Tinkerbelle vs Citi Cards - I WON!!!

[Tinkerbelle]

Good Morning Everyone!

 

I received a letter from this outfit today, and I need some advice. The letter is in response to my court claim and reads as follows:

 

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I act on behalf of Citifinacial Europe plc and have received from the court your claim for monies for charges and fees amounting to £423.60 plus court costs of £50.

 

As previously indicated, Citifinancial does not agree with the OFT regarding the level of its charges and believes these to have been fair and realistic.

 

Given the fact that you currently owe £928.86 in respect of previous transactions on your account with Citi, my client could exercise what is known as the common law right of set off and plead the same in its defence. However, I have advised my client that defending an action for this amount of money is not economical. Therefore, if you are agreeable, I believe it would far easier to simply write off the amount claimed and reduce the outstanding balance on your account and bring matters to a conclusion that way. Please confirm that this course of action is acceptable and that you will withdraw your claim against my client in return for the claimed amount being written off by telephoning myself on 0161 869 6146.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Brian Smith

Solicitor

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Now I believe that what they are saying is that they will reduce my credit card balance by the sum of £473.60, which is what I wanted them to do when I started this process in the first place.

 

Is this your understanding of this letter? And how should I respond so that my claim is not jeopardised in any way?

 

What I don't want to do is say yes write it off the balance, and then they turn around and say we want you to settle the account in full within x days or will default you and take you to court.

 

Their settlement will halve the balance on the card (which they haven't even renewed anyway!), and I would be quite happy to continue paying them £100 a month until the card account is clear.

 

Any advice you can give would be much appreciated!

 

Tinks

[Tinkerbelle]

Any advice anyone????

[Mrgreengenes]

Hi Tinkerbelle, here's my tuppence worth.

 

I think you have won. You will have received the amount claimed.

To reduce your balance is about all you could have hoped for. I don't think they will ask you to repay the remaining balance because then they will not make any money from you via the interest. If they do get heavy, I believe there is advice on the matter somewhere on this forum which advises writing to the OFT with details.

Also, the solicitor, in his letter, says that Citi Cards would

"reduce the outstanding balance on your account and bring matters to a conclusion".

Surely this means that everything would go back to normal, and you would continue to make your payments each month until the balance is cleared.

 

My situation with Citi Cards is slightly different, in that the amount claimed is greater that the outstanding balance.

 

I think that we can all chalk this up as another victory against Citi Cards.

 

 

Don't let the fatherless chillen get ya!

[Tinkerbelle]

YAY!!!!! A response!!

 

Thank you so much for replying to my post Mrgreengenes....it is greatly appreciated

 

I will wite an appropriate letter and post it back here for comments later on today.

 

Although this dude suggested I call him, I won't be. I'll do it all in writing so I have records/evidence

[Tinkerbelle]

Ok, I have drafted the following response to Citi Cards in response to their letter.

 

Please tell me if it ok, and that I have covered my butt

 

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Dear Mr Smith,

 

Re: Claim No 6QZ30810

 

Thank you for your letter dated 19th May 2006.

 

I can confirm that I am happy for you to reduce the balance of my Credit Card account by the sum of £473.60, this sum being in respect of the above Court Summons issued against your organisation.

 

Once the funds have been applied to the Credit Card account, I will instruct the Court that the matter has been resolved and no further action will take place.

 

Kind regards,

[Tinkerbelle]

Anyone got any advice/assistance on this letter? :-|

[Tinkerbelle]

Why won't anyone help me

[Guest Lueeze]

*bump*

[Tinkerbelle]

Ok. I guess no one is going to help.

 

I'm sending the above acceptance letter today.

[sunseeker]

Hi Tinkerbelle,

 

Sorry.... not been on for a few days. Citi did exactly the same for me but amount I claimed was same as outstanding balance (more or less) so they wiped the lot.

 

Register for online credit card banking with them (this may take too long as they have to send you a passcode) or keep ringing them up to check balance has been reduced by amount promised. I had already registered online and after 2 days, I had a credit titled 'compensation' on my statement for nearly £700. Only when you are sure they have credited your account should you process the 'Notice of Discontinuance' (Hope I've spelt that right) with the court. That it what I was advised by the County Court in Northampton.

 

Congratulations, by the way. should bring monthly payment down a bit.

 

By the way, have you noticed your monthly interest rate may have significantly reduced????

[Tinkerbelle]

Thanks Sunseeker!

 

I do have that online banking thing with them, but have forgotten the password so a new one is being sent. Via post

 

Did you mean the interest amount I pay every month or the APR% that they charge. I haven't notice it go down. I hope it does though!

 

I'll be interested to see what they do with the account once it's clear. They haven't sent me a replcement card and the available credit is still showing is nill even though it is not overlimit...Telephone banking still works, internet still works, strange

[sunseeker]

Hi Tinkerbelle,

 

Both APR and interest per month. My statement from Feb 06 gives a monthly rate of 2.200% (26.4% per annum) yet my online statement of 07.04.06 gives a monthly rate of 0.801% (9.6% per annum). I was/am totally confused though this was just after I had requested return of charges. What a coincidence????

