What can I say, that hasn't already been said. Thank you and Good Luck on all your ventures. Sincerely, Jim

I gave mine to the manager at my bank and I didn't offer them any money. They give the info for nothing. If they want money, they will ask. Everything ends up in Birmingham a your bank manager has no power to make decisions anymore. They are just glorified office gophers.

I settled with Lloyds but against my wishes and working on the premise that a bird with your fingers round its neck is worth two in the viewfinder, I let them pay the brass into my account that had £340 in charges in the offing. Which is stopping me telling them to stick their account where the sun don't shine. Okay, £100 is my overdraft so they have done me a favour there but that still left £240. Also there is a charge of £30 going on in August. And as soon as they take that charge I am going to take them to court again. But this time it will be with full fanfare and whistles. I already have my MP doing his nut over the charges. I sent a polite letter to my Bank Manager asking for the return of the charges on the advise of THEIR solicitor who dealt with the original claim. Did I get a letter back from my independent BM, oh no, one comes back from Birmingham which has the usual blurb, banks decision is final etc. which is strange as the bank has not made a decision. I take it that the YOP's scheme incumbent in Birmingham hasn't read or cannot understand my letter. So, on with the motley!

Yes, I expect something like that to happen. I have told them that I stop the claim. Their letter does not. I sent my demand for a different account when I returned their letter. But just in case they hang on to the last minute I will phone the court manager on Friday at the latest and explain that they are P*ss*ng me about

So Here's the new twist. LTSB They want to settle (with all the usual confidence etc.) Me.OK! LTSB We will pay into XXXX account. Me No, this account is under dispute, its still full of charges and nothing else. To pay into this will cause further litigation, pay into this YYYYY account. LTSB No answer Me Have emailed solicitors with the above info and also to say that I will take a cheque. phoned Solicitors to see what is going on and remind them that I cannot contact the court to stop the case until I have an answer.. They have no answer yet but will chase. The case is due in court on 11 July. Do I prepare for war and start getting my evidence for court? Is the previous agreement now invalid and should I wait for a court judgement or (non) appearance by LTSB? Any other useful tips

There is nothing in the letter or in fact in our other correspondence that is not freely available on this site. As for confidentiality, my wife opened the letter before I did so it is probably common knowledge in half of the western hemisphere by now and will be in Hong Kong by the morning. The Baron

Dear All, Subject to confidentiality, Lloyds have offered a full claim of £10**.00. I will donate a soon as I get the brass. Now I am going to fry that little s**t at Halifax that got up my nose. The BAron

I have received my allocation paper (N149). I am hopelesss at paperwork so please help me with this stage. On page 3 it asks for Other information (what will help the judge etc.) What sort of thing should I put in there?

Thanks for all the really helpful info. Lloyds sent their defence to me and said a copy is also going to the court. My claim was put in on 26th April, so far nothing else. A quick thought. You pay for your account through a bank service charge each month. You also pay for any interest incurred at the same time. You cannot get away from it even if it is the extortionate overdraft rates they charge, arround 29%. The rest seems to be loading on the account.

What's is the Alloction questionairre stage? Is it the one where I list my evidence?

Here is the defence filed by Lloyds solicitors. Any points to discuss? DEFENCE 1. The Defendant Lloyds TSB Bank pic (the Bank) is a bank. It is admitted that the Claimant has been a customer of the Bank at all material times. 2. By opening an account with the Bank, the customer enters into a commercial arrangement with the Bank for the provision of banking services. The Bank is entitled, as part of that arrangement, to charge for those services. At account opening a customer is provided with details of the Bank's charges, currently in a leaflet a guide to our banking charges. By using the account, the customer acknowledges that the charges are incorporated into the contract. For personal customers, a number of services are provided for free, notwithstanding that they are an expense to the Bank. Such services presently include, but are not limited to, providing; cheques bank statements the facility to make payments by direct debit and standing order debit cards ATMs (cash machines). 3. By maintaining the account in credit, or within any limit agreed with the Bank, the customer may avoid most if not all charges. If the customer fails to ensure that thereare sufficient cleared funds in the account to cover payments, whether by cheque, debit card, standing order or direct debit, the customer makes a request for a payment to be made from the Bank's own funds. If the Bank makes payment, or returns the payment, it provides a service as specified in the leaflet and makes a charge in accordance with the terms of the contract. On page 1 of the leaflet, the Bank explains that "there are normally no charges for everyday banking at Lloyds TSB when your account is in credit. When you use an agreed overdraft, there is no monthly fee and we only charge interest on the amount you are overdrawn each day. Where you go overdrawn without an agreement or where you use special services, such as copy statements, we will make a charge. This guide explains how these charges work, and when they will apply. If you want to use a service that we haven't listed, we'll tell you the cost of that service before you give us the go-ahead". 4. There is no breach of contract; the charge cannot therefore be a penalty, consequently there is no requirement that the charge be a pre-estimate of the Bank's loss. 5. The customer is given advance warning of charges being imposed; statements show the charges, if any, the customer has incurred during the course of a month, and which will appear as debits on the following month's statement. Customers are warned by letter when they go overdrawn or over their agreed limit without arrangement with the Bank. If the customer fails to remedy the position, and payments such as standing orders and direct debits are refused then again the customer is warned by letter. 6. The charges are fair and reasonable, and it is denied that they are unlawful. 7. The customer is notified of the charges in plain intelligible language at the conclusion of the contract, and on each monthly statement. The charges are terms which relateto the price payable by the customer for a service provided by the Bank, and pursuantto Regulation 6 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, are not subject to the assessment of fairness. 8. In the premises: 8.1 the charges are for banking services, and are not damages nor a penalty; 8.2 the Bank is entitled by contract to impose the charges, which are fair and reasonable; 8.3 it is denied that the charges are unlawful or contravene any statute or regulation. 9. The Claimant's claim is denied in its entirety. It is further denied that the Claimant is entitled to the sum claimed or to any sum from the Bank .

