Paladine vs Abbey

[Paladine]

Hi,

 

I sent my S.A.R. by recorded delivery on October 31st. I still haven't heard anything at all from Abbey and I was just reading this thread:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/abbey-bank/18505-abbey-draft-alternative-approach.html

 

So now I am unsure what to do. Is it adviseable to wait the 40 days afforded for the S.A.R. or should I start the ball rolling with the data I do have (most of the last 12 months worth of statements) and reserve the right to adjust the claim? Or do I start the process using an estimated amount based on the charges of the last 12 months?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Paladine

[eyeballto]

wait the 40 days, they should turn up

[Paladine]

wait the 40 days, they should turn up

 

Well they are 20 days into their 40. I was going to send an LBA on day 32 (thus allowing for 1 day delivery period leaving them 7 days to comply). Is this correct?

 

After reading lots of other threads I am actually quite excited because I suspect they have taken a lot more than I remember and with them pushing people to the point starting proceedings and thus including interest in the claims, we could be looking at a substantial amount.

 

I will keep this thread updated anyway.

 

Just for the record S.A.R. sent on 31st October, listed as received on 01/11/06 according to Roya Mail's tracking info.

 

LBA will be going out on 02/12/06.

 

Paladine

[Paladine]

I don't seem to be able to get my signature to work. It is enabled in my CP and it shows when I preview, but doesn't show in the posted message...weird.

[Paladine]

Hi - the permameters for showing signatures have changed - mine shows as I am a mod - there is a thread about signatures - i think in this site question and suggestions forum.

 

Ok thanks, I will check it out. You get around a lot, I think most of the threads I have read (was up literally all night reading them) you were involved in at some point or another. I bet the banks etc. really hate you guys, personally I find this site both fascinating and entertaining, as a rampant socialist I love to see the body corporate being slow roasted over an open fire

 

Paladine

[Paladine]

Wow how weird, I think I just stepped into the twightlight zone. Just had a letter come through the door from Abbey...

 

Dear Mr #####,

 

Thank you for your letter dated 31st October 2006, which we received on 1st November 2006, requesting information on your bank account. I also acknowledge receipt of your £10 fee.

 

I confirm that arrangements have been made for the information you have requested to be sent to you. The transactional information remaining on our systems, normally covering the last 14 months, will be sent out in the form of individual duplicate statements. You should receive these within five to seven working days of the date of this letter.

 

Any previous transactions have been archived onto microfiche and it is not possible to provide you with a computer printout of this information. However, we have made arrangements to send you a list of archived transactions between 2000 and 2005, under seperate cover.

 

You have also asked for details of any 'manual interventions' that may have been made on your account and I am sorry that we are unable to help with this request.

 

I can explain that we consider 'manual intervention' to mean an action that is not automatic or computer driven. Not all manual interventions ar recorded, for example if a member of staff looks at a paper document relating to your account, a record is not always required. Similarly some interventions may relate to work carried out by a department rather than individuals where no central record of activity is kept because this is not the kind of information we need, or more importantly, that a customer would usually request.

 

If you have any questions please call us on the above number.

 

Yours sincerely

 

[signature]

Pam Speed

Business Manager

Banking Service

I find the last paragraph interesting on a number of points:

 

a: How exactly does a department carry out a manual intervention? Does the office (or possibly an entire section of a building?) suddenly grow arms and handle my account files? One would assume that even in the case of a Departmental Intervention the manual aspects are still carried out by breathing, bipedal entities known as Human Beings?

 

b: If they are unable to determine how many manual interventions have taken place and when, how then are they able to establish a penalty fee which is a fair representation of their costs? By saying they don't know what manual interventions have occurred, are they not then saying these penalties are not calculated as a representation of their costs but are in fact arbitrary mandates, thus directly illustrating breach of the regulations?

 

Anyway, I guess now the fun starts

 

Paladine

[Paladine]

Got some copy statements through the post today. 12 for one account and 14 for another.

 

I will be starting my calculations for the prelim letter this evening since I am only missing 2 of the copy statements. I will either ammend these calculations tomorrow if the other two statements arrive, or I will estimate them and indicate that those months along with the microfiche months (which will be some time from delivery I expect) are estimates to be ammended at such time as the actual figures reach me. Then I am going to send off the prelim letter tomorrow after the post has been delivered.

