Any stays applied for against Barclaycard claims due to OFT bank charge test case?

[Craftylady]

Thanks guys for your comments. I think I might try ringing the court first to see what they say and if I have no joy with them I will be emailing you Peter for a copy of your letter.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[Craftylady]

Decided that I am going to have to write to court to remove stay.

Just got off phone with court and they said that the judges at my court (Hitchin, Herts) have decided to put stays on all bank and credit card charge claims until after the test case. When I pointed out that it shouldn't apply to credit card cases I was told that they couldn't comment on individual claims and that was what the judges had decided.

So I think that a few letters need to be written!!

It seems very unfair that a judge in one area can do this and if you live somewhere else everything goes through ok.

One question though. If I apply for the stay to be lifted, (even though the judge has said that neither party can do this!) and the judge refuses, do I get my £35 back ?

[nevos]

You can check if your court is self funding if it is like Hull, they won't accept a letter to remove a stay and you need to pay the £35.00. You could try simply writing as a letter at least setting out the Human Rights angle.

[lesleyjane]

Craftylady - I'm in much the same position as you..... just when I had my allocation hearing date sorted out and everything ready to go, they went and put a stay on my case. My court is in Bedford - which isn't far from you in Hitchin - I wonder if judges in particular areas have got together and decided on their course of action?

I'm going to my local court tomorrow morning to hand in my application for removal of the stay - I'll let you know what they say about it. We are very much the guinea pigs for this action. I find it all very frustrating. I was days away from getting my offer from Natwest for over £2000 when the OFT test case was announced, and now this....!!!

[Craftylady]

lesleyjane - Did the judge say you were allowed to apply for removal of the stay? Hitchin judges seem to have put a blanket stay on all charges cases - banks and credit cards, with no appeal.

It does look like a postcode lottery doesn't it?

[moneyhelp]

Decided that I am going to have to write to court to remove stay.

Just got off phone with court and they said that the judges at my court (Hitchin, Herts) have decided to put stays on all bank and credit card charge claims until after the test case. When I pointed out that it shouldn't apply to credit card cases I was told that they couldn't comment on individual claims and that was what the judges had decided.

So I think that a few letters need to be written!!

It seems very unfair that a judge in one area can do this and if you live somewhere else everything goes through ok.

One question though. If I apply for the stay to be lifted, (even though the judge has said that neither party can do this!) and the judge refuses, do I get my £35 back ?

 

I called this court this morning and asked if there had been any stays - the woman told me there hadn't been any yet and I should be fine with my claim - ass - elbow comes to mind!

[lesleyjane]

Yes - I think that basically (and very unfairly) this is a postcode lottery. That's what makes it imperative to challenge the judges decision.

[standingupformyself]

The FOS is still processing credit card claims though, wonder how long they will continue to do so if judges are staying claims off their own bat.

 

I have been considering taking this route, simply cos I cannot afford to go through the court at this point, particularly if the case ends up being "stayed" and my court fee ends up being lost for month,

I realise that this is straying off topic a bit, but can you still ask for CI, or even CCI if you take this route? or is it simply charges?

 

Thank you x

[lesleyjane]

I have an update -

 

I went along to Bedford County Court this morning, armed with my N244 and mountains of associated paperwork to back up my application. I spoke to a really helpful person on the desk - she said that it costs £65 per application to apply for a stay to be removed. She went on to say that the judges in Bedfordshire had made a decision to apply stays to all cases which involve bank charges. I reminded her that my claims were for a refund of credit card charges. She said that as far as she could see, the judges have grouped all penalty charges together, regardless of their origin.

She said that it depends where you live as to whether judges have decided to carry on regardless or put a stay on all claims. She agreed that it was unfair. She suggested that I write a letter to the judge outlining everything which is in my N244 package. It will save me £65 that I can ill afford. I intend to send him all my paperwork -including a copy of the OFT'S statement from their website (all 32 pages!), a tweaked version of Peter's objection letter andf a copy of the email I received from the FSA this morning. The email says that as far as the FSA are concerned, the test case refers only to bank accounts and not credit card accounts.

If anyone can think of anything else I should be including then please let me know.

This seems to be taking over my life.... I ended up taking a day off work today so that I could try and get things straight!

[TECHSPEC]

Photocopy the letters and include them in your complaint to the FSA for Barclaycard's abuse of the FSA's current account complaints waiver .

 

Its important that all complaints are put in.

 

I wrote to OFT/FSA and FOS yesterday, regarding barclays refusal to honour the hardship rule.

 

If they are true to their word, the FSA should lift the waiver, when it is revued next month.

[noomill060]

We can but hope.

 

Like lesleyjane says, this is fast becoming a hobby!

[TECHSPEC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by noomill060

The FOS is still processing credit card claims though, wonder how long they will continue to do so if judges are staying claims off their own bat

 

 

The FOS seem to have found their own way round this. They are now quoting 6 - 9 months to handle credit cards claims. Call me a cynic, but isn't this just after the test case is expected to end.

