Ambrose Wilson And Daxon - Late Payment Charges

[King_Prawn]

In October last year, I settled both of the accounts my mother had with Ambrose Wilson and Daxon. However, I was surprised to find recently that the balance on the Ambrose Wilson account was almost £100.

 

After looking at the statements, I was unsurprised to find that Ambrose Wilson have been adding late payment charges of £12 a month to my mother's account.

 

I then decided to find out more and sent a SAR to both Ambrose Wilson and Daxon. I have just had the replies.

 

Ambrose Wilson have charged my mother £480 in late payment charges. In the section for the Credit Agreement they have sent a piece of paper stating that there is no more information. I have sent them a request for a CCA.

 

Daxon have charged my mother £240 in late payment charges and a further £12 for a 'Card Not Honoured' charge. They have also sent me a copy of the credit agreement "... that would have been signed when the account was opened". The agreement that they have sent does not include my mother's name and address or, indeed, her signature.

 

I fully intend to reclaim the late payment charges on behalf of my mother.

 

A number of questions:-

 

1. Should I do a CCA request to Daxon?

2. Is there a template to calculate the interest that can also be claimed on the late payment charges?

3. Is there a template for the letter to make the initial claim to Ambrose Wilson and Daxon?

[ims21]

If the accounts are fully paid then a CCA request may not prove fruitful because there is no obligation to comply where no sums are due under the agreement.

 

This is a preliminary letter to reclaim the charges.....amend it to suit

 

Account number................... ................ date etc

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Following media reports,and an investigation into credit card charges by the Office of Fair Trading,which I have recently been made aware of,I now understand,that the regime of fees which you have been applying/applied to my account in relation to late fees, and over limit charges, are unlawful at Common Law,Statute and Consumer regulations,in that they did not/do not, represent a genuine pre-estimate of your actual costs.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that this account was opened. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law,and in consideration of fair business practices and good faith.

 

It is my contention, that you have failed to operate my account in a manner condusive to the above,and have demonstrated a lack of fiduciary duty.

 

I calculate that you have taken £xxx plus £xxxx which you have charged me in interestwhich total £xxx. Additionally,you have entered a default notice against my credit record. This default occurred merely in respect of unlawful charges levied by you, or was the result of impecuniositiy’ caused directly by the taking by you of penalty charges which you had applied to my account.

 

In recent years,Courts have been happy to accept claims for bank charges that exceed 6 years,whilst having regards to the precedent set between KLEINWORT BENSON -v- LINCOLN CITY COUNCIL under section 32 © of the Limitation Act 1980.

Should county court action be needed I will be seeking to rely on this.

 

 

Therefore this letter requests a refund of all charges indicated including interest 14 days from the date of this letter.

I request that payment is made directly to me,by cheque,and that any refund in whole or part should not be allocated to any set off or third parties.

Should this occur,my claim will be deemed as unsettled and I will proceed to the Courts for recovery.

 

You now have 14 days to respond positively,and in the absence of this,I will put you on notice with a further 14 days,letter before action.

I trust this clarifies my position.

 

 

Yours Faithfully

 

Enc; Schedule of charges

 

 

This is the spreadsheet to work out your claim amount

 

CISheet v101.xls

[King_Prawn]

Thanks for the advice, ims21.

 

I have now received a copy of the credit agreement "... that would have been signed when the account was opened" from Daxon. As you can imagine, the agreement has not been signed by my mother.

 

They have also rejected the preliminary claim that I have made to them based on the letter.

 

Presumably, given that there is pretty obviously no signed credit agreement, their late payment charges are unenforceable. I have now written again to Daxon again pointing out this fact and giving 14 days to reply before I commence proceedings at the Small Claims Court.

[ims21]

Good stuff.

 

Sounds like they have provided a reconstituted agreement.

 

Those charges are unlawful penalties for breach of contract so keep at them.

[King_Prawn]

Would you believe that I have received two letters from Daxon in quick succession.

