accepting 65% offer?

[saka]

Thanks very much for your help, dar3en!!! I always send Recorded Delivery...you never know...

 

Sent a letter to MCOL with SOC and also a separate letter to B's informing them of having filed MCOL.

 

Will keep you informed of their reply...

[jkop]

good luck keep going. You WILL win. I just won - you won't get paid out until about 7 - 10 days before your court date but you will get paid. Barclays play all the cases the same way.

[saka]

Received Court letter yesterday to my MCOL - Acknowledgement of Service of Issue. So Barclays now has 28 days to put in a defence....well, I am a patient person.

 

Looking through my schedule - do you think I have made a mistake and should have sent another LBA before doing MCOL?

Also, I had amended the template letter of rejection of offer and made it a bit more "personal" - I now fear that this may have been a mistake and may give them more arguments to defend my claim...??? On the other hand "unfair charge" remains "unfair charge" and there is no legal argument to justify it really, is there?

Or could they say that I repeatedly paid in my monthly salary cheques "too late" - always one or two days before the direct debits were due and did this although I was aware of the charge, but still continued to pay in the cheques "too late"? I just wanted to make clear that I don't see any justification for having had to pay charges of £ 20-30 just because my cheques were credited one or two days after my monthly direct debits were due...sometimes I had to pay £ 30 on 2 consecutive days even. And I also referred to the bank account in my (European) home country, where banks wouldn't dare demanding charges like that. Just to make it clear that my bank there does not need 30-40 Euros per "bounced direct debit" to cover their "costs". It is a "service" free of charge and they merely need to send out a standard letter. The contact person at my home bank nearly got a heart attack when I told him about Barclays' charges...

 

Well....we'll see when the 28 days are over.

 

 

______________________________________________________

My story so far:

- 26 January: sent DPA letter

- 18 February: received statements of past 6 years

- 20 February: sent first letter of request of refund

- 28 February: received letter "we are looking into your concerns and will let you have an answer no later than 21 March

- 22 March: have not received an answer - sent a reminder

- 23 March: received answer - 65% offer as "gesture of goodwill" (tempting, as they promise to pay it within 7 days of my response - but not good enough!)

- 25 March: sent letter of rejection of offer accepting the offer as part settlement only and demanding full amount - within next 7 days, otherwise court claim

- waited almost 3 weeks, my letter got ignored, put in a court claim through MCOL on 12 April

- 13 April: claim was issued

- 18 April: Notice that Acknowledgement of Service has been filed and that the defendant now has 28 days to file a defence

[dar£n]

Saka, whats done is done, the main thing is, is the process of getting your money back has been started.

Barclays now have to put in their defence.

you will get notification the Barclays intend to defend in full.

they wont.

[saka]

After having filed with MCOL I "suddenly" received a letter from Barclays today which does not mention my court claim but just refers to my letter of rejection of offer (LBA):

"I am sorry you feel our previous offer to you was unfair. In our letter of....we outlined our position relating to bank charges. Nevertheless, with the aim of bringing this matter to a close, I am prepared to increase our offer from £1200 to £1340. Once again, this offer represents a gesture of goodwill in full and final settlement of your complaint and does not imply any admission of liability. Unfortunately we cannot offer compensation for debit interest. If you would like to accept this increased offer, please sign and return....blablabla."

It seems to me that because my court claim was served to the London office and this letter now comes from Leicester, where the original correspondence had started, they might not be aware of my court claim there. Well, this is their problem...

Do I need to reply to this letter and advise them of my court claim (again) rejecting this second offer - or can I just ignore it?

Also, I haven'd claimed any debit interest....just the interest that I lost during the past 6 years...so what are they talking about. They probably forgot to amend their standard letter accordingly.

________________________________________________________________________________

My story so far:

- 26 January: sent Data Protection Act letter

- 18 February: received statements of past 6 years

- 20 February: sent first letter of request of refund

- 28 February: received letter "we are looking into your concerns and will let you have an answer no later than 21 March"

- 22 March: no answer - sent reminder

- 23 March: received answer - 65% offer as "gesture of goodwill"

- 25 March: sent letter of rejection of offer accepting the offer as part settlement only and demanding full amount - within next 7 days, otherwise court claim - LBA

- waited 3 weeks, my letter got ignored, filed court claim through MCOL on 12 April

- 13 April: claim issued

- 18 April: Notice that Acknowledgement of Service has been filed and that the defendant now has 28 days to file a defence

- 28 April: received letter of Barclays making a higher offer of "generous" £150 plus - wow I am impressed???

[dar£n]

As this letter has come from Leicester, it sounds like Leicester is not communicating with London.

Oh well their problem not yours.

If you dont want their offer, the send in another letter of rejection stating unless the full amount which now includes interest is paid you intend to continue your action.

Enclose your updated SOC too.

[saka]

Thanks Dar$n. They must be so overloaded with claims...I'll send them a letter as suggested by you...

[saka]

re: Additions Account charges

 

On my statements it just says "account fee", so how can I find out since when they have charged me for the unwanted Additions account? When I opened my account, it started with £6, then it increased to £7.50, then to £9.50, then to £10 and £12.50, now it's £11,50.

Thanks for your advice.

[dar£n]

Saka,

The whole Additions facility is in dispute with Barclays with customers complaining that it was added without their consent.

 

This, compared to reclaiming charges is a lot easier, [or should be]

 

It looks like youve had the Additins facility from the date of opening. £6.50 was the initial fee for the Std Additions.

 

Go into your local branch and inform them that you wish to make a formal complaint concerning the Additions account. They will, by now know exactly what you are complaining about, but if you do have hassle just say it has been brought to your attention through recent media coverage and you feel you were mis sold the product.

