First Direct does not agree

[oops a daisy]

Hello, I would welcome any advice on the letter that I have received today from First Direct. I requested my bank statements for the last 6 years and they complied within 7 days. I then sent a letter to Mr Kernaghan claiming the unfair bank charges ( copied from this site ). The end of the 14 days given is this Friday. I have today received a letter from First Direct stating -

 

First Direct does not agree with your contention that the charges which have been applied to your account are unlawful and are therefore unenforceable. The contract between the bank and its customer is governed by our terms and conditions. In respect of overdrafts, I would refer you specifically to Part 2: Operating your account, clause 6.9, which states:-

 

''If your account goes overdrawn without an agreed overdraft, or you go over an agreed overdraft limit, we will charge interest at our Unauthorised Overdraft Interest Rate on the amount of unauthorised borrowing. We will also charge you an Overdraft Fee for any statement month when the balance on your account exceeds your limit, whether for one day or more. An excess overdraft fee will also be charged for any day where there are subsequent increases in the excess or a reoccurrence of an excess during the statement month. Our Overdraft Fees are published in our Interest Rates and Charges Leaflet.''

 

Our fees and charges are clearly stated in our published Interest Rates and Charges leaflet and in the circumstances in which these charges apply are clearly set out in our terms and conditions which you will have been provided whith a copy of when you opened your account.

 

We are therefore unable to agree to your request. If you wish to escalate your concerns to the next stage, you can write to Robert Kernighan, Customer Relations Manager, at the above address.

 

If we do not hear from you within the next 8 weeks, we will consifer matters resolved.

 

Complaints we cannot resolve may ultimately be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service, further details of which can be found in our 'listening to your comments' leaflet

 

Yours Sincerley

 

Deborah Malins

Customer Relations

 

 

Please can anybody give me advice as to what I should do next. I am claiming for charges placed onto my account for going over my overdraft. The total that I am claiming for is £615.00. I have not applied for any interest but that works out at £105.42.

 

 

Many thanks Oops a Daisy

[MondeoST24]

This is the standard first direct response letter

 

On Friday when your initial 14 days has expired, send the letter before action giving another 14 days.

 

Then file your claim.

[oops a daisy]

thankyou for replying mondeo - I have read your thread and noticed that you are at the same point as me with them. Although you had a lot of problems getting your copy statements. I didnt know untill recently that unfair charges could be claimed back but now I do I will not give up untill I get every penny back.

[paulmc60]

So you wrote to Rob Kernaghan and received a standard letter advising you to write to Rob Kernighan if you want to escalate further. Marvellous!

 

I suppose your next step is to send the "Letter Before Action" from the library giving them a further 14 days to respond before you file a claim.

 

Not sure if you need to wait until Friday when the 14 days are up. Youv'e had a negative response so I would go ahead now.

 

Good luck.

[oops a daisy]

thanks Paul - yes I did write to Mr Kernaghan. I think you are right - Im going to send the letter now.

 

I must say that the service lately has been terrible. I was contacted a couple of weeks ago to do a review. I was chatting away to the person and before I knew it she was trying to get me to take out a consolodation loan with payment protection. This would mean interest on top of interest on top of interest but she would not let go so in the end I said I would look into it. When I recieved the information I requested for the claim the phone call is logged and she has put on my record that I agreed to the loan - I DID NOT. I then got a letter thanking me for applying for a loan and asking me to sign the papers and return them - I DID NOT AGREE TO IT. I shredded the letter and loan application but after this I am getting really cross. Instead of the consolodation loan I paid off my overdrafts ( total of £600.00 ) transferred my c/card balance onto a 0% one and will carry on with my current loan repayments as it would not be in my interest to cancel it with the charges etc.

Then this week my DD was due to go out for my FD Visa - noting the above the balance is zero. They still took £86.00 from my current account. I phoned them and they said they would put the money back into my accout by close of business yesterday - guess what ? my Visa is still showing a credit balance of £86.00. I have just e mailed tham about it to see if they actually manage to do it this time.

