Just to provide an update, HBOS have ignored my letter. I'm going to give up at this point. It's not worth my effort for £100 and anyway I have no proof that I was ever offered the money. Since HBOS are willing to lie to me, I presume they would be quite happy to "loose" some phone records. With hindsight, I should have attended the preliminary hearing and stated that I still had not received the money I was claiming. I'm off to another bank.

Thanks - a relatively small amount I know but it feels good. My family was really struggling for money when these charges were taken. I tried to discuss the situation with the bank at the time but they didn't care. I've got my money back now and the branch has closed down since Good!

Hi Em Have a look at my thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/92492-please-help-court-tomorrow.html The Clydesdale tried to delay things with me due to the account being a (closed) joint account. The judge wasn't interested. Having said that, he did ask if I and my wife were still married. We are (just) so I don't know what the outcome would have been had we not been married. If you really want to accept the £200, you could "sign" for him but I agree with Steve, go for the full amount. Good luck.

Well out of the blue, a cheque for the full amount arrived today. I wasn't expecting that until just before the next court date on the 27th July. So, anyone reading this, it looks like the Clydesdale reckon it's worth paying some solicitor's time for preliminary hearings in order to presumably have some claims thrown out due to the claimant not attending court / being frightened off. All you have to do is attend the preliminary hearing which is no hassle.

Kenny, The other thread is mine also. I wanted to make sure that those in the HBOS forum were warned as well as those in the Scotland forum. I have rounded the figures here. The difference is actually £100.10. HBOS calculated their settlement figure on 8% interest. However, the charges had caused my account to be in authorised overdraft for significant peridos of time so I was caliming 8% interest when my account was in credit and the authorised overdraft interest rate when the account was in debit. HBOS had agreed to pay this but now that I have cancelled the court action, they don't seem to care. It's OK, I am writing another letter giving them 14 days to pay or I will take them to court for breach of contract. I will also claim my court costs, interest on this money, the money for the phone calls to their "customer care line", the recorded delivery etc etc. I just want others to be aware of their tactics.

With hind-sight I should have gone to court and stated that HBOS were in the process of settling and asked for a delay in proceedings. I just want others to benefit from my experience - don't trust these folks to do what they say they will (other than Richard Dewhurst who seems to tell the true story). I'm writing that letter this weekend.

I have been claiming a total of £630 from HBOS. Just before the preliminary small claims court case (Scotland) due on 10/5/07, I received an offer of £530. I phoned the number on the letter (0845 124 1330) to discuss this and spoke to a Jason Collet who agreed that the additional £100 would also be refunded to me and he asked that I therefore cancel the court case, which I did straight away. He stated that the full £630 would be in my account within 7 days. Thereafter, this is what has happened: 8/5/07: Spoke to Jason Collet, agreed an additional £100 to be paid to me and then phoned the court to cancel. I was told that HBOS needed to do the same 9/5/07: When I recontacted the court I was told that HBOS had not been in contact so I phoned HBOS and spoke to Julie Laycock who confirmed the additional offer of £100. Gave her phone number of court and court reference number so they could cancel. 9/5/07: spoke to Ruth Stringer. BOS legal team has been cancelled as offer of £530+£100 is accepted. 15/5/07: spoke to Richard Dewhurst, money not paid yet, should be in account by COB tomorrow. 17/5/07: spoke to Gavin Yule, money will be in account by COB today. 18/5/07: £530 deposited to my account 25/5/07: Spoke to Jason Collet, £100 will be in by COB 29/5/07. 30/5/07: Spoke to Richard Dewhurst who says that the matter must be referred to the team leader, Rachel Treadland I've still not reveived the additional £100 and I think I am being fobbed off because there is no longer an impending court case. I just want to say to everyone, not to cancel court until you have the money. DO NOT TRUST HBOS, THEY ARE DISHONEST

Just to update, even though HBOS agreed to pay me £630 on the understanding that I cancelled the court case, they have only paid £530. I have made many phone calls and they do have on record that they agreed to an extra £100 but now that the court case is cancelled, they are backing away from that. With hind-sight I should have attended court and stated that HBOS had agreed to settle but hadn't done so at that point and then requested the hearing be delayed for a couple of weeks. Anyway, on principle, I'm going to send a new letter stating that I will be starting a new court action in 14 days time if they don't pay. However, DON'T TRUST HBOS TO HONOUR A VERBAL AGREEMENT. THEY ARE DISHONEST.

The preliminary hearing was OK, in fact the whole experience was quite interesting as I sat in and listened to all of the cases before me. Also the Small Claims court was obviously designed to put the lay-person at ease. However, I hope the Clydesdale settle before the main hearing as I don't really want to be the test case!

I attended court. It was a preliminary hearing. The bank submitted their standard defence which I was given some time to read. I then stated that I disputed their defence. The bank's solicitor then asked that since it was a joint account, that I provide a written statement from my wife saying that she was happy for the case to go to court. The judge said that this wasn't necessary and now I've got a date for the case to be heard on 27/7/07. I noticed that the non-Clydsedale bank charge cases were all being recorded as "case settled" before court. Ie it's only the Clydesdale taking it this far.

Hi Robert, This will be the first hearing so I presume it must be the "preliminary". What you have said gives me a bit more confidence. From my reading, I thought the banks generally paid up before court. I'm not sure I would have bothered starting this had I known otherwise. However, I've expended effort in this now so I'll continue. Thanks.

The bank has filed that they "instend to state a defence". I closed the bank account a few years ago so I can't check and presumable they won't put any money in it! I can't help but worry! I don't want to be the test case.

My date in the small claims court against the Clydesdale is first thing tomorrow morning. I didn't expect my case to get this far as I am only claiming £228 in fees + interest at 8% + £39 small claim fee and I've followed all the letters before action etc as detailed on this site. However, I have had absolutely no offer from the bank. Therefore I need to prepapre for court. Is there a thread somewhere telling me what happens in court and which legislation I should quote? Thanks, Abandon.

I'm back home and there is no letter from the Clydesdale I'm in court first thing tomorrow morning so it looks like I'd better spend this evening finding the relevant legislation.....

I too hope for a settlement as otherwise I'm going to have to go to the effort of trawling this web-site for what exactly I should say in court and then also the added hassle of a morning off work on Thursday. Still, I was so angry with the Clydesdale at the time of running up these charges, maybe I'd like to be the test case 8)