Any Advice

[rocker1968]

Hello my fellow bank charge reclaimers.

 

I started my claim for £3727 of charges from RBOS on 2nd April. Today I received a letter from them which reads.

 

"Thankyou for your letter dated 2nd April 2007 regarding charges applied to your account. We are currently considering your claim and will respond to you as soon as possible."

 

Their first letter deadline is 16th April which is when i was going to send the LETTER BEFORE ACTION letter.

 

Should I ignore their acknowledgement letter and just keep steaming ahead?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Rocker

[livelylad]

Yes just stick to your timetable not theirs.

[PPMAN159]

Stick to your timetable Rocker and send the LBA on the 16th as planned-dont wait for banks response.

[rocker1968]

Does anyone know where I can find spreadsheet which calculates contractural interest?

 

Thanks

[isidore]

Searching for "contractual interest spreadsheet" came up with these links....

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/51736-excel-contractual-interest-spreadsheet.html?highlight=contractual+interest+spreadsheet

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/6964-spreadsheet-interest.html?highlight=contractual+interest+spreadsheet

 

 

Amazing what you can do with searches nowadays....

 

[rocker1968]

I sent off my LBA to my branch on monday and emailed a copy of it to Sandy Watts today.

 

I've just got this email back. Is what she is saying right??

 

Can anyone advice?

 

Thanks

 

"Dear Mr

Sorry for the delay in responding, but steadliy working my way through my

'inbox'.

Please be advised that, under FSA rules, we have 8 weeks in which to issue a

final response to a customer's complaint.

This commences from the time that we receive the complaint at this Unit,

which in your case was 5 April 2007.

Can I please ask you to bear with us, as we have a large backlog, but we

will respond within that period.

Regards

Sandy"

[isidore]

Yes and no. She is right, the FSA give them 8 weeks to respond. However, you have given them 14 days in which to reply, so they must respond in 14 days otherwise you go to court.

 

That said, given their backlog, you could be lenient and allow them some grace before going to court in order allow them the time to make you an offer.

[rocker1968]

Thanks T4FF.

 

Do you think it would be a good idea to email her back and suggest that I give them an extra week (because of the backlog) so in effect they will have until 8th May before I start court proceedings?

[isidore]

I think that would be a good place to start. You are demonstrating a bit of leniency then aren't you?

 

Don't expect a promising response, but whatever they respond is not important, it's the fact that you have touched base.

[rocker1968]

I just went to the b****y supermarket and my card when rejected. Just logged on to the rbs online banking site and they have charged me £38 on friday and today £40 plus £22.76 interest - total £100.76. I phoned last friday to tell my branch that i didn't have sufficient funds to clear my loan payment but that I got paid in a week and could they extend my overdraft limit slightly to compensate for this. They said NO!!

 

My question is should I start a new claim for this or should I email Sandy Watt and add it to my current claim?

 

Current claim is for £3727. LBA sent on 16th April so deadline should be 30th but have given them a week grace out of the kindness of my heart because of their backlog.

 

Thanks in advance.

[isidore]

I think it you could send them a note to say you are including the 100 quid in your current claim as they have sufficient notice given the extra week's grace.

[rocker1968]

Thanks Taff

[rocker1968]

I emailed Sandy Watt this morning regarding the further charges to my account and received this reply.

 

Can another tell me what my best course of action is and if I need to amend my claim what the best wording is?

 

Deadline for LBA before court action is 8th May.

 

"Thank you for your e-mail, I am sorry that charges continue to be applied to

your account.

I note your request to have these re-credited to your account, but I am

sorry but this Unit is not in a position to arrange this for you.

I also note that, if this is not arranged, then you intend to add these

charges to your claim.

Should you wish to do this, then you will need to send us an amended claim

now, or advise us of these further charges, once you receive

our response to your current claim.

As stated before, we will respond to you claim, within the FSA time-scales.

Regards

Sandy Watt"

[isidore]

Sorry i possibly didn't word my previous post well enough.

 

Very sorry for being too brief. Sandy is right, you need to send them a letter stating that your claim now includes charges up to [date] and therefore your claim is for [amount] and include an up to date spreadsheet.

 

That's (somehow) what I meant by "send them a note".

