ChalrlieHo V Citibank

[charlieho]

Data Protection Act request sent 30/07/06

 

The DATA Controller

CITIGROUP CENTRE

CANADA SQUARE

CANARY WHARF

LONDON

E14 5LB

 

30 Jul 2006

 

Data Protection Act disclosure request

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Data Protection Act 1998 request for :

Mr CharlieHo Citibank Card *******************

Please send me the information which I am entitled to access under Section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the ‘1998 Act’) in relation to all charges which you have applied to my above noted accounts within the last 6 years from the date of this letter.

 

Additionally where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you. If you are unable to supply data relating to manual intervention because there has been no such manual intervention then please be kind as to confirm this in your response to this request.

 

If you require any further information please let me know as soon as possible.

 

I enclose a cheque in favour of your bank in the sum of £10 with respect to the maximum statutory fee for processing this request.

Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me then I shall be reclaiming them and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 DPA disclosure fee.

 

I look forward to your response within the maximum 40-day time limit under the 1998 Act.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

[charlieho]

Preliminary letter sent

 

Mark Clibbens

Office of the Chief Executive

Citi Cards

CitiFinancial Europe plc

P.O. Box 54

Salford

Manchester

M5 3BP

 

 

 

Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir,

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxxx Mr CharlieHo

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last 6 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. If you say that they are not then you will pleased to 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 penalties 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 OFT 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 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.

I consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.

You concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £465.00 (see attached spread sheet).

I require full payment of the sum mentioned above

 

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.

Yours faithfully,

CharlieHo

 

 

[charlieho]

Fob off to prelimianry letter rec'd

Rexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Thank you for taking the time to write to me about the charges, which have been added to your Citi Card account.

On Wednesday 5th April 2006 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a statement regarding the default charges levied on customers by credit card issuers for breaches of contract such as making a late payment or going over their credit limit.

 

Within this statement the OFT has stated that it believes that those charges are too high and has recommended credit card companies review their position with a view to reducing their respective charges to a maximum of £12, unless there are exceptional reasons why a higher level should apply. Card issuers had been requested to review and respond to the OFT by 31 May 2006.

Although not a party to the OFT investigation that led to its report, Citi Cards is aware of the report and we have undertaken to reconsider our charges in light of the OFT statement.

In order to remain competitive with other lenders we have reconsidered these charges after a review of the market. From 28 June onwards we have lowered our charges to the OFT recommended rate of £12. This change is not retrospective in effect.

I understand that this was not the outcome you would have hoped for and if you would like an independent review of this, you may refer to the Finance and Leasing Association at the following address:

The Compliance Manager

4th Floor Imperial House

15-19 Kingsway London

WC2B 6UN

www.fla.org.uk

[gizmo111]

Fob off to prelimianry letter rec'd

 

 

Time to send an LBA to these idiots then!