not the sharpest tool in the box....pls help

[indianna]

hi, i have sent letter to halifax requesting list of charges. On the 40th day i received a letter from them confirming that copies of duplicate statements have been ordered and will be sent under separate cover. This was on the 7th Nov and i still have not received. Do i wait or send another letter?

[indianna]

Also could somebody pls explain what is meant by manual intervention as it says in letter "with regard to your request for information relating to manual intervention on your account HBOS plc is under no statutory obligation to record this information and therefore am unable to deal with this request.

[Guest littlesally]

Sounds about time to sue for the statements as they only have 40 days.

 

The manual intervention thing is when a person has dealt with the charges, rather than the computer. In that case it means the charges are more acceptable because of the time invoved. I believe this is very rare and have been told that as long as you have written SAR and Data Protection on the letter they have to tell you if that happens. If they don't tell you, it hasn't happened.

[indianna]

thanks littlesally, what letter do i send now, is there a template i can use?

[smoorach]

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

Section 7 – Data Protection Act 1998

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

 

I am in receipt of the documents that you have supplied in response to my Data Protection Act information request dated (Insert Date). The disclosure of personal data is incomplete in that at least the following documents are missing.

 

(Adapt this next section to your situation)

 

1) You have failed to provide a complete list of transactions and charges.(Add details of missing period - or a transaction that you know about which is not included)

2) You have provided no notes, or documents relating to any legal action between you and myself.

3) You have provided no notes, or documents relating to instances of manual intervention.

 

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, it is just an example of some of the information I am missing.

Accordingly, I have to tell you that you have not yet complied with your obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

The time for compliance with my request has now expired. If you do not comply fully with my Subject Access Request within 7 days, I shall apply to the County Court for an order to enforce compliance, together with damages at the discretion of the court.

 

Yours faithfully,

[indianna]

many thanks.... i really would not be able to go through the process of reclaiming without the help of the forum members and this site. I have printed and will be sending the letter today.

[Guest littlesally]

You will be fine, there's lots of help in the threads or ask here and someone will answer or there's always the Bear garden, although things can get hectic in there.

In my thread I have kept things as detailed as possible, but I haven't won yet (hopefully soon tho) also Chedder's thread is very good with step by step stuff and she has won. We are both with NatWest but don't think there is any difference except obviously the addresses and contacts!

Keep things to your time scale even if the bank tries to delay things - sometimes they do that.

Keep your faith.

[indianna]

can anybody help....

 

Sent the letter before action letter. Got a letter back from Halifax

 

"Thank you for your recent letter which customer relations are dealing with because of their responsibilities for customer service.

 

so they can respond to your concerns it will be necessary for them to carry out a full investigation, they will write to you again shortly"

 

My question is do i now have to wait ( i know they are stalling, apologies if spelt wrong) or can i continiue, the 7 days have past. If so what approach do i take next?

 

Thanks in advANCE

[smoorach]

ok you can now do one of two things. you can either phone them and let them know that the deadline is up and you will proceed forthwith to court unless you get the docs within 48 hours. this has worked for several people. or you can proceed directly to court and make a claim for the information you require. im afraid i dont know the ins and outs of making this kind of claim as i have never had to do it...yet. however there are many ppl on here who have had to issue court proceedings for the data they need so you wont be alone in this one hun. will see if i can get you more info on making this kind of claim.

[indianna]

Thanks smoorach, think i would rather go ahead with the court and that might kick them into touch. Any info on that would be great.

[hillards]

You should have had your statements by post by this time. You could telephone them and ask - try and speak to a Mr Ken Patton who is a Data Protections Consultant in Business Risk - Retail. Chances are that's who you got the letter saying they were on the way from.

 

If you call the main switchboard on 01422 380880 they should be able to put you through. This may save some time and hassle as he will probably pull out all the stops to make sure you get them quicker than you issuing proceedings and waiting even longer.

 

It's up to you, there is further information on what to do in the step-by-step instructions at http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faqs-please-read-these/31460-step-step-instructions.html - It's in section (1)

[smoorach]

hi indianna,

sorry its taken me so long to get back to you about this but had to find out what was involved myself first.

ok link first....http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/6971-data-protection-act-non.html

one point to remember when doing this kind of claim through the courts is to give it a monetary value. if you ask purely for info it will cost you £150, however my understanding is if you give it a monetary value say the costs to you of taking it to court then it will be £30. however this may cause delays i would try phoning the person who sent you the letter first if i were you. this may make them give you the info in a couple of days compared to weeks waiting on court dates etc.

[Aaronsdad]

Further to my good friends above. You could try being in touch with my favourite Halifax person (ish)

 

Kelly Duffy

Senior Customer Relations Manager

Executive Office

Customer Relations

Direct Dial 01422 326326

Fax 01422 326688

[email protected]

 

Hope it helps!

