Brad v Cap One ***WON***

[Brad Smith]

thanks again sonja....it'll be there or thereabouts

 

he says confidently

[coll2900]

I sent my prelim to Cap one on 13/02, claiming charges plus compounded contractual interest.

Reading your thread I’m getting little worried now, I used the same spreadsheet you're using Vampiress’s no 16, but I didn't allow for all months, only the months were I had charges.

Should I have allowed for all months, even those that I didn’t incur charges? If so how can I fix it, and that would mean my total claim would be almost £4500

[redsonja]

Dont worry Coll. when you send LBA, which you will as Cap 1 are not known for settling early, just add a bit saying..."whilst waiting for your response I have spent my time thoroughly researching reclaiming bank charges and I now enclose a revised schedule of charges blah blah" or something to that effect!

[Brad Smith]

Just a point Coll, be careful if you insert rows in the spreadsheet to accommodate the additional dates. Sometimes it throws the formulas out, it took me a little while to realise this, but you may have to copy and paste the formula from the cells above in order to get it correct.

 

Hope this makes sense.....

[redsonja]

Good point Brad, I personally would just start a fresh spreadsheet to be on the safe side

[coll2900]

Thanks for your help guys, their first 14 days are over on 27/02, so i'll be ending the LBA on the 28 so I'll make the change. then.

 

sorry being a bit thick - but the prelim 14 days is it 14 working days or 14 normal days

 

Thanks

[redsonja]

It 14 days but I always allow 2 days for them to receive the letter so I give them 16 days in total.

 

P.S. You not a bit thick....the question are only easy if you know the answers....and so says Chris Tarrant!

[Brad Smith]

Great minds Sonja, I did exactly the same with Halifax

[Brad Smith]

ok...finally got round to this...does this seem ok for preliminary?

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account since April 2001.

I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to late payments, exceeding credit limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.

Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £390 in unlawful charges from my account. In addition to this, I also request that you refund me £738.92 in compounded contractual interest, which I have calculated at 21.99%, as set out in the attached schedule of charges. I believe this rate to be justified under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity; it is based on your standard rate for purchases that is applied under the terms of the above-mentioned account. Therefore, the total amount I am claiming is £390 + £738.92 = £1,128.92. I enclose a schedule of the charges applied for which I am claiming with this letter.

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

 

 

Bradley Smith

[redsonja]

Hey Brad,

 

seems ok to me, wap it in the post and await your letter offering you the difference between £20 + £12. Make sure you stick rigid to your timetable with these as they seem to be taking long times to reply and then when you do get a letter from them it is dated about 10 days prior!

Im hoping to file at Court on Monday with mine!

[Brad Smith]

cheers sonja...one more thing (at the moment anyway!!!)

 

which address did you send the prelim too? Is it the one listed above for filing court claim?

 

Cheers

[redsonja]

Executive Office

Capital One Bank (Europe) PLC

PO Box 5281

Nottingham

NG2 3HX

 

Im hoping to file mine at Court on Monday!

[Brad Smith]

cheers sonja, good luck with yours...i'll keep an eye out for developments

 

Thanks for all your help

[Brad Smith]

ok...preliminary letter sent Saturday 3rd March (finally)

[doo]

Well done Brad, you will most probably now receive standard letter offering you £8 per charge (difference between £20 and £12).

[Brad Smith]

doo...you must be psychic...received the standard letter yesterday informing me that they've refunded £172 to my credit card (which incidentally will take it below zero). I don't use the card at all, so can't be accused of using the money, but should I still accept this as partial payment?

 

If so, do I just work out the new total including contractual interest (would be about £1,170) and just take the £172 off the final amount? Sorry to ask questions that have no doubt been covered, but I couldn't see an exact answer to this.

 

Cheers in advance for your help

Confused of Essex

[doo]

You are due to send your LBA now or maybe you have done it not sure. I guess you could accept as partial payment (as long as you are not asking for a default removal) look in bank template for letter. Then carry on your claim, when you send your LBA if you haven't done so send them an updated schedule of charges, but make sure you make it clear in your letters that you only accept as partial payment. See what others think as well.

