Me vs Capital One

[Holdred]

I first sent the DPA request, heard nothing after two weeks, called them up and was told they hadn't received it. I questioned this to the Indian lady I spoke to who was quite adamant they hadn't, I posed them the question who did then as I had sent it recorded and I had more evidence they had it than they had of not..

 

Today my statements came through. You'd think the company was run by Dick Turpin, they've shafted me for £570.

 

First letter sent!

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

CARD/ACCOUNT NUMBER: 4775 xxxx xxxx xxxx

 

 

Firstly, I think you for your prompt and professional conduct that you exerted when I requested copy statements since we commenced this agreement. I hope our further involvement is dealt with the same professionalism.

 

I write regarding the recent report by the Office of Fair Trading which concluded that the fees that your company have been applying to my account in relation to late fees and over limit charges 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.

 

My confidence in your organisation is diminished and I am upset that you have gone against the integrity and expertise I had invested in you as a lender.

 

I calculate that you have taken £570 in now unlawful fees during our period of custom.

 

I require repayment in full of this money. I would hope that this will get the same prompt attention as my previous request and I will be left once again confident in your company. If you do not comply fully within 14 days, I regrettably would be forced to making a claim against you for the full amount plus interest, plus my costs, without further notice.

I do hope in the name of customer service excellence that you strive to achieve you will co-operate with my request. I understand this is an anxious time for financial organisations and I respect that any publicity regarding this would be quite tarnishing to a reputation.

 

Yours faithfully,

Reading through it could be taken as quite sarcastic, but I was trying a bit of flattery first

[Don Quioxte]

All good.. enthusiasm is king!

 

But perchance, it might be better to stick with the templates.. you want Capital One understanding in no uncertain terms what your agenda is, the time-scale involved, and the action they need to take..

 

Just a thought.. but good luck!

[Holdred]

Documents were signed for yesterday.

 

Here's hoping for a non standard response, but I think that may just be a pipe dream

[Holdred]

I've recieved a letter today from Robert Uday saying:

 

Dear Mr Funhat

 

Account No. xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

 

Thank you for taking the time to write to Robert Uday about the fees we've added to your account. He's passed your letter to me, as I'm the manager of the Executive Office and deal with complaints. I understand you think these fees are unlawful and i'm sorry you feel this way.

 

To explain, we automatically add late payment fees if your payment is missed, arrives late or isn't enough to cover your minimum payment. We'll add over limit fees if your balance goes over your agreed credit limit which is £xxx.

 

When you opened your account, on 8 December 2004, we sent you a credit agreement which stated these fees. By signing and returning this to us, you agreed to the terms and conditions for the account.

 

Our charges are in line with other banks and financial institutions and as you are probably aware the OFT are not challenging the rights of banks to charge default charges, but merely the level of those charges. [The OFT has sait it believes default charges of £12 are likely to be fair]. We disagree with the OFT's analysis and believe that our current charges are both fair and legal.

 

Because of this, although we've added them correctly, I'm prepared to offer to reduce all the charges we've added to your account. This will reduce them to £12. If you're happy to accept my offer, please sign and return the settlement form i've enclosed with the letter. Once we receive the form i'll add the £200 refund to your account.

 

Yours sincerly

 

Roberty Udy

Executive Office Manager.

 

Hmm. What's the best course of action to take, ie how would this stand up legally if they are prepared to reduce charges to the OFT level and I don't accept.

 

What shall I do!

[whistleblowing fairy]

Frome one who knows Capital One, reducing your fees to £12 is the final response. if you don't want to accept it, they'll more than likely refer you to the FOS.

[Holdred]

I think it might be best too.

 

I can't see me trying to claim the charges are unfair now they've made an offer to reduce them to the OFT's threshold

[mahala]

I wouldn't let them get away with that.

 

Unless Capital One are prepared to prove that £12 is a fair reflection of their costs, why would you allow them to sidetrack your claim?

 

The OFT did not say that £12 was fair and reasonable. It said that in order to get the industry as a whole to comply with legislation, they have put a threshold on things for practicality's sake. They stated that this does not by any means mean that a judge would view charges below the threshold as fair.

 

I would go ahead with your claim. It seems to me that by offering to reduce charges to £12 each, Capital One are desperately trying to avoid court, so they don't have to prove their costs.

