Commission?

[closey]

I sent the DPA letter and the deadline is 01/05/06 (I also sent it to the woolwich). The thing is I didn't send it registered post, and neither bank have taken the £10 or responded to my letter. I am unsure whether I should do the following:

 

1. Resend the letter again (register!) and start the 40 day count down again

2. Send a new letter saying the clock is ticking, you have until 01/05/06 etc

3. Just wait until 01/05/06 then report them for not getting in touch.

 

Advise please xx

[lee6370]

I'd go for option 2, only send it recorded and also e-mail it to them.

[closey]

Having read other peoples threads, I have, for the moment, just email this as they seem to respond quickly:

 

Please find attached a copy of a letter by post to my local branch on 22/03/06 to which I have not yet received a reply.

 

Under the DPA you have 40 days in which to respond, therefore I expect to receive the requested bank statements by 01/05/06.

 

I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

 

Sarah Close

[closey]

It's well worth emailing, I've received a response already:

 

'Thank you for the e-mail.

 

I am sorry to learn that you have not as yet received any response from your branch, to your letter of 22nd March.

 

I will pass this e-mail and letter on to them and ask that they acknowledge the action taken.

 

Regards

 

Keith Boden

Lloyds TSB - Service Recovery

Birmingham '

[closey]

After all the waiting my statements were received yesterday.

 

Some were full statements, but the more recent ones were just sheets showing what charges and overdraft interest was applied to my account.

 

Now I must confess I got an E in my math's GCSE....twice! So I am a total dunce when it comes to maths. Trying to understand what I have read from other peoples threads about how much interest to claim has gone totally over my head.

 

Can any one advise me in dummy terms what I should be doing?

 

I have done the spreedsheet and the total owing is £680 plus the 8% £166.60 totals £846.60. I have however paid a lot in overdraft interest.

 

Look forward to receiving some help and moving my case forward.

[closey]

Ok...no reply from anyone! I've basically done a rough calculation and figured that it is up to LLoyds to work out whether it is right or wrong.

 

I got my boyfriend to check the standard letter template. He is a barrister and has made some minor amendments to make it sound like it has been legally prepared. I will post this letter elsewhere for others to see:

 

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 6 years.

 

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

 

It has 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 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.

 

Amount owed

 

I calculate that you have taken £710 in levies and further, due to those levies, have charged me overdraft interest to the sum of £262.42 leaving a total owed of £972.42.

 

Target dates re resolution

 

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter - I am writing this letter on the assumption that this is preferable than mere standard response letters/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 any 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 expiration of the second deadline.

 

Looking forward in earnest to hearing from you.

[closey]

Letter sent recorded delivery today. Also emailed a copy. Roll on 14 days.

[closey]

copy of email sent:

 

Thanks for your assistance. Once my local branch had been prompted by one of their fellow employees, they decided to cash the cheque for £10 they had retain for several weeks and comply with my request.

 

Please find attached a copy of a letter sent RECORDED delivery to the branch today. Could you liaise with them again and request a prompter reply than last time please?

 

Thanks again for you assistance in this matter.

 

Sarah Close

[Spiceskull]

Good luck.

[closey]

Reply received from lloyds:

 

'I am just writing to let you know that we've received your complaint - and to say how sorry I am to learn that you're unhappy with us.

 

You have my assurance that one of our assistant managers will investigate the concerns that you have raised with us - this may take a little time but i would expect our enquiries to be complete within the coming 2 weeks. We will then be able to respond in full to your complaint and at that stage, I hope, resolve matters between us.

 

In case you haven't received a copy of our leaflet called 'How to voice your concerns' I've enclosed one with my letter. This tells you all you need to know about resolving your complaint with us.

 

David Just

Assistant manager'.

 

Tomorrow is the deadline before I send the final letter before action. Has anyone had a letter like the one above, and if so how did you amend your letter before action to reflect this?

[reload]

Hi Closey,

 

Yep, I recieved a copy of that letter - the following day I recieved a "bugger off, we're not paying you a penny" letter. My thread is here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=6182 if you want to read it in advance

 

I'm sending my LBA off this evening (registered first class), pretty much the standard template letter in the library. I haven't modified it much, if at all.

 

As for the interest - I'll try to explain and hope it helps!

 

Using the template excel spreadsheet available in the library, all you need is - charge by charge - enter the date the charge was applied and the amount you were charged. This is, of course, for the 8% fee which is applicable when you issue a Moneyclaim.

 

As for the overdraft interest on fees applied to the bank - my own personal view is that this is just an excessive complication for not a huge amount of reward, so I have left it out of my calculation. However, if you want to apply the interest you were charged on overdraft fees, you will need to go over your statements with a fine-tooth comb and pick out occasions when the bank caused you to go overdrawn by applying a fee, and add that interest to your request.

