Business claim... here goes!

[BADMOTHER]

Prelim letter sent today:

Account No:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from the above-mentioned account over the last five 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 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 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.

 

I calculate that you have taken £.in penalty charges and £ in debit interest bringing the total to £

I also request that any settlement should include compound interest at your current contractual rate of 29.8% from the date that each charge was first applied onto my account.

The account’s Terms and Conditions specify the interest payable on unauthorised drawings from the account. I believe that this applies to unauthorised drawings by you as well as unauthorised drawings by me. I therefore believe that I am entitled to ask for this rate and further that it is justifiable under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity, and is based on your unauthorised overdraft interest rate that would be applied under the terms of the above mentioned account.

I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter.

 

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.

I am aware that to date The Royal Bank of Scotland has failed to defend itself successfully in any court action, and if it were to follow in this case then RBS will also be liable for costs.

Yours faithfully,

I doubt they are gonna pay up so probably in for the long haul with this, fingers crossed any tips or comments would be most welcome....lets see!

[BADMOTHER]

Well, the standard "we are looking in to it" letter was received 2 weeks ago so today the LBA has been drafted and will be posted. 2 weeks from now, will probably be filing at court.

[Clare11]

Hi Bad Mother ( think you should call yourself GOOD Mother...smiles)

Wow! Thats no ordinary letter!.Its a frightener!

If I were them I would settle immediately......You certainly mean business!

 

I claimed against the Northern Bank on a BUSINESS account and was successful. They didnt settle till I filed against them in the small claims court but that was even better because I also got the statutory 8% interest!

I wish you well in your claim.

Glad to know more business people are claiming now.

Many think that the claiming back of penalty charges is only on PERSONNAL accounts but thats not the case.

Kind regards

Clare