[mijit53]

Your letter from Capital one is a disgrace, if they are prepared to offer one customer reduced charges surely they are breaking some law by not offering all their customers the same.

I have just had a statement in today and there is a late payment charge of 20 pounds so they are sticking 2 fingers up to the OFT.

I have already sent my DPA letter of two weeks ago.

So this will be another claim.

[Holdred]

As the charges have been deemed unfair etc will I be able to make claim that anything pre the OFT shouldn't be considered on the post OFT recommendation of £12?

 

Would something like that be a reasonable claim?

[Janet-M]

The OFT did not recommend £12 it said that anything above that amount they will act on and it stated that they where not saying £12 was the cost as only a judge can decide that

[mahala]

claim the lot, and keep claiming the lot. If they want to say £12 id fair, let them prove it in court.

[whistleblowing fairy]

quote=mijit53

I have just had a statement in today and there is a late payment charge of 20 pounds so they are sticking 2 fingers up to the OFT.

 

It take's time to change the fee. It's not just as simple as changing a computer programme. They've got to update the terms and conditions for every customer Capital One has about 4mil in the UK) also all the application forms prepared in the last three months will have the £20 charge written in them, so they'll need new terms and conditions once set up.

 

It normally takes around 6 months from deciding that they're going to change something to actually seeing it. Capital One are reducing the fees to £12 and are currently aiming to have this done by august/september this year.

 

Any updates I have from C1 I usually put in the 'word from banks' forum

[Holdred]

Filed my claim through Moneyclaim this afternoon.

 

Lets see how things progress..

[Holdred]

I had totally forgotten about this and only picked it up when I was carrying out an autumn sprucing up of my finances.

 

I've got the statements still, but I no longer have any correspondance from Capital One at all.

 

Should I just go ahead and re send the Pre-Lim and then LBA and jump to the court stage, or do the DPA SAR again?

[Holdred]

LBA sent today for £510 + £87.15 in interest.

 

£60 burning a hole in my pocket for MCOL in two weeks no doubt.

[ukaviator]

You should file using the N1 form, as MCOL automatically put a hold on any claims, even Credit Card ones.

[Holdred]

Roger.

 

I work pretty much next to the courts anyway so that's not a problem.

[Holdred]

Reply today offering me £216.

 

I nearly burst out laughing at "Again, I look forward to receiving your signed settlement form so we can put this behind us and save the court's valuable time."

 

No settlement form enclosed.

 

Going to nock up my PoC tonight and go to the court tomorrow lunchtime.

[Holdred]

Right,

 

I've used the PoC for Capital One from the template, but it doesn't mention the default being removed from CRA's.

 

What should I add to the PoC to do it?

 

Thanks

[steven4064]

Hi funhat

 

You should include a new paragraph, something along the lines of

Additionally the Defendant has entered a default notice against the Claimant's credit record. This default [occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by the Defendant on the Claimant's account] [was the result of impecuniosity caused directly by the application of unlawful penalty charges by the Defandant to the Claimant's account.]

Chose whichever of the bits in square brackets that aplies (or both).

 

In the last part 'therefore the Claimant claims....' add a new point:

iii) the complete removal (rather than correction or ammendment) of the default notice from the Claimant's credit record.

Put this in the brief particulars as well.

[Holdred]

Going into the local court tomorrow with my PoC to go on the N1.

 

Just out of curiosity, the PoC's are across six pages, I guess that's too big to go on the form. Do I just reference the pages on the N1 itself and put these in with it?

[steven4064]

On page 2 of the N1 where it says 'particulars of claim' write 'attached' and staple your 6 pages to the back.

 

It would be wise to write the case details (claimant and defendant) and page numbers in a 'footer' on each page in case the staple comes loose.

[Holdred]

Forms filed today.

 

Time to sit and wait

[Holdred]

Tomorrow is the last day they can acknowledge the claim, haven't heard a peep from them yet, so at 4pm tomorrow I'll be contacting the courts to see what's what

[Holdred]

Just rang the court and they'd sent the forms back but had forgotton to indicate what they were going to do.

 

Technically they are out of time now and I could apply for a judgement, but I think I'll wait for them to submit their acknowledgement. No point making this more complicated than it needs to be, and by the looks of things so far I'm not up against much