 

I believe Vampiress is working on a spreadsheet to help people do this - but like you, it's way over my head!

[closey]

Hiya Reload,

 

Thanks for your response. The 8% APR I totally understand, it was the o/d interest I didn't. I have basically made a rough calculation and feel it is up to the bank to correct me if I am wrong, as they make this part of their statements very difficault to work out.

 

Seems we are pretty much on the same timeframe. My LBA will be sent tomorrow, so I will watch your case with interest.

 

I cannot wait to find out the conclusion...watch this space!

[closey]

LBA sent today.

[closey]

Is this a new stalling tactic? I got home hme yesterday and received this:

 

'A copy of your letter of 26th April has been passed to this department and I have been asked to write to you on behalf od the bank. Thank you for your patience.

 

I am sorry to trouble you again but in order to progress your case, may I kindly ask you to send me confirmation of your account number, including your six digit sort code. On receipt I will prgress matter without further delay.

 

A pre paid envelope is encloded for your reply.

 

Your sincerely,

 

Jean Campbell

 

Has anyone else received this letter? My account number was on the letter I wrote, and we all know that banks can search under your surname and postcode if they like.

 

I will reply to this, as I don't want the bank saying I hindered their process, however I am still sticking to my timeframe. 13 days to go Lloyds.....

[bram stoker]

I will reply to this, as I don't want the bank saying I hindered their process, however I am still sticking to my timeframe. 13 days to go Lloyds.....

Good.

 

It sounds completely ridiculous. You'd best double and triple check the sort code you put on the letter though - just in case. It's the only sane reason I can think of that they would be asking for it. But we all know there's no sanity in the banking system.

[closey]

I've checked, and it's spot on. Considering I received another letter a few days before saying it's being dealt with, 2 weeks, blah blah, I just think this is a delaying tactic. I will pop this in the post today, and we'll see what happens!

[closey]

I think I may have just received my first charge from Smile...and they call it commission. Seems a strange word to use.

 

Anyway, they took this from my account ONE DAY after a cheque bounced. Are they not supposed to write to me first?

[zara_goza]

I also have the Commision unpaid item of £25 without notification of any kind, and still I don't know from what is coming from...

[Spiceskull]

They think they are being so so so clever by changing the words around...if you are intending to call them, you could ask what the commission was for, and where in your Ts&Cs you agreed to pay them commission...it would be interesting to hear their reply...

[dave]

It's called 'Cloaking' - no judge is likely to fall for it, and for the bank to expect them to, is quite frankly a p*ss take.

[closey]

Well I just had an interesting call with Smile. I asked firstly asked why £25 commission had been taken from my account. I was advised that due to a cheque clearing and there being insufficient funds in my account they had taken a £25 bank charge. We a brief discussion about why commission is a totally inappropriate use of language.

 

I then said this charge is illegal, I expect £25 to be credited back into my account immediately or I would take further action. The lady, sounding a little shocked said she did not have the authority to do so but would talk to her supervisor. After being left on hold for some while, she came back and said 'yes Miss *** my supervisor has informed me that the current charges are illegal and here at smile we are investigating what amount is correct to charge our customers. I advised her the cost of a stamp...she agreed! She then informed me that the £25 was going back into my account today.

 

For anyone else wanting to call, use 0161 4771927 - number provided by saynoto0870

[Spiceskull]

Well I just had an interesting call with Smile. I asked firstly asked why £25 commission had been taken from my account. I was advised that due to a cheque clearing and there being insufficient funds in my account they had taken a £25 bank charge. We a brief discussion about why commission is a totally inappropriate use of language.

 

I then said this charge is illegal, I expect £25 to be credited back into my account immediately or I would take further action. The lady, sounding a little shocked said she did not have the authority to do so but would talk to her supervisor. After being left on hold for some while, she came back and said 'yes Miss *** my supervisor has informed me that the current charges are illegal and here at smile we are investigating what amount is correct to charge our customers. I advised her the cost of a stamp...she agreed! She then informed me that the £25 was going back into my account today.

 

For anyone else wanting to call, use 0161 4771927 - number provided by saynoto0870

WOW!!! I suppose it is too much to ask, but did you manage to record the call? For a member of staff to admit that the charges are illegal is almost unheard of...

[closey]

I didn't even think to record the call...doh!

 

I imagine that Smile maybe a little more accomodating with these requests than others as they don't want to loose their image as 'the ethical bank'.

[closey]

Received the NO WAY lady letter, and 'you may wish to consider alternative banking arrangements'. Filed moneyclaim last night.

[closey]

Humm, just looked at Moneyclaim, and it is showing a Northampton Court even though I live in Brighton.

 

Also, the 14 days are up on Bank Holiday monday. If they do not acknowledge the claim can I file a judgement on a Bank Holiday?