Little_m vs Natwest

[BLADES65]

Hi all just received all the statements back to 2001 for the NatWest personal account.

 

Added up all the charges comes to a tidy £682.00.

 

I've entered it into the spreadsheet adn with 8% interest comes to £883.24 :o

 

Whats the next stage folks.

 

Thanks

[hedgey06]

Hi - welcome on board the nat west forum!

 

At the moment, you need to hide the 8% interest column on the spreadsheet as this can only be awarded by the courts (if it gets to that stage).

 

Fill in the gaps in this letter 2. Letter - Preliminary approach for repayment. and delete any bits that aren't appropriate and send it to the Borehamwood address, recorded or special delivery as you need to make sure it's signed for.

 

Give them 14 days from the date they sign the prelim letter to respond, then send them the LBA (post back and we'll help you out with the next stage when you get there!!)

 

Good luck, hedgey xxx

[BLADES65]

Thanks for that hedgey.

 

Just one question on the letter template it says

 

'What I require

I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX plus £XXX which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX .

I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter.'

 

Should I just put in the £682.00 figure? If not how do I work out overdraft interest.?

 

Thanks again.

[hedgey06]

I calculate that you have taken £XXXXX Enter the actual charges here - £682.00 plus £XXX if you want to claim overdraft interest, make sure you download the correct spreadsheet which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £XXXXX charges + overdraft interest = the total.

I enclose a schedule of the charges which I am claiming with this letter.'

 

Should I just put in the £682.00 figure? If not how do I work out overdraft interest.?

 

If you're not claiming overdraft interest just delete that bit from the letter and claim charges only. If you want to claim overdraft interest, you can only reclaim the portion of interest that's been applied because fees sent you over your overdraft (if you don't have an overdraft facility - its easy to work out cos you just reclaim the whole lot of interest they applied!!!)

 

Hope that helps

[BLADES65]

I have a decision to make regarding a Natwest personal account.

I want to close this account by paying the difference between what they owe in bank charges and the current overdrawn balance.

IE: Balance is £900 overdrawn, charges amount to £500.

I would appreciate any advise on how to go about this due to the fact that Natwest have refused to re-pay the bank charges due to the OFT case.

Should I deposit £400.00 and issue an N1 for the charges.

Help

[hedgey06]

Hi Blades.

 

At the moment, if you've already issued prelim and LBA you can file N1 at your local county court for the full amount of charges you're reclaiming plus s69 8% interest (and obviously court fees as well!)

 

However, depending on which court you file your claim at, your case could be stayed pending the outcome of the OFT test case (you probably already know this though!)

 

If you've got some spare cash to start paying off the overdraft, it may be an idea to start doing so as this would reduce the amount of interest you'll be paying every month (particularly as the outcome of the test case may not be known for some time). At least this way, once your charges and interest are eventually refunded you'll have a bit of spare cash left over!

 

Best of luck mate - hope everything goes well with your claim.

[BLADES65]

Thanks hedgey,

 

Local court is Sheffield and they've just lifted a stay for a Natwest claim so i think i'll go straight to N1.

[hedgey06]

Sheffield?

 

Well, well, well................. lucky you!!!

 

Get that N1 form in ................ quick!!!

[BLADES65]

Just one more question, what should I do if they keep applying charges, interest or does the issue of the N1 stop them

[hedgey06]

Filing your claim at court doesn't stop additional charges/interet being applied to your account, so make sure you include absolutely everything you possibly can up to the date you file at court (even if you've incurred additional charges since you sent the LBA).

 

However, if they continue to apply charges/interest............. that's claim number 2 once this one's dealt with!

[BLADES65]

Well NATWEST have issued a default notice and added more charges for doing so.

 

Background is account is £600 overdrawn, they owe £1050.00 in charges.

 

So the whole amount they are claiming is made up of charges.

 

All I keep getting is the standard letter regarding the OFT case.

 

I am now going to issue a Court Claim.

 

I sent this letter and would apprecaite your thoughts on my way forward with this.

 

 

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam

Account: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Your Ref: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE. LETTER OF INTENTION TO ISSUE PROCEEDINGS

I am writing in response to your letter received today and dated 8th January 2008.

I very disappointed that my previous letter of 13th December 2007 has not met the hope for response from yourselves.

For the avoidance of doubt I shall, once again, state my position in relation to this matter.

My account is subject to a request for the return of unlawful bank charges levied and is in dispute as indicated in numerous letters from myself.

Accompanying this letter is a list of said charges now totaling £1052.39. this is in excess of the amount you are requesting.

While II am aware that NatWest, along with other banks are involved in legal proceedings with the office of fair trading regarding the legality of these charges, and that you wish store my complaint until the outcome. However you have now issued a Default Notice. In this letter you also made a threat of legal proceedings contrary to the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance.

I also note that you are to file information with credit reference agencies, if so I shall alos be submitting a claim for damages as a result of this.

I find this totally unacceptable and I am writing to inform you that I will now be issuing a County Court Claim for the charges plus interest to date.

I am aware that most courts are applying an automatic stay to such cases however in the case of banks taking legal action relating to an account in dispute any stay made by the court will be immediately lifted and the claim for unlawful bank charges heard.

