Hey Gary, did you not write to them and say you'd accept their offer? If so, the Northern has stated on it's web (Northern Bank) that they will stick to their offers for 2 months if it wasn't rejected. Go onto that web site and read it, if it applies to you, call them and quote that! They will not go to you.Chin up, even if there is a delay, you will eventually get your money, CYNthesis proved it surely. NorthernWarrior.xx:)

Never feel guilty Gary. What Caro said is true. When bankfodder suggested changing my name, he was right. I am the kind of person who really does need a kick up the***, and when it happens my temper can get the better of me. No, I don't think any less of you, cos you must remember, if people can afford to wait, all well and good, but if they can't so be it. It really does come down to peoples financial situations, always remember that and yes, I guess if it was me I would have held out even though i am still crying out for money, but hey, chin up, we still admire for you for what you've done!! You still took on the big guys and still managed to prove that the little person has had enough and will fight through!! Congratulations and NEVER feel guilty about what you do, especially if you know you are right andthat the 'law' is right behind you!! No, I am not an elderly person, well depends on how old you are, I am in my late 30's but if you're in your 20's, hey, yeah, that can be old. Good on you Gary and another one strikes for N.Ireland!!! But do keep in touch with the site, cos remember, it was the site that helped you, me and everyone else and they still need us!!! :)

Hi Gary. First of all to the statement of the Northern Bank---- CRAP!! Secondly, what and why do are you doing amendments? My £9.50 always appeared with the referral fees and then I was also charged the fees and interest. I INCLUDED the fees because these were deemed to be unfair. Yes, I had gone over my overdraft, obviously and for the bank to say that these are included in the terms and conditions , well, isn't this what we are objecting to? All of the referral fees and these sporadic £9.50 charges have been included in their fees as I have said. With me, they seemed to charge the fees and interest in June and December, but then I noticed the fees cropping up again 2 months after those dates and that was why I included them because they are unlawful!! Also, for the bank to say that you are not entitled to interest because they have offered a settlement is a load of TRIPE!! You are entitled to your interest because once again, they have continuously charged you every day for being overdrawn, haven't they??? Continue with your claim, they are trying to weigh you down and the ombudsman is going to review their charges at the end of the year, so they are panicking not only you but themselves. Gary, be strong, and another thing, verbal conversation is not something I like. Chit chat can be easily be miscontrued and as Caro said, apart from bugging your line ( you also need to advise them of that by law) they could have people monitoring their side of the calls and you therefore have no witnesses. Everything MUST be done in writing from hereon in. Prepare your court bundles and now ignore them unless, they are going to acknowledge your claim and pay up including the interest. Remember, I didn't hear from them until 2 days before the court appearance and as I have already said, I was so mad, I was going in!! Do your tribal call and hold your head up high!!!! We are all here for you!! I know it is scary, but do you know what kept me going? If and it was a BIG if, i lost, at least i did not have any legal fees to pay, so in effect, i was losing nothing. But as I won, well enough said. Please do be strong, Gary, this is just another scare tactic, the bank will not go to court. As i said, when the National Australia Bank owned the Northern in the South as well, it was (if you want to continue with your court case, I will fill you in). NorthernWarrior.xxxxx:)

Hi johnspeehs, that is not strictly true. You can split claims here in N.I. cos i have and so has LTWFB. If a claim is above 2k , then you can split it to under the 2k or just on the 2k. Once this claim has been settled and only then, submit the other claim immediately. You do not have to notify the bank, all that is needed if the bank asks when settling the first claim, is that ' I/We accept your kind offer of blah blah for claim number' and that is IT! As in my case once i received my first money i just put in for my second with my £62.00 and that was that. These could be seen as one claim but then the bank did have the chance to settle for the entirety in the beginning and also, this can be translated technically as 2 different claims. The only thing I will say is just be aware that in Belfast there is a certain judge who may deem this to be abuse of power, as I was personally told by a very kind member of the small claims court, but YES, you can SPLIT your claims!! Hope this clarifys the situation! NorthernWarrior.

Here;--- The Consumer Action Group. NorthernWarrior.

