James33 Taking On Abbey

[JAMES33]

Hello, new to all this so hope I am posting this in the right area (someone please let me know if I'm not!) I have been busy reading the FAQ's and lots of the postings in the Abbey forum and have just sent off my SAR. I am going to try to recover over £5000 of charges and having read some of the postings realise that this is over the limit for the small claims court so may have to fast track. Could anyone with any experience of a similar claim offer any advice re. court fees, any significant differences to the small claims procedure that I may need to know, any help would be very gratefully received. I am so glad I found this site as was getting towards the end of my tether with constantly being in financial difficulties due to the amount of charges being applied to my account. Why do they always seem to engineer things so that you get charged too!! Its so unfair. Would like to wish everyone else the best of luck in claiming their charges back and hope to be in a position to offer others some advice in the weeks or months (!) to come.

[Mad Nick]

James33, I remember well (it's not long ago) wrestling with the over/under £5K debate. Look on hmcourts.co.uk for the Courts' own guidance about Small Claims and Fast Track (start with "Making a Claim, EX205) but it boils down to this :

• small claims, no risk of costs (unless the Claimant messes about)
  
• fast track, limited to £750 costs (ditto)
  
• >£5K doesn't necessarily mean Fast Track. Some people have successfully argued for Small Claims (matter of fact not law etc etc)
  
• if Abbey stick to current tactics, they'll ring/E-mail you to settle after you've had to submit your Court bundle but before the Court date. The current record is 53 days before the Court date ! So it won't matter in the end anyway !

Regards, Mad Nick

PS CPR - Parts and Practice Directions might prove useful in the long run - for the finer points of the various stages.

[charleyfarley]

Hi James,

 

I'm a bit ahead of you but not by much so follow this if it helps.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/55539-charleyfarley-abbey.html

 

Good luck with your claim

[JAMES33]

Well, I posted of my SAR letter yesterday, just a case of waiting for a reply now. I have got most of my statements for the past 4 years and have been putting details on one of Vampiress's spreadsheets. I still have a column on the far right hand side which says "#VALUE! Not a number." Has anyone got any idea what I should put in here, it is in the next column to the date of the charge. Many thanks.

[Guest strangewayofsavin]

Hi James, my court date with Abbey is a few weeks away, so expecting me cash very soon. Abbey for some reason will try to slow the process down any way they can. but cough up in the end, stick to the plan and all will be o.k, with regards to the court costs, when you get to the court stage with the interest your claim will be over £5K, so you will have to pay £250 at the N1/MCol stage, this will take you through the court at Northampton, if you live in a different area you will have to pay an extra £100 to your local court (you will get this back from Abbey) if it gets that far. Best of luck and welcome to the "we ar'nt putting up with it " club.

[JAMES33]

Thanks Strange, for message of support! sorry to be posting yet another question but still new to all this. I have been reading with interest the advice on opening a parachute account in case of threatened closure or withdrawal of overdraft etc. I was wondering whether it was possible to open another current account without having salary paid in. I would like to keep account open with abbey for time being as obviously would be easier for them to pay any settlement or part settlement in! so was wondering if new bank would find it strange if I applied to open a new account but said that I wouldn't be paying in salary or setting up dd's etc for the time being. Does anyone out there have experience of this? Any help gratefully received.

[James31]

Oooh - this is going to get confusing!

 

Good luck James33, from James31!

[JAMES33]

OHH!! yes this could definitely get a bit confusing! Thanks for message though, Good luck with your claim too!

[JAMES33]

Well still not heard anything from Abbey in response to my SAR but it's early days yet I suppose. Been really busy reading other threads and copying anything that may be remotely helpful along the way - getting impatient now as I really want to get things moving. Found it really encouraging that so many are still receiving their full claim back and the level of support for everyone is fantastic!

[JAMES33]

Well still received nothing from Abbey. Have not opened a parachute account yet, still not sure if this means I will have to transfer salary payments and dd's from abbey account - could anyone offer any advice on this please!!! Bit reluctant to do anything to mess up my abbey account at the moment as have a £1500 overdraft and I am aware that they sometimes cancel this if you stop paying money into account.

[zeb22]

you will get a standard letter telling you they gonna look into things and it will take four weeks, if you havent already received this, ignore it and stick to your timescale. this what i just been told

[charleyfarley]

Hi James,

 

I had a similar o/d but set up a parachute a/c just in case. When Abbey arbitrarily removed by o/d limit prior to me starting my claim, I just switched everything over and agreed a payment schedule with them.

 

In fact their recent GOGW has sorted most of that out as well.

