Hax vs Citi Cards

[Hax]

Hi folks - just looking into starting my claim for charges on my Citi Card account.

 

Basically, I had a £650 limit, hit some difficulties and ended up owing in excess of £1850 :/ I've had a year of reduced interest which has helped me get the amount owing down to £1400 - but they've just started me back on the "high" interest rate and are sending me letters demanding the excess back so I thought it time to take action - so am preparing my request for data letter.

 

I was just wondering though, with my limit being £650 and Citi Cards effectively lending me another £1200 on top of that through their charges, have they ever been brought up for breaching the "responsible lending" rules/guidelines that banks are supposed to adhere to?

 

I had previously asked Citi Cards on a couple of occasions before the debt reached anywhere near the £1800 mark if there was anyway they were able to strike a deal with me and stop charges so that I may make lower repayments and not incur any more penalites, but I was told point blank that unless I made payments of the amounts specified that I would continue to incur the charges, regardless.

 

To my mind, they had been told that I was struggling, it was obvious from my repayment "history" that I was struggling, but they still kept piling the charges on and effectively increasing the amount owed to them. This sounds far from responsible to me.

 

Anyway - just a thought that had entered my tiny little mind... Back to the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter

 

Cheers folks

[gizmo111]

Hi hax and welcome to the world of Citi claimants:)

 

basically your story is the same as most of us just the amounts are different - when you send your SAR they will ask you for proof of ID - if you want to you can send the ID off with your SAR and a line saying that is what you are doing.

have a read around some of the older Citi threads so yuou are ready when the battle starts - if you eed any help just ask.

 

Good Luck -

[Hax]

Thanks for the welcome Gizmo - just been reading your thread - good luck on the 22nd!

[Hax]

Well, I've been a bit slow in getting things moving properly - mainly because the rest of my life has been pushing forward for attention.

 

Anyway, I've just waded through my past statements and found that I have £1275 of charges although at one point Citi did refund 3 lots of £25 of charges so I'll be putting in a claim for an even £1200.

 

One thing that has me curious though is that during the time when Citi were piling on the charges at a rate of about £50 a month (1 late payment and 1 overlimit @ £25 each) I was also receiving a huge interest charge - a large part of which would have been due solely to the large sum of fees that I had incurred. My credit limit was only £650 but Citi inflated the amount owed to in excess of £1950 at it's worst - at this particular point in time I was also being charged £40 for a month's interest.

 

Just wondering if I should somehow be claiming for this interest that was levied against the charges? If I hadn't been making any payments to Citi at all then I would estimate that my highest balance would have been in excess of £2500 - but the payments I was making seemed to be just about covering the interest and maybe a little extra too - but not enough to stop Citi then slapping on another £50 of charges the gits - meaning that I was simply fighting a losing battle with them :/

 

(I agree that I should be paying interest on the amount that I'd actually borrowed/spent and interest on top of that interest - but it's not like I had ever actually "had" the money from the charges)

 

Thanks for any help/advice!

 

Hax

[Hax]

Well, I wrote to Citi and for my first letter, I decided to try and take a less official route leaving open the option to take a more official route at a later date if necessary.

 

Today, I received this reply:

 

Thank you for taking the time to write to us about the above account. I will be looking into your query for you.

 

I am sorry that you have had cause to complain. The issues that you have raised will be given prompt attention and I will respond directly to you on behalf of our Chief Executive.

 

As a general guide we aim to fulfil the following service timeline:

 

* Acknowledge all complaints within 24 hours of receipt.

* Provide a full written update to you within 10 working days.

* 80% of all Section 75 claims to be remedied within 21 days, subject to verification.

 

I would make you aware that you may refer your complaint to the FLA at any point during the first 8 weeks of your complaint, at the following address:

 

The Compliance Manager

4th Floor Imperial House

15-19 Kingsway

London

WC2B 6UN

www.fla.org.uk

 

I have enclosed a copy of our complaints procedure for you. In the meantime, if I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to call me

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Mark Clibbens

 

Anyway, I'm just wondering what this "Section 75" is all about... From what I can tell, it's all to do with recovering costs under the insurance offered when making purchases with a credit card. This most definitely does not apply to me here - so I'm assuming that it's just a standard response letter for covering most situations.