My case begins - at last!

[andrew1]

Abbey have sent letter following my request for backdated data (without the £10) addressed to DPA Team I might add, stating my request is for specific information and I do not have to ask for it under the DPA and sent my letter to Customer Complaints department who will supply info free of charge. If I do wish it to be a subject access request under DPA write back sending £10 etc.

 

Does the subject access request under DPA make a difference?

[richardc]

If they supply your statements FOC, fine carry one with your claim.

 

One of the recent defences the banks have been putting forward is that the charges are so high is that there is manual intervention in each case(patent nonsense of course, but..). If you make a SAR you can ask for details of this manual intervention which will rather spike their guns.

 

Of course, this is upto you but I think its £10 well spent. I also think that this is the reason that some of them are keen on supplying statements FOC.

[BankFodder]

Also, if the DPA reveal unlawful charges then I would say that you can claim the £10 back as your request was justified.

[andrew1]

Carried out the prescribed instructions with DPA, sent in letter requesting repayment -got reply from Marc Winder will come back in 4 weeks. Letter going back requesting response in 14 days.

 

I have a cheque banked which clears 31st but a Direct Debit and a small cheque actually made payable to Abbey! presented which would take me over the limit. Abbey cleared both but charged me total £50 fee for clearing a cheque whilst insufficient funds and for clearing the DD.

Having phoned and spoken to people in India I asked them to refund the charges only to be given the T & Conditions argument. I have told them the story about it being unlawful and the woman insisted they are to stand so I have organised a phone back with a manager on Tuesday. Managers had all gone home (? what?)and it's a bank holiday on Monday so Tuesday I'll be recording their answer. Anyone got any questions they'd like me to ask? I asked her if she knew that charges were unlawful but she wouldn't give a yes or no answer, with a little bit of preparation I can get some answers on tape if we need to. I am ready for this one!

[lisamellor]

oooohhhh good luck are we going to be able to hear the tape ??

 

i spoke to them and got my words muddled up but they got it in the end ...

 

so take your time and speak clearly and slowly ( as i think they are all a bit stupied ) they'll probably say that they will have to got back to you with some of your questions and that its all there in the terms and conditions.

 

i would like you to ask this question for me

 

Q. could they tell you what the terms and conditions are offhand without having to go and get a leaflet ( probably not ) !!

 

good luck;-)

[NeilP]

Don't worry too much about charges that are still happening at the moment. Keep to your timetable about the responses from your prelim and LBA letters. It is most likely that they won't but stand your ground.

 

Did you get the information you needed from the DPA request? If not, if they do not adhere to the strict 40 day time limit, there are actions you can take about that as well.

 

You can adjust the amount from your prelim and LBA letters to a final amount to be claimed when/if you have to serve them with County Court Action. However, any charges after this point in time will have to be on a seperate claim.

 

Have you opened up a parachute account yet? By doing this, you can cancel all your DD and SO's with Abbey, and set them up with your new account thus allowing you to have no more charges from Abbey (thus no need to worry about additional charges after you submit the CC action) but also allows you to 'start over again' with a new bank and giving you the opportunity to make sure you don't allow your new bank to 'have' to take these unlawfull charges from you again!

 

Good Luck with your claim.

[andrew1]

Thanks Neil, Yes I have been studying the site for months now and have already gone down the route of getting all the statements and working out all the charges. I think I'm fairly well set up for this but angry with myself more than anything for getting caught short for these two current charges. I can however, turn the negative into a positive and try to extract some precise wording from my telephone conversation on Tuesday. I work in recruitment and interveiwing is part of my job so if I can help others by getting on tape a few questions answered it might help! Just getting the terminoligy right is the first step and I've got the weekend to structure questions. There are some classic pieces on this site I wish I could roll out the way the posters have worded them but trying to find them all now is going to take a bit of time. I have a few though.

[JimTheGent]

They always quote it is in their Terms and Conditions. Ask them if they have a copy of the T&C you agreed to when OPENING the account. I did this and explicitly stated I did not want UPDATED ones. They sent me updated ones. WHY?

 

I suspect they don't have the T&C going back as far as 1998. They always claim to be able to alter the T&C at their discretion, but I think an interesting challenge would be to dispute the current T&C with the original T&C. So ask them if they keep a record of all T&C's going back for say 10 years.

 

Also, ask them if they are aware of the OFT decision regarding their charges and could you have a detailed breakdown of the ACTUAL costs they incur on a per capita basis. What is their official statement regarding the decision by the OFT? Request it in writing. It would be "really" interesting to hear their response on this one.

 

They also state their charges are in line with those of other Banks. So given the OFT decision regarding charges is it their policy to charge excessive fees just because other Banks do? If so how do they reconcile this with their publicity regarding excellent customer service and Value for Money?

 

It is late and this is all I can think of for now

[andrew1]

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

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