Multiple payments taken, 10 YEARS AGO

[Northdowns]

10 years ago I upgraded my kitchen, and purchased some granite work surfaces. Due to other issues I was going through my credit card statements back from 2004 and noticed the transaction as it was substantial. I had forgotten about it but I noticed they had taken the payment out 3 times, which rang certain memory bells in my head !

 

I checked through more statement, saw a refund once, but not twice !!! It's all there in the statements obviously, can't be argued with

So, as the company is still trading, although it's a franchise model, and I'm fairly sure I was dealing with them before franchises became prolific, do I have any legal standing to recover monies...?

 

Is the burden of proof on me to show without a doubt that they didn't refund a 2nd time, or is the burden of proof on them to show they did...?

 

Cheers

 

Rich.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Northdowns

[BankFodder]

Because this is money paid under a mistake, in principle you can get the money back because the six-year rule runs from the time that you discovered the mistake – or reasonably could have done so.

 

If they wanted to block you then they would have to argue that you could reasonably have discovered the mistake over six years ago.

 

If it is a lot of money then it may be worth their while to argue it on that basis.

 

It would be helpful if you told us how much money you are talking about.

 

They are likely to be very surprised about it and of course there will be extremely defensive.

 

You could of course use as a negotiating tool, that if they simply pay you the money now then you will accept the net figure but if they force you to go to court about it then you will be claiming +8% interest which would be substantially more.

 

You need to start doing some calculations as to what it all comes to with interest and without interest. It would be helpful to know the value of this

[Northdowns]

It's just over 2 grand from memory.....

 

Personally, I can't believe I didn't notice it at the time !!! Looking at the statements there were shed loads of transactions though - I was putting between 4 & 10 grand on the credit card every month - and the multiple charging covered 2 statements periods (just).

[BankFodder]

Well if they have had the money for 10 years, then you are potentially looking at a very large refund.

 

This is good and bad the same time. It's good because it gives you an incentive to claim. It's bad because it gives them a real incentive to resist. Also, there is a real danger that it could go over the small claims limit of £10,000 in which case there will be a risk of costs if you lose – assuming that you have to bring a court claim

 

Do your calculations. Take into consideration the loss of the original sum, the interest that you have paid on this on your credit card which will be quite substantial – at least 15 to 19% per year I expect, and then add 8% statutory interest in the event that you have to take it to court.

 

Let us know what all the figures come to

[Northdowns]

Just dug out the original paperwork from the loft. My error - the job cost twice as much as I was thinking, as I had some extra work done on top. So the 3 payments were 50% deposit, final payment, and then and extra final payment in error, which was refunded.

 

Cheers for the assistance and sorry for wasting your time.