shabby abbey

[adelita]

HI everyone, after having read the threads in this forum, i thought i would have a go and start my own, but i just want to mention that this is not easy for people with learning disabilities, so i apologise in advance for my mistakes and hope that you can help me with as much info as possible, your patience and help will definatly be much appreciated. so here it goes ..........................................

i sent subject access request to abbey on 2nd march, nothing happend other than them writting back to me saying they are dealing with my request, spoke to them a few times and given different info every time, one said they cashed cheque for £10 on 20 march and info on its way, others said they missread my letter and were unsure what i needed so they put a hold on it, others said that info were on its way to me and so on......... got fed up so i sent a failure to comply with subject access request, still nothing......... so i phoned them up again and they said that they are dealing with it and to be patcient, told them that i would be seeking legal advice as they have breached both S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) and failure to comply, i finally received paperwork yesterday yipeeee lol, i added all charges up and they come to a total of £ 2627.00, not including interest. my questions are as follow

 

1. how do i work out the interest, and at what interest rate do i calculate this at
   
2. can you also claim back interest debit ??????????? that they charged me??????? even when i was in credit?????????
   
3. does anyone know what a regular payment means?????? as a regular payment has been coming out of this account for years ????? it does not say what it is , or to who it is?? its not showing as a cash payment, or a cheque or even a direct debit ???? its not even showing as a withdrawal or atm machine???? all it says is regular payment £70.00 every month for at least 3 years oh and it does not say its a charge of any sort???????? any ideas on this one or suggestions will be much appreciated as i cant get any answers from the bank.

should i wait before i send the premilinary letter to them asking for the charges until i find out what this regular payment is or should i send the letter anyway?????

 

can anyone help or advice me please lol

[witchywarloc]

Hi

 

click this link to take you to the spreadsheets page

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

 

there will be a spread sheet here for you to use and they explain everything on how to use them on the front page

 

good luck

 

WW

 

Please click my scales if I have helped you

[adamc6671]

Hi adelita - you don't need to apologise for mistakes - they're perfectly understandable, and we all make them!

 

Regular Payment usually refers to a Standing Order that you have set up in order to pay someone a fixed sum of money on a fixed day each month. For example, I've a SO set up to pay a fixed sum from my ordinary a/c to my budget a/c on the 1st day of each month.

 

If you can't remember ever setting up anything like this, then I'd suggest going in to your branch, if that's possible, and insisting they look up the details for you, which they should be able to do. If they can't or won't do that, insist on seeing the Branch Manager. If they are deducting a 'regular payment' from your a/c every month, and you are CERTAIN that you have never authorised this, demand to see the authority (actual piece of paper, or computerised instruction) under which it was set up. If it turns out that they have been doing this in error, they should refund all they have deducted without question - it's a seperate issue from bank charges.

 

Hope that helps - best of luck - Adam

[adelita]

thanks witchywarloc

your link was very helpful, my sister is coming round later and she will show me how to use this link propely

good luck with youre claiming

adelita lol

[adelita]

thanks adamc6671

your information was very helpful, and i will definately go to see the bank next week regarding this direct payment, as i cant think what it can be, i did have a couple of unpayd standing order, but they show up as unpaid so charge, so i may be rong but this regula payment thing may not be a standing order, and like you said i will not leave the bank this time until they find this out and they explain to me properly, im not goin to be fobbedd of this time

 

thanks very much for your advice

hope all goes well for you too lol

[adelita]

hi again to averyone out there

 

i was wondering if anyone knows if i should also be claiming back interest debit wich they took even when i was in credit

[adamc6671]

Hi again adelita - it's very hard to see how they could justify charging interest when your account is in credit! Therefore my advice would be to claim it.

