Hi guys Thanks for the help. I've read through those links and I'm ready to put everything together and apply to have the stay lifted. One question though - is the £35 fee refundable upon winning the case? The thought of throwing £35 into thin air to prove I'm under hardship seems quite ridiculous...

Thank you so much Hedgey, I'm sure she will appreciate that. I will pass what you've said on to her. With regards to the overdraft being payable on demand; surely they would actually have to demand it, though? The first she knew of it was when she went to a cash machine to withdraw some money and was refused; she walked straight into the branch to see why, and that was when they told her they'd taken the overdraft back. I am not sure of their exact reasons for doing so, but she did let them know that she was having financial difficulties at the time and they refused to enter into any dialogue with her. I'm with HSBC and whenever I've been having trouble, I've always been able to go into the branch and talk to them about it. I know all banks are slightly different on these things though. I'll let her know about reclaiming the charges as well; she is aware of the test case but we can always start the process and see what happens.

Letter from the court today - they have ordered a stay until September 2008. I knew to expect this but I am still gutted, I stayed up until 5am two nights in a row last week preparing my bundle, cost me a fortune to print and send it, and my £80 court fee... my only income is state benefits, I'm long-term sick and can't work, and I NEED this money. I had to borrow the court fee from my mum and now I can't even pay her that back for a year... unless I get the stay removed which doesn't seem likely. Sorry to be so pessimistic but I'm really disappointed about this, I'll probably be firing on all cylinders again in the morning...

Hi, I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who has been having some really quite bad problems with NatWest... would anybody be able to advise me for her please? She had a £560 student overdraft (which she was already in the process of paying off) and NatWest cancelled it altogether without any warning, back in 2005. She had extenuating circumstances at the time, which NatWest were aware of but didn't take into account. They also charged her for interest on this overdraft, which she shouldn't have had to pay as she was a student at the time. NatWest ordered her to pay back the £560, plus two £30 default charges arising from the fact the overdraft had been cancelled without warning, and the overdraft interest, and she has been paying this back at a rate of £25 per month. She has been told she has been blacklisted and will not be able to open another bank account - NatWest closed her account and she has no bank account at the moment. Even though she is paying back this money, she has been receiving letters from debt collection agencies, and when she has phoned NatWest to enquire, they have admitted they have made errors and not entered her payments into their system. It really sounds like they're bullying her quite badly and I think she should be entitled to some, or all, of this money back (at the very least, the overdraft interest, which they had no right to take from her account) - can anyone advise what to do? Any help would be appreciated because I think this is, understandably, getting her down somewhat? Thanks in advance

Hi guys Thanks as ever for your help, all done, got everything sent in time. I couldn't call the court yesterday to check delivery, but I have checked the Royal Mail website and it was delivered (posted it next day delivery, and same to DG). I'll call Monday to confirm that DG's documents haven't arrived, and then I'll send my next letter; then I guess I've just got to sit back and wait for something to happen! One other thing - how much do you reckon it'd cost to get a 200-page document printed twice and bound, double-sided? Not £60, anyway! But that's how much I was charged at my local printers. And to post the two documents cost £15. I remember reading something on here a while ago saying I could claim this back as expenses; is that the case? Hope so! :o

Thanks Pete. How's this for a letter? I used Rob's example and jigged things around a bit to make it more relevant to the situation. I shall print it off and get it in an envelope all ready to send after I phone the court at 4pm on Friday to confirm they've ignored the deadline!

Thanks, I'll PM audreygreeneyes now. So I've got everything mentioned above, plus list of settled claims. I'm just about good to go... got a feeling I'm going to be up late tonight again putting all of this in order! One more thing, I know I should have a letter ready requesting the defence to be struck out if DG don't meet the deadline (which I'm assured they won't)... I've looked around the site and the most relevant thing I could find was GaryH's letter templates here; are these the ones I should use? And is the procedure the same - send the first letter to DG, copied to the court, on the day the deadline expires, followed by the second letter to the court a week later? Sorry for pestering again, with a bit of luck I'll have all of this in hand soon and will be able to sit back and wait!

Cheers Lattie. I've been working flat out today on getting my bundle together; just put together my table of contents (taking a lead from corn flake's thread) and it contains: 1. Statement of Evidence (as above) 2. Correspondence from Claimant 3. Correspondence from Defendant 4. Bank Statements 5. Schedule of Charges 6. Relevant Case Law Summary (copied from the basic court bundle) 7. Dunlop v New Garage 1915 8. Robinson v Harman 1848 9. Murray v Leisureplay 2005 10. Nicole Rich Unfair Fees report 2003 11. BBC Commission conclusion 12. Early Day Motion 13. McNamara interview transcript 14. UTCCR 1999 15. UCTA 1977 16. OFT Statement 2006 17. HSBC T&Cs July 2002 (when I opened my account) (numbers in orange are the contents of Guido's PDF bundle which Nevilley very kindly uploaded) If I've calculated this correctly it comes to 233 pages, which sounds about right! I'm taking it to the printers tomorrow lunchtime so if anybody notices any glaring omissions, please let me know and I'll get it all sorted before I go tomorrow. Fingers are very much crossed it all works out. I haven't heard of anyone else having to submit their court bundle so long before their hearing date... is this becoming more common in light of the test case, or perhaps something to do with the volume of claims? My hearing isn't scheduled until the 1st November yet I have to submit all this stuff by Friday. Seems a bit odd to me.

