2 page response to prelim letter - No refund

[0bi1]

Hi,

 

My wife sent a prelim letter requesting refund of £170 charges levied in June. All the result of being £13.78 overdrawn for a period of 6 days.

 

The prelim letter was based on, but not exactly the same as the template as she is only trying to recover these specific costs as opposed to all costs ever levied.

 

Abbey stalled, but have now replied after 5 weeks with a 2 page response. This has me wandering if the prelim letter has fallen short legally on what should have been in there.

 

Points from their response:

• OFT announcement only relating to credit card default charges.
  
• Their charges are fair, in T&C's (spout these a lot), agreed to at the time of opening, could have gone elsewhere and still can yada yada yada
  
• Charges are reasonable and proportionate to their administrative costs.
  
• If claim is escalated to County Court they may issue notice to close account.
  
• They are not obliged to give a breakdown of their costs, as it would cost them too much to do so.
  
• No charge for dealing with our correspondence, although there has been admin costs in doing so.
  
• File being kept open for 8 weeks.

Is this the usual thing that gets sent out? Not sure if we should send the Letter Before Action (LBA) letter, if we have somehow cocked up with the prelim letter (copied main text below). Please advise if we should proceed to the LBA or not. Thanks.

 

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I would draw your attention to the recent charges levied against my account, which I deem to be grossly unfair and inappropriate. The OFT reported on 5th April 2006 that your particularly high level of penalties are considered unfair, on the basis that they do not in any way reflect your costs as a result of an account becoming overdrawn. Indeed, if you cannot demonstrate that the penalties reflect your costs resulting form my account becoming overdrawn, then your actions may be unlawful at Common Law.

 

History of penalties applied

 

• 24/4/06 - Cheque 001870 for £31.09 paid resulting in £9.55 overdrawn for 1 day. Penalties applied: £20 for unauthorised overdraft and £30 for paid cheque.
  
• 2/5/06 – standing order for £20.00 paid resulting in £13.78 overdrawn for 6 days. Penalty applied: £30.00 for paid standing order.
  
• A total of £80 charges applied on 30/5/2006.
  
• 31/5/06 – cheque 001872 paid for £38.07. Penalty: £20.00 plus £30.00
  
• 31/5/06 – cheque 001874 paid for £ 22.03. Penalty: £30.00
  
• 01/6/06 – standing order paid for £20.00. Penalty: £30.00
  
• 01/6/06 – cheque 001873 paid for £20.54. Penalty: £30.00
  
• Resulting overdraft of £79.13 for 5 days. Resulting penalties: £140.00

The initial charges of £80.00 occurred for the account being overdrawn by a maximum of £13.78 for 6 days. The second raft of charges occurs directly as a result of the deduction of the £80.00 penalty charges resulting in a £79.13 overdraft. Therefore the total cost in penalties as a result of being overdrawn by £13.78 for 6 days now sits at £220.00, although my initial complaint via your call centre resulted in a goodwill reduction in the costs to £170. This is still not acceptable to me.

 

I have asked the bank repeatedly for a small overdraft facility to avoid this kind of excessive penalty occurring on the rare occasions that my account is overdrawn, and been declined.

 

Please review the history of the penalties and provide a full breakdown of your costs as a result of my account becoming overdrawn. I would ask that you are reasonable in your review given the details that I have provided above, and request that the penalties are removed from my account without delay given the obvious excessiveness of the penalties and the distress this is causing me.

 

Thank you in anticipation of your speedy response,

[0bi1]

Hi,

 

Looks fine but you have missed a couple of the legal points - I think its good to send a personal letter - it stands out from the template letters and you get a more personal respose - although in your case it look like they've gone, another one for the 1st reply letter ! (AND MAKE THEM WAIT !) It looks completely standard.

 

HOW VERY KIND OF THEM ! I havent seen that bit before - good gracious what will they come up with next.

 

I would reply to them now with the standard Letter before action from the templates library - you can refer them to your previous letter in that.

 

btw -it is best to give them a deadline by which you expect their response...... this is 14 days on the templates - you can adjust it so you give them 28 days from the date of your first letter if necessary. EDIT - just read you waited 5 WEEKs for this standard response from Abbey - thats terrible. I would just put 14 days on your letter before action and get it sent now.

 

Best of luck.

 

Karne x

 

Thanks for your advice. I'll get my wife to send the letter before action as you suggest. Thanks again. I realise it isn't a large amount compared to how some on this forum have suffered, but we think it is a point of principal worth following up.

 

cheers

 

Tony