Yes, Gary, you are right about having the same court bundles regarding CYNthesis and the National Australian Bank and when you need them i'll do my best in sending them as attachements. NorthernWarrior. P.S. The battle cry started in your first line on your first thread, but that was just sheer coincidence on my part. xx

Hey Caro, nice to have you back, how are things? Well, Bankfodder made me realise that the name was wrong and it only made the banks feel more superior and what with his academic expertise and knowledge he made me feel safe and secure in what I was doing and once I knuckled down and concentrated on what I was supposed to be doing, I could feel the anger welling up inside me and the way that the bank just presumed i was not going to go to court and was just going to cave in instead! So, here I am, also it was a lot to do with you as well, what with all your help and advice, so realistically i have you and bankfodder to hug,kiss and be thankful for. NorthernWarrior.xx

Don't be afraid, why they insist on doing this , I really don't know!! You will NOT BE GOING TO COURT:) but you must be prepared for going mentally so that you will become so fired up with all your prep work that you will want to go into the courthouse guns blazing, believe me I most certainly did!! I had completed all my court bundles and there was NO WAY i was going to lose out on my prep time as I have already stated. So, when is your court date? If you start downloading your prep now and maybe saving it on disk it will keep you focused and do remember to include CYNthesys and all the information regarding the National Australian Bank's court case in S.Ireland, you cannot lose!! Though it honestly, won't come to that, the Northern will not want to be the first bank over here to go to court and disclose the TRUE costs of a referral fee. £2.00 as opposed to the £30.00 plus?? I don't think so, Go to the stickys, ' Our good friend as seen on Whistleblower' and download the pdf file, it is all about... well ,if stuck pm me and if I can I will attach a few of my files. I know it sounds daunting but once you have started the case you will want to continue, but DO remember, your facts MUST be factual and if you do not understand anything contact a Mod, because some of the cases in Hull were not prepared properly by the claimants and this is why some have had theirs thrown out, so do make sure that you also understand what you are preparing. We are all here to help you and remember it was only 2 weeks ago, that the bank settled 2 days before court and I got more than what I had asked for and it will happen to you too. ( the extras were my figures for my court bundles).That is why I am mentioning court bundles, cos even though the bank doesn't recognise prep time and nor does the small claims court in principle, you can still threaten the bank with going to speak to the judge by asking him to take into consideration travel expenses and time and maybe stress and etc. get the picture? Nothing ventured nothing gained, they threw the first shot and started the battle, not us, so put on your warrior face and begin!!! NorthernWarrior.xxx:)

Why don't you just write;. Thank you for your letter dated blah blah. I will accept your offer of £xxxx for claim number xxxxx . signed blah blah. That way if and it's a big IF you have to claim again, they cannot hold you to their stated letter!!! Well done, anyway. NorthernWarrior. P.S. I don't know what i hit, but it will explain the letter writing.

I think that has happened to a lot of people here, me included and it just got to the stage that enough is enough! There was a case in England a few months ago, where a judge ruled the bank to be unlawful in closing down a customer's account after they successfully won their case and the judge fined the bank for doing so. The moral is there, just bite the bullet and take no nonsense!! Northernwarrior.

hey,hilaryfrances, I resolutely refused to open a parachute account. The way I saw it was nobody was going to dictate to me, whether i had my account closed or not! I was the paying customer and if I wanted to close my account then it was up to me, it is my choice nobody else's. So, why should you close it, I didn't and the bank didn't threaten me either. Northernwarrior.

garygumps, all my maintenance fees always seemed to occur when i was overdrawn. In the space of 2months, i had maintenance fees, so realistically, these were also a penalty for the referral fees, KEEP GOING AHEAD, let them take you to court because if i had a million pounds to spare, they wouldn't even cross the threshold of the courthouse. Read the news regarding the latest on the Yorkshire and Alliance & leinster. To prove their charges will set a precedent and NO bank wants to do that.Keep rereading my thread of good fortune and you'll really believe that if you are strong enough and ready to go to court and that the bank believes this ( cos I was definitely going) you WILL WIN!!!!! Do not be afraid. NorthernWarrior.xx

As I have said on my thread, i am now going to go beyond the 6 yrs. The stress has gone and I am now ready to begin claiming again!! The news today inspires more hope what with the Yorkshire and Alliance&leicester being made to disclose their charges and explain??? GO FOR IT, THE BANKS DO NOT WANT TO GO TO COURT!!! Well i am now off to start all over again, but at least i have my prep work on file. Do remember, if you have prepared your court bundle and you are offered a settlement, DO ask for your prep time, the judge may award it to you, but if nothing ventured, nothing gained!! :D northernwarrior

Yep, the NorthernWarrior is here!! I've settled down, relaxed and now after reading about the news regarding the Yorkshire and Alliance & Leicester being told to disclosure their charges, I am now going to go back beyond the 6 yrs!! I have calmed down, stress has gone and I am going to send off my prem letter. At least i have all my other bumpf on file so hopefully it'll be less work to prepare!! GO FOR IT GUYS!!! NorthernWarrior.