Thanks again Lattie, found it no probs. Here is my Statement of Evidence as it stands, would someone possibly be willing to check over this to make sure I've got it right? I'm compiling all the other stuff as we speak, ready to print it tomorrow and send. Three copies, right - one to go to the court, one to go to DG and one for my own reference? If this is all fine, I'll get it printed off tomorrow as is. Thanks again everyone!

My details as follows: Claim No: 7QZ85136 Court: Manchester County Court Bank: HSBC Amount: £612.00 (£716.17 with interest) Fees: £80 Total: £796.17 Started claim 4th April 2007 Hearing Date: 1st November 2007 @ 10am

OK, ignore all my previous stressing - I've gone ahead and started preparing the whole court bundle, as I figured it was better to be safe than sorry, and after reading over the court letter again, plus a few hours reading through various threads on here, it sounds as if that's what I should be sending! So I've copied the statement of evidence from Gary's post here, and gone through it with a fine-toothed comb making sure I've taken out any bits that don't apply to me. However, paragraph 7 of the letter is confusing me slightly. This seems to be specific to Lloyds; is there any other example that I could use that is relevant to HSBC, or is it OK just to use this bit as is, given that it refers to another bank? I'm also including the T&Cs from July 2002, as that's when I opened my account. Is this OK to include on its own or should I also include T&Cs from the time of the first charge, which wasn't until 2003? Right, I hope I'm doing everything OK so far - please tell me if I'm not! - and I'm definitely going to bed now, as it's 5am and I've been up all night poring over these forums! I don't know what I'd do without you lot! Back to it tomorrow once I've had a decent sleep and am able to concentrate better...

ooh, and I've also noticed lattie's very helpful thread here - should I include everything mentioned in this thread too? I know there's a lot of copying involved and I don't want to charge ahead and do it if it turns out I don't need all that stuff at this stage (especially as I'll have to go into a printing place to get it done as I don't have my own printer or copier - which will also take time, and it's all got to be in on Friday). Sorry for being so confused, I'm getting a bit jittery given that I've only got a few days to do all this, and I'm not sure what exactly I should be sending! Thanks again in advance...

Hi Audrey Thanks for that, that's really helpful. Just to get a couple of things straight - do I need to include everything in the court bundle here, or does that come later? I've got the following things on my list at the moment: 1. Witness statement (I've looked in the library and can only find witness statements specific to other banks, is there anything specific for HSBC that I can copy?) 2. Copies of all correspondence (should I include letters HSBC have sent to me as well?) 3. Up to date schedule of charges 4. Request for defence to be struck out (again, is there a template for this anywhere? I've looked but haven't found anything yet) Sorry for all the questions, I've had a look around the site but I can't find anything, sure I'm just being dim! I'll get to work on compiling and printing all of this tonight and send it to the court special delivery (I'm not able to get there on Friday, unfortunately).

Hi, me again - well, Manchester County Court finally contacted me, saying my court date is on 1st November, which surprised me as I didn't think I'd have to wait that long. The letter they have sent also says the following: "The parties shall exchange the following not later than 4:00pm on the 31st August 2007 (a) The written statements of evidence of any witness whose evidence is relied on in support of or in defence of the claim. (b) Copies of any documents which a party proposes to rely on." I'm not 100% clear on this - does this mean I should send my schedule of charges to DG, and is there anything else I need to send them? Sorry if the answer to this is obvious, I've not been well recently so I haven't been online as much as I'd like to keep up with what's going on. I'm hoping that the fact I have a court date will mean they might see it through and I'll get my money, but I'm prepared that it might not! I never bothered to try and get that new charge back in the end - didn't think it was worth the effort, I never have much luck with HSBC call centres and I can't get to a branch at the moment, but I have a mental note of it, should I ever need to make another claim...

Hi everybody, me again - Well, I had the letter from MCOL a couple of weeks ago now saying my claim has been transferred to Manchester County Court. Heard nothing from the court since and I've been so busy (moving house, renovating new flat, and preparing for a tribunal relating to something else, also my health's not too good atm) I keep forgetting to phone up and chase them. I'm assuming it's got something to do with the volume of claims they must be getting at the moment but I will phone them tomorrow and see where things are up to. I know everyone has a lot of questions to ask about the Test Claim thing, but does the fact that the court haven't contacted me have anything to do with this? Are they just putting everything on hold indefinitely? (I'm beginning to wish I'd just accepted HSBC's offer now as I really could do with the money... arrrgh...) Also, a slightly unrelated question. I've checked my HSBC account today and, what a surprise, they've whacked an overdraft charge of £41 on me because a DD went out of my account a few weeks ago and took me overdrawn (I rectified the problem via internet banking the very next day by transferring some money in from my savings account). Is it worth my phoning HSBC tomorrow and demanding they remove this charge, or does the test claim give them the right to refuse this? I haven't had one overdraft charge since I started proceedings against HSBC - how predictable that they've whacked one on me now. Any advice? TIA