Please Advise: Abusive Premier Account Termination

[barclays_wrongdoings]

Dear CAG members

 

I have been a customer with Barclays since 1994. For most of that time I had been a member of the Premier Account service.

 

In September 2004, I called the Premier account team of advisors to inform the Bank that I was about to begin a long journey away from the UK.

 

I checked with the advisor what direct debits and automatic transfers were active on my account. I cancelled all unnecessary outgoings. I also cancelled my subscription to the Additions services since they were not going to be of any use during my absence.

 

I left for my journey with the "peace of mind" of presuming that my Premier Account Manager, being aware of my absence from England, would in case of emergency contact me on my mobile phone as I had grown accustomed to such a practice.

 

2 months after my departure, someone at Premier Banking decided to cancel my Premier's membership without calling me or even writing a letter to warn me of his or her decision. All the troubles started after that day!

 

Being a Premier customer meant that I had access to an "executive overdraft" facility of £4K. I had been using this facility for a few years without any troubles. Being downgraded from Premier to Regular account holder meant that my account was no longer managed by the same team or by the same business processes. Two things happened:

- My 4k executive overdraft facility came into review a few months later

- No one at the Regular account team warned me on my mobile of the impending review (this personalised level of communication being one of the Premier benefits).

 

Therefore letters were sent to my address in the UK announcing the review, then the cancellation of my executive overdraft facility. No one read those letters, as both my wife and myself were together abroad.

 

I was overdrawn at the time of this facility's cancellation but I was unaware that I was not meant to be: the penalty charges started to accumulate.

 

At the time when I was a Premier account holder, I had also been granted a Select Loan Account where I was in debt and where monthly repayment were being transferred from my main account. When the main account went into the flashing red zone, the repayments to my Select Loan were consequently declined.

 

Since I had infrequently been using my ATM card abroad, out of prudence, I had transferred money into my Barclays account at 3 occasions during my absence. As I had not received any call from the Bank, I carried on my journey unaware.

 

It's only latter when my bank card was swallowed by an ATM machine in Asia in March 2006 that I realised something was wrong.

 

I called the number of Premier Service only to find that their number (442074416169) had been changed to a 0845 number. From Asia, the 0845 prefix does not work!

 

I tried to join online banking only to be refused access due to some vague server error (I latter gathered that their web system could not proceed my application since my account was in trouble).

 

I called a family member to ask them to open the letter received from my banks at my registered address. I found out that my account had been closed. A default had been issue against me and my debt had been transferred to a collection agency.

 

I immediately transferred the demanded amounts to my accounts to put a stop to this madness.

 

In June 2006, I had to cut short the length of my journey abroad to return to the UK to fix this problem.

 

When I returned to the UK, I read all my mail and started to put the pieces of the puzzle together but I found no letter announcing the cancellation of my Premier Membership.

 

When I got in touch with Customer Relations, they announced me that I was no longer a Premier member and that they had forgotten to send me a written notice. They have admitted that it was a mistake on their behalf. Since then, I have tried to come to a peaceful arrangement.

 

Here's my claim:

 

1. I have asked them to repay me the totality of the penalty charges in “unauthorised o/d fees”, “paid referral fees” and “unpaid out fees” for the last six years (GBP 995.00).

2. I have asked them to repay me the Additions fees for the 24 months during which they were still being charged to my accounts after I had asked to resign my subscription to this service (GBP 238.50).

3. For Abusive and Undisclosed Termination of my Premier membership, I have asked them to repay me the subscription fees that I had paid for this service for the last 10 years (GBP 990.00).

4. Since their lack of consistency in communication has forced me to return to England while I was working on a project in Asia, I have asked them to repay the travelling expenses that I had incurred during the 5 months spent in the UK waiting for a final answer from Customer Relations (GBP 7,000.00).

5. I have asked them to remove the default notice against my credit record from the register.

 

The have offered me just under GBP 800.00 but they refuse to remove my default notice.

 

At this point, they have received my Letter Before Legal Action and my schedule of charges.

 

They have replied by giving me the address of their litigation team.

 

I am about to fill N1 - 102 Claim form and I could do with some assistance for the wording of the document.

 

Can someone please advise?

 

Many Thanks

 

H.

[CAZKATJOE]

look on the FAQ's all the answers are on there, they will tell you exactly what to say and take you through every stage of the forms etc.

If you get stuck ask Darn3 he seems to be the expert and has helped me out every step, just look up his thread.

If you are still stuck bump back and i will find it and paste it on here for you.

Caz:) what a nightmare you have had, it just shows how bad they are at dealing with other peoples money, and they have no people skills at all.

[dar£n]

Hi H,

friggin 'ell what a nightmare!

Caz Thanks for those kinds words, I'll slip you the tenner later ok?

 

H, Is it the POC's you are stuck on or the N1 in general.

The good thing is you are clear about what you want out of the claim.

