Thanks for the reply. So this isn't something I can do myself? Ok. How do I instruct a Sheriff Officer to do that? Is it a case of calling the Edinburgh Sheriff Court (which has jurisdiction for where I live) or would I send them a written letter?

My landlord did not use any of the schemes for my deposit which I found out after leaving the property. I have lodged an initial writ that I put together based on stuff from this thread as well as help from a friend and I got that back from the Sheriff Court with a warrant along with a date, however it is not clear what I need to do now. the letter states "The Sheriff Grants warrant to cite the defender by serving upon him a copy of the writ and warrant on a period of notice of 21 days, and Ordains him to answer within the Sheriff Court House (address) on 16th June 2015." So do I just send the landlord a copy of this letter and the initial writ? Or is there more to it? And is this date when I need to show up in court? Do I need to go to court or is this just a date that the landlord needs to reply by? Tried to find stuff on the sheriff court website but there is no info on the process I'm planning on representing myself as the landlord did not use a scheme at all so there is no doubt that he has broken the law in that respect. Any advice is appreciated

That's great. Cheers for the help! Now I'll go spread the word to my family and friends and help them do the same Cheers, Skyap

I had the same thing. I wouldn't worry about it if you have already sent the information. They filed their AQ on the closing date of the 15th December and yesterday I recieved a cheque for my claim - £1770 Since receiving their copy of the AQ I did nothing, so just hang in there. The £1770 was missing £100 for the AQ though so once I've cashed the cheque I'll need to chase them for that too. I would worry too much about the missing docs until you get a court date but hopefully, like me, that won't happen. I hope that helps.

Woo hoo!! I got my cheque in the post today (well, it came yesterday Special Delivery but I wasn't home!) - £1770.98 I have a few final questions relating to this claim so hopefully someone can help. This amount was all the charges, plus 8% interest, plus £120 court fees. The only thing is, I also paid £100 for the AQ but that wasn't included in the cheque - how do I get that back? There are two copies of a Notice of Discontinuance which Cobbetts say I need to send one to the court and one to them. Once I send this notice to the court, is that all I need to do to call off the court proceedings? There are also two conditions. The letter says, as usual, that they accept no liability etc and that I will be accepting the payment in full and final settlement of my claim on the basis that :- 1. I don't disclose to any third party the fact, or any details relating to, this payment. 2. Write to the court to withdraw my claim. I think I may have already flouted number 1! is that going to be a problem? one last thing - the cheque is made out to me, but also states my account number on it - does that mean I can only pay it into that account? Thanks for all the help I've had on this case. Just a couple more to go now.

Thanks once again for the support. Skyap

My Summary Cause Summons has now been served on the defendant. Does anyone know what happens now? Do I just wait until the first date given by the court? cheers, skyap.

I sent off my AQ in time for the deadline and it was delivered before the deadline too. I forgot to send it to cobbetts - is that a problem? I got a copy of Cobbetts AQ from cobbetts too. Under section G:Further Info, on their form, they have stated that "case management directions cannot be proposed until the Claimant serves a reply to the reuest for further information which was due on 23rd November 2006. In light of this, the defendant may amend its defence or apply to strike out." Do I need to do anything? I got a letter from them ages ago for a CPR part 18 request so I sent the standard reply and included a schedule of my charges along with my account details. Also, their last sentence is referring to the defendant which is them, but I don't know what they mean! Can anyone help?

I'd just like to say about the whole 'service' thing that the banks are hoping to use to get out of calling them penalty charges... if charging me £38 (I'm with Natwest) to TELL me that I am over my overdraft, or to return a cheque, then I think I would like to opt out of having this service. I'd rather they didn't tell me, and didn't return the cheques/direct debits and then I wouldn't have to pay the £38 for a service I'd rather do without

hey sp00ky, I was intruiged by the bit about the ombudsman too. Am I right in saying that on the prog it said that the omnudsman was advising backs to refund all the charges. I haven't submitted any complaints while doing my claims - should I be doing this and would it speed things up a bit if I did? Good program though. I'm sure it will prompt a few more to join in. I've been trying to get the rest of my family to do it for ages!

That's what I thought, it's apparently taken from another guys website - gives the details at the bottom. If you haven't seen in some of the other posts, there's a prog on bbc 2 at 10pm tonight about penalty charges (called Bank Robbery). Should be interesting.

So far, I took the charges from my statements, then used these to estimate charges prior to 2004 (due to the whole microfiche thing - this was before the abbey ruling so not sure if it affects things or not). I then had a spreadsheet for calculating the daily interest for each charge and I applied that to the charges but used the 27.9% instead of 8%. My claim though only states the following: The pursuer claims from the defenders the sum of £572.00 with contractual interest on that sum at the rate of 27.9% annually from the date of service for each charge (together with the expenses of bringing the action). It's a Summary Cause Summons in case you're wondering why its so short! There is a detail of claim bit but it doesn't mention any values. So, I have £572 of charges, should I calculate the interest I have paid on those charges and add it on? I suppose I should really calculate the interest in the interest too? (is that compund interest?) This is getting complicated - I think I should start a new thread? How do I do that, linking to this one? cheers

I may have done it wrong then. I have claimed for the amount of charges, plus interest at the contractual rate. I did it via a Summary Cause so it is just the amount you're claiming for that you put and then say you are also claiming interest and fees. So are you saying then that I could have actually claimed more? I've not actually posted it yet (was going to do so this afternoon) so it may not be too late. It would mean that my court claim differs from my original letters though. Now I'm confused! I hope I haven't confused anyone else!