 

Spineless.

[pjdavies2000]

lesleyjane - any chance you can send me a copy of the FSA email to me email addy...there may be some gold in there somewhere!

 

Cheers

 

Peter

[Aqualibrium]

Its important that all complaints are put in.

 

I wrote to OFT/FSA and FOS yesterday, regarding barclays refusal to honour the hardship rule.

 

If they are true to their word, the FSA should lift the waiver, when it is revued next month.

 

 

RE: The hardship rule.

 

My Barclaycard account has already been passed to Mercers. I would say the iminent threats of legal action against me would perhaps result in hardship if the case is not taken on promptly? I'm sure I'm also not the only one.

[Brad Smith]

i phoned up Southend court regarding them staying my case against Monument Credit Card and they said to post a letter to them explaining the reasons that I feel it shouldn't be stayed.

 

Apparently, this is a decision the judge has taken. Gonna have to try to get a letter sent off tonight GRRRRRR

[TECHSPEC]

One of the arguements the bansk use to defend current account charges, is that it has nothing to do with a contract.

 

That has no defence for credit cards. There most certainly is a contract, and you have to pay a minimum amount every month, on time, and stay within an agreed limit.

 

Breaching this contract, results in a penalty for breach of contract, which is unlawful, if it is higher than the actual cost to the bank of the breach.

[Brad Smith]

can I put that in my letter to the court Tech? Sorry to be dim, but I've been so busy at work and haven't had a chance to look do too much reading

 

Cheers

[TECHSPEC]

You can quote what i say, but I think there is a section already for lifting stays.

 

Might be better to get the correct jargon for it from a Mod.

 

If it helps, i have spoken to the FOS last week, and the FSA today, and BOTH confirmed that credit cards are nothing to do with the test case.

 

UPDATE:- Lloyds TSB site acknowledges Credit cards NOT involved. Print that for your judge (go to bottom of page) :-

 

Lloyds TSB - Answers to questions on bank charges

[Brad Smith]

cheers Tech....caught up on my work....so gonna draft them a letter today. My initial claim was only for £116 + interest & charges, so I'm a little reluctant to pay a further £35 when the judge may not agree with it anyway. If that makes sense

[Brad Smith]

ok...drafted a quick letter...can somebody have a quick check and let me know if I've omitted anything glaring please?

 

Cheers

Brad

 

16th August 2007

 

Ref: Claim 7QZ73518

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

 

 

With reference to the above claim, I respectfully request that the stay which was ordered on the 6th August be removed for the following reasons:

 

It has been ordered that the claim be stayed until the determination of the High Court proceedings on the legality of Bank Charges, however, as this is actually a credit card company I feel that it will bear no relevance to the above test case.

 

As credit card penalties have already been investigated by the Office of Fair Trading and have been confirmed as penalty charges for breach of contract these will fall under a different category. I have taken the following text from the OFT website: “A fair default charge should not exceed a reasonable estimate of certain limited administrative costs which the [issuer] reasonably expects to incur as a result of default”.

 

Furthermore, I also enclose a print out from the Lloyds TSB website; “Answers to questions on Bank Charges” where it also confirms that the test case and suspension of unauthorised overdraft claims apply only to bank accounts and not to credit cards.

 

I trust this information supplied is satisfactory, and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

 

Bradley Smith

[TECHSPEC]

Thats great. Perhaps a line saying that both the FSA & FOS (use full names) have confiirmed that only current accounts will be looked at in this test case, and that credit card claims should continue as before.

[Brad Smith]

cheers techie...have done....just wait & see now i suppose

[TECHSPEC]

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

 

Give me strength.

 

As feared, a letter arrived today, saying that my Barclaycard case has been stayed until 29th February.

 

Spoke to court, and probably shouldn't have said that the judge has not got a clue what he's doing, but what the heck, i never gave my claim number.

 

Now i have to write a letter.

 

Will wait till i calm down though.

[Brad Smith]

soooo annoying isn't it? sent my letter off yesterday...just gotta wait now

 

if the judge decides it has to be stayed I'm not sure where we go from there, short of complaining to the FOS...who don't seem to care anyway!!!

[TECHSPEC]

I used the FOS for my Lloyds TSB card. Lloyds failed to provide me with statements requested in February, despite being told to by the information commissioner. So in June, i applied to the FOS, who do not require a lits of charges.

 

I rang them last week, for an update, and was told that they had not looked at it yet. They are worse than the banks. I am going to write to them, asking who i complain to about THEM - the FOSOS?

 

You normally have to pay a fee to have a stay lifted, but we are being allowed to send a letter. I feel this may be a good sign, that maybe the judge knows that there may be problems with their blanket stays.

 

Fingers crossed, they will overturn them. If not, i can feel some angry letters coming on.