 

Their offer is a good sign in the way that they admit theyve fluffed it.

you also have written confirmation that they 'forgot' to give you warning of account closure..oops

[Todge]

[edit]

 

I think a good amount of advice could well be forthcoming on this one, H.

 

If you take a bit of time to read the sections/forums/posts on this site, you will build in yourself a considerable degree of knowledge and confidence that you will come good. Dar3n is, like many experienced people on this site, bang on (another tenner, mate!)

 

You will win.

[barclays_wrongdoings]

Thank you all for your support.

 

Here's what I have so far on the N1

 

For the section Brief Details of Claim i put:

Money claim for refund of penalty charges applied to the Claimants bank account by the Defendant.

Money claim for the refund of unjustified bank account charges applied to the Claimants bank account by the Defendant.

Money claim for compensation for abusive and undisclosed termination of Premier account statute to the Claimants bank account by the Defendant. Claim for the removal of any default entry in Credit Agencies at the Register.

Money claim for the refund of travel expenses incurred by Claimant during the negotiations period between Claimant and Defendant.

 

For the section Value i put:

Penalty Charges £ 1,025.00

"Additions" Bank Account Charges: £ 238.50

"Premier" Bank Account Charges: £990.00

Claimant Travel Expenses: £ 7,000.00

Interest under s.69 County Court Act 1984: £ 838.37

Court Fee: £120.00 Plus interest pursuant to s.69 County Court Act 1984 from date of judgement / settlement at £ 0.68 per day or such rate and for such periods as the court deems just.

 

For the section Particulars of Claim I know I have to put the section I found on the FAQ of this forum regarding the refund of the penalty charges applied unlawfully to my account.

 

But I am not sure about the exact wording expected to describe what I consider to be a abusive termination of Premier statute causing all the troubles that followed.

 

What is the exact wording for asking:

- for the repayment of the Additions charges that were taken without my permission?

- for the refund of the last 10y of Premier subscription for abusive termination of contract

- for the removal of default entries from the Register

- for the refund of my travel expenses

 

Thanks for all your help

H.

 

PS: Can I claim compensation for:

- Breach of the Data Protection Act and the resulting damage to my reputation as far as credit is concerned

- Abuse of the vulnerable position I was in when the Barclays Premier team cancelled my membership without notice to an with the full knowledge of my absence from the country

- Severe distress and inconvenience caused while I was away in foreign land with no more ATM card or access to my bank account

[dar£n]

[Edit]

I think they will surely ask for proof of travel costs incurred.

 

compensation for stress and hardship etc?? different story, I will find out later today for you.

[barclays_wrongdoings]

Thank you Dar3n.

[dar£n]

H

you might want to follow this one,

Tom has been on the news recently with this claim

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/natwest-bank/80804-tom-brennan-natwest-must.html?highlight=tom+brennan

 

http://www.tombrennan.co.uk/

[Micky the Hippo]

the bulk of this is the £7k for travel which isn't strictly related to a bank charges claim I'd have thought

 

I'd consider using a regular lawyer for this, I don't doubt that the bank will be difficult and you'll win and so reclaim your costs

[progenic7]

barclays

 

first things first, im not sure where your at in terms of legal and general civil procedures but one thing you should know to start with is this. The small claims track can only deal with claims under £5000, anything above and beyond this can be dealt with in the small claims by mutual agreement under CPR (civil procedure rules) but barclays almost certainly wont agree to this, knowing that this will not only hinder your claim but also cause you significant higher costs.

 

Secondly DO NOT go to a solicitor (lawyer is an american term ) you can handle this yourself if you take your time and follow strict guidelines.

 

Straight off the bat i would consider spliting your claim in two, one laim for general penalty charges and another for damages (exemplory and aggravated) for significant inconvenience caused during your trip abroad. Personally i would not hold too much hope initially on the damages claim, however i think with a well worded PoC, and a good poker face you may well get somewhere.

 

On the charges aspect the N1 should be fairly straight forward, personally i would recommend doing a bit of your own research and writing your own particulars, not that im knocking the CAG template PoC (well a little) but i for one like to be different and go that extra mile in my work. So spend some time looking into the law, civil procedures, consumer law and rules, the bank protocols in defence ect.

 

It has taken me three months to put my PoC together and in that i am claiming damages and compensation. Some may argue this is wrong or that going down this route may cause some problem, but thats something i am willing to risk, as to be honest the money doesnt matter to me. Im only doing this to try and publicl humiliate the banks, and im using damages as a tool of leverage to force them into court.

 

I cant give you a quick fix my friend, and even if i copied you out a decent PoC, without your own knowledge of whats what, you may well fall at the first hurdle if indeed you needed to argue these points in court.

Having said that if you need a little extra help along the way just give me a shout. My methods are not strictly orthodox to CAG and as i said many frown on some of my aproaches.

 

best of luck

[Micky the Hippo]

Lawyer is an English word

 

And of course he can handle it himself

 

You conclude by pointing out that he needs to be careful and might arse it up