Fattie v First Direct

[bram stoker]

This is a friend of mine's claim diary. I am helping to claim back his charges. Today he sent the DPA letter with the £10 fee. The account has only been running for approx 3 years.

 

His only concern is that he doesn't want to fall out with his bank.

 

I'll keep you all updated on how he gets on.

[Bookworm]

Cool.

 

Yes, keep us posted.

[bram stoker]

I will. There'll be my brother's too so look out for that one as it should be approx £1,350 but I'll make a new post later. Mug or what. Anyone else need a hand??

[oops a daisy]

I hope you get a nice bottle of wine for all you help Vampiress Good luck with the claims

[bram stoker]

Thanks Oops a Daisy. I'm just happy to help - very sad I know.

 

Anyway - I've been told off. It's Fattie, not Fatty. So I've probably lost my bottle of wine as it is.

 

Fattie posted his DPA letter at lunchtime by recorded delivery and handed me the receipt to keep track just like I asked him to. Folks can be so obedient when there's money involved.

[bram stoker]

Fattie has just informed me that he got a letter from the bank saying his info will follow shortly and returned his cheque saying no payment was required.

 

Fattie's Mum threw the letter away so I've no other detail than that.

[bram stoker]

Fattie called me today saying he'd received all his bank statements and also notes of phone calls between him and his bank etc.

 

I haven't seen all this yet, but I presume any manual intervention will be noted. This is going to be very interesting to look at. I can't wait to get to work on Monday when he'll bring them in to me. Candy to a baby.

 

I've not yet read of anyone receiving this kind of complete package from First Direct and so quickly either, although admittedly, I've not read round FD threads much. Maybe they've got their act together a little bit. Not sure if it's good or bad news. They might fight back one day, but then, we know they've not a leg to stand on.

 

Fattie did a quick summise of the charges and interest and came to over £1k. I warned him he may not get all that interest back and explained. It'll give me my first real chance to use my spreadsheet.

 

I may just have to call round his house tomorrow and collect them.

 

Updates to follow...

[monkey_uk]

I've not yet read of anyone receiving this kind of complete package from First Direct and so quickly either

 

I think this is exactly what most people have received. Recently of course, I don't know about months ago...

 

good luck with the claim.

[bram stoker]

Ok, I've eventually got around to preparing the preliminary letter. £1,060.00 in charges and £36.83 in interest on charges totalling £1,096.83.

 

He'll post it recorded delivery on Monday - because I'll tell him to.

 

I've also told him I'm not writing anymore letters for him unless he pledges a 5% donation to this site. Lol.

 

Anyway, reading through his notes (same as Monkey_UK - Reference book notes and Martini notes) I was disgusted at this...

Cheque account debit balance £599 against limit £500, unable to contact, have left message on mobile telephone. K marker (account marker) added as home telephone number held is a dead line. Due to excess on account have issued CRD1 (standard letter) even though salary pending for tomorrow.[/Quote]

 

They really are a bunch of blood-sucking leeches. I'm completely convinced now.

 

There is an item he's going to claim because we're not sure what it is anyway, but it's a single item for £100 stated as Excess overdraft fee. This seems a lot for one fee, but there's nothing in the notes, so he's claiming it back.

 

Updates to follow.

[monkey_uk]

There is an item he's going to claim because we're not sure what it is anyway, but it's a single item for £100 stated as Excess overdraft fee. This seems a lot for one fee, but there's nothing in the notes, so he's claiming it back.

 

IIRC, the EXCESS overdraft fee is £25.00, this means that he went over his limit on 5 occasions that statement month (£30.00 over draft fee + 4x£25.00 EXCESS overdraft fees).

 

The £30.00 overdraft fee should be listed seperatly.

 

I may of course stand (sit) corrected....

[bram stoker]

Well, Monkey, remain seated. That sounds about right. It's still utterly disgusting, and I'm utterly disgusted.

[bram stoker]

Fattie did as he was told once more, and gave me the recorded delivery receipt for safe keeping. Prelim letter has now been posted.

[bram stoker]

Fattie brought me his letter, which is in response to his preliminary letter. Usual stuff about the charges not being a penalty, everything being in the T's and C's, and him having been provided a copy when opening the account.

 

Escaltion of concerns are to be addressed to Robert Kernaghan.

 

Drafting LBA this evening in reponse to this reply.

 

To be continued............

[bram stoker]

Ok, I'm drafting the LBA. I don't like the wording being so similar to the prelim to which they responded. Lots of it are repeated.

