Alex the Lad v. Cap1 ***WON***

[alex_the_lad]

Hi!

 

Any advice would be gladly welcome. Basically I'm currently taking on Abbey to reclaim my bank charges and now I'm about to file my N1 against Abbey (on Monday) my attention is turning to my Cap1 and EGG credit card accounts.

 

I could do with a little Cap1 advice.

 

I'm a little worried about taking Cap1 on - here the story (I'll try and keep it brief). Basically back in Sept/October 06 I missed payments. I was in a little bit of personal termoil (giving up work to look after my chronicly ill dad and having a health problem of my own). I basically ignored Cap1 and my account was passed on to Debitas. My balance was around 1,300 quid and they wanted 100 per month. Basically I've been paying them 50 quid a month on a regular basis since December 06 - they've argreed to this as an interim arrangement to be reviewed at the end of this month.

 

Since then I've got hold of my statements and calculated that over the years they have charged me 700 quid in late payment, overlimit and occassional direct debit failture fees.

 

I really wanna start taking them on cos 700 quid off my balance would really ease the burden. However, I'm worried that if I start taking Cap1 on then Debitas are going to start playing hardball - as it is I do not find Debitas to be a very nice group of people!

 

Any ideas as to what I should do - wait until I pay 'um back (in 2yrs at this rate!) or go for it? Really don't wanna end up with a CCJ!

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[alex_the_lad]

Bump. Sorry to be a pain but any advice or opions would be very much valued.

[ukaviator]

Hi Alex

 

You need to send an S.A.R. for your data / information about your account. Once you have your statement, add up the charges and with the addition of Contractual compounded interest, should be able to pay off what you owe. Get this off as soon as possible. Still make payments to Debitas though. Also if you can prove that charges gave you a default, you could ask for that to be removed too. You must keep it as a package. Default removal and charges together. There are some links below to help you.

 

Uk

[alex_the_lad]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to do a income/exp sheet for Debitas and secure a longer term repayment arrangement and then I'll send my preliminary letter (I've got my statements for the last 6 yrs).

[alex_the_lad]

Basically I've gone through my statements and I'm about to put my spreadsheet together. I'm not sure whether I should claim Contractual interest for two reasons:

 

1) It confuses the heck of of me!

2) I read a thread about a case that had gone before a judge and the claim for CCI was rejected (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/halifax-bank-bank-scotland/97691-contractual-interest-precedent-lost.html?highlight=contractual+precedent+lost)

 

Any advice would be valued!

[charleyfarley]

alex,

 

hi....I'm in a similar sitation to yourself, but I've just had the abbey pay up, but my thoughts on it are this..

 

 

with the abbey, i wasn't charged much interest, just massive charges so I went for the 8%. However,with Cap1, the charges are high, but the interest charges are higher still, so It's much clearer. It's worth getting to grips with CCI if you can.............I'm quite happy to talk it through with you if you need any help

[steven4064]

Alex and Charlie

 

The situation is completely different. The lost claim was for compound interest on a current account on the basis of fairness (they would charge me that so I will charge them that).

 

In the case of credit cards you are claiming compound intterest on the basis that it is the interest they actually did charge you.

 

If and when you make a claim in court, you can add 8% on top.

 

Alex, don't get confused, use one of the spreasdsheets in the library.

[alex_the_lad]

Thanks for the advice guys - you've really put me at easy to know I'm on steady ground in claiming CCI. I've had a bit more of a read about CCI and also had a go at the spreadsheet I found by following the link on UKaviator's link in the post above. My charges amount to around £700 with the first charges going back to late 2001. With CCI the total claim is around two grand (using Mindzai's spreadsheet and the figures from looking at my statements - I've come up with an APR of just under 21%) - does the total amount of my claim sound about right?

Dealing with Cap1 and their good buddies at Debitas lately has really been one of the most humiliating experiences of my life and it would be nice to have them out of my life!

 

Charleyfarley - wish you all the best with your claim with cap1. I'll subscribe to your thread to see how things are going.

[steven4064]

As a rough check - at 21% APR the charges double about every 3.5 years so any from 2001 will have almost quadrupled.

[alex_the_lad]

Hi! I wonder if anyone can help with another query I have?

 

I was sorting through a file of old letters, statements etc, and came across a letter from Cap1 from mid 2004 telling me that the APR on my account was rising to just over 24%. The letter also stated that the then current APR was around 21%. In my claim I was going to use the 21% for CCI that I worked out from the monthly rate on my statements (obviously the random selection of statements I used for this were pre-2004!).

 

Now I'm not sure which figure to use in my claim as the spreadsheet I'm using only lets me put in 1 APR rate. Of the 40 odd charges that appear throughout the history of my account 30 of them were levied when the lower APR figure was applied.

[steven4064]

But for most of their 'life' you will have been paying the higher rate on them - I would go with the higher, you can always use it to do a deal later

[alex_the_lad]

Hi guys. Soz to be a pain, but I'm after a little more advice.

