Thats a hell of a lot of dodgy service station sandwiches he's gonna be eating!!

I think a lot of people aren't putting in the interest incurred in their claims as it is an absolute swine to work out. I haven't as my maths just isn't up to it! There is no set formula as there is with the 8% interest that you are able to claim if you file a court claim. Some people however are putting in "and any interest incurred..." in that space instead of an exact figure.

I've just had a play around with yours and have cut it down as much as I can. I have added a few bits in regarding the terminology (hope you don't mind!). I've managed to get it down to 1072 characters including spaces. The Claimant had a contract(the Acct) with the Defendant which is now closed. Whilst the Account was open, the Defendant debited charges in respect of breaches of contract on the part of the Claimant and charged interest on the charges once applied. The Claimant contends that the charges debited are punitive in nature, are not a genuine pre-estimate of cost incurred by the Defendant, exceed any alleged actual loss to the Defendant due to breaches of contract by the Claimant and do not represent any alleged actual loss. Therefore the charges are invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977s.4 and unenforceable as they are contrary to common law. In the event that the charges are not a penalty then they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15. The Claimant claims the return of £715.00, relevant interest charged and interest under section 69 County Courts Act at the rate of 8% a year from **/**/** to **/**/** of £** and at the same rate up to the date of judgement or earlier payment at a daily rate of £**p.

Hi, this is what I put in. Plenty of space left as well. I used bits from the library and from others claims, hope it helps. I did look at yours and try and cut it down, but found it difficult as there is a lot in there which I don't think is really necessary. The claimant had a contract with the defendant (a/c **************) from Feb'03 which was conducted on their standard terms and conditions. The claimant claims the return of £140 levied by the defendant in the way of charges. The charges are a disproportionate penalty and therefore unenforceable as they are contrary to common law. Further,as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid under the Unfair(Contracts) Terms Act 1977s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regs 1999,Para 8 and sch.2(1)(e). In the event that the charges are not a penalty, they are unreasonable within the meaning of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.15. The defendant has been asked to justify the charges but they have declined to do so. The claimant claims interest under s.69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 3/4/04 to 8/5/06 of £20.92 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of £0.03.

I got a similar letter first saying they would be looking into it and would get back to me on 10th May, then another letter saying they were still investigating and would get back to me in June. The next day another letter offering £300 refund as full and final. I've crossed out the full and final bit and put partial instead and am going to send that off tomorrow!!

Do you have excel? If you know what you are doing with spreadsheets I can post the formula if you want, then you just have to paste it in to the relevant cells.

Received letter from Barclays today offering me £300 full and final as a gesture of goodwill. I'm going to cross off the full and final bit, sign it and send it back in their prepaid envelope. Do ya think I'll get it , hehe!!

Sounds like things are moving along nicely Tinkerbelle. What you going to do with the money when you get it? Have you got any nice plans?

Received Notice of Issue today from Northampton County Court. It will be deemed to have been served on the 14th May, so they have until the 28th to file a defence. Will be sending the above letter tomorrow as well.

Letter received from Barclays yesterday apologising for the delay in replying (they had said they would get back to me by 10th May) saying that they are continuing their investigations and will contact me again by 8th June. Although their 14 days post LBA are up, I am just waiting for some cash to file a claim against them. Should be able to do it next week I hope.

Saida, they are talking out of their bums. Did you send the DPA request letter from the library? They can charge £10 for the information but they have to provide it for this amount and not more.

As its court time, then that looks about right at 8%. Congrats for deciding to go for it! I'll cyber hold your hand if you hold mine if it gets scarey!

Weeell! Got a rather interesting letter from the lovely Emma Fairchild today offering £80. The letter is quite amusing really as she obviously isn't paying a blind bit of attention to peoples actual accounts. Don't know if anyone wants to read the whole letter, but typed it out just in case.... Do ya think she had to go on a letter writing course specially?! How much more repetitive can anyone get. Ooh we feel like naughty school children caught nicking sweeties! What does anyone think of this response?

Its called stoozing. Not something I have done due to a very very bad credit rating but its quite popular apparently. You get a 0% card that preferably doesn't charge a fee for balance transfers, use another card as a mule to transfer the funds from and store it in a high interest account until its needed (paying off the minimum each month). We are in the process of doing something similar to pay off our loan early which will mean we save about £100 in interest. Just waiting for OH to get the card approved. Fingers crossed!

I vote no too! Stay strong, you know you are in the right, the banks know it too, else they wouldn't be offering you partial payment. Its not a gesture of good anything, it is to hope you accept and let them keep the rest of your money. If in the extremely unlikely event it gets to court stage, there is a buddy system here on this site where you can find someone near to you who can come with you and support you.

The daily rate on one of my claims for £140 was 3p. Hope that helps?!

Just write back with the standard LBA letter from the library. You don't need to refer to their letter unless you want to add a bit in. It is standard practice for Barclays to write back saying they dispute it all etc, just keep going and stick to the 14 day schedule you will have set in your initial contact letter.

Hi, I don't think you need to send anything other than the preliminary letter from the library. I didn't anyway and so far they have not requested it. If they want to query amounts they have got the records themselves to check. No need for you to do all their work for them!

Hi, thanks for keeping us updated, you are quite a bit further along than I am with the evil Barclays. Though it might be a good idea to check out Whizzkids thread regarding Abbey National as it may not be over just yet. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3414

Cap One although a pain in the bum seem to be giving partial refunds quite early on in the proceedings. Also, settling the full balance reasonably quickly as well compared to others. OH has so far had £40 back at Prelim stage and we are awaiting a cheque for £100 from LBA stage. From what I have been reading on the Barclays board, they are really taking it down to the wire. Though its hard to know what is going on as the previous poster said, it all seems to go rather quiet as soon as cases are filed. At the end of the day, I am not prepared to sign any sort of gagging order, they can whistle for it. If they want to go to court, then thats cool with me.

Cheeky scrotes, they really are trying every trick in the book now aren't they. The other person I have seen on here who got told their letter wasn't signed was I think at the DPA letter stage. Anyway, hope you get it sorted. So they get an extra couple of days, they aint gonna get to keep your money though.

Start the claim with all the new charges added on. If you can make it fit it might be worth adding a line after " The claimant claims the return of £xx levied by the defendant in the way of charges" saying "and any additional charges that are accrued prior to settlement".

Problem is from what I gather, is that although they are offering partial payments, they are not actually admitting liability and calling it a gesture of goodwill. Yes it looks dodgy to be offering such an amount but still not admitting anything. What we need is something in writing from the bank to say that the charges are not an accurate reflection of the costs involved and that they are making a profit on the charges.

Could you start a new thread on the Barclays board for your claim as it keeps them all together and is easy for people to find and read.

Hi sounds like you have everything under control! Good luck (not that you'll need it) and keep us posted. Its good to hear how everyone else is doing.