I would really love to move my account but am keeping it there untill I have got the unfair charges back.

 

rant over

[chriszammett]

I am at the same point and received the same letter.

 

I am waiting until my initial 14 days to send the letter before action.

[oops a daisy]

have checked my account today and the £86.00 that was taken from my current account has been put back ( as if it had never been taken in the first place ) but my visa is still showing a £86.00 credit LOL and these people deal with millions of pounds

[molly-in-the-trolly]

I too recieved the same letter and have sent them the letter before court action giving a further 14 days before i take them to the small claims court. The 14 days is up on 7th April

[oops a daisy]

let me know how you get on Molly

[oops a daisy]

Letter before action just sent recorded delivery - lets see what happens now ??? -request for more time ???

[oops a daisy]

I have just received a reply to my LBA from Mr Kernaghan drawing my attention back to the terms and conditions and giving me details of the financial ombudsman service. I have replied with the following

 

Thankyou for furnishing me with the information regarding the Financial Ombudsman Service. Whilst I fully intend to raise this issue with the ombudsman, I realise that I am able to do this in my own time, and will do so once the issue has been resolved to my complete satisfaction. I understand the banks intention in offering this route to resolution, and am fully aware that this is merely a diversionary tactic, designed to stall my timetable, and to undermine my determination to seek full financial restitution for the inconvenience this has caused me.

I will therefore refer you back to my last letter dated 30th March 2006 and remind you that I have given 14 days to resolve this matter from 30th March 2006 or I will begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest and my costs.

[Spiceskull]

Sounds fine to me - and the Ombudsman paragraph makes them realise that you know about their stalling tactics. Good luck with the claim.

[oops a daisy]

thanks spiceskull off to post it now

[chaos5678]

Hi

 

Letter before action sent today recorded del, Good luck every one

[oops a daisy]

It has now been 2 weeks since I sent off my letter before action and I have not been credited the amount owing fro FD so I will be taking taking them to court. I will have to wait till Tuesday though because of the bank holiday.

 

One thing I was wondering about though was that I actually have a second current account with FD which I use for expenses. I have not asked for statements for this account but I am sure that I did go overdrawn at least once in the last 6 years. Guess you know what Im going to ask next !. Now do I request the statements now and run this claim seperately or do I wait untill I have an amount for the second account and add it into the claim for the first account and do it all together through the courts.

 

I am claiming £615 for the first account excluding interest and am sure that the charges for the second account will not be more than £100.

 

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

[molly-in-the-trolly]

Hi,

 

Look at my thread "Molly in the trolly Vs First Direct" It may help you with your question- there is lots of info from Bank Fodder on there about seperate claims.

[oops a daisy]

Thanks Molly - I had read it but wasnt sure if it applies to me if the amount was under £5000. I have now re read it and it seems that Bankfodder is advising to go ahead anyway. So I will start the claim in small claims for the first account on Tuesday and apply for the bank statements that I need for the second account seperatley.

[molly-in-the-trolly]

Good luck

[oops a daisy]

thanks - you too

[dave]

He's not advising - we would be able to do that - he's simple saying what he would do in the same position - I would imagine ;-)

[oops a daisy]

Thanks Dave. I have been trying to do claim on the Money Claim website for the last hour or so ( spent 1/4 hour trying to get past the address page grrrrrrr ) and have decided to give up and go to my local court tomorrow and file it directly there - can not fit it into 24 lines and 1080 words just have to find out where my local County Court is now

[oops a daisy]

Ive gone and been and done it ! Darlington County Court

The clerk was really nice and very helpful. I will get the claim number in a couple of days and will post it on the litigation in progress thread as soon as I get it.

[monkey_uk]

Whooohoooo!

 

good luck!

[Mindbomb]

Good on yer oops.

RBYS.

[oops a daisy]

Hello, I have just received the notice of issue from the court - wonder if Mr Kernighan works Saturdays ??? They have untill 8th May to respond. Please will a mod PM me to add this to litigation in progress. OOOOOO this is getting exciting now