How do they decide how much money to offer?

[emmaandmaartijn]

Hi, I'm about 2 weeks into my claim with NatWest.

 

I sent them a letter asking for the charges to be repaid (I've kept all my statements so know exactly how much they owe me), and on the 23rd of March they sent back "I am not able to answer your concern fully, as I need to look into matters further. I will contact you again within the next 10 working days blah blah.. ".

 

I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and sure enough I did get a reply.

 

"We believe that our charges are fair, reasonable and transparent. We consider that the amounts debited to your account have been applied strictly in accordance with your agreement with us and our published tariff, which we are satisfied, complies with all applicable laws and regulations...

 

(Sound familiar at all?)

 

.. However, as an exceptional matter, on this occasion we will arrange to refund your account with £76 as a gesture of goodwill but any charges that accrue in the future must stand. Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to our charges and strictly on the basis that you agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment."

 

Of course I'm not accepting this amount - but they've already paid it into my account! I'm sending them a letter tomorrow telling them to take that money back, give me my £250 that I'm owed and that they have 14 days before I go to the next step - letter before action.

 

I only want £250!! To me that's a lot of money, and I would actually be able to spend it as my account is in the black

 

I will update further as I can.

 

By the way, the first letter was from Mrs Sue Crompton, and the second one was from Rajveer Dhillon.

[Jim0203]

I received a full refund of my £94 charges the other day, but with exactly the same rider you mention:

 

any charges that accrue in the future must stand. Acceptance by you of this payment will be in full and final settlement of all claims you may have relating to our charges and strictly on the basis that you agree not to disclose to any third party the fact of, or any details relating to, this payment

 

My own intuition is that, whether they say this or not, their charges are still illegal and therefore whatever they say regarding not disclosing payments to a third party, or whatever, it doesn't matter.

 

My intention is to write back to Natwest, saying that I am happy to accept their goodwill gesture, but not under the terms they have suggested. I intend to play them at their own game and say something along the lines of "if I had not had a response within 28 days I will assume that you are happy for the goodwill gesture to remain in place without the conditions".

 

What do other people think? I'm not so massively bothered about getting the money back as I am about getting one over the banks legally. However, I realise that I almost certainly will not get an admission of guilt from them, so I'm happy to accept their payment as long as the terms they have imposed are rescinded.

 

I'm pretty sure the conditions Natwest have imposed are not binding, but are they also illegal? The bit about not disclosing the payment to any third party sounds like it would be unconstitutional in US law. What about English law?

[fallen404]

Well, given you've just disclosed this payment to a whole forum of "third parties..."

 

To be honest, I don't think they can really do that. It's about as legal as repaying someone a loan and saying "by accepting this cash, you agree to my sleeping with your wife whenever I fancy." Assuming everything I've read on this forum so far is correct, I'd say that they owe you that money regardless, and therefore they're in no way at liberty to put conditions on it's return. If they do, I think it's technically blackmail.

[cakey]

They wrote the same to me, but like you say how do they calculate the amount of this "gesture of goodwill"? The sum they offered me was not even 10% of what they owed me... I think it may be a case of throwing a dart at a wall of number and whichever one it hits is the amount they give as a gesture of goodwill.

[emmaandmaartijn]

Well we sent the "letter before action" letter about 10 days ago, so before the 14 days I gave them is up, I would like to know how do we go onto the next step? I've put all my charges into the spreadsheet but i don't want to file my Money Claim Online claim until I know what I'm doing!!!

 

I know that people have probably asked these kinds of questions before but to be honest I'm too lazy and poorly at the moment to trawl through a million people's posts looking for the right information.

 

p.s. I'm not normally this grumpy.

 

p.p.s.s. well done Bookworm!!

[Guest Lueeze]

I'm too lazy and poorly at the moment to trawl through a million people's posts looking for the right information.

 

Im sorry but we were all in the same boat as you at the start.

 

You will have to put in the effort as there are just so many people needing help the Mods just cannot help everyone follow their claim.

 

We are here to guide but you will have to help yourself too!

 

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but the more you lern yourself the easier it is

 

Good luck

 

Lou x

[emmaandmaartijn]

Can anyone offer some advice as to what to put in the moneyclaim form?

 

I have copied from BankFodder's "template" but I'm unsure what this bit means:

 

....Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Paragraph 8

 

and sch.2(1)(e).

 

In the event that the charges are not a penalty ....

 

 

What's the sch.2(1)(e) bit about?

[fallen404]

Schedule 2, subheading 1, point e.

 

My advice to everyone is that they actually familiarise themselves with the legislation in question, since a better understanding of it will make it easier to claim the money back, should it get to court.

[emmaandmaartijn]

My judgement was issued on the 1st of this month so it has been 14 days.

 

How long do I have to wait before issuing the warrant?

[emmaandmaartijn]

Update:

 

The warrant was issued on the 16th of June so it has been 10 days now and no money. Also how will this money be recieved? Will it be paid into my account or sent as a cheque?

[emmaandmaartijn]

Does anyone know?

[emmaandmaartijn]

hello?

[fallen404]

I'd imagine it would go into the account if it's still open. I'd contact their solicitors or whomever and find out what's going on with it.

[emmaandmaartijn]

This topic was closed on 03/07/19.

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