Sainsbury's Bank- Default Notice removal as condition of settlement?

[thatfellow]

After a few months of perserverance, Sainsbury's Bank have offered me 100% of the credit card charges owed to me in full and final settlement. However, they have not offered to remove my default notice or to pay interest.

 

I would be willing to forego the interest owed to me if they agreed to remove my default notice. Could anyone advise as to whether the bank would be likely to agree to this and, if so, what means I have to hold them to this agreement? Is it even my best course of action?

 

Any advice from you wonderful, wise people would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[Glenn UK]

Mike

 

Its unlikely they would agree with paying out interest you have charged them or remove the default without going to court IMHO.

 

Personally with my experience i wouldn't accept a partial settlement where i wanted to claim contractual interest or get defaults removed.

 

I would ensure as far as possible that the claim would get into court and that everything was up for grabs, not just interest or default removal.

 

I have a claim right now where the defendant is refusing to pay around 80 quids worth of interest. i would prefer that it went to court with more than just interest at stake.

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[thatfellow]

Thanks for that.

 

Do you think that it would be worth approaching Sainsbury's to explore whether they would be willing to consider such a deal (e.g. give my contact a call) or would you just steamroller on and refuse the offer, proceeding to action?

 

If I refuse this full settlement, would I need to send another letter before action?

 

Mike

[bathgatebuyer]

I'm in the same situation with the Halifax where they served a default even after the service of my Court claim. My understanding is that the Banking Code prohibits them from passing the default info to a 3rd party, namely a credit reference agency, as the account is in dispute, although I'm starting to have doubts in my mind. I would be happy for them to serve the default on me, but not if it is then passed to CRAs where it will totally shaft my fairly reasonable credit record - something I need to have preserved for the sake of my career.

 

So, I'm in a fairly similar situation to you. Was your default served before or after the start of your dispute with them over charges?

[thatfellow]

My situation is slightly different from yours. The account was defaulted before the instigation of my action, and is being dealt with by Blair Oliver & Scott. My letters regarding charges have all included reference to the default notice, and I have asked for it to be removed.

 

Rather unexpectedly, Sainsbury's have offered me 100% of my charges, but they have made no reference to my default notice. I would be happy to forego the interest they owe me (about £80) in order to have the notice removed. I was just wondering whether this sort of negotiation would be likely to succeed, or whether I should even entertain it at all.

 

Good luck with your claims though.

[Glenn UK]

You can try, but as I said its unlikely to succeed.

 

For their own reasons they are choosing to refuse to remove defaults and are arguing very strongly over interest.

 

Its always worth trying to negotiate, i would try in writing, phone calls have a funny way of proceeding in the wrong direction or ending up different from how you intended.

 

JMHO

 

 

Glenn

[100mel]

You are not alone. I'm in exactly the same situation with Sainsburys after 2 years battling with them and Blair,Oliver and Scott (plus Westcot and Legal & Trade). They have consistently made no reference to removal of default. I took them to court for penalty charges and removal of default - the latter being my main concern. The default judgement that I gained made no explicit reference to the removal of the default. To date all the CRA's say is that "Sainsburys say that it should be there, so it stays" although it has never ever been proved. My request to have the judgement made specific with a view to removal of default is to be heard before a judge in early June. Meanwhile Sainsburys have not paid the penalty charges in response to bailiff's warrant. I have been trying to reach agreement with them for settlement of the debt but removal of the default has always been a condition which they have steadfastly ignored. Attempting any negotiation with them is a waste of time and I think we have no option but to stick with the court, however long it takes

 

In the league table of bad financial institutions, I would put them right up there along with my other friends the Shabby

[thatfellow]

Hi 100mel. Funny you should post this now; I put my court papers in at the end of February, and Sainsbury's acknowledged my claim, with an intention to defend on 12th March. Since then I have heard nothing, nada, zip.

 

I was about to come on here to ask for some help from the forumites; what is the form if they simply fail to lodge a defence as promised? A request for judgement can get them to pay the money, but can it force them to specifically perform the removal of the default notice as demanded? What do you think my next step should be?

 

Thanks,

 

Michael

[100mel]

Hi

 

The sequence of events in my case was that correspondence started coming from Halifax after I had filed claim, who as you probably know are part owners of Sainsburys Bank. They indicated that they would defend, wrote to me offering me most of the charges but making no mention of default removal which was always part of my claim and explicitly stated. So, after seeking advice here, I wrote back saying that I would accept the offer on charges but it was conditional on default being removed. I heard nothing (but that is not surprising since they rarely respond to anything) and I obtained default judgement as when the time came they did not file any defence. The problem is that the judgement was a standard judgement and made no mention of default removal even though it was part of claim so I have gone back to court to ask for judgement to be amended to state exactly this. This will not be heard until early June. It apparently needs to go before judge

 

Was the removal of default part of your initial claim? It is likely that you will be in same position as me so when you get the default judgement check the wording and if it says nothing about default removal then contact the court again to get judgement amended. It seems from this forum that some financial institutions will remove the default as soon as they cave in on the penalty charges - others don't and Sainsburys Bank is one of them

 

I'd be interested to know of your experiences with them because IMHO they are one of the worst. Of course they are all bad when you owe them money but they have made my life hell over three years when I was caring for a terminally ill parent. I still have a complaint running with the FSO

 

I have had to issue bailiff's warrant to collect my money on the charges so haven't seen a penny as yet but I think this is a game of patience

 

If I can get an explicit revised judgement I believe the CRAS will have to remove the default

 

Keep me posted - I loathe this organisation with a passion!

[thatfellow]

Well Sainsbury's have now filed their defence- apparently the delay was down to an administrative cock up at Woolwich County Court. They have given the usual spiel about the default (so at least they mention it), refusing to have it removed, and have repaid what I claimed, in full.

 

However, in the final paragraph of their defence they ask that the case be struck out because the monetary aspect of the claim has been fulfilled. I have written to Sainsbury's rejecting their offer of settlement (i.e. the repayment) and reiterating that the two parts of the claim are intrinsically linked. Should I be writing anything to the court along these lines?

 

I have been sent the AQ questionnaire to fill out, and I am going to include draft directions as recommended on the site.

 

Any tips on how best to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully the end is in sight!

[100mel]

They are saying the same thing to me in their application to get judgement set aside. They say they have credited the charges back to my account despite letters from me asking for cheque - the balance on my credit files is the same as it always was and they haven't provided any written confirmation of the refund. They won't remove default and just say that I breached credit agreement - no default notice so my guess is that we have to go to court to get default removed

 

How I hate them

[sal dd]

hi, can someone help me.

 

can a default return back on my credit file after 6 years.