My first claim against First Direct!

[crow]

First of all thanks to everyone who runs this website and posts information on here to help the (now majority) of the population who are in debt. Your help is certainly appreciated!

 

I have gone through all my bank statements and added up all the charges and all the charges for interest also. I have downloaded the 'Preliminary approach for payment' letter but before I can send it off I have a few queries that I haven't been able to answer by trawling the site.

 

1. How do I calculate the interest I have paid and am claiming back? Is it as simple as adding up the interest that I have been charged (that appears on my statements) for using the overdraft?

 

2. Does the letter have to be addresses to a particular person (by name), a specific department or just the general postal correspondence address? I will, of course send the letter by special delivery (not Royal Mail recorded delivery as i hear this is unreliable!).

 

Thats all at this stage! Thanks in advance for any help

Andrew

[Michael Browne]

There are 2 instances of interest you can claim:

 

1.When you go overdrawn the bank will charge you interest, perfectly lawfully.

 

However, if part of your overdraft is made up of penalty fees, they are also charging you interest on these too and it is this interest which you are entitled to claim back, but it's tricky to separate out from the total interest figure.

 

Vampiress has a spreadsheet, (the advanced one), in the bank templates library, which attempts to calculate this

 

It's quite complex and unless your claim is large may not amount to that much, so for simplicity's sake, some people don't bother

 

This is the interest referred to in the preliminary and LBA letters.

 

2. Section 69 8% interest on your claim, but only when you submit a claim at court. Don't add this interest before moneyclaim

 

 

General address is fine, it'll be redirected by internal mail

[crow]

Thanks very much for the quick reply Michael - that cleared things up.

I now have my first letter [claim for £725] ready to be posted special delivery tomorrow.

 

Hardly the big league but I'm pretty certain that I need the cash a lot more than they do! Besides I have a number of credit cards and other bank accounts to go!

[crow]

Ok, so I went to the Post Office and found out that Special Delivery costs about £4.70 per letter! :o Hmmm, recorded delivery it is then!

 

Anyway, just got a letter back from First Direct today (8 days later) headed 'WITHOUT PREJUDICE'. Quite a quick response and a substantial offering too - £584. The letter is fairly standard wording judging by what I have seen on this site, along the lines of "We charged you for a service, it's a fair price, we would win in court but we're offering you some money only due to 'commercial reasons' and 'without any admission of liability whatsoever'. If you accept the money then your claim against the bank is closed.

 

Interestingly this is the first letter I have EVER received from them that has been signed with a pen!! So, not a bad offer but they can just pay up in full. I could certainly do with the extra £100 or so and it's worth the extra effort. This will go quite far to helping me get rtid of my debts.

Will post details of the next stage!

[Michael Browne]

You can get a free Certificate of Posting at the PO, which would be accepted by the courts as being delivered.

[crow]

Well it has been a while now but with holidays and work I just didn't get the time to do the required research before sending my LBA. Before posting it I would like some feedback if possible. I am fairly certain that it is worded correctly but I did have to deviate slightly from the template as I added another charge and HSBC had pointed out in their reply that one charge was refunded the next day. Here is the letter I am about to send:

 

"Thank you for your letter dated 21st November 2006.

I respectfully decline your offer of £584 in settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account, totalling £687.50. This amount takes into account the £30 applied on 24th November 2006 and also reflects the refunded £37.50 on 7th September 2006 as per you letter.

 

I will accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary.

 

I will give you 14 days to respond before Court action commences. You are reminded that there will be no extension to this timescale.

 

I trust this clarifies my position. "

 

How does this sound? Any blunders?

Thanks for any feedback. :grin:

 

Andrew

[Arfur Bittah]

Yes thats how I did it.Declined their first offer which was £160 short,told them wanted full amount.7 days later they coughed up all of it.Just sit tight and wait and you'll get it all

[crow]

Well, well. Received a letter from First Direct today saying:

 

"sorry that you remain dissatisfied blah blah...after further consideration, I am willing to refund bank charges totalling £687.50 to bring this matter to an amicable conclusion. "

 

 

This is the full amount (after I revised a charge that had been refunded already - they noticed that quick enough!). My (hopefully) last question, actually two, is if I sign the form which says "I accept the sum of £687.50 in full and final settlement of OUR complaint against the bank and understand the funds will be credited to the above account" does that mean I waiver my right to take any further action against First Direct. If so would that also apply to HSBC or any other banks etc owned by First Direct?

 

Second question - I closed the account they are going to pay it into. Presumably they will just send a cheque? I am tempted to draft my own letter accepting the refund and requesting payment by cheque but would like to know if there are any legalities that might kick me back to square one!?

 

Thanks in advance

Andrew

[Michael Browne]

Dont sign their form, compose your own along the lines of:

Date

Dear Whoever

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

Sort Code xx-xx-xx

Claim No: XXXXX in XXXX County Court

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £XXX

 

I accept your offer as full and final settlement for this claim of bank charges

 

I accept this offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

 

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim.

 

Crediting the payment to the above account is not acceptable, since this account is now closed. Therefore I require payment by cheque made payable to XXXXXX

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I trust that you will find this arrangement acceptable.

 

Yours Sincerely

[crow]

Excellent, thanks Michael.

 

I will try and get the letter off ASAP. That's one claim (almost) done, 4 still pending! I am actually quite impressed with First Direct offering the full amount. I have been with Bank of Scotland for 25 years and they have sent 2 letters fobbing me off with promises to deal with it as soon as they can.

 

Thanks to everyone who posts on this site!

 

Andrew

[crow]

Well I sent that letter off, although it did take me quite a while to get the time to deal with it, what with illness and working etc. Received a cheque today for £687.50

 

In between sending off the letter and receiving the cheque I closed my accounts with FD to avoid the new £10 per month charges!

 

 

I wish I were in a position to donate some money to CAG for the help but I still have a mountain of debt to get rid of unfortunately.