The precedent for this was made by Judge Behrens on Wednesday 29th August 2007.

Please accept this correspondence in accordance with my duty under the Civil Procedure Rules to continue to pursue a settlement without the need to invoke the time of the courts

If you do not intend to defend your charges in court, but hoping that I will "just go away" I should to point out that this will not happen and you will incur further costs against you.

Take note that I will draw the Court’s attention to the fact that you have not made any attempts at settlement in accordance with the overriding objectives of CPR. Furthermore I will submit this letter to the Court as further evidence of your intransigence with my case despite my attempts at settlement and the settling by your company of all other similar claims to date.

Alternatively, in accordance with the overriding objectives of the Civil Procedure Rules I would like to give you the opportunity to settle this issue without the need to take the time of the Courts. My claim is for £1052.39.. If you could ensure that this sum is paid into my bank account within seven days I will inform the court that this matter is settled.

 

I look forward to your timely response within the next 7 days.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[steven4064]

Hi Blade

 

You are probably aware that the OFT case starts next week. It is expected to last 8 days but no one expects any kind of result on that sort of timescale.

[BLADES65]

UPDATE 1: 17/4/2008

 

Well got a letter from NatWest stating:

With reference to your claim for charges refund. There is no guarantee that you will receive a refund if the court rules in favour of the Bank. Therefore recovery action will continue and any refund will be given after the resolution of the court case.

 

The Bank has now appointed Moorcroft Debt Recovery to recover the outstanding balance on the account and any proposals for repayment should be made with them.

They have NOT sold the debt just using Moorcroft to chase.

Balance now stands at £727.00 they are wanting to recover.

N1 issued for £1725.00.

[BLADES65]

UPDATE 2: 22/4/2008

 

Received Notice of Issue from the court this morning.

The claim has not been automatically stayed.

Moorcroft are now calling twice a day, I have sent a letter to them stating that the account is subject of legal proceedings and to pass back to NatWest or the court will be informed of their involvement. No calls today but plenty of time left.

I suppose Natwest will apply for a stay but I will ask for it to be lifted due to the invlovement of Moorcroft and tghe fact that they issued a default notice despite the account being in dispute.

Any thoughts.

Thanks

[steven4064]

if they do stay it and if NatWest/Moorcroft issue proceedings you can ask for a stay on the basis that your (linked) claim is stayed.

[BLADES65]

Update 3: 30/4/20089

 

Letter from Moorcroft saying account on hold following letter I sent informing them I had issued County Court proceedings. They are contacting their client (Natwest) for clarification.

[BLADES65]

LATEST: 9/5/2008

 

Today received notification of the case being stayed at Sheffield County Court due to the OFT case.

As previously mentioned Natwest have registered a default with CRA's and instructed Moorcroft to chase the debt.

Is this enough to apply for the stay to be lifted and if so could someone advise on suitable wording for order.

I will of course be using the Behrens judgment in my application forn the stay to be lifted.

Thanks as always.

[steven4064]

One option is to do nothing and let Moorcroft take you to court and then ask for a stay or that te stay is lifted from your claim as it's part of the same issue. Did you include default removal in your claim?

 

IMHO, you don't stand much chance of getting the stay lifted otherwise ATM

[BLADES65]

Hi Steven,

 

Yes, Default removal is part of the claim and now it has been registered this has obviously affected my credit rating.

[BLADES65]

I really need a bit of help on this please. Cobbetts have filed a defence against my claim.

 

The case has been stayed by the Court.

 

What do I do now.

 

Thanks as always.

[Chromatix]

You need to prepare a rebuttal against their defence. If you can give details of what the defence is, we can help you with that. When the stay is eventually lifted, the case may proceed very quickly afterwards.

 

You might also apply for lifting of the stay. There are some other people doing this at the moment, and you might want to look at how they are going about it for ideas.

[BLADES65]

Sorry for delay, here is the defence filed with identifying info deleted:

 

 

 

 

 

As always your assistance and advcie is greatly appreciated.

[steven4064]

As far as I can see this is a pretty standard Cobbetts cut and paste job. What I don't understand is why they have done it given the fact that the case is stayed

[BLADES65]

My wife's NatWest current account had a balance of £584 Overdrawn, after adding up all the charges they came to £1150 including interest so the overdraft balance was made up wholly of charges.

 

A claim was made to NatWest for the refund of the charges, the usual letter regarding the OFT case was received.

 

NatWest continued adding charges to the account despite being clearly put in dispute in our correspondence.

 

They default notice for £782 and this now appears on the CRA files.

 

We issued a claim in the County Court for £1750 this included costs, and 8 % interest. Also as part of the claim was the removal of the default from CRA files.

 

Of course the case was stayed and now we are waiting for the outcome of the test case.

 

My wife has now had two applications for credit turned down due we believe to the addition of the default to her file.

 

Could this damage be a good reason to have the stay lifted.

 

Thanks

[2Grumpy]

Have a look here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/149449-put-your-credit-reference.html

OK, it's the bank that added the default but it's the CRA that shows it to the world