Baclays - send LBA now or wait?

[carthy79]

Hey,

 

Sent DPA disclosure request letter to my branch (Swansea) - within 2 weeks recived 5 years of statements. I found that charges totalled £760 - then sent preliminary letter on 6th April to customer complaints address on Barclays website. Received letter back last week saying that will get back to me as soon as possible with an ombudsman leaflet stuck in. Their 14 days is up on Thursday - shall I send an LBA on that date or give them another week?

 

If they offer me 50% - do I accept it and say that I will persue the remainder in court - or do I ignore that letter and go staright ahead and file a claim?

 

Many thanks,

 

Carthy79

[Alleycat]

As soon as the 14 days is up, send the LBA letter. You are dictating the timetable, don't let them railroad you. You've given them plenty of time to deal with your request for repayment, so don't feel bad.

 

I had a letter from Barclays saying they would be back in touch by 10th May. Their 14 days is up on Friday, so off with the LBA letter if I've heard nothing by then.

 

Re potential offers. I guess it would depend on whether they specify if it is a full and final offer. Personally I would tell them that I would be happy to accept the £xxx offered, but remind them of your timetable and that you will be continuing your claim for the outstanding balance. They will probably withdraw the offer, but that is their perogative. If they do, just advise them that you will be continuing with your claim for the full amount.

[carthy79]

Thanks for the reply - typed he LBA letter and waiting to post unless they contact me by tomorrow.

 

Cheers.

[Don Quioxte]

Hi Guys,

 

I would disagree.. the moment Barclays respond to you with the generic letter and standard leaflet that they seem to send all of us.. it automatically opens the door for you to send the LBA...

 

This is because Barclays have responded to your preliminary letter and made it clear that they do not intend to respond positively to your request within the specified time-frame of 14 days..

 

In my case, I posted prelim on 11 April, received standard standard letter on 16th April, stating they would investigate and endeavour to answer by 11 May (4 weeks, as allowed by FSA complaint regulations).

 

I simply wrote back an LBA which started as follows:

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Further to your correspondence dated 12 April 2006 in which you advised me that you may take up to 11th May 2006 to answer my request for a refund of charges, I am now writing to inform you of my intent to pursue action against Barclays Bank PLC in the Small Claims Court commencing 14 days from the date of this letter.

May I draw your attention to the fact that I stated in my correspondence to you dated 11 April 2006 that I expected Barclays to enter into a sincere dialogue with me regarding this matter, rather than to simply respond by way of generic letters and leaflets. Clearly you have either failed to understand my previous correspondence or else have chosen to ignore its content. I can only assume therefore that Barclays do not intend to respond positively to my request within the time-frame or manner that I outlined in my earlier communication....

Why wait? As AlleyCat says "you're dictating the timetable"..... 14 days is just a guideline for the first response...

[Bookworm]

Not true, Ed.

 

Even if they send the "we're looking into your complaint" pap, it does NOT mean that they couldn't still respond within the 14 days with a positive response.

In real life, yeah, we all know that's not going to happen, but the point of the all prelim-14 days/LBA 7/14 days is to show a judge that YOU have made all the efforts to avoid litigation, which is your duty a a creditor.

 

If they respond with a "no" letter, then, I agree you can go on to the next stage, since they've indicated a clear response that they will not pay back.

 

The "we're looking into it" leaflet could be argued to be an automated courtesy answer until they've had a chance to deal with your letter properly. If you do not give them the 14 days, you are behaving unfairly. (Ironic, I know) As per your letter, you are "assuming" that they will not respond positively. An assumption is a dangerous thing to use when the end product is litigation in court.

[Don Quioxte]

Okay fair point.. I still think that it is a reasonable 'assumption' and a judge would view my moving to an LBA at this point as justified 'cos I was explicit in my request to the bank that they correspond with me sincerely and not by way of generic letter or leaflet (automatically generated or not)...

 

at the end of the day I am still giving them another 14 days by way of the LBA (and I will not foreshorten this period under any circumstances) so how could a judge construe my actions as unfair or unreasonable under these circumstances?

 

I happily stand corrected.. but Barclays will have received my LBA this morning so I'll just have to be prepared to counter any accusation by Barclays that I have not fulfilled my obligation as a creditor to ensure that I avoid litigation.. They can argue till they are blue in the face but they won't b getting off on a technicality on this one...

[carthy79]

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