A Quick Question.

[anthonyenglish]

Hi All,

 

I sent my LBA letters to HSBC regarding a total claim of 6300 on 3 accounts. They came back with a couple of interesting thinsg.

 

1 - on one account they noted that I had included more than the 6 years. I'd started doing this before and stopped due to pressing matters and simply updated the spreadheet, tagging on the extra charges - probably 6.3 years all told. Also they noted that £70 of the £3000 I was claiming on that account had already been refunded. So it looks like they have had somebody look into the info I sent.

 

2 - I had included the 8% in the LBA breakdown. In their letters they indicate that they do not agree with this. I think what they are offering is the total without interest - but I need to check that.

 

3 - for one account they sent 2 letters with 2 differnt offers. What are the chances of getting paid both

 

So their offer is £4700 against my total of £6300. I'm tempted to take things further but the other half wants me to accept now.

 

They also indicated that they think that they would win any court case, but I guess they would say that wouldn't they.

[darkrage]

hi they wont win the case - but i dont think you should of put the 8% interest into the lba schedule also due to the amount you are asking i think you will need crushers advice as he has succesfully won a case similar to yours and he knows what he is talking about (alot more than me).

 

regarding the missus £4000 is alot of money but is it not all your money ALL £6000 it may seem like a risk but these banks are playing a numbers game hoping you fold on a lesser amount and dont get to court.

 

well would send them a letter stating that you accept them £4000 as a part payment and it wont stop your claim and you dont blah blah there is a letter here for that

 

i hope this helps

[Castlebest]

As ever with an offer before the litigation stages its up to you... you will get the cash they have offered about 10 days after you accept it or you can carry on with your claim in court and recover your court costs, on a claim of that size will be £120 to submit and another £100 allocation fee about a month later together with 8% statutory interest but you will have to wait between 2 to 3 months from now if things go smoothly.

 

pete

[anthonyenglish]

Thanks for the commets - I should point out that I have 3 accounts with HSBC and all are being done seperately. All offers have been made seperately also.

 

What I'm claiming and what they are offering is listed below.

 

Acc 1 Claim : 282.50 Offered 192.50 Amount ex int 192.5

Acc 2 Claim : 4363.87 Offered 3160.00 Amount ex int 3542.00

Acc 3 Claim : 1751.02 Offered 1340.00 Amount ex int 1476.50

 

So you can see, what they are offerning looks like whay I sent minus the interest.

[anthonyenglish]

So should I have simply asked for the charges without interest in my LBA letters? That would have meant a claim for 192.50 + 3542.00 + 1476.50 = 5211.00, not too far away from the 4692.50 they have offered.

 

In their letters they have a section marked overdraft interest.

 

"Regarding you request to refund overdraft interest on your account, HSBC's interest rates are well publicised in respect of both format and informat overdrafts. It is, of course, a condition of your borrowing from us that you will pay interest at the agreed rates on that borrowing. As such we will not be refunding the interest that has been applied to your debt."

 

I might be being stupid here, but on the simple spreadsheet, I thought the 8% was an interest amount based on that charge alone and nothing to do with overdraft interest. I figured the 8% was a way of saying that on 2001 I was charged £30, today that £30 would be more than £30 and the calculation took this into account.

 

They also state

"We have noticed that your claim goes back more than 6 years. We will not cosider any claim over 6 years old given that it is time barred under the Limitation Act 1980. Therefore our proposal does not include those charges applied more than 6 years ago.

 

Interest

 

We note that you have added "interest" to your request for a refund. We do not accept that this is appropriate and therfore our offer of a refund does not include ant interest."

[darkrage]

hsbc done the same with me but after i had filed the n1 in court - they made an offer on the day dg said they will defend. the only thing that annoyed me was on the front of the offers they stated 1 figure they had considered then on the page that you sign and send back they had lowered the figures even more - they also stated everything they put in your letter.

 

it is your choice wether you accept as a full and final or as a part payment the timings of my offer ment i could do neither as the judge was already asking for allocation fee so i sent a letter to dg and hsbc declining the offer due to my schedule and pointing out it is highly unnacceptable for them to defend and offer on the same day.

 

also on the front of your offers will be 3 words - with out prejudice or somethin like that - this means you can not submit the letters as evidence in court which is rather poo.

 

im rambling now so ill leave it there for you have a long talk with your wife only you 2 can decide what you do next all we can do is give you info to help you make your decision.

 

As for the interest hsbc know that you can claim it back when you get to court stage all they are doing is pointing out that at the stage you are at now they dont have to pay you it so i would not worry about it.

