Started taking on Barclaycard

[hannanshah]

I sent a preliminary letter to ask for the refunding of my charges and have now got a response.

Here's the letter I sent:

[my address]

Barclaycard
1234 Pavilion Drive
Northampton
NN4 7SG

Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam,

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxx

My request
I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the past two years.
I now understand that the regime of fees which you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

Your responsibilities
I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract 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.

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

What I require
I calculate that you have taken £40 plus interest. I require full payment of this sum including any interest that I was charged as a result of these illegal charges.

I also request that you compensate me for any costs that I have incurred as a result of your illegal charges. To date, the only cost I have incurred is the cost of posting this letter to you and this is specified by the value of the Royal Mail postage stamps on the envelope that contained this letter.

My targets to resolve this matter
I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

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 will receive payment.

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 will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

It had a 14 day deadline to respond and was delivered on 19 April. Just got a reply dated from 21 April (received 25 April) and it is just a standard reply to a complaint.

Here is a summary of each paragraph:
1. Talks about the Terms and Conditions
2. Then mentions the OFT recommendation to review their levels of charges
3. Talks about commitment to supporting customers in financial difficulty (yeah right!)
4. States that confimation of charges is on the reverse of the statement and these are non-refundable
5. Use Barclaycard website to view transactions
6. Customer satisfaction important blah blah please respond if you need any help etc.

I believe the deadline I gave them ends on 4 May. I guess I'm right to wait until this date before I send out a letter before action.

[mikeyitup]

Good for you.
Give it to em where it hurts.

I'll go for barclaycard next.

[wolfcub]

Hi,

Called Barclaycard today. The Complaints Manager is John Furgason. He said a resounding NO and refunsed to refund over £500 charges. I did say I had sucessfully sued Lloyds and won and his comment "if you want to sue us then go ahead"

Thats what I like to hear. They could have saved themselves £100 interest. Sent a letter before action today. Then, off to court (again).

Dont lose the faith.

wolfcub

[hannanshah]

Originally Posted by wolfcub

Dont lose the faith.

I'm more than up for the fight. In fact I hope it ends up in court as it will be great for my ego!

[hannanshah]

Okay it's past the 14 days now and I have had no reply to my LBA. I guess I should now head for Money Claim.

I'm still a bit confused about the interest stuff. I guess I use the spreadsheet but so I add the interest they charged me and then 8% on top of everything or do I just add the 8% to the charges? Also how do how work out exactly how much interest I had to pay as a result of the two charges?

Also on Moneyclaim do I sue using the standard Barclaycard address that is posted on the top of the forum? Finally what happens if I start the claim and I then receive a letter say tomorrow offering a refund (ie. I start the claim just as they are responding to my LBA)?

[Tinkerbelle]

Check out my post here...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...7866#post57866


It should help clarify things for you.

[pennies_make_pounds]

Have had exactly the same response from Barclaycard today - unreal. I'm going to wait until their 14 days are up and send the Letter Before Action, but think I might add bits about their charges being unlawful [1999 Consumer Credit Act (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts)].

Don't know about you but, isn't them saying in their letter that they are committed to reviewing their charges under advice from the OFT, tantamount to ADMITTING their charges have always been extortionate?!!

Good luck - will let you know how I get on. Am also claiming back from Barclays, A&L and MBNA - reckon Barclaycard might be the toughest.

[hannanshah]

What address do I use to sue Barclaycard?

Also the Particulars of Claim in the Library section is well above the 1080 character limit on the MoneyClaim form (around 1700 charcters). How do I trim this down? Do I need to mention the specific charges in this section?

[Tinkerbelle]

Originally Posted by hannanshah

What address do I use to sue Barclaycard?

Also the Particulars of Claim in the Library section is well above the 1080 character limit on the MoneyClaim form (around 1700 charcters). How do I trim this down? Do I need to mention the specific charges in this section?

Plenty examples on this site.

Seek and ye shall find

[hannanshah]

Just submitted the following Particulars of claim through the Moneyclaim site. Tough meeting the less than 24 line limit (ended up around a 1000 characters):

The Claimant has an account xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(‘the Account’) with the Defendant which was
opened around 2004. During the period in
which the Account has been operating the
Defendant debited numerous charges to the
Account in respect of purported breaches of
contract on the part of the Claimant. The
Claimant understands that the Defendant
contends that the charges were debited in
accordance with the terms of the contract
between itself and the Claimant. The
Claimant contends that the contractual
provision that permits the Defendant to levy
such charges is unenforceable by virtue of
the Unfair Contract Terms in Consumer
Contracts Regulations (1999), the Unfair
Contract Terms Act 1977 and the common law.
The Claimant claims the return of the amounts
debited in respect of charges in the sum of
£40; Court costs; Interest under section 69
of the County Courts Act at such rate and for
such periods as the court deems just. The
Claimant has asked the Defendant to justify
their charges but they have declined.

