter.

 

Thank you for your letter received at this office on 13 November.

I am sorry you are unhappy with the charges you have incurred. Your comments are receiving attention and one of my team will contact you as soon as possible.

May I take this opportunity to explain that whilst we will endeavour to respond to you within timescale outlined in your letter, we cannot guarantee that we will do so. Sometimes it does take longer to fully investigate a complaint However we do aim to find a solution within four weeks. If we are not able to do so, we will always write to you explaining what is happening. A full report or an update on our progress will be sent to you within eight weeks.

Please refer to the enclosed leaflet which provides you with a more detailed explanation on how we will deal with this matter.

Should you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0207 1164561 or via Freephone 0800 282390.

Yours sincerely

 

I assume everybody gets this letter

[Allyxia]

Yes alex dont listen it stick to your own time tabel hun!!!

[Mr lex]

Here is a copy of my L.B.A. letter that I will be sending on Nov 28th.

Perhaps my guardian angels will be so kind to have a look over it and see what mistakes I have made, also should I leave the ref at the bottom to the O.F.T. in

 

Barclays Bank plc

Head office customer relations

1 Churchill place

London

e14 5hp

 

 

 

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: ********

Your Ref ********

I am very disappointed that you have failed to respond to my letter which you received on Tuesday 13th of November 2006

I now understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

 

I calculate that you have taken £Loads of Money.00p from my account; I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original letter which you received on Tuesday 13th November 2006.

 

I require repayment in full of this money. If you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus my costs and without further notice.

 

Furthermore, I shall if I do not receive a full refund I may submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT upon the basis that you have failed to comply with the OFT's direction of 5 April 2006 and are therefore not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act. If you do not understand what this means then seek advice from your legal department.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Lex

 

Please give this the once over and tell me if I have missed anything

 

Thanks all

 

Alex

[Michael Browne]

Fine, only include the last para if you intend to complain to the OFT

[Mr lex]

Many thanks to you both, All advice gratefully received, Michael, I don't know yet what I will do over the last OFT quote, I will look into it and let you know what I do and if it brings any response.

 

Thanks again

[Mr lex]

L.B.A sent November 31st, Lets wait for a 'just less than half' offer then Eh !!

[Allyxia]

YEs sorry hon but this is barclays and one of the slowest to cough up!!!

[Mr lex]

I had just returned from posting my L.B.A. to find the awaited 'just less than half' offer sitting on the mat, sorry Barclays, thanks, but no thanks.

So it's off to the templates for 'rejection of offer' letter for me !!!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/25716-rejection-settlement-offer.html

 

With thanks to Jonni2bad