[JAMES33]

Thanks for your reply Charleyfarley, when you opened your parachute account did you arrange to have salary paid in and set up dd's etc. This is the only thing stopping me from opening one at the moment as I don't want to cause problems for myself with my abbey account if I stop having salary paid in.

[charleyfarley]

James,

Yes, I switched my salary over as well as the dd's. The only tricky thing was the delay in switching over the dd's. I've gone to Alliance & Leicester and they did the switching which took a little time and I misses one month on my dd's hence more charges. However as a GOGW the Abbey have already agreed to refund me those charges which haven't even hit my account as well as a further £1300 GOGW.

 

I have to say the relief at starting all over again from scratch with a new a/c is great. I suppose it all depends on whether you can manage to pay all your bills on your normal monthly salary or whether you're robbing Peter to pay Paul all the time. I can manage but it's the charges that tip the balance so to have no charges and be in control again is fantastic.

[JAMES33]

Thanks for that Charleyfarley!! I think I might take the plunge and have a look online tomorrow. When I get my charges back, they will cover my overdraft anyway so I suppose it wouldn't be the end of the world if they did withdraw it! Really appreciate you taking the time to help me out (again) thanks. (BTW James is my surname!)

[JAMES33]

Received reply to my SAR letter from Abbey this morning - standard letter from Pam Speed so no worries there! Found it quite exciting really, feel as if my claim is properly underway now - bring it on!!

[JAMES33]

I received about 12 months statements yesterday (all in separate envelopes as many others have). Bit gutted when I rushed to the door after hearing an almighty thud and expecting to see a huge pile of valentines cards, but never mind;) I now have only 4 months statements outstanding which are the first four from when I opened my account. Do you think it would be ok to send my preliminary letter now, rather than waiting for the microfiche statements to come as I am sure I didn't have any charges in these months. I understand some people on here have sent estimates of the charges with their preliminary letter but writing something along the lines that they reserve the right to adjust the total of charges once they receive full details - if anyone can point me in the right direction as to what to write here it would be much appreciated!!

 

Another quick point is that my charges amount to £6000 and I am planning to go fast track and pay £250 when lodging my N1. I have read that sometimes the judge may still allocate to small claims and wonder if that happens in my case, can I still claim my £250 back from Abbey or will they only refund me standard small claims charges?

 

Thanks for any help!!

[Mad Nick]

James33, microfiche is probably a couple of weeks. I see no reason not to do your Rrelim as you suggest. As for SCC/Fast, my claim is >£8K, I sent Abbey a draft of my AQ and said I didn't mind SCC or Fast - guess what, we're going SCC. Regards, Mad Nick

[charleyfarley]

Hi James33,

 

N1 day for me tomorrow. As for the £250, I think it depends on the value of the claim and not the track it's allocated to.

[JAMES33]

Thanks MadNick and charleyfarley for your helpful replies (again!) I will send off my preliminary letter and statements of charges today and wait to hear Abbey's response. Have now opened a parachute account so wait to see if Abbey get the hump over this and cancel my overdraft. I am not so bothered about this now because I can just put my account into dispute and will pay back the overdraft when I get my charges back!!

[JAMES33]

Sent off preliminary letter on 16th February so by my calculations, LBA will be sent on 5th March. Still no sign of my microfiche statements but don't need them now so not worried about that. Just trying to scrape together the £250 I will need in a few weeks when I get to N1 stage!

[JAMES33]

Just had this month's bank statement and Abbey are charging me £185 this month! Does anyone think it is worth me phoning them and asking them if they will refund them as I am in the process of filing a court claim against them? Has anyone else tried this and if so, did you have any luck?

[charleyfarley]

Hi J,

 

Three things spring to mind for this........

 

1.Withdraw all the funds from this account prior to the latest set of charges being taken and transfer the money to your parachute account along with all your dd's etc. Then dispute the balance as your claim progresses and agree a schedule of repayments you can afford.

 

2. I received a GOGW as a result of my LBA which dramatically reduced my o/d and also refunded the next months charges, so you could hope they do the same for you.

 

3.Write to them and say this account is in dispute and please don't apply the charges until the dispute is settled.

 

You pays your money and you takes your choice, but "if you don't ask you don't get"

 

Certainly 1. is not ethical, but........

 

 

2.

[JAMES33]

I sent my LBA letter to Abbey yesterday, so now they have until 20th March to settle in full otherwise I will be submitting my N1!!!! I am crossing my fingers that I get some sort of GOGW payment from them in the next week or two to help pay the £250 court fees.

[CHLOEJ]

sorry to butt in but in reading this i,m confused ,what is the n1 you refer to

i,m at the stage where abbey has lodged a defence today and its been sent to my local court,what next

 

cj:-|