[adelita]

hi everyone

i received S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) from abbey, i worked out the charges, the spreadsheet says in respect of: amount: date incurred: days since offence: interest at 8% apr

 

i am not sure what to do next,as ive read somwhere that you have to send a list of charges to abbey without the interest and only show the interest when it goes to court???? can anyone tell me if this is correct,as i dont understand what interest i can claim, ive read that you can claim contractual interest and all other sorts of interest,i have also noticed that they charged me interest debit even when i was in credit, can anyone explain what this is??? and can i claim it back with the prlim letter????

please help as i dont want to give them any reason to not pay anything back

 

many thanx

[path_finder]

Abbey charge interest 2 months in arrears, that is possibly why it was debited even though your account was in credit. You cannot claim this back in full, only the contractual interest, that is the interest that was charged on the actula charges. It can be complicated to work out so if you dont think it will come to much, I wouldn't bother.

When you send your spreadsheet with your prelim letter, leave out the 8% interest colum, you can only claim this when you file in court.

[adelita]

thanks for the reply path finder

i was wondering how do you work out the interest? as on the prelim letter it says to put the amounts in charges and the amount of interest

[path_finder]

On the prelim letter, if you aren't bothering to claim contractual interest, you can just delete that bit.

 

to work out the 8% when you file in court you follow this:-

 

work out how many days from the date that the charge was incurred and then multiply by 0.00022

 

e.g. £30 charge incurred 765 days ago

 

30 x 765 x 0.00022 = £5.04 interest @ 8%

 

there is a spreadsheet on the following link to help:-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-6-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

[adamc6671]

Hi Adelita

 

As path finder says, the simple option is just to claim Statutory 8% interest when filing your claim at Court. Until then leave out the interest altogether (i.e 'Hide'that column when printing the sheet). Having said that, with my claim I did actually show the interest when doing the LBA (Letter Before Action) just to increase the pressure on them to settle before Court action started, but of course it didn't work!

 

Claiming Contractual interest is much more complicated, but it can ammount to quite a bit of money! As PF says, if your claim isn't large, I'd settle for the 8%.

 

Hope that helps - Adam.

[adelita]

hi adam, hope your well, and thanx for responding to my question

 

i have now written the preliminary letter asking for the charges back and i have printed the spread sheet with out interest colum like you suggested, what do you think will hapen next??? i am abit worried that i am not entitled to this charges and that i will end up in trouble, if this goes to court, or maybe iam thinking too much ahead of my self and worrying over nothing, all this seems so complicated lol, but then again its like people say if you dont ask you dont get lol

[adamc6671]

Hi Adelita - PLEASE don't worry. You're not asking for anything back that 1000's of other people haven't already had - they didn't get into trouble, so there's no reason for you to think that you will!

 

As for Court, firstly you may not have to pay any Court fees if you're on benefits - you don't have to tell us here if you are or not, but have a read of this - it should help -

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/helpful-external-links/2147-court-fees-do-you.html

 

If by any chance you did have to actually go into Court (which is very unlikely as things stand at the moment!) you are allowed to take a 'Lay Representative' with you to help you out and to speak for you, on any or all the things you have to say in Court. This can be any person, as long as they are not a Legal Proffessional. The County Courts are very understanding, and will do everything they can to avoid you feeling intimidated. But, once again, it's VERY unlikely that you'll actually have to go!

 

Just take it one step at a time, and anything you're unsure about, just post on here - there's many people who can and will help;)

 

Hope that helps, and keep smiling!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Adam.

[adelita]

hi everyone lol

 

i have been reading other threads, and some people are worried about going to court because they dont have the old terms and conditions or the original contract for when they go to court or incase they go to court

i was wondering if anyone nows why you need these????

[adamc6671]

Hi Adelita

 

The reason for needing T&C's or contracts is prooving that charges are for 'breach of contract' and therefore the 'Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999' (UTCCR) apply to your case, as far as I understand it.

 

As far as the T&C's / Contracts themselves are concerned, there are alkready some posted in various places here, but I think GaryH is collecting as many as he can, and will be posting them in a 'sticky' as soon as he can.

 

Hope that helps - Adam.

 

p.s. many thanks for the 'reputation' - grreatly appreciated!

[adelita]

i was just chatting to sea side lady and i mentioned to her my question about terms and conditions and original contract, as i was wondering if you pay for a full subject access request under the data protection act,they only send you the charges and sometimes the manual interventiones, but i thought that a full S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) meant everything the hold on file about you and your account,

if that is the case...... should that include your original contract you signed with them and the terms and conditiones..or copies of these, if that is the case , would that be a breach of the data protection act on their behalf, as they have not sent everything they hold on your file(S.A.R - (Subject Access Request))

[petecocopops]

just about to send in my N1 court form but what address do i put on the form? i have a london address, also 2 address's with different box no's in Milton keynes would this do? or do i need a full address?