 

Prelim letter - states everything.

Response - says FD disagree.

LBA - shouldn't this be just "I'm sorry you disagree, here's another 14 days to think, refer to my letter of [date], etc.

 

Why are we repeating everything?

Explain and I'll use the standard template, otherwise, I disagree and will amend.

Help?

[bram stoker]

This is the letter I drafted for Fattie, pretty much the template but with an additional paragraph at the start...

 

Request for repayment of charges unlawfully levied from my account:

 

Your ref: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

SORT CODE: XXXXXX

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXX

 

In reply to your unsatisfactory response to my letter to you of 15 April I would like to re-iterate the following and inform you of my intentions.

 

I now understand that the regime of 'fees' that you have been applying to my account in relation to direct debit refusals, exceeding overdraft limits and so forth are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract that you agreed to at the time that I opened my account. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner that complies with UK law.

 

I am frankly shocked that you have operated my account in this way as I had always reposed confidence in your integrity and expertise as my fiduciary.

 

I calculate that you have taken £1,060.00 plus £36.83 which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum which you have taken. Total £1,096.83.

 

I require repayment in full of this money. If you do not comply fully within 14 days then I shall begin a claim against you for the full amount plus interest plus my costs and without further notice.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

[/Quote]

 

Fattie will be sending this today by recorded delivery.

[bram stoker]

Fattie had another charge applied to his account today. He rang them, told them he felt the amount was unjustified to cover their costs. He was told off and asked to manage his money better, but then the bank went on to say that they would refund the charge as a 'gesture of goodwill'.

 

I'll ask him to look out for notification of charges in future so we can get a letter off regarding pending charges before they are applied. And I'm, sure somewhere I've read that if they don't give him notification they are in breach of something.

 

I also told him off for mis-managing his money.

[bram stoker]

Last week Fatty received a letter form FD saying they don't agree blah blah, refer to T's % C's blah blah, Ombudsman leaflet blah blah, and I hope you will not find this course of action necessary.

 

Just for actually responding, they're getting a response sent to them tomorrow saying:

 

He doesn't need the ombudsman to further his claim as it's not a complaint.

He hopes it's not necessary either, so have a further 7 days to cough up.

 

I know, I'm too nice, but if he gets this without going to court, it's worth it, and it's only another 7 days extension on something he'd already written off (until someone pointed out to him it was unlawful of course).

[Movingon]

I think we're using the templates that Dave and BF put together because basically they contain certain phrases which have been carefully engineered to say only what we want to say and nothing else...

 

But there's nothing wrong with making your own letters up. BTW - I think that the heading "Letter Before Action" is in some obscure way important...

[bram stoker]

Don't worry, I kept the heading LBA. I just feel the need to divert slightly from the system, especially with a third letter. Priority No.1 is to try all attempts to settle without court action. The bank's response to the 2nd letter had some points I felt were worth replying to, so I whipped off a reply. If it came to court, the judge would certainly not look unfavourably on those actions.

[bram stoker]

Super fast response from 3rd letter stating that their previous letter was their final response. So that's nice and clear then.

 

So today Fattie went to the court to file his N1 form. He'd not filled in the defendant's address in the box, bottom left of the form. Why it has to be on one page twice, I've no idea. The clerk requested he do this, which he did - or so I thought.

 

Once he was back in the office I looked at a copy of the form and saw his own name and address in the box! He called them, and had to run back to the court to give them a corrected copy before they issued the claim. Honestly!!!!!

 

So - pay attention to minor details folks.

 

Claim now filed with the courts. Awaiting claim number.

[bram stoker]

Forgot to mention, Fattie opened a Citibank parachute account, and received a £75 incentive for doing so!!!!!

[kazzaw]

How did he get the £75 offer?

[bram stoker]

How did he get the £75 offer?

He's not here until Monday. I'll try to find out before then, but will definitely get a link or something here by then.

[bram stoker]

Sorry for not getting back sooner Kazzaw. The account with cashback was if you had your salary paid in there and it is over a certain amount a month. There's a few cashback current accounts around.

[bram stoker]

Update:

 

Fattie has received a letter from DG solicitors offering the full amount, but it has the usual "full and final" and "strictly confidential" to sign.

 

He 1. doesn't want his account closed, 2. wants to do whatever will help the site, and 3. will do whatever I tell him to do.

 

But he really doesn't want his account closed.

 

So, what do you all reckon I should tell him to tell the bank. Nothing rude!