My caim has until 26 May for them to respond

Just to let you know how they are now operating. Both my wife and I have Lloyds accounts. Now, in a normal situation you can transfer money online immediately between accounts. Firstly, this happened about a month ago. I went to transfer some money into my wifes account. Nothing unusual, we do it all the time. I clicked on the pay now button and instead of the 'transaction complete' page coming up, it showed a sheet for the payment to go in the day after. Odd?? So I cancelled that transaction and did it again. This time it went through. This week, I wanted to transfer all my money over as soon as it came into my account and pay stuff out of my wifes account. So the transfer did the same thing, it came up 'pay the day after'. So I cancelled that and tried again. This time it said that the transfer would go through in 3-4 working days. So I did manage, by another method to transfer the money but only by bypassing their system. This is against all of their advertised method. Inter account transfers in the same branch are advertised as clearing immediately and Inter account cheques clear in 24 hours. Now they are going to take charges out of an account that only has their bank loan in it. I will then cancel the bank loan payment and pay it over the counter. Then they will have to take me to court for their charges.

Go online and stop all your debits yourself

I have had a letter from Bill Wiggin, my MP as follows, Thank you very much for your letter about credit card charges and the OFT's conclusions on the matter. I agree that the situation needs addressing as credit card charges can end up totalling more than the original debt. There is no doubt that banks and credit card companies make huge profits from consumers through their system of charges and this government has done nothing to protect consumers from unfair practices. I will take up the matter on your behalf with the responsible Minister and will contact you again when I receive a reply. I am also enclosing a form for the Parliamentary Ombudsman which you will need to complete and return to me together with all relevant documentation. I will then forward it to the Ombudsman for her consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. So, I need to know exactly what to put to the Ombudsman. Anyone out there maybe can help me frame the letter or case. Regards,

Lloyds are advertising that you can get up to 150 days interest on this new 'deal'. Therefore, 150 days per customer x the number of customers per bank = just exactly how much have they been raking off people to fund their corporate p**ss-ups?

Mysone has a letter which asks him to ring 0141 204 6451. This is the Glasgow Customer Services Line. I don't know if it is of any use or just another blind. I will try it tomorrow. If its owt like their other customer helplines then it will be another load of ollacksbay. I tried one when they requested me to phone 'to discuss this matter' and was just treat to a blank denial of everything. I asked them why they were wasting my time sending meaningless letters. I also left them in no doubt that after the treatment that I had from their YOPs scheme operators, I would see them in court even if it means that I have to stand there with the arse hanging out of my trousers. I was so mad I could have crushed a grape.

That's it folks, were on the road. Case 6QZ25537 Amount claimed £985.00 with the option on interest Court costs claimed £80 Full ahead on both engines and damn the torpedoes!

I have sent a letter to Tony Blair regarding this matter of charges and the OFT et al. I have received a reply that the letter is being forwarded to the Treasury dept. as it is their responsibility. However, do lobby Blair at Downing Street and your MP as this is the only way that our strength of feeling will register in both camps.

When I received my last statement from Barclay, I noticed that it came with a warning that as I was near my credit limit, I had to be careful so as not to incur charges. That got straight up my nose so I wrote that I had no real intention of broaching the subject as the amounts were insignificant but since they had raised the matter, these charges are unlawful and they can pay my money back. I received a letter saying that they had looked into my case and would refund half, (£40) but with no admission of liability etc. and you can go to the Ombudsman (Ad Nauseum). I do intend to axccept their offer but with the proviso that I also retain my position on any past or future charges. Nil Carborundem

I think that I would jaust add or make clear that nothing you agree to takes away your statutory rights.

The Financial Ombudsman is nothing more than a poacher turned gamekeeper. Some of them in fact are ex-bankers themselves so don't hold your breath whilst waiting for a fair decision

I had the standard reply today from Colmore Row inviting me to take my complaint to the Ombudsman. Since I think that they all p**s in the same pot I will decline that offer. So what's next, another 14 day letter then off to court?

Daily Telegraph, Saturday 18 March 2006. ' Royal Bank of Scotland, Britains second largest bank, raised the pay of chief executive officer Fred Goodwin by 15% in 2005, a year in which the lender's share price trailed behind its rivals. Royal Bank more than doubled the pay of Larry Fish, who heads its US unit, paying him more than twice as much as Goodwin.' Database, page 28. and 'Royal Bank of Scotland paid $7.7m (£4.4m) to Lawrence Fish, its head of US operations in 2005 under a special executive pay plan. Mr Fish, who runs the RBS arm Ciitizens Bank collected a total of £7.53m, nearly three times as much as RBS chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin' 60 Second Briefing, p29 Now you know why they need your money

Yes, I used the template and the missing ones arrived this morning