Me vs. Barclaycard

[sharkfin]

Hi everyone, just getting my thread started...

 

Intending to claim back six years worth of charges on my Barclaycard and add a hefty whack of interest too.

 

04/05/09 - Sent off a generally worded Subject Access Request.

 

16/06/09 - Received a bundle of exactly six years worth of monthly statements and a letter stating "This information we have enclosed relating to this account is all that we hold". Are they saying that they would be unable to supply me with a CCA if I were to request it?

 

21/09/09 - Sent off request for repayment of charges. £400 worth of charges and £434 in interest (charged at 26% which is Barclaycard's own cash advance rate. LOL!)

 

30/09/09 - Speedy reply from Barclaycard offering a refund of £400 and £32 in judicial interest "as a gesture of goodwill and without any admission of liability"

 

Their letter says that they are going to credit my account with that amount which will be reflected on my next statement. However I intend to pursue them for the full £834.

 

Now I'm wondering how I should word a rejection of their offer in my LBA to make sure that they don't just subtract £432 from my outstanding balance and then say they consider the matter closed?

 

Any advice gratefully accepted...

[legalpickle]

Hi everyone, just getting my thread started...

 

Intending to claim back six years worth of charges on my Barclaycard and add a hefty whack of interest too.

 

04/05/09 - Sent off a generally worded Subject Access Request.

 

16/06/09 - Received a bundle of exactly six years worth of monthly statements and a letter stating "This information we have enclosed relating to this account is all that we hold". Are they saying that they would be unable to supply me with a CCA if I were to request it?

 

21/09/09 - Sent off request for repayment of charges. £400 worth of charges and £434 in interest (charged at 26% which is Barclaycard's own cash advance rate. LOL!)

 

30/09/09 - Speedy reply from Barclaycard offering a refund of £400 and £32 in judicial interest "as a gesture of goodwill and without any admission of liability"

 

Their letter says that they are going to credit my account with that amount which will be reflected on my next statement. However I intend to pursue them for the full £834.

 

Now I'm wondering how I should word a rejection of their offer in my LBA to make sure that they don't just subtract £432 from my outstanding balance and then say they consider the matter closed?

 

Any advice gratefully accepted...

I would recommend against trying to claim compound interest or contractual interest. The law behind it is grey, and some courts will award it, other courts won't. They are also less likely to give in to that.

 

In my experience Barclaycard are the easiest to get default charges with statutory interest back from.

 

I would write them an LBA and make it clear in their that you are only accepting their unilateral offer in partial settlement but not in full and final settlement.

 

Post the LBA here, minus confidential details and I'll try to proof it for you.

 

As long as the credit was unilateral, which it has been, they cannot deem the matter to be closed till you do. The only time they can do that is where they send a cheque and say "this cheque is in full and final settlement", unless certain conditions have been met before cashing that cheque, it would be so. But where it's unilateral - as here - you don't have this problem.

 

I'm sure they'd find a way to come up with some form of CCA.

 

How much do you owe them? Might it be worth trying to get them to call it quits?

[brindles]

Hi sharkfin,

 

how is it going?

[brindles]

Hi sharkfin,

 

Can you please let us have an update.

[legalpickle]

Hi sharkfin,

 

Can you please let us have an update.

brindles: Take it easy mate! sharkfin first posted on here TODAY at 1pm. My response was the first at 9:50pm and within 15 minutes you've post TWO posts. Some people do take longer over posting.

[brindles]

Opps...sorry.lol.

 

teach me not to read properly. I see may 2009 then your reply.

 

Well at least he knows we are here.

[slick132]

I must disagree with LPickle on this.

 

Whether the court will award interest at BC's contractual rate, or award interest in restitution, is not really the issue.

 

CAGgers are claiming this on the basis that BC will negotiate a settlement to keep the cases out of court.

 

Claim the higher rates of interest if you wish, but do so using the help and resources available on CAG.

 

Also, be aware that you will have to file a court claim and prepare your court bundles (evidence), etc. BC will fight you all the way but will not defend a well-prepared case in court, based on our experience to date.

 

Read threads in this forum for examples - Brindles; Skintboy; Mackerel.