[petecocopops]

looked at the calculating of interest and it's beyond me? can i not bother with this extra piece and just claim the charges minus the interest any help in this matter would restore my karma...

[adelita]

my sar came from

abbey plc

data protection team

regulatory compliance

201 grafton gate east

milton keynes

mk9 1an

 

but the other address that came with sar and standard correspondance says that correspondance to abbey should be made to

 

jennie herbert(mrs)

 

customer resolutions mamager

complaints

abbey national

po box 5129

milton keynes

mk9 2yn

 

i also have a telephone number 0845 600 6014

fax 0845 600 1378

 

email: [email protected]

 

it might be worth you calling them on the above number to double check with them, they might even have a legal department, and if you call them they should tell you. i also sent everything by recorded delivery, that way they cant say they did not receive it, as you would have proof.

 

good luck and i hope this info has helped

 

adelita

[adelita]

6. Interest calculation spreadsheets

 

i was given the above spread sheet by path finder who kindly sent me the link, i was also adviced to send this with my preliminay letter to abbey, not including the interest, but for court this link works out the 8% interest for you,

 

hope this helps, but please do also get advice from someone that has alot more experience than me on this

 

good luck

 

hope ive been able to help if only a little

 

adelita lol

[adelita]

i took my sisters advice and contacted information commisioners office and a solicitor to find out if a copy of the original contract should of been forwarded to me with the full subject access request, as i thoght that in theory they should send me everything that they hold on me, and both the solicitor and ico said that yes they should have sent everything they haveon me since i opened the account, and that they are in breach of the data protection act as they have not sent this to me.

[adamc6671]

Hi Adelita

 

Thanks for the info on SAR and original contract - VERY useful. Know how to get hold of mine now!

 

All the best - Adam.

[sea-sidelady]

just bumping up!

[adelita]

Date: 12 JUNE 2007

 

 

ABBEY CREDIT CARDS

CUSTOMER ADVOCATE OFFICE

CHESTER BUSINESS PARK

CHESTER

CH4 9FB

 

Re: Account number xxxxxxxx Response to settlement offer.

Dear Sirs thank you for your letter dated 24 May 2007. I respectfully decline your offer of £240.00 as Full and Final settlement.

On your letter you refer to your substantial costs in dealing with late payment fees and in dealing with your customers defaults.

 

You also state that your charges are valid, fair, and enforceable.

 

I would therefore like to request a breakdown of your costs, so that I as a customer can see exactly how valid, fair and enforceable they are.

 

You also wrote making me aware that you will not be removing the default from my credit file, and that the information you supply to the credit reference agencies must be factual; the fact is that the account defaulted merely due to the application of such high fees, these fees even made me go over my £1000.00 credit limit.

 

I therefore would like to take this opportunity to ask you to reconsider on the grounds that the account defaulted like you state on your letter, due to your application of such high charges.

 

I have issued court proceedings to receive my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request).

 

When I receive my details I shall contact you with a breakdown of my charges and a full and final total.

 

I wish to stress that I do not accept your offer as Full and Final settlement.

I trust this clarifies my position.

I look forward to hearing from you soon with a breakdown of your substantial costs, and hopefully a reply regarding the removal of the default from my credit file.

 

I would also like to bring to you attention that on your letter dated the 24 May 2007, you state that any future correspondence should be made direct to Lowell financial group, as you have legally assigned my account to them.

I would therefore like to make you aware that I have spoken to the Lowell group and they have informed me that any correspondence regarding your failure to comply with my data subject access request, and any dispute regarding the charges should be direct with abbey credit cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

i hope this letter makes abbey credit cards aware that they have some faults, even they are not perfect.

 

how can they offer people money, when they have not even sent me my subject access request. and as it stand they are in breach of this they have had since march to sent the info.

 

anyway courts have given them till25 june to reply.