[rocker1968]

I've just received this email from the lovely Sandy Watts.

 

Dear Mr XXXXXX

I am pleased to advise you that, an offer letter was despatched to you

yesterday.

All being well, this should be in your hands in the next couple of days.

Regards

Sandy

I think I might start taking bets on the fact the the offer wont be my full claim. The odds that I'd offer would be 33/1!!

Anyone else received any offers recently (before court proceedings)?

[dangler8]

Hi rocker, maybe Ive missed something in your thread but you dont say if your in Scotland or England, small claims limits in each differ drastically. Also you said your charges were £3727, is that basic charges or plus interest.

Many of us have had full basic charges paid out at about the 8 week period.

It is always up to each individual to decide if an offer meets their goals and not be swayed by advice.

My own decision to go for basic charges was based on financial needs, time scale involved and lack of confidence to pursue what could have been a long drawn out legal scenario bcause of Scottsh claims limits.

Good Luck

[Atlantic]

I agree with dangler - you do need to do some serious reading if you're going to take it to the next stage, whereever you live.

 

It does seem to be true though - claiming in Scotland is more tricky than down in England and Wales - but thats not to say you can't nor shouldn't do it....

[Atlantic]

Once you get the hang of how this website works there is some really super stuff on some of the threads - but its just a matter of wading through the long threads and understanding the big picture.....

 

Also post your questions - as I guess you've found people are pretty responsive and there are some real experts on this site....

[rocker1968]

Thanks.

 

I live in England. My claim was for £3727 in charges and in my prelim letter (being a novice) I put in about the 8% interest blah blah.

 

I now know that you cant claim this unless you start court proceedings.

 

I emailed Sandy this morning to ask details of the offer as you cant rely on the post and timescales are tight etc. etc...

 

Her reply was:

 

Offer is for £3,247

Please be advised that there is a covering letter with our offer, advising

customers which type of charges are being refunded by the Bank. Should you

decide to decline our offer, then you will need to advise us in writing. We

have standard procedures to deal with customer who decline our offers.

As a result, I am unable to accept an e-mail as a decline of our offer.

Regards

Sandy

Dont really know what to do as I think I may have included some of the monthly account charges for the priviledge of having a Royalties Gold Account with them !! (NOT)!! Does anyone know what their standard procedures of dealing with non conforming customers are?!!

[jamieprec1979]

sorry to change the subject,but do you have sandys email address.

 

thank you

 

jamie

[alibobsy]

I would hang fire for the written offer and see exactly what they are offering. We got all our charges back from RBOS before going to court stage, when I turned down their first partial offer via letter and gave them a bit of extra time prior to starting the court claim. They wrote back with a full offer, but we didn't get any interest.

ali x

[rocker1968]

Yes mate it is:

 

[email protected]

[rocker1968]

I would hang fire for the written offer and see exactly what they are offering. We got all our charges back from RBOS before going to court stage, when I turned down their first partial offer via letter and gave them a bit of extra time prior to starting the court claim. They wrote back with a full offer, but we didn't get any interest.

ali x

 

 

OK. Will do. Thanks Ali

[dangler8]

The basis of your claim must reflect the accuracy of your schedule of charges. I agree with alibobsy to wait for written offer. In the meantime you should re-check your schedule, as you say you may have claimed for charges which are not recoverable.

If their offer is correct you will have no grounds for refusal.

Patience is a virtue

[rocker1968]

Having gone through my statements again, although it doesn't make it very clear as they're not broken down individually, I think they're right and I've added the monthly account fees onto my claim. Cant really tell what the amount is exactly but it looks like it may be about £400 and they have deducted £480 from my claim ie from £3727 to £3247.

 

Anyway so I am going to accept their offer. By accepting does it mean that I agree to any future charges. It says in Sandy's letter - quote:

 

"Any charges that properly accrue in the future will be applied to your account in line with our published tariff and in accordance with your agreement with the bank. Should you be unwilling to accept any such charges, then we may need to consider if we are prepared to continue to provide you with your existing banking facilities. Instead we may offer you a simple account that does not offer borrowing facilities or other services that can result in charges"

I'm surprised that they didn't put up more of a fight as it's only been a month since my prelim!!