 

If you want to proceed, send an appropriate Rejection Letter from here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/25716-rejecting-offers.html

 

[legalpickle]

I must disagree with LPickle on this.

 

Whether the court will award interest at BC's contractual rate, or award interest in restitution, is not really the issue.

 

CAGgers are claiming this on the basis that BC will negotiate a settlement to keep the cases out of court.

 

Claim the higher rates of interest if you wish, but do so using the help and resources available on CAG.

 

Also, be aware that you will have to file a court claim and prepare your court bundles (evidence), etc. BC will fight you all the way but will not defend a well-prepared case in court, based on our experience to date.

 

Read threads in this forum for examples - Brindles; Skintboy; Mackerel.

 

If you want to proceed, send an appropriate Rejection Letter from here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/25716-rejecting-offers.html

 

I understand your disagreement with the interest issue, and that is entirely a matter of opinion. I have found that those who try to claim contractual or compound interest are more likely to make mistakes, than those who claim statutory interest, and as you say if the claim has problems they will fight it harder. I therefore prefer to err on the side of caution and claim statutory interest. I know that in at least 4 claims I have been involved in against Barclaycard they coughed up within a matter of a couple of weeks when asked for charges plus statutory interest.

 

What I don't understand - and would like to understand - is why you disagree with my saying the rejection should not be included in the LBA, and should not allow the so far settlement to be in partial settlement. To me that makes sense. If one of us has been unclear I apologize, but I read your post as you disagree with everything I have written.

[sharkfin]

Wow. I go away for one day and I have like a million comments waiting for me when I get back! Hi everyone, and thanks for all the advice. I was feeling impatient yesterday and wanted to catch the last post so I dashed off a quick LBA/rejection of offer letter. Thanks Pickle for your offer to proof it but it's on its way already. Maybe it's better if I don't post it up here now, I'd rather not know if it could have been worded better. LOL!

 

The interest thing? Well... I have a friend who recently claimed back charges from several credit card companies and he added interest (from the date of each charge) at the same interest rate that each card provider charges for cash advances. He's an accountant who specialises in debt restructuring for large companies and he was ready to argue his point in court but he said that each company coughed up before that became neccessary. So I thought I'd try the same tack. Though I suppose I'm looking at it with a view to perhaps being willing to compromise at some point.

 

My charges were £400. I used the spreadsheet with the simple interest calculator, put in 26% and came up with an additional £434. It surprised me that it was so much but I suppose that's because most of the charges were from 3-5 years ago. At 8% it would have been an additional £124 but I thought... Well, if they can justify such a high interest rate, so can I.

 

Their offer was for the £400 in charges plus £32 interest (not sure where they got that figure from) and I suppose at some future point if they offer an inbetween-y amount I may accept it. But I know I'll most likely have to file a claim and be prepared to argue my point in court.

 

I'm in Scotland btw, so any advice you all have about filing claims and court cases may not be exactly relevant to me as I understand the system is slightly different up here. But if it goes that far I'll just shift over to the Scotland forum for advice...

 

Oh, Pickle asked how much I still owe them. It's just under £900. And in my letter I rejected their offer and said I didn't authorise them to make any partial credit to my account. I'm not desperate for the money and I'd prefer to keep the claim in one lump sum. As to the discussion about compound, contractual and statutory interest, all I can say is: Waaaay over my head guys.

[legalpickle]

I see you're in good care from others and your friends, so I'm leaving to help others in issues that are closer to my areas of expertise and that there are less people who have expertise in them.

 

Good Luck

[slick132]

Hi LP,

 

TBH, I was paying little attention to the issue of LBA and Rejection Letters. It makes little difference whether you send 2 separate letters or merge the issues into one. I don't disagree with all that you've written.

 

By far the more important point here is the issue of interest, and you have suggested taking the easy and safe option of ONLY claiming s.69 int't

 

BC will pay claims very easily and quickly if you seek just the charges back. They'll also throw in a flat 8% bonus on top if you're lucky. Because they do this before you go to court, you can't even claim the proper s.69 int't with reference back to the charge date.