For most of my claims, it never occurred to me to do this so I have missed out (although, all of my credit cards settled out of court so would I have got the interest anyway?), but with my Barclaycard, I was so miffed about the whole microfiche argument that I estimated the missing charges AND asked for contractual interest from the start! Obviously, they have told me no at every point, except once where they offered me the charges - the £12, but only for the charges after 2004. So now I have submitted a court claim and we'll see how it goes. It makes perfect sense to me that they have charged me about 29% interest on their charges so I want that back. If I've calculated it wrong, I'm sure they'll let me know! I only wish I had done this with the rest!

I was looking at the BBC news online this lunchtime and at the right hand side of the page they have a section for the most read, and the most emailed stories. Number 5 in the most read was an article of claiming back penalty charges! Then I flicked to most emailed and the top two stories were about penalty charges! BBC NEWS | Business | Are penalty charges bank robbery? BBC NEWS | Business | How to claim back penalty charges The second link above is a how-to including templates! Has anyone else seen this?

IN the AQ guide, it gives some text for Section H, should I fill this in on my own form? or is this text for special cases. The text I am talking about is below: The form also asks... Do you intend to make any applications in the immediate future? I presume the answer to this is no?

I'll get it in the post tomorrow then. Cheers for the help.

I found that the offer rejection letter in the templates wasn't quite right at this stage so I found this one and sent it instead. Cobbetts then withdrew their offer and I have proceeded with the claim. I'm just about to file my AQ which I received along with their defence shortly after sending the letter below. Hope that helps

The AQ is due for filing this Friday (15th). Was hoping I wouldn't have to send this as I don't have £100 just now! Guess I'll just need to borrow it from someone. Is it worth waiting until Thursday to see if I get an offer and then send it Special Delivery or am I better off just sending it just now since I will get ithe fees back eventually anyway? s.

On the 10th of November I got an offer from Halifax Visa for the full amount of my charges totalling £369 which meant I never had to take them to court. Since then I had set up a new direct debit so that I wouldn't miss any more payments but a couple of things went wrong, and I missed one without realising (I payed them and it was only a couple of days late). The other day though I received a couple of letters from them. The first said they were reducing my credit limit due to missing a payment, but that they may bring it back up again if I am good. They basically reduced it by the amount they gave me back - they reduced it by £400. Natwest Mastercard did this to me as well. I don't mind too much as I still owe them less than I did before the charges were refunded but it all seems a bit petty. The other letter was a bit worse. They said that because of "recent unsatisfactory conduct" of my account, that when my card expires they will not be renewing it or sending me a new one! Although it does **** me off, again, I am not too fussed as I didn't plan on using the card anyway as I am trying to get rid of all my credit cards. Can they do this? Barclaycard has also taken away my cash advance privileges. It seems like the credit card companies are being a bit petty about it all. Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

Your welcome Good luck!

I have been pursuing MBNA for a couple of months now to get back my charges from my Virgin card. I had sent my final letter and was due a reply a couple of weeks ago. I was a bit slow off the mark as I had a lot of other things to deal with and wanted to make sure I could afford the court fees, but I took my small claims form to my local Sheriff Court this morning to file my claim. When I got home from work there was a letter from MBNA offering me the remainder of my charges (they have already refunded about half of them) in full and final settlement. So I am now wondering what do I do with the claim I only just filed (and paid for)? And do I get the £39 court fees back? help! :o

You have a few options... If the bank's registered address is in England, you can do it through the English system. If you know someone in England, like coffeebien, you could do it that way using the online system. I didn't think of doing that so I downloaded the pdf N1 form, filled it in, and printed it (or you can print it then fill it in). I then found a County Court near the registered address, in my case it was London City County Court I think. Then simply post the form to them with a cheque for your fees, you'll then do the rest via post as per normal. If your claim is for £750 or less, you can do it using a Small Claim in Scotland. You can get the forms from the Scottish Courts website and then either take them to your local Sheriff Court (which can be found via the website) or, if you're not often free during open hours, you can post it to them. If you go in person you can obviously ask questions, but if you do it by post and have questions, just call them, ask for the small claims dept and they will help. I have done it both ways and both work a treat. You can use the Scottish system even if they are based in England. As you are the pursuer and have a Scottish address, it therefore comes under the Sheriff Court's jurisdiction. if you're claim is greater than £750 but less than £1500, you can still do this in Scotland using a Summary Cause. The form is practically the same as the small claim form and the process is very similar too. You would do as above but they will send you the papers back to be served to the defendant. You cannot do this yourself but you find either a Sheriff Officer (like a bailiff) or a Solicitor to do it for you. You can find a Sheriff Officer in the Yellow Pages and it should only cost about £15 in the first instance. For more info on this, just search the forums as there's quite a few people used this route now. I hope this helps

You can claim in England even if you have Scottish address - as long as the bank/credit card registered address is in England. I am doing it with the Natwest. In answer to your 5 year question, I don't know as none of my charges went over 5 years! I did notice that the banks don't actually read any of the letters I sent as the first one only asked for 5 years of data but they sent 6. I had also used templates from the Govan Law Centre site which doesn't mention manual intervention yet the some of the replies said they could not provide this info! Fools that they are

I think I know what you mean! Both claims stated that I was claiming for charges + interest + any fees so hopefully that is what they will offer. cheers.