and the money is in my account

Well a week on and no money put in my account from Lloyds TSB yet! Even worse I got home yesterday to find a statement from Lloyds TSB to tell me I'll have £30 charges coming out of my account on 02 Jan 2007 for overdraft excess fees. Which is odd as I've never been over my overdraft limit. I even scoured my statements and apart from a £3 EBay charge which put me slightly over my limit, but way short of the £10 leeway limit. So off to LloydsTSB and a query why I would be charged £30 (I didn't mention the legalities of it, didn't want to put their noses out of joint just yet) and was told that LloydsTSB have CANCELLED their £10 leeway and were going to charge me £30 for a £3 bill from EBay, hmmm. I said it was a bit harsh, so a manager invited me into his little room and said as I didn't know they had cancelled the £10 leeway they would reimburse me the fee (well cancel the fee as it's not due until Jan), great I said, he deleted the £30 fee with a simple delete button and typed in a reason in the new box, saved it, closed it and then asked "have you ever had a charge refunded before?", well yes I replied, I'm waiting for LloydsTSB to refund me all of my charges for the past 6 year about £1100 but it's not in the bank yet." It went a bit frosty after that

Well I don't need to type it up as I've received a full settlement offer, which I've accepted, even on their ridiculous claims that the charges are fair. Hopefully some money will be winging it's way to my bank account just in time for me emigrating

Well I got contact from Gateshead County court and it's been delayed until Feb 07 so we can settle out of court. Even though I put I didn't want that in my AQ. I'll type up the exact wording etc at home tonight.

Well I sent off the AQ and they should of recieved it in Gateshead County Court today

Congratulations, how long has it taken for the settlement to come through?

ooops, have done!

I've sent the following fax at dinnertime today: my contact details Claim no: 6QZ64179 25 October 2006 Sechiari Clark and Mitchell Department SO, P.O. Box 499 1 – 5 Queens Road Quadrant Brighton, East Sussex BN1 3XJ Dear Sir: I am writing with reference to claim number 6QZ64179 for which I have just received Lloyds TSB’s defence from you. I am aware that you will be busy due to a lot of very similar cases involving a request for repayment of charges levied by LloydsTSB PLC, due to encouragement by various national TV programs and websites. Although you will not be able to discuss individual cases with me I am aware that your client has offered several claimants an early settlement before the Allocation Questionnaire has been returned. Therefore I am wondering if your client would like to offer a settlement before I enter my Allocation Questionnaire which is due on 08/11/2006. I look forward to hearing from you in due course. Yours sincerely, Christopher Wilson Enclosures: a current list of charges

The defence of LloydsTSB is as follows: Claim number 6QZ64179 Claimant Christopher Wilson Defendant: LloydsTSB PLC Defence: 1.The Defendant LloydsTSB Bank PLC (the bank) is a Bank whose registered office is 25 Gresham Street, London, EC2v 7HN. 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 Banks 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, not withstanding 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 by the bank, the customer may avoid most if not all charges. If the customer fails to ensure that there are 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 banks 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 LloydsTSB 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 tel you the cost of that service before you give us the go ahead. 4. There is no breach of contract; the charge cannot be a penalty, consequently there is no requirement that the charge be a pre-estimate of the banks loss. 5. The customer is given advance warning of charges being imposed; statements show the charges, if any, the customer has incurred during the cours of the 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 arrangements 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 charge are terms which relate to the price payable by the customer for a service provided by the Bank, and pursuant to Regulation 6 of the unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and 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 it's entirety. It is further denied that the Claimant is entitled to the sum claimed or to any sum from the bank. To me that defence looks very weak, but only because I've had the assistance of this website

I've got the N149 Allocation Questionnaire and it has to be returned to Gateshead County Court 08/11/06. I'll be filling this in and sending it this week. I have a pdf copy of the N149 form, could I hand that in? as I can type into that one

LloydsTSB have entered a defence according to Moneyclaim website, I'm now waiting for the AQ

I've phoned Moneyclaim like advised and learnt Lloyds get an extra 5 days of service? on top of their 28 days! This means they have up until midnight Monday 23rd October to enter a defence. Like usual in this country it's the accused that have all the rights and assistance, but never the people who have been sh*t on in the 1st place.

Lloyds TSB 28 days are up from the 16th October, (it was acknowledged on the 22nd). However when in Moneyclaim and I try to start Judgement, it says I need to give them 28 days if they have acknowledged my claim. I have done that though and it still wont work...grrr

**Following the words of Reload here is my self bump** I'm just waiting for my Allocation Questionnaire, this stage is quite boring, but keeping up to date with the other posts. I like the idea of having LloydsTSB successes thread too. Chris, waiting impatiently

5th of December seems a long time away, I've started a case and currently waiting for the defence and AQ, but if I then have to wait another 5 month I'll be gutted. Anyway good luck

Lloyds TSB have acknowledged my claim on the 22/9/06 according to Moneyclaim, I guess they have 28 days to submit a defence and then I get the Allocation Questionnaire

16 Oct is my birthday yes I know it doesn't help you whatsoever, but it made me smile. Good luck against Lloyds by the way hopefully you'll settle before that date. Chris

Thanks for your help Gary, you've eased a few little worries there.

on reflection and checking the PDF from moneyclaim about the claim there are a few questions. 1) it's in Northampton, how do I change that to somewhere nearer? 2) my account number isn't on there, but my name and address is, is this a problem?

