CapitalOne v Yanni

[Yanni]

or Yanni v CapitalOne

Hi Peeps - I am claiming back my default fees from Capital One and would like any comments on my proposed letter below - good or bad - and is this the correct address?

 

Cheers:)

 

 

 

Capital One Services Inc

Trent House

Station Street

Nottingham

NG2 3HX

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Re. Account number: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

 

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account since 14 April 2005.

 

I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to late payment fees and direct debit refusal fees are unlawful at Common Law and contrary to consumer regulations. If you say that they are not, then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches, in order to reassure me that your charges really do reflect your costs.

 

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the Office of Fair Trading who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the Credit Agreement which you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law, and particularly English law as specified in Section 24 of the Agreement.

 

Your concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right and as the Office of Fair Trading state “A fair default charge should not exceed a reasonable estimate of certain limited administrative costs which the credit card issuer reasonably expects to incur as a result of default"

 

Unless you can provide me with a cost analysis of the fees you have charged me, I demand refund of the total fee and not the fee minus the sum of £8.00.

 

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £160.00 in such penalty charges. I enclose a schedule with those charges which I am claiming highlighted in pink therein.

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting, unconditionally, my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I my account will be credited with the said amount.

 

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,

[dpick]

Hi Yanni address is same one I have sent all my letters to with no problem and your letter looks perfect to me, we must be researching in the same places we are both using very similar arguments in our letters.

 

There again my be just two good brains.

 

I filed N1 at court Monday will keep watching your thread

 

all the best dpick:p

[Yanni]

Thanks dpick,

 

I posted letter Recorded Delivery this afternoon as couldn't find different address - now I have two ongoing disputes, RBS & Cap1 - and will be sending off complaint to FOS tomorrow re the former who have been dealing with a complaint about a "missold" loan since early August last year and are no further forward than last October - anyway que sera, que sera as Doris Day sang!!

[Yanni]

A wee update - I received the usual blurb letter on Tuesday (03/07/07) (just realised Saturday will be 07/07/07:) ) -altho letter dated 28 June but maybe delayed cos of Mail strike, from Cap1 offering me just over half my claim, "as a mattter of goodwill, I'd like [no! you would not like, the OFT have recommended you should] to reduce the fees we've added to your account to £12 each. I've refunded £88 and you'll see this on your next statement"

 

contains the usual guff about agreeing to the T & Cs including to pay these fees when you signed the the credit card agreement - anyway I sent off the below letter yesterday - the £12 fee is still way over the top as the Irish banks top default fee, or admin fee as they correctly call them, is, at current exchange rates, not even £3 - so at £12 the UK banks are still ripping us off, a sort of polite mugging or like a pickpocket dipping your wallet/purse, extracting £12 and replacing your wallet/purse to you:)

 

BTW I won my back my default fees against the Royal Bank of Scotland, prelim letter sent 19 May, offered about 70% of claim on 10 June, refused and held out for full amount, letter received on 30 June offering full amount so I accepted.

 

- anyway here's the letter to Cap1

 

Dear XXXXX

 

 

Your Ref : XXXXXXXXXXX

 

Re. Account No.: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

 

 

 

 

Thank you for your letter dated X XXXX 2007.

 

I respectfully decline your offer as a final settlement and request and once again request that you return to me all charges imposed on this account totalling £XXX.00.

 

You state that by signing the credit card agreement in February 2004, I agreed to the terms and conditions including the fees. This I do not dispute. What I do now contest is the level of these fees as they do not correctly reflect the true cost of their application, and are therefore penalty charges deemed by both statute and common law to be unlawful.

 

In your letter you state that the Office of Fair Trading has not challenged the right of banks to charge default fees, but merely the level of the fees. It is this level of fees that I dispute.

 

I enclose for your benefit, a print of credit card, default fees in Euros, highlighted in green, as applied by AIB (Allied Irish Banks plc) with the sterling amount in red. You will note that the highest fee in sterling is not even £.3.00. I believe these fees are applicable to all banks in the ROI.

 

If these Irish fees reflect the true cost of applying default fees, which I am sure they must do, then this makes the £12.00 fee which you state to be fair, to be excessive and thus a source of extra profit and therefore unlawful as described above.

 

I defy you to prove otherwise.

 

I will accept the sum of offered only as part settlement and on the clear

understanding that I will pursue recovery of the remainder of by raising a

Small Claims Action at the Sheriff Court in Edinburgh if necessary and asking the Court to grant me contractual interest of 34.94% APR to be applied to the sum of £XXX.00.

 

I give you 14 days from XX XXXX 2007 to reply positively to this letter by increasing the refund to £XXX.00 otherwise I will apply to the Sheriff Court as outlined above.

 

I trust this clarifies my position.

 

 

 

Irish Allied Banks plc list of Default Fees or more correctly, Administration Fees.

 

3. Late Payment Charge

Should payments not be made in accordance with the Conditions of Use an administration charge of EUR3.81 will be debited from the cards account. = £2.55

4. Over Limit Charge

Should the account be operated in excess of the Credit Limit, an administration charge of EUR2.54 may be debited from the cards account. = £1.70

5. Returned Payment Charge

Should any payment either by cheque or direct debit be returned unpaid an administration charge of EUR4.44 will be debited to the card account. = £2.97

[dpick]

Hi Yanni I started court claim with Capital One for £1600, they had till yesterday to acknowledge notice with court. Checked with court they have received nothing so have applied to court for a judgement by default today.

 

all the best dpick:p