 

Request the information as to when the facility was placed on your account, [which you already know] tell them you want your account restored to a std current account as you have no use for any of the supposed benefits that the Additions offer and you want the funds repaid into your bank.

 

Let them know that you expect a response within 14 days or you will take further action to recover your loss.

 

If you go into the bank, take a pen and paper with you, write down the name of the adviser, the date and time, and make notes of everything they say or argue against your complaint.

 

If you dont want to go to the bank and face them, simply put it in writing and send it to the bank via recorded delivery.

 

hope this has helped a little

[woodentop]

Saka,

 

Dar£n has explained to you above - thanks Dar£n. As I said in my reply to Shelby my situation was quite straightforward - I was calling them about my claim and mentioned the Additions Fee, was immediatley offered 3 months and I said no so they lodged a complaint there and then on the phone. I received the normal response letter saying they would reply by 27 April. I called them last week after having noticed that £118 had been paid into my account. They said they had refunded a years worth of charges. Told them I would not accept that then was immediately offered another 12 months. Said no again - split the difference with them and settled for 3 years back in total £304. I know I should have taken it further but needed the money at this time. I have received confirmation from them and am sending it back tomorrow so money should be in my account within 2-3 days.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Woody

[woodentop]

Thanks for the tick Saka - my first woohoo.

 

regards Woody xx

[saka]

Thank you all! I have mentioned the account fee issue in my recent bank charges reply to their "final" offer - awaiting their response to both issues. Hope it won't take ages again...otherwise will pop into my branch.

 

Still haven't received B's formal defence paper (deadline 17 May, so they still have plenty of time I'm afraid). Have there been any court hearings in the meantime??? Is Barclays still not attending?

[dannybee]

Bankfodder,

 

I am intested in why this site needs so much money? How much does it cost to provide web space and bandwidth for a forum. I didn't think any helpers get paid for their time spent on this so where do the donations from people go?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

[lthomp192]

[quote=saka;

 

Still haven't received B's formal defence paper (deadline 17 May, so they still have plenty of time I'm afraid). Have there been any court hearings in the meantime??? Is Barclays still not attending?

 

you will recieve there defence from the courts on the eleventh hour,shortly after the 17th May, that's the way they work.

There have been no court hearings to my knowledge for the basic penalty charge claims.

I think i am right in saying they are only getting as far as the courts if there is a dispute with claimig expence charges something out the ordinary, but they do not dispute the penalty charges claim.

[Bookworm]

Bankfodder,

 

I am intested in why this site needs so much money? How much does it cost to provide web space and bandwidth for a forum. I didn't think any helpers get paid for their time spent on this so where do the donations from people go?

 

Thanks

 

Dan

 

Please don't hijack someone's thread to ask this question. Either start a thread elsewhere, or pm him. But I can tell you this, with an apology to the originator of this thread.

 

We do not get paid for helping, no, although we recently started having one paid admin assistant, as it was becoming impossible to manage it all.

Just to give you an idea, to upgrade the servers a couple of months back to cope with the ever-increasing trafic cost over £2k. And I can also tell you that the vast majority of people who get their money back disappear without donating a penny, so don't think the guys will be retiring on a tropical island any time soon. Personally, I'd be quite happy if they did, as they deserve it, after all, without them, we would have let the banks get away with our thousands... The way I see it, 5% of what we get back is still 95% more than we would have if it wasn't for them. ;-)

[lthomp192]

I would back "Bookworm" last statement 100%,we would all be a lot poorer without this site, so i for one do not begrudge any donation to make sure others get what i have enjoyed through these past few months,sound and trustworthy advice for a measle donation. you could always go to the sharks and pay 50% OF TOTAL CLAIM. B.T.

[dannybee]

Web Hosting by DreamHost Web Hosting: Web Sites, Domain Registration, WordPress, Ruby on Rails, all on Debian Linux!

 

That would save some money!

[Bookworm]

Been there, done that, doesn't work.

If you look at the site stats, you'll see why.

I can assure you that without the industrial strength servers we have, this site would crawl to a halt. Ask people who have been here a while what happens when we get a big hit. And you know what? People complain when the site slows down or stops!

 

Now I'm going to ask you again not to hijack OP's thread anymore, and to start a new thread if you want to carry on this conversation. Thank you.

[saka]

Thanks, bookworm.

 

Has anyone heard of the case Tom Brennan against NatWest? He is a lawyer and managed to take his case to the courts, but so far the hearings have been postponed...

 

I sincerely hope he will win, which would make things much easier for us claimants.

 

I've heard that the hearing will continue on 21st May, with a decision on whether it can proceed coming later that week.

 

Can't wait...

[saka]

Just discovered that he has created his own "case" Website www.tombrennan.co.uk

[Bookworm]

It's also been discussed at length HERE

 

It's a long thread, merged from a dozen others which were all over the forum, and rambles on a bit, but worth having a look anyway.

[saka]

oops thanks bookworm

[saka]

My MCOL-Claim was served on 18 April - Barclays has had 28 days to defend. I have heard nothing since, received no further papers, no official defence.

 

Today is 16 May (today is the 28th day). Should I wait until tomorrow to apply for judgement by default or can I do it today? Do I need to allow further time for postage?

 

Thanks for your help.

[oneofakind]

The MCOL system probably won't let you apply for default judgement yet. Barclays have a record of defending right up to, or even after, the last minute, and getting away with it.

 

nothing to stop you trying, though.

 

[saka]

thanks oneofakind - just tried it, MCOL system didn't let me, as you said. So - does 28 days mean I have to wait until midnight? Or even longer?