 

Paladine

[Paladine]

Abbey have today withdrawn our overdraft and plunged us instantly £1600 into debt. They chose to do this on mortgage payment day as well. We have about 12 direct debits come out at the beginning of each month, will will now all bounce so we can look forward to another £400ish worth of charges from returned dd's, unauthorised overdraft and interest on the unauthorised overdraft.

 

To make things worse, my partner is on permanent sick, I am a full time student recently disabled and we have a 20 month old son.

 

We can't even access the online banking now. I can log in and see the balance but as soon as I try to enter the account screen I get instantly logged off. So we can't even check the direct debits we have going out so we can call the relevant parties and arrange for payment by another means.

 

Way to go Abbey.

 

Paladine

[Lula]

Have they given you notice? if they havnt then they are breaking the banking code, my advice would be to open a parachute account, change ALL your direct debits and payments in (the benefits office are very good at this) and also you need to do a site search for Letter of Appropriation, if you are living on benefits they are not allowed to use these for bank charges. Oh and also write to them, recorded delivery, and put the account formally in dispute.

 

Any other questions when you have done all this then come back and post in this thread and we will help as best we can

[Paladine]

Have they given you notice? if they havnt then they are breaking the banking code, my advice would be to open a parachute account, change ALL your direct debits and payments in (the benefits office are very good at this) and also you need to do a site search for Letter of Appropriation, if you are living on benefits they are not allowed to use these for bank charges. Oh and also write to them, recorded delivery, and put the account formally in dispute.

 

Any other questions when you have done all this then come back and post in this thread and we will help as best we can

 

I am trying to get through to Abbey on the phone now. My Finance Advice Officer at uni needs me to give Abbey permission to talk to them about the situation to try and get the overdraft reinstated.

 

Missus just phoned to make sure her next benefit payment doesn't go to the bank but they have apparently just sent a payment and it is too late to stop it so it is going to get swallowed by the overdraft.

 

My uni are seeing if they can give me an urgent cash grant under the hardship fund (ALF) scheme, so they are being very supportive thank god.

[feralkat]

You POOR thing - that sounds like an awful worry

 

Really hope that you can get Abbey to re-instate your O/D - but if they don't go at them all guns blazing - they really can't do what they have done to you.

 

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

 

Feralkat

[Lula]

Get the Letter of Appropriation, get your wife to take it into the branch today and demand that your money is accessible, they cannot take this although you have to be very firm with them.

 

Did they write to you and give you 28 days notice of the withdrawal of the o/d facility? if not they are breaking the banking code

[Paladine]

You POOR thing - that sounds like an awful worry

 

Really hope that you can get Abbey to re-instate your O/D - but if they don't go at them all guns blazing - they really can't do what they have done to you.

 

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

 

Feralkat

 

Just got off the phone with Abbey, they have reinstated the overdraft and confirmed the direct debits went out without any charges being incurred. Somewhat of a relief.

[feralkat]

What a relief!!!!!!!!!

 

Glad thats sorted for you - good luck with your claim

 

Feralkat

[ICY]

Did they give any explanation as to why they did it, that really is appauling underhand behaviour, i would get a parachute account opened just in case they do it again, and make sure you write all the details down of each of your direct debits/standing orders so you can arrange to get them set up with the new bank.

 

I have been lucky they have left my 950 overdraft alone while i have claimed from them, however there are plenty much worse off than me who they have almost crippled, although it cant be proved it is retaliation for taking them on, shame they will never admit this.

 

Best of luck

[scanner]

Just got off the phone with Abbey, they have reinstated the overdraft and confirmed the direct debits went out without any charges being incurred. Somewhat of a relief.

 

Who did you call at abbey. I called telephone banking and was told that the underwriters review the case on a monthly basis and seing mine not managed well have decided to stop the facility. I have not recieved any letters to the fact .

[Paladine]

Who did you call at abbey. I called telephone banking and was told that the underwriters review the case on a monthly basis and seing mine not managed well have decided to stop the facility. I have not recieved any letters to the fact .

 

I phoned telephone banking then selected the option for lost or stolen card (since that always goes through to a UK call center instead of India), then I asked to be put through to customer services and just spoke to them.

