Bit of Advice Please?

[The Penguin]

Hi everyone - just discovered this brilliant site today. Thank you to everyone who has put on such helpful information.

 

I am currently in the process of requesting charges and overdraft interest back on behalf of my Mum. However, after reading through a lot of this site today am now a bit concerned I haven't been doing things right!

 

Having received all of her statements for the last six months, My Mum highlighted all of her overdraft charges and all of the interest she has had to pay over the years. I then totalled these up on a spreadsheet and she hand delivered a letter to the bank (We used the template from the Thisismoney site) along with a copy of the spreadsheet. We then received back what I now know is the standard response from Colin Langdale.

 

After the 14 days had passed from the original letter we had only received the standard letter from Colin, so we sent another one (again from the Thismoney site) saying we weren't satisfied with the response and we were "looking forward to a full response to our letter within seven working days or we will commence court proceedings". This letter was sent recorded on 12th April and we haven't heard anything back to date.

 

My concerns are now however that most people apear to write a different letter in response to Colin's standard one and that they give 14 days? Wondered therefore whether we need to write again including more things in the letter re the claim and also to extend the time frame so that if it does go to Court we have been reasonable in allowing a timeframe for them to respond? We don't however want them to think that we are not serious about pursuing it through the courts (though would be happy if it didn't get to that!)

 

Also, we were under the impression that all overdraft interest could be claimed and this is therefore in our claim, having read more on this site (wish I had found it sooner, as feel a bit of an idiot now!!) it appears that is only interest on the unauthorised overdraft that can be claimed? Is my understanding correct on this?

 

My Mum has months in which she has not recived charges for going overdrawn but has still been charged interest (her account in a debit situation)- are these interest charges on an approved overdraft? Would these therefore not be eligible to claim back? Presently all interest charges (and there's one per month for the last 6 years) are includued in the claim which has already been submitted!!

 

Could someone please offer a bit of advice and point me in the right direction re the next course of action? Should we continue to put a claim in to the Courts based on all the info already submitted or do we need to re-correspond with Colin and should we amend the figures in relation to interest claimed?

 

Apologies for all my questions and thanks once again to everyone.

[Rooster-UK]

Hi Penguin.

 

I can't comment on letters from other sites as I don't know what is in them.

The timetable that we use on this site is ....

 

Preliminary request.

Wait 14 days.

Letter before action.

Wait 14 days.

MCOL or N.1 form.

 

Some sites are recommending the shorter timeframe, but is shouldn't make any difference to the outcome.

 

You are correct in your comments regarding interest. It can be a pig to sort out accurately. Our spreadsheet templates attempt to calculate the portion of interest that you can reclaim. Having said that, some people elect not to reclaim the interest from the account info as it is usually only a small percentage of the total.

But, whatever you decide, make sure that you claim the 8% interest persuant to S.69 when you do the MCOL.

 

Good luck.

Regards, Rooster.

[nettyg]

as you've written letters from another site, it would be foolish to retract now so carry on with your claim. you sent your letter before action, so now start looking into filing your claim with the court or mcol (money claim online).

 

take a look at the links i'm sending you - i hope they help.

 

Step-By-Step Instructions

 

Click here for Vampiress' Chamber of Spreadsheets

 

HMCS Money Claim Online

5. Money Claim On-Line (MCOL) Particulars of Claim

have a read through - should keep you going. don't worry, we'll put you on the right track:)

[pinkduchess]

hi penguin

 

I would definately take a look at the spreadsheets from this site - as per nettys post above. It looks like you may need to adjust the amount of overgraft interest you are claiming.

 

Best to make sure the figures are correct before you file witht the court

[Castlebest]

Hiya Penguin you don’t have any problems at all, the standard commercial default letter is a 7 day letter and obviously the site you have used have used that period as the basis for their letters, we allow 14 days because we like to show we are trying to get things settled without recourse to the courts but a 7 day letter is fine.

I would recommend you use the CAG spreadsheet to sort out your charges and overdraft interest before you file your claim with the court(MCOL), its very good at doing this and we will all know what your talking about then (ish) Again this wont be a problem because your claim isn’t cast in stone until you file it with the court.

You found us just in time, I would say good luck but you wont need it with a little patience and this site you will get your mum's money back.

pete

[The Penguin]

Thank you so much for all your responses. Feeling better and more confident about the whole thing already! Really don't want to let my Mum down as I've promised her I'll help re-claim back things over the last six years...

 

I'm going to go right through all the statements as soon as I get a chance (not always easy to concentrate with three kids under 5!) and re-do the spreadsheet on the CAG one.

 

So pleased I found this site! Thanks again.

[Rayne]

3 kids under 5? ouch!!! i thought we had it bad with 2 under 2

 

good luck with ur claim, not that u'll need it

[The Penguin]

Been looking through the spreadsheets, must admit I am tempted to now just claim the charges and the statutory interest as the others all look a bit complicated to decipher and my Mum can't remember what she had agreed as an overdraft rate etc at different times! This works out at about £200 less than what we had originally put in the claim to HSBC (without statutory interest added). My Mum also has another charge coming out of her account tomorrow so we are proposing to include this.

 

Have a number of people decided to do this or am I simply taking too easy an option?

[pinkduchess]

its not taking the easy option - you need to go with what you feel comfortable with.

 

You can add on any charges up until you file your claim

[Castlebest]

Hiya penguin, as PD says its what you feel happy with, Im sure Give or one of the other people who do understand the spreadsheet will take a look at your figures if you do want to try but its totaly up to you.

 

pete