[hannanshah]

Just got an Acknowledgement of Service saying that Barclaycard are going to defend the claim. They've got 28 days to file a defence.

On the other hand Capital One have immediately offered to settle for the remaining £20 + £30 court (I already had a £20 goodwill gesture out of them after a preliminary approach).

[fergal71]

how much are you claiming as it looks like you are claiming £40?????

[hannanshah]

Originally Posted by fergal71

how much are you claiming as it looks like you are claiming £40?????

£40 in fees + £30 costs.

(The Capital One bit was a separate case which has just been settled).

Has anyone actually got a settlement from Barclays? I can't see a single case in the Litigation Concluded forum.

[fergal71]

hi not sure I think they are doing well stalling because of statements for 6 years, check out my letter in parkes thread... I am happy to go all the way with my estimate, it will only cost me £80 ....if it all goes wrong which i doubt!!!!!!

did you try calling them for these charges to be returned as they usually would for this amount????

[hannanshah]

Originally Posted by fergal71

hi not sure I think they are doing well stalling because of statements for 6 years, check out my letter in parkes thread... I am happy to go all the way with my estimate, it will only cost me £80 ....if it all goes wrong which i doubt!!!!!!

did you try calling them for these charges to be returned as they usually would for this amount????

I wrote a preliminary letter. Got the standard reply talking about terms and conditions. Wrote a letter before action (confirmed delivery through the Royal Mail Recorded). Didn't even get a reply from them. So just went ahead with the claim confident that they will settle instead of going through with a court appearance for such a pitiful amount. Why not hurt them with a further £30 in the process (paid for by my Barclaycard incidently!).

I'm not going to bother calling them now asking for a settlement (don't need to show any sign of weakness). I'll just wait and see what they do next.

[fergal71]

good luck keep thread updated you could be the first on BAG to be succesful against barclaycard

[hannanshah]

Just got a letter from Barclaycard.

It looks like they finally decided to respond to my 'Letter Before Action' (which they received on 5 May with a 14 day deadline). They have apologised for the delay in responding and they seem to have decided that I am a female because the letter is addresses to a 'Ms' (I am a 20 year old male).

They have offered me £16 as a good will gesture (that's my 2 x £20 charges minus the £12 recommended by the OFT for a single charge).

This is strange timing considering that they have already acknowledged the small claim I filed at the end of last month to which they asked for 28 days to file a defence (of which 11 days remain)!

Should I write back to them accepting what they have offered but letting them know that I will pursue the rest on court? The bloke who wrote this letter is obviously not aware that Barclaycard are already 'preparing their defence' against me! What I really want to do is phone them up and have a go at them but I prefer to do things in writing as everything can be recorded easily.

Here's the letter:

Dear Ms Shah

Account no: xxx

I refer to your recent letter. I apologise for the delay in responding.

With regard to your request for a refund of charges I am sorry you feel the charges you have incurred are unfair. We believe that our charges are both fair and transparent, and we make them clear in our Terms and Conditions, and on the reverse of every monthly statement. These charges are avoidable by staying within your limit and making your monthly payment on time.

In your correspondence you state that it is an implied term of the contract that we conduct ourselves lawfully. I must inform you however, that we disagree with your legal analysis, as we believe that our charges are lawful. In light of the above we cannot accept your claim for a refund of £40 however as a goodwill gesture and without any admission of liability we are prepared to credit to your account the difference between the £12 fee level recommended by the OFT and the fees which have been charged, which is £16.

I look forward to hearing from you.

If you have any questions in relation to the above please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Simon Walker
Head of Data Protection & Legal Counsel

[pennies_make_pounds]

Personally, I would ring Simon Walker in person - don't speak to anyone else - or write to him straight away explaining that you will accept the £16 as partial settlement but will be pursuing the rest of the claim plus interest and costs through the court system. I got offered "the difference" from MBNA but pointed out to them that the OFT ruling means that the WHOLE CHARGE is deemed as unfair, not just part of it. They are only allowed to charge £12 from now on. I got all my money back within a couple of days.
Point out to him that, if he checks his records, he will see that you have already filed a claim against them and what stage it is at.

I have to admit here and now that I have backed off from Barclaycard - I know it's a point of principle but I have got a lot of money on there on a low "life of the balance" interest card and if they give me my £100 back but close my card account down, I've had it. I would end up losing a lot more than I would gain, so it's just been a case of realising which side my bread is buttered for me! I will just aim at paying it off as quickly as possible - then I'll take them on again!

Good luck!