 

A D

[indianna]

rang both kelly duffy and ken patton, both were out of the office, ken patton rang back and left a message asking me to call back the following day and speak to mr richard ingham. he will be sending them out asap. thanks to all for your help

[Guest littlesally]

It's better to keep things in writing as that way you have something to refer to, and don't have to depend on memory. Also, photocopy everthing you send.

[indianna]

got my statements this morning. after going through them, i have a joint account and a single account with them, the total is £2750.....weyhayyy

 

i have read somewhere that i can claim 8% interest

 

my question is, is that for charges that have taken me over my agreed overdraft limit and what if i was already over the limit when charges were applied thus taking me further into the overdraft. i also have charges the didnt take over the overdraft but as a result of that charge other debit card/standing order payments resulted me in going over the overdraft........sorry if that is confusing

[indianna]

one more thing......is there a button to thank you?

[hillards]

You can only claim the 8% when you apply to the court, up until that point it's only a refund of your charges and any interest directly related to overcharging. You should be able to tell the difference between those and 'normal' interest charges as they will have 'as notified' at the side.

 

Use the spreadsheet - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

 

If you fill in the spreadsheet it will calculate interest on the various charges, which can be included in your claim. Basically you will have dates and amounts for 'charges as notified', then dates and amounts for 'interest debited as notified'. Put all those into the spreadsheet and check the total, that's your initial claim.

 

The column on the right hand side is the additional 8% you can claim when you apply to the court, but leave it out of any correspondence for now.

 

The way to thank people is to click the 'scales of justice' icon shown below their name, bottom left of any post they have made.

[indianna]

thanks hilliards, got another question

 

clicked on the link for the spreadsheets and dont know which one i have to do. i think from what you have told me that i need to calculate my charges as notified and interest debited as notified. what i dont understand is do i use the spreadsheet for contractual interest or compounded contractual interest (havent a clue what either of these mean) or am i competely on the wrong bus....lol

 

many thanks

[lateralus]

indianna, i just floated over here from the hsbc forum to have a nose around - i'm not going to make a habit of this - but, here is a little something i wrote just for people like you who were confused over this interest point. i hope it helps - the only difference would be in the names of the charges - i assume you can find out which charges you can claim for in the general notes at the head of this forum - and also, as the hsbc statements may be laid out a little differently - just try to adapt.

anyway - here goes, hope it helps:

ok, take it from the top. you have all your statements for the last six years, right. go through them and mark all the charges: USE YOUR OWN BANK CHARGES THREAD HERE:. now, next to those charges there is often an debit for "interest". so, as you are marking all the charges, mark all the interest items as well. look at everything with a DR(or whatever your bank uses to show debits) next to it, if it is on the list in the link, mark it, and all the interest with DR next to them.

then, go to:6. Interest calculation spreadsheets go on England, Advanced - Works (or excel) to get the spreadsheet. now, at the bottom, click on Charges & Interest. this will bring up a blue and yellow spreadsheet.

start with the oldest item marked on your statements and start entering them, the date listed on the statement, next column the charge - just call it exactly what the bank called it and next column put in the amount.

when you come to an interest one, move tab to the right hand side and put in the date, the interest, the balance at that point (here i will tell you that if the balance is in the minus numbers, a portion of the interest will go onto the spreadsheet - if you are not in negative balance - nothing of that interest will be added - so you will only see an amount come up if you have a negative balance at that point). as for the agreed o/d amt.

"you only fill in that column if your overdraft was interest free, - leave it blank otherwise. to find out if it was interest free (which is unusual) simply look back to see if you were charged interest when you were in overdraft but within your overdraft limit."

(i left it blank - i'm using bong's words here as i never understood it until she wrote that)

proceed through your statements from the oldest to the newest adding on all the charges and interest debits. you will see a total emerging, one on the left side and another on the right side. at the end those are the "you have taken £XXXXX(left side) plus £XXX(right side) which you have charged me in o/d interest.....total £XXXX.

That's about as clear as I can make it - i don't claim to understand it - it just worked for me. This is the information you will need for your prelim. letter and the spreadsheet is your schedule of charges.

 

more info but not for the prelim. and lba letter:

when you have the spreadsheet done that far, you can click on the 8% button at the bottom and reenter it all again with the date (put a date about 30 days from now - that way, it will be figuring your 8% interest that you can add at the mcol stage at about the same date as you will be filing) it figures the 8% for you based on how many days have elapsed since you incurred the charge. this gives you the 8% interest you will add when you file your mcol.

 

again, i really never understood what i was doing - just followed the step by step instructions at the top of the site and honestly - the spreadsheet was pretty simple - even for me and i'd never done anything like it before.

good luck with it - you'll soon be ready to send that prelim and you'll be on your way to getting it all back!

 

i really hope this helps and doesn't just add to your confusion.

originally everyone was charging 8% at the claim stage then someone got the bright idea to use contractual interest (like what they charge you on a loan) it's much higher but you have to make that decision from the beginning and i'm only clued up on the 8%. on my claim of 1500 over 6 yrs it added about 300.

i really hope this all helps (at least reading it all will keep you off the streets for awhile, LOL). good luck