 

They stopped my account ages ago but regitering online shows my available balance being £500 pounds now. But.....don't want the card back. Once I get all of em cleared by the charges being refunded they can all be cut up. May keep one for work expenses and pay it off each month so they don't earn any money from me

[Tinkerbelle]

ah! I'll check that out when the password turns up!

 

Thanks for the info and advice

[sunseeker]

no worries. best of luck and speedy settlements with the rest

[Tinkerbelle]

Arrived home this evening to the following letter from our friend at Citi Cards

 

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Further to your letter dated 22nd May 2006, I have instructed my client to write off the amount of 473.60 from your credit card balance.

 

I can now confirm that the refund has been actioned today in full and final settlement of this matter.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your speedy response.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mr Brian Smith

Solicitor

CitiFinancial Europe plc

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I called telephone banking and they have indeed paid up! Woo Hoo!! How chuffed am I??

 

Thanks to BF, Dave, The Mods and all the memebers of this group for being so supportive of each other.

 

Tinks x

[Seminole]

Very well done. Don't forget to complete the survey!

[Tinkerbelle]

Already done and 3rd donation about to be made

[sunseeker]

Great result Tinkerbelle...looks like a pattern forming with Citi !!

[Bovvered]

Awesome news Tinks!!!

[Tinkerbelle]

Thanks Guys!

 

I can't believ how easy and fun it was! Are we meant to enjoy this

 

Now i'm just sitting back and waiting for the others to cough up before battle commences again with BarclayCard and BoS

[Mrgreengenes]

That's great news, congratulations. I am right on your heels. I have received my fob off letter. I am now waiting until 31st May to issue LBA letter.

 

I've also worked out interest on the charges.

 

Here's my details:-

 

Ac Balance: £1282.79

Total charges: £1507

Total Interest: £540 .58

Grand Total: £2047.58

 

My victory will be more significant because I will be pushing for removal of the default notices from all credit reference agencies.

 

Last year I managed to get myself up to date with Citi cards. They actually sent me a replacement card with a sticker on it with a number to ring to activate the card. I did this but was informed that the card would not be activated until I cleared the balance completely. That card has now expired!

 

I am hoping that my LBA letter will make them realise that if they pay me £1507 now then they will save themselves $540.58. This, of course goes for all companies.

 

Thank you for keeping us all informed of your progress.

 

 

Don't let the fatherless chillen get ya!

[Tinkerbelle]

Good luck!

 

I rang them up out of curiosity last night, and asked if they intended to send me a new card, and they said No.

 

I'm goin to make sure that the account is about 0.02p in credit and just leave it. I'm sure it will cost them a lot more than 0.02p a month to administer!

[anneshiku]

please could everyone check their citi cards statements as they seem to have a very dirty game going on. When you make a payment to them, it shows on your statement as minus that amount you paid then after putting in their interests,late payment fees, over the limit charges and all their extras, they then add the same amount you paid to them and makes it as if you have taken that money from their card. Any one with such a problem out their or is it just my partner?

[anneshiku]

hi

i'm in afix i've taken citi cards to court and they replied quickly by saying theywill pay the difference of £25 to £12. I know it doesn't make sense but they are assuming istill have an accuont with them yet i paid them off. I'm claiming £450, but they are i quote" it would be appropriate to write off the difference between our charges of £25 and the OFT's recommended level of £12. Having reviewed your account, I (BrianSmith) have therefore recomended that the sum of £234 be written off, reflecting the difference between £450 and and £216had the charges been £12. Accordingly your account has been reduced tothat amount, putting your account in credit by £211. This has been requested to be sent to you as a cheque( i got the cheque the same day as the this letter but haven't cashed it coz i don't understand a word this solicitor is saying) In the event that you are not satisfied with this and proceed to issue a claim for the full amount, CitiFinancial will defend thison the basis of the OFT's own statement and analysis of the lawful level of default charges.Any diffence will also exercise the difendant's right to seek to have the claim transfered to it's home county, i.e. Salford county court.( I live in London) The legal presumption is that justice should be local to the difendant as the defendant is deemed innocent until proven guilty and ought not to be disadvantaged in defending itself.( what is this Brian on about?)" Some one please help, should i take the offer or what should i do ? mind you i owe them nothing.Thanks in advance.

[andrew1]

I'm no expert on citicards but I do have a claim against them going on. This letter is the usual fob off and I think you should just keep to your timetable and issue against them. For this amount of money they'll pay up the lot on past history. Mr Smith is a busy man!

 

The £12 OFT quoted is the OFT's 'guideance figure' which after their investigation into card charges they said anything in excess of £12 would be deemed unreasonable. It is not the legal amount they can charge. The cards have just used this to demonstrate thier obediance to the findings. £12? - does it cost them £12 to process the automated transaction? - NO! 30p if you are lucky. Unless they demonstrate that it actually costs £12 they can't charge it anymore than the £25 they charged before. They cannot make a profit from a penalty that is the law, they can only recover thier liquidated loss ie: what it costs ..so stick to your timetable accept the offer as part payment but you'll continue the claim the balance. There 's a letter somewhere in the templates I think.

 

Good luck

 

And Tinks ... sorry no-one helped you when you needed it where were they all?