DonaldTramp v Bank of Scotland

[donaldtramp]

How you doing folks

Just wanted to post what I'm up to so you guys can stop me if I go to do the wrong thing!

 

My story is left BoS about a year ago as I was sick of being ripped off.

Joined Martins (MSE)site and was directed here.

 

I have all my statements.

I've worked out my charges over the last 5 years to be £X (£X with interest)

I've included charges of £8.50 a month "account maintenance charges" that were levied when I went over my limit in any given month, in these calculations. Has anyone else got these back?

I'm going to send the letter demanding repayment registered delivery tomorrow to my old branch. Is this the right way of going about it???

I've heard and read conflicting stories as to where to send this letter to. Some people say straight to customer services others have said to my branch.

 

I take it even though my charges are over 1500 quid I don't have to worry about claim splitting until I find out their response?

 

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

DT

Edited March 22, 2009 by donaldtramp

[Rooster-UK]

Hi Donald.

 

It looks as though you have it all under control.

Have you read the FAQs and the step by step guide in the library section?

If not then give them a few days of your attention. You will find it very beneficial.

 

Good luck with your claim.

 

Regards, Rooster.

[donaldtramp]

Thanks Rooster,

 

Yup, got the FAQ and following the step by step instructions. I've spent a couple of days reading up from the experiences of other folks on here.

It's great, thanks folks. Can't wait to do the Halifax over as they have done to me.

I'll keep the board updated with my experiences and hopefully help someone else out down the road.

 

Cheers

DT

[donaldtramp]

Well that's HBOS starting to respond. Miss Tramp (my girlfriend) sent of her demand for cash at the same time as me. HBOS have responded with an attempt to Fob her off.

 

"Thank you for highlighting your concerns in letter dated XXXXXX. I am sorry that you have found it necessary to contact us regarding charges on your account. Like other organisations HBOS incurs additional costs when an item is returned unpaid, or paid against an unauthorised overdraft. Rather than pass these costs on to unaffected accounts, charges are applied only to the account concerned, so we do not penalise all of our customers. These charges only partly cover the costs we incur and compare favourably to our competitors.

 

When you open a bank account, you agree to the T&Cs of the account and a copy of which you are issued with. These terms state that if you have insufficient funds to meet payments or enter in to overdrafts that have not been pre-arranged, then charge will be applied to your accounts. As a customer, you have a responsibility to operate your accounts within the T&Cs. Our charging policy is clearly outlined in the T&Cs that apply to your account.

 

You can easily avoid all charges. By reviewing current overdraft provision, you can avoid charges entirely- the vast majority of banking customers never incur charges and bank for free.

 

Blah blah blah

 

We are keen to resolve your concerns, if we are unable to do so we will provide you with details of how you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service for help. If I don't hear from you in the next 8 weeks I will asume you are happy.

 

If you would like to discuss your concerns, please telephone me on XXXX"

Now because they have responded to our original letter I take it we can just send in the next letter (Letter Before Action) without waiting for our original 14 day timescale to pass?

 

They have gave an address in Leeds as their contact address in their letter. Yet have gave a local telephone number as a contact no.

 

Can I send the LBA now?:idea:(Quite keen to get on with it;))

To the local branch again or this PO box in Leeds?:idea:

 

(P.S. I typed the letter out to help anyone else who comes across my thread)

[fkerr1973]

Cheers for the posting i'm gathering as much info as possible before starting the process with HBOS. Can't wait to begin and getting lost of confidence from everyone else's fight. Keep us posted i'm sure in the not to distant future i'll get the same letter. I'll post when i start.

[donaldtramp]

Well folks that's Miss Tramps letter before action posted. We waited for the full 14 days from her original demand letter to post the LBA. The letter was posted to the PO box in Leeds to the "banking advisor" who responded to her letter to;

PO box 548

Leeds

LS1 1WU

 

 

 

Just to show the different responses, I received a letter from the assistant manager of my old branch(the account is long closed) which stated,

 

 

 

Dear Mr Tramp,

 

Thank you for your letter of 30th December 2006 regarding the charges that have been applied to your Bank of Scotland Current Account.

 

I have passed your complaint to our Customer Relations department who will issue you with a full response to your letter.

 

You will find enclosed a copy of our leaflet which tells you how we will handle your complaint.