[redsonja]

Hey folks,

soz, have been away down the coast for a couple of days.

My opinion is, its up to you if you accept it as partial payment, I have however, refused all partial payments as this is where you could end up going to court for just contractual interest.

If you decide to refuse it, send them the rejection letter and LBA all in one go and tell them that "you have not accepted their offer and you request they reverse the credit on your account"

This must be a change in tactic from Cap 1 as they never credited my account even though the offered difference between £20 & £12.

The next letter you will get Brad is "sod off, we aint giving you no more back"

[Brad Smith]

no excuse...sodding off on holiday when I need answers...sheesh...some people!!!!

 

that's what I was thinking Sonja, I'll knock up a quick letter later and post it up here for your perusal if that's ok?

 

Cheers

[redsonja]

lmao Brad.

I was hoping to come back to info from the court for my Cap 1 giving me timescales etc but havent had a sausage....may have to phone them! Instead I came back to info from court for my halifax cc saying I had to put my title on the N1 and so they have returned it all to me...what a bummer....thats a setback of over a week for that!

Moral of the story....stick your title in the claimants details box as well as your full name!

[doo]

Brad, I must admit I have had 2 offers and rejected both but luckily did not have account for them to credit, they are very sneaky doing this as usually any offer they make is accompanied by an acceptance form to sign, so take redsonja's advice, seems reasonable to me you haven't signed anything to say you accept and by rejecting you are making very clear your intention to recover all of your charges.

[Brad Smith]

cheers Doo, just trying to work out the best way to reply to their kind offer.

 

sure i'll think of something "suitable"

[Brad Smith]

Hi Sonja, that's not good news...hopefully you had a good break and it won't delay things TOO long. Funnily enough, I've got to start on Halifax Credit Card too, should be fun & games. Would you mind casting your eyes over this letter I've drafted when you get a chance and letting me know your thoughts please?

Cheers

Executive Office

Capital One Bank (Europe) PLC

PO Box 5281

Nottingham

NG2 3HX

 

20th March 2007

 

LETTER BEFORE ACTION

 

Dear Mr Udy,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Thank you for your letter of 15th March 2007. I respectfully decline your offer and request, once again that you refund all charges and interest imposed on this account, totalling £1,141.91. I feel that you may have misconstrued the ruling made by the Office of Fair Trading; at no point did they decide that £12 per charge was a “fair amount”, merely the amount that could be imposed before they would intervene. Your charges still need to be a fair reflection of the costs that you have incurred, if £12 is indeed a fair reflection of these costs then I would need you to provide a full breakdown of how these costs are accrued.

.

I now understand that the regime of 'fees' which you have been applying to my account in relation to exceeding credit limit, late payments and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

 

I calculate that you have taken £390 in charges plus a further £751.91 in compound contractual interest at your current purchase rate of 21.99%. I am enclosing a copy of the schedule of the charges which I am claiming. I have already sent you a copy of this in my original letter of the 3rd March 2007.

I require repayment in full of this money and, if you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus my costs and without further notice.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

 

 

Bradley Smith

[redsonja]

Hi Brad,

Looks fine to me. I usually put a date in my letter that I will file for court and I now also include this paragraph for all my letters where I am claiming contractual:

 

 

I am claiming contractual interest (compounded daily) at a rate of xx% APR thus being the interest that is currently applied to my account. This interest is claimed on the basis of consumer contract legislation, which provides that where a contract has not been individually negotiated, the party dealing with the consumer cannot insert advantageous terms into contracts where there is no comparable term in favour of the consumer.

Thats just me being picky though, your letter sounds fine but dont forget to add a pargraph about reversing the credit as you have NOT accepted their offer.

Ooops scuse the font, not sure what has happened to that!

[Brad Smith]

cheers sonja, i'll quickly edit my letter and pop it in the post tomorrow.