 

I've bascially been moving all my stuff over to my parachute a/c as I'm currently taking on Abbey over charges on my current a/c. I've got pretty much what I had with Abbey in terms of facitilites so I'm gonna change to the new bank. Basically today I decided that to avoid any confusion whilst I set up a new standing order I would pay my 50 quid agreed with Cap1 by debit card. I rang and paid, then got a load of hastle about how I wasn't paying nearly enough. I explained that I was paying as much as I could, that I would continue to pay that amount by standing order and if they wanted to take it to court then I'd be more than prepared to give an account of myself. He then gave me this almost snarling line about how they would be monitoring my a/c, that it was in my interest to keep paying any that they would review things in 3 months.

 

No problem there. The thing that got to me was that I've been really careful to pay up on time and yet I was made to feel so bad. Essentially this has got my back up and I really don't wanna give them anymore of my money. Here's the bit I need advice on. I'm sending my preliminary letter on monday. On this basis can I also write to Debitas and tell them that my a/c is in dispute and that i will not be paying them anymore until the matter is resolved?

[charleyfarley]

alex,

 

i would be very reluctant to do that, as I would expect them to get a*sy about it

[alex_the_lad]

Hey Charley! I think you're probably right. Although I think I'll go down the CCA route with Debitas to see if I can get 'um that way. If that fails I can take comfort in the fact that anything I pay them I'm gonna get back - with interest!

 

How are things going with your claim?

[ukaviator]

Hi Alex

 

Still make payments to stop the hassle phone calls.

[alex_the_lad]

Hi UK - I will defintely keep them up. I'm paid up for this month and I'll have a standing order in place assuming they come through with the CCA request (which they will knowing my luck). Hopefully it'll only be another 2-3 months of payments...

 

Also UK - I've got another question. I used the spreadsheet from the link in one of your earlier posts on my thread. This might sound like a silly question, but which bits of the spreadsheet do I print to send off to CAP1?

[ukaviator]

Hi Alex

 

You fill in the spreadsheet, i think it's number 13 from the link, and click print after it's all done. You send a copy of the whole spreadsheet.

 

Uk

[alex_the_lad]

Hi Again! I need yet more advice!

 

Basically I seem to have 2 spreadsheets for my charges including CCI - sheet number 13 from Vampress and also the one I get a different figure with each sheet. Not sure which one I should go with.

[jubaxt]

hi alex, hi aviator-i've used s/sheet 13 for all my card claims!!!!!!

[alex_the_lad]

Finally sorted out my spreadsheet and now I'm about ready to send my preliminary letter. I'm using the standard letter in the bank templates folder, but I've modified one of the paragraphs to talk about CCI. Just wondered if the following looked okay:

 

My statements indicate that you have taken £xxx.xx in unlawful penalty charges (namely late payment, over limit and direct debit return charges). In addition you have charged me £x,xxx.xx in compounded contractual interest at a rate of xx.xx%, which according to my record of correspondence from you is the rate of purchase interest that you have applied to my account. The total amount that you have taken from me over the period from xx/xx/xx to xx/xx/xx is £x,xxx.xx. Please be aware that interest will continue to accrue at a rate of £x.xx per day until such time as this claim is settled.I have attached a detailed schedule of these charges.

 

Thanks for any advice in advance.

[ukaviator]

You should put an alternative of 8% if the judge believes CCI is too much.

 

In the alternative,i would like to claim interest under s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year, from xx/xx/xxxx to xx/xx/xxxx of £x and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of xp.

 

Just in case, you will then have something to fall back on.

 

Uk

[alex_the_lad]

Thanks for the advice UK - just wanted to clarify that the paragraph I put up in my last post is from the preliminary letter to CAP1. I didn't think I could mention the statutory interest at this point.

 

Also I've ammended one of the earlier paragraphs in the letter. What do you think of this:

 

Additionally, it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary. With regard to the OFT statement of 5th April 2006 I would draw your attention to the following paragraph taken from the statement,

 

‘We expect card issuers to recalculate their default charges in line with the principles in our statement to achieve consistency with unfair contract terms legislation. We have decided that, as a provisional step, it is appropriate to give priority to addressing default charges which exceed a simple monetary threshold of £12, in line with our duty to use our resources to tackle contract terms that have the potential to cause the most serious harm to consumers. We are not suggesting that default fees should be set at £12, and a court will certainly not consider that a default fee is fair just because it is below the threshold.’

[ukaviator]

Sorry mis read your post. Yes the letter is ok. You will need the bit i put up, later for your POC.

 

Uk

[alex_the_lad]

No worries UK. The advice you gave is still good 'cos as you might imagine the P.O.C. and CCI would have been one of my next questions anyway!

[ukaviator]

They will be. . Your letter seems fine, so get that off asap. You seem to be doing ok. Keep us posted.

 

Uk