Pyramidhair Vs. Natwest

[pyramidhair]

Sent DPA disclosure request on the 9th March, received all bank statements for the last 6 years within a week.

 

I then (taking contact number from this site) called and spoke to John Cunnane, Customer Relations Manager, regarding the manual intervention issue, and told him I would need confirmation in writing that there was no manual intervention as i requested in my letter. He sounded as if he deals with this every day, he sounded exhausted and ready to just give up, bless him (heh heh heh), and said it would be with me very soon. I told him at that point what it was I was doing and that my second letter would be with him soon. Again he was courteous and very helpful.

 

Having trawled through six years of statements, I worked out the money owed to be £965. I sent my second letter, the Request for Payment of Charges on 13th April, taking the template from this site, and included photocopies of the statement pages that carried the charges concerned. I sent the letter directly to John Cunnane, and started it with a thankyou for his assistance on the phone, and further to our conversaion.. I am hoping to give him the impression I'll not be letting go until this is resolved.

 

Wish me luck as I wait for his response to my second letter.

[Bookworm]

You don't want luck, you want your MONEY!!!!

 

Ahhhh, I would feel sorry for them, I really would... Except that these are the same who made my life a misery for so long when I needed them the most...

 

As far as I can tell, NWB will hold out as long as they possibly can... But like all the others, they'll give it back, one way or the other! (and by that, I do NOT mean with a stick of dynamite and a hankie over my face! lol)

[pyramidhair]

Bookworm you truly are an inspiration as my saga continues! Without reading your success story today I would give up right now, having received the following letter, Dated 20th April:

 

 

 

Dear Mr XXXXXX

 

Thank you for your letter of April 13th 2006, although I am sorry to learn that we have given you cause for concern. John Cunnane is not in the office until next week but I wanted to acknowledge receipt of your letter in his absence and outline our outlook on bank charges.

 

I have also noted the extent of your claim, net £965, but I haven't detacted any charges that were improperly taken because in every instance cleared covering funds weren't available by the close of business on the preceding working day. Overdrafts are not permitted on the Step account and this removes any flexibility that might be available to us when the amounts of items presented are relatively modest.

 

We believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff, which we are satisfied complies with all laws and regulations. We are also committed to ensuring the transparency of the information that we give to our customers about the operation of our products.

 

Against that background, we must differ to the views expressed in your letter.

 

You have raised a question about "manual intervention" and I want to ensure that I am responding to your meaning of this phrase. Can I please ask you to let me know precisely what is meant and I will arrange for an immediate response to be sent to you. I enclose a prepaid envelope for you to use.

 

Thankyou again and apologies that I must ask for further information.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Stuart Higley

Customer Relations.

 

 

 

At this point guys I'm stuck and a little intimidated by how big this task now appears.....

[pyramidhair]

Aaaaaaaaah screw em. Letter Before Action posted today. 14 days from now we'll see what happened eh!!

 

Any suggestions or support would be so very much appreciated. I feel like a little worm against the mighty shark here!!

 

Although I suspect that i what they want.....

[Guest Lueeze]

Well go get em!

 

Lou x

[Tristan28]

Best of luck to you! Does your claim include interest or does that get added on only in the event of the matter going to court?

[pyramidhair]

Best of luck to you! Does your claim include interest or does that get added on only in the event of the matter going to court?

 

The latter. Thanks for your support mate.. update on the way.

[pyramidhair]

Update, not sure what to do next right now, but will be checking it out this afternoon. Meanwhile, new letter, in response to my Letter Before Action (above).

 

There is little I can constructively add to my letter of April 20 except that I am sorry to learn that you are proceeding with your claim. The OFT statement of 5 April 2006 relates only to credit card charges and we have until 31 May to respond to them in this regard.

 

May I please remind you that any papers are serviced on our Registered Office address, which appears below.

 

Yours Sincerely.

 

Now. Am I out of options now, but to take it to court?

 

Any assistance from successful claimants would be greatly appreciated as I prepare. Cheers.

[wirralweb]

I am in the same position, just received a letter from Natwest in reply to my final letter of warning, they replied:

 

"I note what you say, in particular your next move. I am dissapointed that you propose to commence proceedings against the bank and hope, even at this late stage, that you feel able to reconsider."

 

I will be issuing a county court action as soon as i have the money to do so, probably next week.

 

Good luck with your action, keep us updated.

[pyramidhair]

I am in the same position, just received a letter from Natwest in reply to my final letter of warning, they replied:

 

"I note what you say, in particular your next move. I am dissapointed that you propose to commence proceedings against the bank and hope, even at this late stage, that you feel able to reconsider."

 

I will be issuing a county court action as soon as i have the money to do so, probably next week.

