Should I accept FD's very close offer / Can I submit new claim amount??

[Stillborn Crisps]

I'm helping my friend claim back 6 years of charges from First Direct.

 

They have replied with an offer of a £1k final settlement in response to the very first letter we sent, which asked for around £1050.

 

Unfortunately I didn't read about claiming contractual interest and compound interest until after the first letter was sent. I was rather hoping FD would reject this initial request so we could re-submit a claim which included contractual interest. This could add another few hundred pounds to the claim (though I've not yet found the contractual interest spreadsheet template to work it out accurately).

 

Have we missed the opportunity to re-submit a new claim amount now that FD have offered an amount so close to our request? I'm worried if it ever did get near court FD could claim we have acted unreasonably.

 

Advice/thoughts please!!!

[Stillborn Crisps]

Bump. Any advice anyone?

 

Only got a limited time to accept/decline their offer.

[dubliner10]

Personally I would bite their hand off. The choice at the end of the day is yours.

If you decide to go for adding the interest and chasing you will have to wait and work hard to reclaim your money, with the possibility of court. But the money at the end of the day is yours

 

or

 

You can accept their offer which is only £50 short.

Good luck whichever way you go.

 

Dub

[Stillborn Crisps]

Sorry - I got the story slightly wrong - £1250 (approx) was the claim - so FD are about £250 short in their offer.

 

So, we wanna say no thanks to the offer and continue with the claim, but also now add in contractual interest.

 

What's the best way of going about this, as there isn't really a template letter for this circumstance. :-/

 

Any advice??

[dar£n]

Okay, they have made the offer of goodwill, at this stage the interest would NOT be added anyway, this gets added at the filing with court.

 

As for claiming contractual or compound interest, think very carefully, its not that straight forward, you can claim the statutory 8% without problem.

 

Have you produced a SOC, using the spreadsheets yet, this will calculate the interest at 8% in the simple one.

 

To reject their offer simply select a template letter and amend it to your needs. they will then have 14 days to respond, which they probably wont.

 

then your LBA then court action.

[Stillborn Crisps]

Yup, have produced a SOC for no interest, and since sending the prelim letter have knocked up ones at 8% interest and contractual interest (19.9%).

 

The contractual interest almost doubles the claim, so I know it's not as straighforward, but I think it's worth it, even though it seems HSBC are pretty tough on scaling it down to 8% in their offers.

 

So the tricky thing is wording the rejection letter to say no thanks, but also 'i've just discovered I can claim contractual interest, so here's a revised SOC and ammount' - it all sounds a bit amateurish and not sure how to say it!

[Stillborn Crisps]

OK, have draughted up this as a rejection/ammendment letter. I've used italics to show my own sentences that weren't in the template.

 

I have also given them an additional 14 days since I'm effectively starting the claim again with new interest (didn't include it in 1st letter) + contractual interest. Is this OK??

 

Please someone yell if I've worded anything wrong!

 

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your letter dated xx/xx/xx

 

I respectfully decline your offer of Full and Final settlement and request, once again, that you return to me all charges imposed on this account.

 

Further, after a review of my account data, I have amended the figures I believe you have taken from me as a disproportionate penalty to include overdraft interest incurred. This figure is now £xxxx.xx, and an updated schedule of charges is enclosed.

 

I also claim interest at a rate of 19.9% AER as set out in the attached schedule of charges. I believe this rate to be justified under the principle of mutuality and reciprocity, and is based on your Unauthorised Overdraft interest rate that would be applied under the terms of the above mentioned account. Therefore the total amount owed as of today’s date is £xxx.

 

I will accept the sum offered only as part settlement and on the clear understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder, with a County Court claim if necessary. I also reject the further conditions of acceptance that you have attached to this offer, namely (***I need to review these before sending, haven't got their letter ot hand at the mo***)

 

In light of the ammended figures requested, I will give you a further 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment.

 

If you do not respond, or you do not respond positively, within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

 

 

Yours faithfully

 

*****

[Stillborn Crisps]

+++THE LATEST+++

 

FD have offered the full amount but no interest, and there's only 7 days to go before I submit MCOL .

 

In the LBA I claimed full contractual interest and it doubled the requested amount. In their offer letter they say they don't pay interest, and even if it went to court I'd only get the court's basic 8%.

 

My questions are:

1. Do FD tend to pay anymore then 8% when they settle out of court just before the court date (ie, is it worth battling this to the end)?

 

2. If not then is it worth me saying I'd be prepared to accept their offer now if they add the 8% which they acknowledge the court will allow if I go through with it.

 

(I would be happy to settle for 8% if no-one's really winning full contractual from them).

 

Speedy advice would be appreciated!