My entry to the moneyclaim website is as follows, it's a pain getting it to fit inside the word and line limit: I’ve a contract with LloydsTSB dated pre Oct 01 which is conducted on their terms and conditions. I’m claiming the return of money taken by LloydsTSB without my agreement in the way of charges over the last 6 years (£841). LloydsTSB’s charges are a disproportionate penalty so unenforceable as they are contrary to common law. Further, as a disproportionate penalty they are invalid under the Unfair (Contracts) Terms Act 1977 s.4 and under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Para.8 and sch.2(1)(e). 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. I have repeatedly asked the bank to justify their charges but they have declined to do so. The claimant claims interest under section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% a year from 9/10/01 to 15/9/06 of £841 and also interest at the same rate up to the date of judgment or earlier payment at a daily rate of 0.2257% (£173.02)

Well it's the 15th of Sept so I walked down to the magistrates with my N1 form with the sun in my face. I got there, got scanned taking all metallic objects out of my pocket, returned them to my pocket and walzed to the reception desk "You need to take that to the Quayside, you can't do it here" I was told, so back out into the sun walked through Newcastle and people enjoying a dinnertime pint in the pub and down to the picturesque quayside in Newcastle to the law courts, got there, got scanned again an went to reception. I was told to go to the reception on the 1st floor, which is where I went. I then stood behind some charvas handing in folders who were bragging to each other who 'the old hag' was the most nastiest to. When it was my turn I handed my form in with a smile to be told, you've got £30 court costs here it'll cost you £120! hmmm so then I took my form back walked up the steep banks from the quayside with the bloody sun at my back, past the people who shouldn't be drinking on a work day then got back to work sweating. I then entered my details in moneyclaim to be told it was £120 there too. Where the hell did I get £30 from????? thankfully Barclaycard was to the rescue so my claim has been started.

If it's a business account you should, check http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/lloyds-bank/27918-viv16-lloyds-settlement-offered.html as that was a business account and they got a settlement

The letter is so much quicker to produce if you just cut and paste...wait there isn't that what the banks do? Dear Mr/Mrs xxxxxx, Re: Account Charges for Overdraft Excesses and Returned Items Thank you for taking the time to contact us about your account. I understand that You feel that the charges you have incurred are unlawful. You are unhappy with the amount of charges you have incurred as a result of being overdrawn and from returned items. You have requested that all charges incurred should be refunded for the past 4 years totalling £xxxx.xx. When you became a customer, we gave you details of any charge for the day to day running of your account. Details of our charges are also available from our branch staff, telephone helpline or our website. For the vast majority of our customers banking with us can be completely free as charges are not made for services such as debit cards, cash machine withdrawals, balance requests, statements, cheque books and Internet banking. We also do not charge for processing Direct Debits and Standing Orders when they are paid through our customers' accounts. One of the few services we apply charges for are when a customer does not have enough money in their account to meet payments they have requested us to make. If customers think they may exceed any limit they have, we urge them to contact us to discuss their requirements. Any requests for further lending are then assessed in line with our usual credit policy. Similarly, when we return an item, we are preventing a customer from exceeding their limit, and again as we explain clearly to our customers, this process incurs a charge. Typically, we do not levy customers an excess overdraft fee the first time they go overdrawn without an agreement, as long as it hasn't happened in the past twelve months and we limit excess fees to a maximum of three occurances in any one month. As a business we are entitled to set charges to cover additional work. These charges are not hidden and are notified in the guide to banking charges leaflet we produce. We advise our customers to ensure cleared funds are available in their accounts to meet payments due. You will also note that in the front of each cheque book we request that funds are available before cheques are issued. You incurred charges because you did not ensure funds were available in your account to cover the payments set up by you. It is your responsibility to operate your account within any agreed limits and within the terms and conditions. You accepted these terms when you opened your account and when you agreed your overdraft (I don't have one?). We did not agree to pay your account in excess of the amount agreeed without charges being made. Accordingly, I am unable to agree with your request to refund these charges. We do expect your account to be run in line with the terms and conditions of its operation. This means that you must ensure that cleared funds are deposited into the account the working day before any payments are due. If you do not feel you will be able to run your account in accordance with the terms and conditions, we may have to consider withdrawing certain facilities, such as any debit cards, overdrafts and chequebooks. Alternatively, you may wish to consider alternative banking arrangements. If you are unhappy with my decision and feel that you have something to add which might change the outcome, please get in touch. If we cannot agree on a solution at that point, I will help you refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service for independent arbitration. Yours sincerely Thanks Reload

I only have one worry, I'm actually emigrating on 30th Dec so I wont be able to go to court after that date. I'm planning to enter my N1 form to Newcastle magistrates on Friday (all printed out and ready ) do you think the time line is too short?

I got another reply via letter basically telling me I have no leg to stand on and I can contact the financial ombudsman etc, I'll type it all up when at home next if I have the time between watching TV and eating my tea. However I'm still counting down the days until I put this in court plus the extra interest I'll earn!