[darkrage]

 

"Regarding you request to refund overdraft interest on your account, HSBC's interest rates are well publicised in respect of both format and informat overdrafts. It is, of course, a condition of your borrowing from us that you will pay interest at the agreed rates on that borrowing. As such we will not be refunding the interest that has been applied to your debt."

 

I might be being stupid here, but on the simple spreadsheet, I thought the 8% was an interest amount based on that charge alone and nothing to do with overdraft interest. I figured the 8% was a way of saying that on 2001 I was charged £30, today that £30 would be more than £30 and the calculation took this into account.

 

"

 

this is to confuse you if you had used the complicated spreadsheet you would of taken into account od interest if you used the simple spreadsheet like me it doesnt so you are not claiming od interest - the 8% is and can only be added for court so they are spouting stuff to confuse you and hopefully make you back down.

[anthonyenglish]

Hi All and thanks for the commets.

 

I don't really want to go down the courts route if I can help it, but I also don't want to write off £1600. Is it worth writing to them and pointing out that I am not looking for the overdraft interest, mearly the interest due on the charges. Afterall, I could have taken that £30 and stuck it in an ISA if they had not charged me.

 

Has anybody actually entered into this type of converstaion with the bank or do you simply go straight to the MCOL part?

[darkrage]

tbh they wont re offer that is the offer you either accept or it goes to the next stage of filing at court. sending a letter pointing that out probably wont even get a response but if you want to try that its upto you it would not do any harm it would just delay the acceptance or court action which is what they want also unless it goes to court you cant get the 8% interest they know this and is why they spout all that stuff in your offer.

 

they are hoping you accept so it costs them less, if you do accept use a letter for acceptance on this site and dont send back there acceptance form as this will stop you making other claims in the future.

 

here is a letter for acceptance for you (here) i think there is one there if not ill ask lattie to find a good one for you.

[darkrage]

ive asked pinkdutchess to take a look at this thread to see if she can help you better than what i can.

its best to have more than one persons advice as im the same as you but a bit futher advanced in my claim .

[darkrage]

read this from post 121 this is what happened with me

 

hope this helps you come to a decision on the best course of action for you personnaly.

[pinkduchess]

hi - I'm a little confused as to what interest youre actually claiming for here.

 

did you send the prelim & lba including the 8% statutory interest? I know this is what the MSE site advises to do but actually this cannot be claimed until you file you claim at a court. So if this is what youve done they wont include this in your offer.

 

a lot of what they put in their letter is standard stuff.

 

from what i can make out you are only claiming the 8% interest and not the overdraft interest. so your offer is about £500 short.

 

I have read other threads where a settlement figure has been negotiated without filing the claim but on a/c 1 you have had a full offer (less the interest) and if this is the 8% I think you would need to accept it.

 

sorry if this is a bit muddled - im at work & trying to multi-task.

 

advise from others would be appreciated!!

[darkrage]

thx for replying dutchy everyone is at work me thinks

glad you can put things in apost better than me i tend to go round in circles lol.

[anthonyenglish]

I think I'm being a bit thick here. Why can you claim interest only at the court stage? Why can you not ask for it up front.

 

To be honest I think with the other things I have on my plate at the moment (wife had a kidney transplant last week) I'll probably accept and spend my 'free money'

 

Also, is it right that they can dismiss claims made before the 6 year threshold? If they were illegal 72 months ago, they were still illegal 73 months ago.

 

Thanks for all the help here.

 

Now onto Amex - who have lowered their late payment charges, but jacked up my interest rate to 25.9%. So while they now charge £12 I think, they get a much higher level of interest off the outstanding balance.

[darkrage]

the 8% is an addition to the claim once submitted via either mcol or n1 form it is your right to claim this at that stage and not before you have asked for it before that stage and they have told you to sod off basically as they know they do not have to give it you until the court action. as dutchy states you are only short by a small amount but with interest its a big amount so that is where your decision lies -

 

a: accept this settlement and spend away

or

b: stick to your guns goto court and get all of it back

 

this is the decision you must make if you choose a: then use an acceptance letter from this site maybe one like this

 

Date

Dear Whoever

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

Sort Code xx-xx-xx

Claim No: XXXXX in XXXX County Court

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £XXX

 

Unfortunately, I find that you are about to charge me a further £150 on 25/5/07. If you were to reverse that upcoming charge I would then feel comfortable accepting your offer as full and final settlement. The total amount I would accept is £XXXXX plus the reversal of the £150 charge scheduled to be taken from my account on 25/5/07.

 

As soon as I receive confirmation from you that you agree to this arrangement, I will accept the offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

 

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim of £XXX

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I look forward to receiving your revised offer

Yours Sincerely

 

just edit this to your needs and delete the things you feel do not apply in your case.

 

which ever you decide good luck and i hope you wife makes a full recovery soon.