Thanks everyone! But do you know, it isn't about the money now, the feeling that i have right now is of justice having been done. I know it sounds corny, but it really is true! The bank wanted to intimidate for as long as possible in the hope that because it is such a huge concern a little member of the public was not going to be any real threat to them and that is what this is about! We are a threat because we have had enough of this constant bullying and robbing of the 'big giants'. Always remember Goliath and David. Who won then ? And because of the rush on Tuesday from the bank, they were never ever going into court. So all of you, even those of you who are just starting out and feeling sick and scared and all, we've all been there but believe me, you WILL WIN, just like me. My hubby was terrified that we were going to court, but once i had done those court bundles, there really was no way i was going to stop. DONATION ON THE WAY!!!!! :-D TheNorthernWarrior.

Thanks Caro, Donation on the way!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D TheNorthernWarriorxx

I have just checked the online small claims court and guess what!! It reads--- 26.june letter of settlement 26.june--- letter of withdrawal. I never even confirmed this , so the bank was indeed running scared! They have done everything even cancelling the court case once money was in account!!!! God, have they not admitted now that they will not go into any court disputes? Northernwarrior. P.S. Has anyone else experienced this? Also, i never did open a parachute account, because the way i looked at it was nobody was going to intimidate me into doing something that i didn't want to do and i will only do what i want to do, not what someone else dictates.

Garygumps, read my thread-- Northernwarrior v Northern Bank-- my secrecy is now over!! I have won and more!!!!!!!!! you know, if they had settled in the beginning when I first started this i was asking for £4000.00 back, instead i've now got £5000.00 plus. They really are not so bright as one would want you to believe. Follow my leads and you can pm me if you get to the court bundle stage, i have really interesting news which i think could have been extremely difficult for the bank to disprove. My bundle had an awful lot of references to the Old NationaL Australia Bank which owned the Northern in the South as well as the North and of course,do not forget CYNthesys. That really is the bullet!! Northernwarrior.xx YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE WON!!!!!!!!!!! :D Yesterday, the Northern bank wrote a letter and this is how it goes;- The bank has considered the latter claim ( this is part of an ongoing claim but split ) and is willing to offer the sum of £1208.41 in full and final settlement of the matter and without admission of liability. The offer is made up of £915.00 in Referral fees, as attached to the court summons number******** plus £231.41 in respect of interest, plus £62.00 court fees on the small claims application . We have not included £62.61 in the refund which relates to quarterly charges. These are service charges and cannot be construed as charges for breach of contract. Should you find this offer acceptable please sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter. On receipt of this letter I will arrange for £1208.41 to be credited to your account. Yours sincerely, Nuala Walsh. I then phoned and asked to be put through to Nuala Walsh, but was told that she was on holiday until the 7th July?!! (no intention of this going to court) and so they put me through to her assitant. I said I would accept this offer but an additional £25.00 of the 8% int. had accumulated up to this date (Mon.25th) and also i had 46 hours of prep work that involved my court bundles at £9.25 that I would ask them to take into account and if they didn't I would be asking the judge on Thurs. to take all of this into consideration by citing, that the Northern had abused the court and their system and that the Defendant had many months to settle this claim and only decided to make an offer 3 days before we were due in court.I then quoted the Lincoln 'abuse' order and said i would present this on the day. The lady said that she would phone me tomorrow morning ( today) and by 16.00 hrs today, i did not receive any calls. I was going into court at this stage because i was soo mad that after all the hard work i had done, i would bedamned that i was going to lose more money!! So i literally took the bull by the horns!! At 16.20 my hubby phoned me to tell me that a personally hand delivered letter was delivered to our house ( there would have been no time for them to post anything, remember) and in it it stated; Further to your telephone conversation of 25th June inwhich you indicated that you would be prepared to settle the above mentioned claim should the Bank refund any additional interest charged to your account and consider reimbursing you for time spent in producing documentation to which you refer as 'Court Bundles'. We would confirm that costs of this nature are not payable under the Small Claims Court process and therefore the Bank would not propose reimbursing the above mentioned costs. The Bank is however prepared to refund the additional interest of £25.00 and to this end and in full and final settlement of this matter, we have today credited your account with the amount of £2133.41, which I trust you find acceptable. Yours sincerely So what do you think about that!!!!? :D I knew that you couldn't claim for prep work, but i also felt that if i was going to the courthouse i was going to ask for everything, because it is damn well hard b***** work and we should be paid for it!!If you don't ask, you won't get! SO the moral of this story is DO NOT GIVE IN AND JUST B***** GO FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!! The Northern never had any intention of going to court and no bank is still prepared to take the chance like the Lloyd's case, there is no precedent to be set, the CYNthesys proves it. If anyone needs any help leave your messages and I certainly will advise you of what I did, But and this is a BIG BUT, if it wasn't for Bankfodder and Caro, i would never have gone this far, they are absolutely FANTASTIC, KIND, GENEROUS AND FABULOUS PEOPLE,especially Bankfodder, because he is the one who has pushed and helped and advised everyone on his site, and if it wasn't for him, none of us would have this extra money in our pockets. My hubby is going to be made redundant and we have school fees to pay and so this will help a bit. Thank you. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!! NorthernWarrior.

