SCM Defence - Any help appreciated

[Swartie]

Just received back 'Notice of Transfer of Proceedings' from my local court, i'm trying to claim back £2100 from Lloyds tsb including 8% interest to date, i received this defence from SCM:

1. The Defendant Lloyds TSB Bank Plc is a Bank whose registered office is 25 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7HN. It is admitted that the claiment has been a customer of the bank at all material times.

2. By opening an account with the Bank, the customer enters into a commercial arrangementwith the bank for the provision of banking services. The bankis entitled, as part of that arrangement, to charge for those services. At account opening the customeris provided with details of the banks charges, currently in a leaflet a guide to our banking charges. By usingthe account, the customer acknowledges that the charges are incorporated into the contract. For personal customers, a number of services are provided for free, notwithstanding that they are an expense to the bank. Such services presently include, but are not limted to providing; cheques, bank statements, the facility to make payments by direct debit and standing order debit cards, ATMs (cash machines)

3. By maintaining the account in credit, or within any limit agreed with the bank, the customer may avoid most if not all charges. If the customer fails to ensure that there are sufficient cleared funds in the account to cover payments, whether by cheque, debit card, standing order or direct debit, the customer makes a request for payment to be made from the banks own funds. If the bankmakes payment, or returns the payment, it provides a service as specified in the leaflet and makes a charge in accordance with the terms of the contract. On page 1 of the leaflet, the bank explains that there are normally charges for everyday banking at Lloyds TSB when your account is in credit. When you use an agreed overdraft, there is no monthly fee and we only charge interest on the amount you are overdrawn each day. Where you go overdrawn without an agreement or where you use special services, such as copy statements, we will make a charge. This guide explains how these charges work, and when they will apply. If you want to use a service that we haven’t listed, we’ll tell you the cost of that service before you give us the go-ahead.

4. There is no breach of contract; the charge cannot therefore be a penalty, consequently there is no requirement that the charge be a pre-estimate of the banks loss.

5. The customer is given advance warning of charges beings imposed; statements show the charges, if any, the cutomer has incurred during the course of a month, and which will appear as debits on the following months statement. Customers are warned by letter when they go overdrawn or over their agreed limit without arrangement with the bank. If the customer fails to remedy the position, and payments such as standing orders and direct debits are refused, then again the customer is warned by letter.

6. The charges are fair and reasonable, and it is denied that they are unlawful.

7. The customer is notified of the charges in plain intelligible language at the conclusion of the contract, and on each monthly statement. The charges are terms which relate to the price payable by the customer for a service provided by the bank, and pursuant to regulation 6 of the unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999, are not subject to the assessment of fairness…

They then summarise the above saying I can basically swing for it if I think I’ll get any money…

Did anyone else get this response from SCM? Help because I obviously need to do something now, it suggests on the front that

IT IS ORDERED THAT:-

1. The filing of an Allocation questionnaire be dispensed with in this case unless the district judge at the court of transfer orders otherwise

Will this be sent to me?

Many Thanks

Swartie

[garethmetcalf]

Hi

 

If it helps that is almost word for word what I received and seems to be the standard defense. Have you read http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/lloyds-bank/81799-issues-raised-llloyds-bank.html and looked at court bundles etc?

 

You are in the same position as me as the court hasn't asked you to file an allocation questionnaire. This seems to be a fairly new thing, and I am currently asking questions on my thread about what to do now. I guess we just wait for a court date to come through and start preparing the paperwork.

 

Good luck!

 

Gareth

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/lloyds-bank/61137-gareth-lloyds-tsb-3-a-2.html

[lucid]

Hi and welcome Swartie,

 

Firstly don't worry - this is their standard defence from the looks of things. Check out the defence we got from them here.

 

At the moment you don't need to do anything apart from waiting for a court date. It sounds as though they are transferring the claim to your local court and the IT IS ORDERED THAT sentence means that unless the District Judge at your court particularly wants an Allocation Questionnaire to be completed, then it is not necessary. I think the courts are starting to do this now as they're seeing it as unnecessary - the majority of the banks are using the court process to waste time etc.

 

Good luck. Lucid

[Swartie]

Thanks Guys,

 

Nice to know i'm not alone... will sit tight and wait to hear from the court, will grab the court bundle in the mean time and have a read..

 

 

thanks again