Curve Card - No response to letter before claim - claiming interest when using MCOL **WON**

[parity4all]

I sent letter before claim to Curve card on 06 July 2020 using recorded delivery to reclaim erroneous fees. Followed the standard template posted on the Which magazine website. 

 

The letter was received by Curve on 08 July 2020. It's now way over the 28 days given (for Curve to respond). 

 

When I go through MCOL, can I claim interest from 08 July 2020 up to now, or can it only be 28 days from 08 July 2020?

[AndyOrch]

You can request interest from date you became aware of the charges up until the date of issue/judgment.(If you get judgment)

 

Which Curve Card do you use ....Blue Black or Metal ?

 

https://moneytothemasses.com/banking/curve-review-the-smart-card-that-combines-all-cards-into-one

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

is the cards still active?

 

dx

[BankFodder]

If you send a letter of claim on 6 July and you gave them 14 days notice of a pending legal action then why haven't you issued the claim already?

[BankFodder]

I just noticed that you gave and 28 days. Why? 14 days is the normal.

Also, regardless of the deadline that you gave them, you should have been prepared to fire off the claim on the expiry of the 14/28 days. You should have sorted out questions such as interest et cetera by now.

You should issue your claim straightaway and simply put down the figure "plus interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984". You can do the calculations later.

If you make a threat and they don't carried out exactly as threatened – you immediately lose credibility

[fkofilee]

Parity - What fees with Curve? 

[parity4all]

11 hours ago, BankFodder said:

I just noticed that you gave and 28 days. Why? 14 days is the normal.

Also, regardless of the deadline that you gave them, you should have been prepared to fire off the claim on the expiry of the 14/28 days. You should have sorted out questions such as interest et cetera by now.

You should issue your claim straightaway and simply put down the figure "plus interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984". You can do the calculations later.

If you make a threat and they don't carried out exactly as threatened – you immediately lose credibility

 

The WHich magazine sample letter says 28 days:

 

https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/letter/letter-before-small-claims-court-claim

 

I remember seeing 14 days in other places. But went with 28 days as I thought it'll give them some time to look in to it (curve card was experiencing high call volumes - they still are I believe)

 

Just seen that the gov.uk website says 14 days is normal but longer for complex cases. 

 

Quote

14 days in a straight forward case and no more than 3 months in a very complex one. 

 

Don't know if my case fits in to the straight forward category or not. On the letter before claim, I did ask Curve for a statement of transactions with the fees. Although I have screenshots of these, I presumed a paper statement would be best for Court proceedings. As Curve is a fintech, not sure how easy or difficult for Curve to print paper statement.

 

Thanks for the info about how to tackle the interest calculation. i.e. do calculations later. 

 

It's 5 weeks since the 28 days was up. I'll put in the MCOL today or tomorrow. Do you think it'll be problem?...I read through the MCOL user guide 

 

Don't remember there being anything about a deadline to start proceeding as such.

 

The practice direction - pre-action conduct and protocols website does say:

 

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This Practice Direction and the pre-action protocols do not alter the statutory time limits for starting court proceedings. If a claim is issued after the relevant limitation period has expired, the defendant will be entitled to use that as a defence to the claim. If proceedings are started to comply with the statutory time limit before the parties have followed the procedures in this Practice Direction or the relevant pre-action protocol, the parties should apply to the court for a stay of the proceedings while they so comply.

 

I don't believe a limitation period has lapsed as such, but I'll put in the claim today or tomorrow so it doesn't loose any further credibility.

[BankFodder]

First of all, you've been here since 2009 and I don't really see why you go to Which? for this kind of thing.

The standard is 14 days. It's the minimum required according to protocols. Curve are an experienced and well resourced outfit and if they can't handle the traffic that they have coming through then they are overtrading. It shouldn't be your problem. I don't understand why you want to give them any kind of ground. If you've got a case then you should make it instead of being a pussycat with them.

Also, once again you've been asking questions which shows that you are not at all prepared. You gave them 28 days to respond. That also means that you gave yourself 28 days to prepare, to read around about bringing a small claim in the County Court, to open a Moneyclaim account and to draft your claim so that on the expiry of your deadline you could click it off.

In fact from the sounds of it, it's going to take you a good more few days before you understand what to do and to be confident. None of it is difficult, but a little bit of reading means that you understand the steps and you are not fazed by developments.

If you haven't done and some basic reading and if you don't really understand what the stages are then I would hold back on issuing the claim until you know. Coming back here every step to ask questions is not really a great strategy. Of course we happy to help you – but it is about self-help here and you should put in the basic spadework for yourself.

There is no deadline for proceeding. The simply about setting down your timescales, your deadlines, your targets and then sticking by them.

[parity4all]

I've already done a lot of reading. Didn't see any posts that handled a question like the one I asked (re. interest). If there is a thread/post handling this, then that means i didn't look hard enough. perhaps you can tell me what I should have searched for in order to get to that post/thread? That way, I know how to conduct my next searches.  

