Vincethod's Mate vs FD

[vincethod]

Hi folks,

 

Energised by my success with Barclays, I'm now helping out a friend with First Direct. He has his statements, and has sent preliminary letter (not the one on here, but never mind) - I've come in at the LBA stage, and I have a few queries:

 

1) Has anyone tried (and succeeded) with a claim including contractual interest? If so, at what rate?

 

2) I've totalled all entries for "Overdraft Fee" and "Excess Overdraft Fee" - Is that right?

 

3) What is the general vibe about the stage FD pay out?

 

4) Do they have a reputation for closing down accounts?

 

I'll spend some time reading around, but I'd appreciate any input you can add here.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Vince

[androobe]

Hi

 

In answer to your questions, I'll answer as best I know from my experience and what I've read here in the past couple of months:

 

1) I am trying to. They point blank refused to consider it even after LBA, so I have filed for it at MCOL stage - I haven't read of any FD cases going to court, so I will wait and see, but fingers crossed!

 

2) Yes, although they sometimes have another charge called Recall SO/DD or something like that - this gets charged if they don't pay a S/O or D/D.

 

3) Depends on the amount and the interest. If you have a lowish claim (under £1kish) and don't claim interest, they seem to payup without too much fuss. The higher claims they seem to force to go to MCOL (which of course means they end up paying even more out!)

 

4) I have only heard of this happening if you try to claim charges back more than once (ie: you go through this process, get your money back, get charged again and try to claim it back again), or if you have already got very close to the wire with the account being closed anyway (recent continued issues with "managing the account". I've seen a few cases in this situation where they do close accounts.

 

Hope this helps.

[vincethod]

Thanks - That helps a great deal.

 

1) I worked out the interest based on 8% (County Court), 10.9% (authorsed OD) and 19.9% (unauthorised OD) and between the first two it made about £100 difference (claim is about £2000), but at 19.9% it uppped the interest by £500, I'm thinking it might be better to stick to 8% after all (19.9% seems downright cheeky to me).

 

2) I don't recall seeing and Recall SO/DD enries in teh statements, but I'll get my mate to check.

 

3) Thanks - Looks like it's MCOL here we come

 

4) That's good to know, but my friend is planning on moving anyway, since the £10 a month charge thing came out.

 

Cheers

 

Vince

[vincethod]

Well, I guess we can call this one won...

 

Of a claim for 1900, my friend has accepted their offer of 1600. I did try to tell him to go for the full amount but he just said "I'm not greedy, I can take my daughter away for easter and I'm happy" so no real point pressing the issue.

 

Chalk this one up in the win column folks.

 

Vince