 

The first dated 18th July 2013 states:

 

 

We have checked your records and have been unable to locate a signed

agreement. A copy will have been sent to you for signature when the account was

opened in accordance with our standard process.

 

 

 

 

 

I enclose a copy of the agreement that will have been sent to you when the

account was opened which governs the account, subject to any variations

subsequently notified e.g. changes to interest rates. Terms and conditions

are also available on our website and in our catalogues.

 

Four days later, Daxon sent another letter which states:-

 

 

May I refer you back to our previous letter dated 18th July 2013, which

states we have checked the account records and we do not hold the signed credit

agreement on file. A standard credit agreement will have been sent to you for

signature when the account was opened in accordance with our standard process at

the time. It may be that the credit agreement was signed but not then returned

to us for some reason.

 

 

 

 

 

Under the provisions of the Consumer Credit Act the agreement is

"unenforceable" and we cannot obtain a court judgement against you. However, you

should be aware that even though an agreement is "unenforceable" it means you

still owe the money - the debt does not disappear.

 

 

 

 

 

Recent court cases and the guidance issued by the Office Of Fair Trading have

confirmed this to be the case along with the fact that we can continue to take

the following action to recover what you owe:-

 

 

 

 

 

1. Ask you to pay what you owe;

 

 

2. Charge you interest on what you owe;

 

 

3. Add charges to your debt if you do not pay what you owe (known as default

charges);

 

 

4. Send you a default notice when several payments have been missed;

 

 

5. Pass the information about any missing payments to credit reference

agencies;

 

 

6. Pass your details to a debt collector and ask them to seek payment for

what you owe; and

 

 

7. Sell the debt on to somebody else for them to collect what you owe.

 

Any advice on my next move.

[King_Prawn]

A copy of the latest letter sent to Daxon.

 

Thank you for your letter of 22nd July 2013.

 

I am interested in your reliance upon the guidance issued by the Office Of Fair Trading. In their Press Release 68/06 dated 5th April 2006, the Office Of Fair Trading (OFT) stated:-

“Where credit card default charges are set at more than £12, the OFT will presume that they are unfair, and is likely to challenge the charge unless there are limited, exceptional business factors in play. A default charge is not fair simply because it is below £12. Setting a threshold for intervention is a pragmatic pro-consumer action that is designed to give the industry the opportunity to change its practice without litigation. It is supported by detailed guidance to the industry as to how to reduce the likelihood of public enforcement.

A default charge should only be used to recover certain limited administrative costs. These may include postage and stationery costs and staff costs and also a proportionate share of the costs of maintaining premises and IT systems necessary to deal with defaults. Exceptional business factors which may affect the level of a fair charge may include policies to prevent casual defaults as operated by issuers such as Egg.

Only a court can finally decide whether a charge is unfair or not.”

 

OFT is stating that the charges should only reflect the ACTUAL loss to yourselves. You have, in fact, charged an arbitrary figure of £12 because of the presumption that OFT will not challenge fees of that amount.

I will give you a further 14 days to respond positively, and in the absence of this, I will put you on notice that you would leave me no choice but to commence legal proceedings to recover these amounts.

 

I trust this clarifies my position.

[King_Prawn]

Yes...

 

Just got the latest statement from Ambrose Wilson. Since my mother fully paid up the account last September they had been sneakily adding late payment charges and interest to the account of approx. £170.

 

I just sent in the initial claim. They have cancelled the charges and interest so that the account on my mother's account is now £Nil.

 

Not going to stop us claiming the rest of the late payment charges though!!!

[skittledmonkey]

Hello,

 

I have just discovered that my mum is paying 'Home shopping direct' which I believe is an old Ambrose Wilson account £150 a month. She currently owes £2376 but her credit limit is £1500. I am guessing most of this must be charges. I really don't know where to start in getting these charges back so any help would be appreciated. I presume I have to write to them asking?

 

Many thanks

[King_Prawn]

Skittledmonkey

 

You need to start off by submitting the CCA which you can find a template for here.