 

BTW, to be fair, this is the first question I've asked you about this. Although, i appreciate that asking questions every step of the way may be a recurring problem that the site team have to deal with most users on a day-to-day basis.

 

@Andyorch- Mine's blue. That info in that link is not completely correct. Curve blue and Curve Black customers are now charged 1.5% fee for certain transactions. It used to be just HMRC payments only, but since April or May (I don' remember exactly - their email doesn't give an exact date either - just says you now have to turn on the 'fronted feature') this was changed to include other payments also. But the Go back in time (GBIT) feature was increased from 14 days to 90 days. Curve terms say customer must be provided two months notice for any change. For introducing the HMRC payment 1.5% charge, Curve did provide 2 months notice, but when the second change was done it was done pretty much immediately, and curve said 'we gave you notice for the HMRC payments change, so ....'

 

Then the whole wirecard debacle happened, and now Curve are saying that anything pre-wirecard don't quality for the GBIT (quite a few folks are affected by this). I've read a report on the Curve community forums that GBIT has now become completely kaput. Although on paper Curve say it's happening, when a user had tried to do GBIT it hasn't done it's thing. 

 

@dx100uk - Yes, I believe it is, but not used it since June as it's practically impossible to get any response from Curve support. I'm worried about using card, then running into some issue and not being able to get adequate support.

 

On 07/09/2020 at 19:49, BankFodder said:

.... simply put down the figure "plus interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984". You can do the calculations later.

There is nowhere to indicate this. Under the 'claim particulars' tab there is a question:

 

Quote

Do you want to reserve the right to claim interest under the County Court Act? If yes please select 'yes' and complete the following fields. If you wish to claim interest under any other act or agreement please select 'no' and enter the full details of your interest agreement in the box below. 

 

When I select 'yes' four mandatory questions come-up:

 

Quote

 

Date money became owed to you (dd/mm/yyyy):
 

Date you are issuing the claim (dd/mm/yyyy):

 

Claim amount:

 

Daily rate of interest up to the date of judgment:

 

 

All the above fields only take numbers, I cannot write 'plus interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts act 1984' in those fields. 

 

says on the MCOL User guide for claimants: 

 

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When entering the particulars of claim you are restricted to 1080 characters on 24 lines of 45 characters each.

 

What load of crock! can't even enter 600 characters. Only 18 line are allowed. The rest is stripped away.

 

On 03/09/2020 at 14:59, dave466 said:

Interest pursuant to s69 count court acts 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to the date of issue, accruing at a daily rate of £0.157, but limited to one year, being £55.79

For the question 'Do you want to reserve the right to claim interest under the County Court Act? ' I take it you selected 'yes'?

 

If I select 'yes' it reduced the number of characters/lines allowed quite a bit. 

 

I've calculated the interest and it amounts to less than a £0.90, so was thinking of leaving it out. Any thoughts?

[AndyOrch]

Step 5) Claim Particulars

This is your opportunity to explain what money is owed to you and why. You will need to provide a statement, called the particulars of claim (POC), explaining what you are claiming for. You will also need to state the amount you are claiming.

The POC are restricted to 24 lines of 45 characters and a total of 1080 characters. If you type more than this the last part of your text will not appear on the claim. Please be aware that the website will only accept the following punctuation; full stop, comma, pound signs.
If you do not have enough space to explain your claim online and you need to serve extra, more detailed particulars on the defendant, please tick the box that appears after the statement ‘you may also send detailed particulars direct to the defendant’.

 

Please be aware this will then reduce the amount of space left in the main particulars box by three lines. This is because a statement is automatically added explaining you will be serving further particulars. You will be able to see the extra information added in the next screen “Summary”. For more information please see the ‘Serving additional Particulars of Claim’ section. If you have
enough space to explain your claim online do not tick this box.

 

Interest

This screen will ask you if you want to reserve the right to claim interest. If you wish to claim interest under the County Court Act please select yes. Interest under the County Court Act is charged at 8% per annum. If you select this option please be aware that this will reduce the amount of space left in the main particulars box by six lines.

 

This is because a statement is automatically added explaining you are claiming interest under the County Court Act. You will be able to see the extra information added in the next screen “Summary”.

 

[parity4all]

Did see that. my other option is to select the option then send further particulars separately to defendant, and send completed N215 form to Court. Seems like a lot of hassle. 

 

Even if judgment takes 6 months, interest would amount to  £2.23. Does anyone know if judgment can take that long?

[AndyOrch]

Initial particulars should be minimum and the space allowed should be adequate...you only go into detail further into the process.

 

Here is a normal claimed particulars with interest how the final version looks.

 

3rd to last post in the following topic.

 

 https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/423025-dpd-letter-before-action/page/3/?tab=comments#comment-5066687

 

[parity4all]

sorry, that link just has a post with 'ok, ill do this now  '

 

Can you provide link to 3rd to last post?...can't quite figure out what the third to last post is.

[AndyOrch]

The link is above.......3rd to last post means 3 posts from the end.

