Certegy Charges - Help !!

[Mr_White]

Hi everyone - what a fantastic website !!

 

I wonder if anyone could advise me on the following?

 

My girlfriend recently had a cheque dishonoured by her bank RBS and has been contacted by Certegy who I believe are part of the Transak cheque guaranteeing group/system. They are demanding a 'fee' of £45 for the bounced cheque and threatening court action unless paid.

 

Could anyone advise me if this is an unlawful penalty charge and point me to a standard letter telling them where to stick their charge?

 

Thanks in anticipation

 

Mr_White

[lookinforinfo]

Write to Certegy asking for a copy of the contract between them and your g/f stating that they can demand £45. If they have such a contract, then

ask them to quantify the costs involved since £45 would appear more

than their liquidated expenses and thus unenforceable in Law.

[RETURNED TO SENDER]

I had a similar problem with certegy a year ago for the same reason, every letter I received from them i wrote back charging them double the fee they were trying to charge me, I also put a list of my extortionate charges on the bottom of every letter I sent them.( I do not think my charges were very lawfull )

In the end they owed me more than I owed them, actually about ten times more with my regime of fees.

Never heard from them again after about five letters.

[Mr_White]

Thanks very much for that I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Cheers

[Guest Alison82]

Me too!! but not sure what they charge yet. They are next on my hit list!

[Mrgreengenes]

Hi Mr White, sorry but I've just found your thread.

 

I received a letter from Certegy demanding £78.50. Needless to say, it was an unlawful penalty charge. I wrote to them informing them of this and they agreed to drop all charges as a gesture of goodwill.

 

Please read my thread here. You will find an example of a letter to send to them.

 

I hope you haven't paid it yet, if so you should be able to claim it back.

[lookinforinfo]

On reflection, I realise that businesses, unlike individuals, are charged by

their bank when a cheque is returned unpaid. Part of what Certegy may be

trying to reclaim is that cost, plus admin, stamps and stationery.

However, first they have to prove a contract exists between them and the customer of the retailer that Transax have an agreement with. Until they

have much more visible notices explaining their role and the conditions under

which they are working [and expect us to accept] their chances are minimal

in Court.

[Mr_White]

Hi Mr G,

 

I wrote back telling I would'nt be paying as I believed no contract existed and charges where unlawful blah blah and that was the last I heard.

 

Don't expect to hear anything now - Ha !!

 

Cheers

[tifo]

i didn't know this could happen.

 

if my bank bounces a cheque i simply get charged a penalty fee.

 

no-one else asks me for a penalty fee as well.

[paddyirish]

Hi, I'm new on the forum and am a director of my own limited company.

 

Certegy have just refused to guarantee a company cheque I was going to write at Currys. They checked before the cheque was written, so no cheque was written or handed over and I paid for the goods using a personal debit card.

 

They wouldn't tell me, but I believe the problem is that my Company's registered address (i.e. the one with Companies House in England) is different to my personal address (currently in Scotland) where the bank sends the statements.

 

I was asked for the Company Address and gave the registered address. Maybe they check against the latter. Because I work away from the registered address (always on client sites), there is no land line against the company- the company phone number is my mobile.

 

Should I be worried? Should I write and ask them for details of why the cheque was refused and face a long line of correspondence to explain the situation?

 

On the one hand I'm worried that if I do nothing, this will have an adverse affect on my company's credit rating, but on the other I don't want to provoke them into sending out fee charges willy-nilly. They sound like a dodgy bunch of bully boys - and for a company with such power, it seems very odd that they don't appear to have a website. I don't want to deal with them if unnecessary - what do you guys think?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice- much appreciated

[lookinforinfo]

Paddy, I do not know the criteria that Certegy uses before "underwriting" a cheque, nor whether they are more stringent with Company cheques than

personal ones.

However as you would presumably be the only person to present a cheque

for payment requiring a guarantee, their refusal in this instance would not

damage your reputation in the eyes of anyone else.

Your suggestion as to the reason for refusal may well be correct, but it may be an idea to look at your credit files from the three Credit Reference Agencies in case something has appeared on them that was the reason for the refusal.

[paddyirish]

Thanks for the speedy reply lookinforinfo- I'll definitely check up with the credit reference agencies

[gizmo32]

Hi everyone can anyone help me with my problem? I wrote a cheque at a high street store for £76, it was under my gurantee of £100 so according to you all it shouldnt have even been refferred to transax. Any how there were no signs indicating my contract with transax or leaflets to be handed out, and I am sure of this point because I actually work in this shop!!!!

The cheque was paid when presented second time and I paid my bank charges so why should I pay transax too?

I received a letter saying I had to pay £48, then another saying I had ignored all their previous attempts to resolve the matter(one letter!) then another saying I would be reffered to external debt collecting agency, and now a simple card posted thru my door saying that a d. foster will be visiting me on Tuesday(no date or month) between 9am and 9 pm and a number for me to ring if this not convenient??

 

THEY ARE DOING MY HEAD IN HELP!!!!

[lookinforinfo]

Gizmo, you should really start your own thread.

Why was the cheque returned unpaid the first time if it was drawn in

accordance with cheque card regulations?

And if it did comply, you should not have had to pay the returned cheque charges since the cheque was under guarantee that it would be paid. Obviously, you would still be liable for the charges for going overdrawn, if that was the reason for the return.

The reason Certegy are chasing you, is that their client would have had to

pay charges imposed by his bank for your returned cheque-companies get

charged for their customers unpaid cheques even though the return was not their fault.

As you say, you have no contract with Certegy so they should not pursue you. And if anyone should be paying Certegy, it should be your bank for not

paying a guaranteed cheque.

Write to Certegy making it quite clear that you have no contract with them,

and you will vigorously defend yourself should they take you to Court and point out

that the cheque should have been paid as it was guaranteed. If they want to

they can try and reclaim their money from your bank as they were the ones who didn't honour their own guarantee.

As for the threat to send someone round-include this with your letter-

Please note that I am only prepared to communicate with you in writing. Should it be your intention as you have warned to arrange a “doorstep call”, please remember that there is only an implied license under English Common Law for certain people to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.).

 

Please therefore take note that, I revoke license under English Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so without my permission, you will then be liable to damages for a tort of trespass. You would also be conspiring in a trespass if you sent someone from a doorstop collection service company to visit me and should it be necessary, I will seek an injunction.'

 

Hopefully they will then give up.

.

[Mrgreengenes]

Gizmo, If you, or anyone else for that matter, go back to my thread here, you will find a letter I wrote to Certegy, which had the desired effect. In particular, if the charge was unlawful, then to sell that debt to a debt collection agency, surely must also be unlawful and the DCA must be very stupid to buy debts obtained in this way. I would also take heed of lookinforinfo's advice concerning door visits.

 

I had a little trouble finding this thread, it would have been better to have started your own to make it easier for people to find you and give advice rather than hijacking someone else's thread.

 

Hope this helps.