 

Sharkfin's case here shows how a claim can be doubled by claiming interest at their contractual rate. Other cases which I know of have seen charges of less than £1K result in a refund of over 3 times that, with the interest that is repaid on the older charges.

 

BC will intimidate, argue and bully right the way up to a court hearing. But they will settle if you've put in your court bundle and prepared your case reasonably well.

 

It's little wonder BC will repay simple charges claims quickly - it's saving them a fortune in contractual interest.

[sharkfin]

Pickle: Bye for now, and thanks for your input. If I need help / advice / proofreading in the future I'll let you know. I think I'm doing okay sorting out the paperwork on my own but it's nice to come here for some moral support and advice from folk who have been there already.

 

Slick: From what you say there about the interest, I presume you'd advise me to stick with the 26% rate and argue it all the way? If you know people who have done that and won at the higher rate then I'm going to prepare my claim forms now using those figures. They have two weeks to agree to my request and if they don't then I'd like to get my claim in asap!

[slick132]

Hi Sharky,

 

Merge the LBA and Rejection Letter, or send 2 separate ones together in the same envelope - it doesn't matter.

 

We can offer advice and tell you what the options are, but it's really for YOU to decide what you do. Before you decide, read through these threads. It's a bit of a trawl but well worth it.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclaycard/163825-morgan-stanley-barclaycard.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclaycard/93787-noomill-barclaycard.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclaycard/171099-barclaycard-round-2-a.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclaycard/138906-mackerel-barclaycard.html

 

Be aware that preparing your court bundle will take many hours and it has to then be printed in triplicate (or at least 2 copies to start with). You'll also have to pay the various court fees but these will be claimed from BC.

 

BC will wriggle and squirm right up to the hearing date. They'll suggest you have no basis in law to claim higher interest rates and will threaten you with their court costs, etc. But then they'll negotiate and hopefully agree to settle in full

[sharkfin]

Hey Slick, thanks for the links to other folks' cases. I'm busy wading through them all now. From reading around the site I think I have a good idea what the basic court procedure is and I'm lucky in that compared with some other people here, paying the fees isn't a huge problem. And I'm a pedantic OCD fusspot so will probably enjoy having to spend ages filling out forms in triplicate. LOL! I guess I'll just need some help with the exact wording and I know I can get that here. Bring it on!!!

 

P.S. Just got a similar offer from Capital One today, partial compensation, no liability admitted, my fault for breaking T&Cs, gesture of goodwill, full and final settlement blah blah blah. Expecting another one from MINT any day now too...

[slick132]

Hey, you're going to be so happy here.

 

Did you know that, after you've prepared your court bundle, we recommend you go through all three and paginate every page manually, if your 'puter hasn't done it for you.

 

Pedantic OCD fusspot HEAVEN.

 

[sharkfin]

Okay, update time: I've just received my monthly credit card statement and despite my letter to Barclaycard stating clearly that I did not accept their offer and therefore also did not authorise them to credit my account as they had said they would, they have just gone ahead and done it anyway. My account is showing a credit of over £400.

 

Any advice on how to handle this? Do I ask them to remove the amount they have credited asap and then put in a claim for the full amount or do I write to them accepting it as a partial refund only and then go ahead with a claim for the remainder?

[slick132]

If you have already sent them a letter clearly rejecting their offer, that's fine.

 

Proceed with your claim and any amount refunded can be taken into a/c when negotiating a settlement with them.

 

[sharkfin]

I let this slip. Too much to do, not enough time to do it all in.

 

My last letter to them was a rejection of their offer (which they credited into my account anyway and then left it there) combined with a LBA giving them 14 days to refund me in full or I would file a claim against them.

 

Their last letter to me said the partial offer was their final response.

 

Seeing as so much time has passed since the last correspondence, should I write to them again, or do I just proceed with filing a claim?

[slick132]

Hi Sharky,

 

After the time that's elapsed since you last contacted them, I'd write a LBA stating that you have considered your position and still require that they refund the contractual interest as set out in the enclosed updated spreadsheet.

 

Confirm that, if they fail to refund in full within 14 days, you will issue county court proceedings without further notice.

 

Stick to your deadlines from now on and make sure you know what you need to do at each stage, so you don't get caught out.