Contractual Interest and Natwest?

[lil_jo]

Hi Guys

 

Just wondering whether anyone had had any luck in claiming back their charges with contractural interest?

 

I'm based in Scotland but bank with Natwest, i've decided to claim contractural interest at 8% instead of the standard 8% if it goes to court ... reason being that i'll hopefully get the interest even if they settle before the court date.

 

Would claiming the contractural interest make them more determined to challenge in court? or would they act as they have been acting and pull out at the 11th hour?

 

Charges and interest total £2200, so i'm deciding at the moment whether to pursue throu the small claims (max £750) several times, or through a summary action (max £1500) with an additional small claims action.

 

Thoughts on this would be appreciated!!

 

lil_jo

[pete_h]

I've just put in a claim against NW claiming contractual rate interest. What I have done is claim at 3 rates as alternatives on the basis that if the implied contractual rate argument fails I can still fall back on the County Courts Act 8% rate.

 

In the POC I've made the argument about reciprocity and mutuality and claimed "Interest at 29.69% per annum as the implied contractual unauthorised lending rate on the charges debited to the Account in the sum of £XXXand continuing at the daily rate of £XXX until judgment or sooner payment or in the alternative interest at 18.86% per annum as the implied contractual authorised lending rate on the charges debited to the Account in the sum of £XXX and continuing at the daily rate of £XXX until judgment or sooner payment or in the alternative interest at 8% per annum pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 on the charges debited to the Account in the sum of £XXX and continuing at the daily rate of £XXX until judgment or sooner payment". (The above is English law - don't know if it applies to your contract with the bank).

 

The 2 rates above were NW's Effective Annual rates for unauthorised and authorised lending at the date the claim was written. Since we're having to take them to court I'd call their "borrowing" (some on this site would call it thieving!!) unauthorised to say the least. I've used the highest interest figure for the Form N1 front page.

 

Why are you claiming 8% as contractual interest? Why not go for the rates the bank charge us?

 

If the bank wish to challenge this they will have to go to court on the bank charges issue as well, something they are extremely reluctant to do. The way I look at it is that contractual interest is a legitimate legal argument. The banks would attempt to settle early if they had any commercial nous.

 

The banks can either make a serious and realistic offer earlier (not an offer to pay half or they'll get a f@@@ off letter in reply) or make us wait a bit and pay a lot of interest.

[lil_jo]

Hi Pete

 

Thanks for your reply, I decided to claim contractural interest as a way a re-couping some i've the interest i've paid to the banks on their "unarranged erm .... borrowing???" on my account. I was tempted to go for the higher rate but felt that i was getting a little out of my depth and didn't want to risk having my claim knocked back if it reached court. This way, if it reaches the court stage, i will argue that i would have been entitled to use a higher contractural rate and therefore the contractural rate i am charging is fair and reasonable (and i'm chicken lol). If they settle before going to court, i'll get the interest and the charges instead of just the charges. If they settle out of court and i hadn't claimed contractural, i wouldn't have been entitled to any interest at all.

 

Do you mind if i use the wording on your last post for my POC too? was getting worried as to how i would word it lol

 

Thanks again

 

lil_jo

[Deller]

Probably best to use the template provided for your poc, but obviously edit it according to your claim. These templates have been used in other successful claims so we know they work!!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/681-4-particulars-claim-n1.html

[pete_h]

Dear deller1,

 

I've looked at the template you put the link to and unless I've completely misread it (in which case apologies in advance) it only seems to give the wording for the County Court rate interest. I looked for wording to put the contractual rate interest argument forward but couldn't find any on the official templates. I did however find an excellent post by a menber called rbrears and I used that wording as the basis of my PC's. I didn't use MCOL because I don't believe it gives enough space to put the necessary legal points forward. The link to that post is http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/15172-reply-stock-defence-18-a.html

 

Cheers!