LISTEN UP EVERYONE!!!!! THE BANK HAS SETTLED AND I HAVE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I received a letter yesterday, offering me £1208.41 instead of my £1400.00 what with the 8% stat.interest and they deducted £62.61 from the account stating that this was a 'service charge'!! Hmmm! Anyway, my court date was rescheduled to this Thurs.28th June ( at my request), so I phoned them to say,that i would accept this offer but with the daily interest mounting, i am now owed an extra £25.00 in the 8% int. I also said (wait for it) that my prep work amounted to 46 hours in total ( it actually was more if you take in the fact that this has been ongoing since Nov.2006) and at £9.25 I would be asking the judge to take this into consideration. I was then told (cos Ms. Nuala Walsh is on hols until the 7th July,) that the bank would phone me tomorrow morn.(today) Well, they b***** didn't!!! BUT..... when my hubby got home, he phoned me to say that a hand delivered letter from the Northern was waiting for us and when he opened it , they had lodged £2133.41 into our account this afternoon!! This covered the extra interest and even though they stated that the prep work did not cover the small claims court they stated:the bank is however prepared to refund the additional interest and to this end and in full and final settlement of this matter we have today credited your account with the amount of £2133.41, which I trust you find acceptable. Well, blow me down.The bank cannot be seen to admit that this prep work ie.court bundles is not covered because a judge could decide yes it is and award the costs and also the bank would still have to go to court anyway.!!! The moral of this story is GO AND GET IT AND DO NOT BACK DOWN!!!!!!! northernwarrior.

hey,Conlee, I did include these in my first claim (see thread;- nervous v northern bank, though it might be called northernwarrior v northern bank, i canged my name) but in the second the bank has omitted these charges as 'service charges', though personally, how that can be i don't think so! The maintenance charges did they occur after your referral fees and in the same month, cos if so, yes claim them. It is a bit of a grey area, but i would say go ahead, if it is wrong, the bank will just deduct it anyway, you've nothing to lose, everything to gain!!!!! northernwarrior.

Good for you!! Well done!! By way of interest, the arrangement fees should not have been included anyway, but the maintenance fees, i think, are an undercover for more interest charges, but the bank is using that term as a 'service charge'. Still that really is the whole point isn't it, the service charges do not add up to £25.00 or £35.00, do they, all you banks OUT THERE?!!!!! NorthernWarrior.

Hmmm! Not sure if we have a 'Big Brother eye' watching our threads. The reference to these maintenance fees seems to be cropping up all of a sudden in the Northern's letters. I think maybe we should all be a little bit more careful about stating what our next prep work is to be once we have reached the online court claim. I think, gary, that if you need help with 'court bundle',etc, pm myself or a mod or bankfodder. I am a little suspicious right now. I will pm you. NorthernWarrior.xx

What's wrong with Caro? Is she okay? TheNorthernWarrior.

gary, I submitted ALL charges, because I worked out that even the maintenance fees were also part of the overdraft charges. They did not query this and i don't know whether i am stupid or what, but did you say you don't have your copies of the past 6 yrs? By quoting the Data Protection Act they are obliged to give you those copies. As i said, i went for everything and i would just say to you if you don't need £300.00 plus ,fine, but if it that applied to me, i would stick to my guns and continue claiming. If you owed thm £300.00 what do you think they would do? Charge more interest of course!! The fact that they are offering settlement means they know that they are wrong. So, be careful and have a good think and you know, you have come this far, is that line not pretty close? I think you are doing really well, so be brave, we've all been there> NorthernWarrior.