The example claim form is below "  dpd claim form pdf. "

 

Quote

no worries, i thought id got it wrong.. please find the claim form dpd claim form.pdf

 

[parity4all]

ok. thanks. I downloaded. 

 

Suppose we don't need to go in to it that much at this stgae because the letter before claim also specified the particulars. 

 

So do I not need to start with something like this

Quote

By an agreement between [my full name] & the defendant on or around xx/xx/2018 (the 
agreement) the defendant opened a personal account for the claimant ....

 

[AndyOrch]

The more detail you put into the LBC or Initial Particulars......the more information you provide for the defendant to use in their defence...less is more.

[parity4all]

If I submit claim today what do I put for : 

Quote

Date you are issuing the claim (dd/mm/yyyy):

 

Is it 11/09/2020 or 14/09/2020?

[AndyOrch]

Your choice 

[parity4all]

 I cannot put 10/09/2020, because date of issuing the claim has to be at least 2 working days from now?

[AndyOrch]

Then put the 11th...its irrelevant really...the defendant will have 19 days to acknowledge service 

[parity4all]

An important paragraph from MCOL user guide: 

 

If you are claiming interest under the County Court Act you will need to complete some extra
fields for step 5, including the daily rate of interest. You need to add this amount of interest
to the total claim amount and enter it in the box for ‘amount claimed’ as shown at the
bottom of the example. This ensures that any interest due prior to issuing the claim is
included in the total amount claimed. This cannot be added to the claim at a later date
without making an application for permission from a District Judge which incurs a fee.

 

 

 

On 09/09/2020 at 11:49, Andyorch said:

The link is above.......3rd to last post means 3 posts from the end.

The example claim form is below "  dpd claim form pdf. "

 

 

You didn't tick the box '...send detailed particulars direct to the defendant...', no? Looking at the dpd_claim_form.pdf file above it seems you didn't, because that adds the following line automatically to your statement:

 

Quote

I will provide the defendant with separate detailed particulars within 14 days after service of the claim form.

 

Your form doesn't have the above line, so I'm guessing it wasn't necessary to send detailed particulars.

 

[AndyOrch]

Already covered that in my post above " Step 5 Claim Particulars "...also its not my form ...its an example from another users topic.

 

This part of the process in making a claim is really simple and normally clicked off within 5 mins.....are you sure you really should be taking this action  because its a lot more complicated after you have submitted the claim.

[parity4all]

Not sure which post you mean.

 

Anyway, re. complexity afterwards - can always hire a lawyer if it becomes that complicated.

 

On 09/09/2020 at 13:16, Andyorch said:

Then put the 11th...its irrelevant really...the defendant will have 19 days to acknowledge service 

 

I submitted claim on 09/09/2020 and put 11/09/2020 for issue date. 

 

Just logged in to MCOL site to check claim overview. It says issued on: 10/09/2020. So, as you say it doesn't seem to matter, except it's used when we calculate the interest (presumably we can't put a date way ahead and claim interest until that date )

 

BTW, I found a good post on this site, which suggest keeping a calendar with all the dates/deadlines marked. Sounds good advice. 

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2020 by parity4all

[parity4all]

I made an MCOL against Curve card (see previous thread).

Judgement was issued just over 30 days ago. Curve hasn't responded. So now I want to request warrant. 

 

Happen to read on this newspaper website that when we request warrant we need to ensure that the defendant's address is correct and that in the case of a company we should be careful when putting the company's "registered office" address, as there may be nothing there for bailiffs to seize. 

 

The address for Curve OS I put on the form is the one on the Companies House website: 

 

15-19 Bloomsbury Way
London
WC1A 2TH

 

I've also checked the Curve community forum and this is definitely where staff come to work. Seems they were based in Shoreditch before and they moved to Bloomsbury way in 2018.

They happen to mention that the name of the building is Labs House. 

 

I noticed that when we go through the MCOL request warrant, it asks 'Use the address for the defendant that was originally entered with the Judgment' or 'Enter a new address for the defendant'.

 

Was wondering if I should enter a 'new' address with the 'Labs House' part. So: 

 

Labs House
15-19 Bloomsbury Way
London
WC1A 2TH

 

If Curve don't settle and the Bailiffs visit, it may be useful having the building name so they can locate the place easily. Or should I stick with the address on the Companies House website?

 

BTW: With MCOL, can claimant apply for a 'third party debt order' instead of requesting warrant? or is 'request warrant' the only available option?

[BankFodder]

I'm not sure that you have told us how much the claim is for.

Please let us know the value of the final judgement.

Also, I don't understand why you waited 30 days since the date of the judgement. You should have moved in and begun the enforcement procedure immediately. If this more wishy-washy advice that you have received from Which? or somewhere?

 

 

Also, there is absolutely no need to start a separate thread on the same issue. It simply makes it confusing for everybody, takes more time for us to give you the advice and so it puts you at a disadvantage.

Please stick to the same thread for the same issue