[Paladine]

OK it has been some time since I posted in this thread. My action against Abbey got delayed due to illness. I have now sent the letter requesting a refund of the unlawful charges on both accounts. I got a letter back about the OFT Waiver, but my letter before action goes out this week.

 

I do however have another problem.

 

Abbey have handed my student account over to debt collectors. I have told the debt collectors that the account is under dispute and that I am in the process of trying to recover charges which exceed the amount of the debt Abbey are trying to reclaim but they are not interested.

 

Today I got a letter saying they are commencing with County Court action (from the debt collectors so not a summons yet). The problem is they are seeking action in Rotherham Country Court. I am in Lancaster and I recently became disabled so there is no way I can get to Rotherham, furthermore I have a child and adult depend and I am a full time student.

 

The account they are claiming for is my student account which has a history of its own. In 2003 I had to suspend my studies due to illness (which I have since commenced again last October and am about to enter my final year). During the time that my studies were suspended I made sure £50 per month went into my student account to try and pay off as much of my authorised overdraft as possible. However, when I informed the bank that I had commenced my studies again late last year and asked for normal status to be resumed on my student account, they refused and instead cancelled my overdraft. I continued to pay in the £50 per month as I could afford no more but as you can see they have now handed it over to debt collectors.

 

I would like to get the County Court action either stayed or struck out on the grounds that it is vexatious. At the very least I feel it should be stayed pending the outcome of my higher value claim against Abbey on the same account. So I need some advice on what to do next. I cannot get to Rotherham so I first need to request my case be moved to my local County Court.

 

Can anyone provide me with a letter template to best explain my situation to the Judge requesting the case be moved to a local court and then requesting the case either be stayed or struck out? We are in severe hardship at the moment and my University recently (last week) gave us an emergency grant to try and see us through the summer until my next batch of student loans come through in October. I have cancelled the £50 standing order on the account now since it is just being eaten up by overdraft charges and interest which they continued to apply to my account.

 

Any help appreciated.

[Lula]

Hi again Paladine, firstly, if the account is in dispute then they are forbidden by the Banking code from doing this, take a look in the bank library section for a letter to a DCA, i am pretty sure that there is one there, if you cant find anything then come back to us. I would send the letter Recorded delivery and also send a letter the abbey recorded delivery , formally putting the account in dispute pending court action.

[Paladine]

Hi again Paladine, firstly, if the account is in dispute then they are forbidden by the Banking code from doing this, take a look in the bank library section for a letter to a DCA, i am pretty sure that there is one there, if you cant find anything then come back to us. I would send the letter Recorded delivery and also send a letter the abbey recorded delivery , formally putting the account in dispute pending court action.

 

I already told the DCA the account is in dispute and gave them the dispute reference number. They contacted Abbey and Abbey stated the dispute is no longer in effect and that they closed the dispute in April (this was relating to my dispute over the overdraft being cancelled) but I have never received anything from Abbey stating this dispute had been closed.

 

I don't actually have a court action against them yet as I am at the LBA stage. My LBA should have been sent on Monday but it is not so easy for me since I am unable to walk and my partner is agoraphobic, so we rely on family members to send our recorded delivery post. I am expecting the LBA will be sent on Friday when my mother-in-law works a half day so she can get to the post office and send the LBA.

 

Paladine

[Paladine]

Actually it just occurred to me that I have a new dispute number since Abbey's response to my request for payment. So I just phoned the DCA and gave them the new reference number, they have agreed to suspend action until they can get a confirmation from Abbey on the dispute.

 

Hopefully that will be enough to stay any further action.

[Lula]

excellent well done, but I advise you to follow this up with a letter

[Paladine]

excellent well done, but I advise you to follow this up with a letter

 

I can't see a DCA letter template in the library, can anyone point me to one?

 

Thanks

[Robdblynd]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

Have a look in here, I'm sure there's something that will do the job .... even if you have to amend it to suit your circumstances.

 

HTH. Good luck

[Paladine]

OK it seems Abbey have now passed my account onto another debt collection agency called Apex Credit Management Ltd.

 

Does anyone have a letter template I can send them telling them that the account is under dispute and is on hold pending the outcome of the High Court case between the banks and the OFT. Also relevant citation of the bankers code regarding passing on accounts under dispute would be helpful too (and anything else people may think is relevant).

 

Thanks

 

Alex