 

Good luck with your action, keep us updated.

 

Good luck to you too mate and thanks.

 

Is that correct, the statement above? Or is he being sneaky with half truths or what? Am I barking up the wrong tree by claiming returned DD charges?

[wirralweb]

It is true that the OFT have approached the Banks and Credit Card Companies relating to Credit Cards specifically, but if this can be seen as a penalty then Direct Debit charges most certainly are too.

I was a little unsure about the Direct Debit thing too, but the argument in law, as far as i can make out from reading threads here and other websites is that these charges are a profit making scheme, £38 a time i get charged for Unpaid Direct debits and this in no way reflects the loss the bank has for not paying this. It costs about 50p for them to send you an automated letter (if that) and so the argument is that if they are making huge profits from these charges (which is obvious) then they are in fact penalties and unlawful.

I think the idea is let the bank prove that it costs them £38 every time they cannot pay a direct debit. I would like to see how they could possibly justify it.

 

Take em to court!!

 

Best of luck

[pyramidhair]

Having read Henry's thread on the front page I must say I am now extremely unnerved by the idea of going to court.

 

My case is based solely on instances where I have gone into an overdraft thanks to a DD being paid when it was not in the account (usually only by 2 days maximum and never once more than 20 pounds.) This would appear to be identical to Henry's case, which he lost.

 

If any moderator would be able to assist in this area at all I would be more than happy to go to court if I had enough information to feel more confident about doing so. I can't afford £2oo court costs I know that much, but from my previous workings out, they have over £900 of mine thanks to these charges.

 

What IS a mother to do?

[bram stoker]

Firstly good luck. You've a lot more to claim than me - I have only £45. You're about a week ahead of me, so I'm very interested in this thread and sincerely hope you keep us updated.

 

You seem to be going along all the right tracks as far as I'm aware, and I'm sure that if you have to raise your claim in court and win (even be it by default) that you get your costs returned.

 

Let's keep up the pressure on the banks. Hopefully policies will change for the future.

 

Good luck again. x

[pyramidhair]

Hi again

 

I am "bumping" this thread instead of starting a new one (as advised) as the 14 days is now up and I'm about to start my claim through the courts.

 

PLEASE can I ask for a few thoughts from a moderator regarding my charges and claim. As stated above, they are almost entirely charges issued in instances where I have, with a DD, gone overdrawn, without having an overdraft. In EVERY instance this has been no more than £20 overdrawn, and immediately rectified every time as I have been paid into this account every month, almost £2k per month going in the account.

 

Natwest are arguing that these are NOT instances where the charges incurred are unfair or profiteering, as I went into an unauthorised overdraft. This one point is the only thing stopping me right now, from leaping in and getting my court action confidently underway.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion I'm being given "carefully selected" information (rather than "lies") to deter me, but I am very, very nervous at this time that I may have simply jumped onboard a bandwagon where all the successful people who have managed their way through this impossible organisation and come out successful, have had a more legitimate claim than I do.

 

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Ph

[wirralweb]

I'm not certain by any means but i think in Henry's case, the fact that he had a barrister with him may have forced the bank to send a barrister to challenge.

I'm not certain as i do not know if Natwest would have been aware that he was being represented by a barrister but it seems likely.

I realise your concerns because Natwest have actually fulfilled a service by paying the Direct Debits, which is very unusual as mine are always unpaid items. However, I still do not believe that the £38 charges would be accountable for if the DD's were for £20 or less.

Hopefully a moderator will put you straight as to what argument to use.

 

Good Luck

[Robertxc]

Do not be nervous, your chances of success, based on others (including mine) experience are very high indeed. All of the charges you mention are unlawful, regardless of the amount you were overdrawn. If you're unsure of the legal argument I STRONGLY recommend you read the FAQ pages carefully. Do not be intimidated by Natwest, they are in exactly the same position as all the other banks, and if you look in the 'Litigation concluded' dection you'll see plenty of instances where people have got their money back from them.

 

Please keep the forum posted on your progress.

 

Good luck!

[clairus99]

I don't see any NatWests in there!!

[Robertxc]

True. try this

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5571

 

Also, there seem to be quite a few in progress.

[clairus99]

Oh yes, I'm well aware of that one! I've just filed my Moneyclaim at the weekend, so...

 

Anyway, I meant I couldn't see any re NatWest on the, "Litigation Concluded" thread (now I'm at this stage, I want to know what to expect!).

 

Anyway, sorry p'head - I'm not hijacking!

[pyramidhair]

heh no worries ..

 

Thankyou, very much for this guys, I needed a pep talk!!

 

ONWARDS!

[pyramidhair]

This topic was closed on 2019-03-08.

If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there.

If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened.

- Consumer Action Group