 

Your concerns will be dealt with as quickly as possible, but if you need to speak to me in the meantime please telephone me on XXXXX

 

Yours Mr assistant manager

I've followed the instructions on CAG and MoneysavingExpert and ignored this letter from him and carried on regardless.

I've just typed up my LBA stating as part of it "as I have not received a satisfactory response". It is off registered post tomorrow back to the assistant manager at the local branch.

 

I'm posting to show that there are different letters that you can get and different approaches the bank will make, both me and my GF used to bank at the same branch and have had these different responses from the same branch.

 

Folks I'm absolutely loving this boot on the other foot stuff. If you are reading this and considering whether or not to do it. GO FOR IT!!!! I can't tell you how nice it feels to be demanding MY MONEY back from the bank after all those years of them taking it from me.

And the weight of the law is behind us....

[donaldtramp]

sorry posted twice!

[donaldtramp]

Well that's the 2 weeks passed that I gave the BoS to reply to my LBA. They have not responded.

I will be filing my claims in court next week.

My total charges amount to £X. Plus over £X interest at the statutory rate.

I'm looking for some friendly advice and assurance that I'm doing the right thing now:confused:

 

I am going to add up the first Xpounds worth of charges Then file that as a summary cause action and claim the interest on that X pounds worth and stick that in at my local court.

 

The next £150 I will file separately as a small claim and add the interest for these charges at the statutory(court rate 8%) and file this at the same time.

 

Does this seem to be a sensible plan or should I split the summary cause further, into 2 £X claims. (I can't really see why people would do this, looks better to me as one claim???)

 

Thanks for reading

DT

Edited March 22, 2009 by donaldtramp

[donaldtramp]

Well 1:20 AM on a Sunday night but that is all my small claims/ summary cause forms filled out with thanks to the Scottish Procedure post above.

I now have all my forms ready, I split it 2 ways, 1 claim for £X(summary cause) and the other for 120 ish(small claim)

 

I now have 2 piles each with;

all the court forms filled out,

spreadsheets printed to add up to back up each case,

copies of all the correspondence to the banks,

stubs from recorded deliveries

 

Off to the court tomorrow with the 2 piles and my court fees. Can't wait!!!

But first I'm off to bed, shattered!!!!

 

I'll let you guys know what happens.........

Edited March 22, 2009 by donaldtramp

[Giveitback]

good going, and good luck. Not that you'll need it!

[donaldtramp]

As far as I can see the only difference I have noticed is that the summons for a Summary cause action must be served by a Sheriff Officer. It doesn't affect the date of the case being heard. The cost of bringing it is also the same £39.

It is an extra cost for the Sheriff Officers, but hey ho at the end of the day the Bank of Scotland is going to be picking up the tab. And the more expenses the better to hit them with.

 

Still makes me wonder why everyone is splitting claims into 750 lumps......

 

DT

[maroondevo52]

Hi Donald,

 

It cost me £15.97. for the sheriff's Officer, but as you say the bank will have to swallow that. I think the reason some people don't want to go down the Summary Cause route is when claiming Small Claims the only thing you will loose is your £39.00 court fee.(if you were to loose) but if you were to loose using Summary Cause it could cost you somewhere in the high hundreds.I was told by the Sheriff's Clerk I'd have to be the most unluckiest person on the planet to loose!

 

Best wishes with your claim.

 

Regards.

 

Scott.

[donaldtramp]

Well folks it's been a while. Been waiting for the Court process to grind on.

My return date for both my Small Claims and Summary Cause is on Thursday this week coming. I'm looking forward to phoning up the Court on Friday to find out the banks response.

In the meantime waiting for the return date the only communication I have received from the BoS is standard letters saying that

They will deal with my complaint within 8 weeks blah blah

Poor little BoS claim dept they must be quite busy just now, can't imagine why?

 

I'll post the results up in case it helps anyone else out!

 

Cheers all

DT

[roadrunner]

Hi DT,

 

Watching your post with interest. I have a return date of 22nd March for a summary cause I filed against the Halifax.

 

So good luck, keep us posted

X

[donaldtramp]

Only thing that worries me is reading GeorgeMcn's post about the splitting claims. I have a summary Cause and Small claim going through on the same day for the same account. Oh well too late now, just have to see what happens. Only thing that goes in my favour is the fact that the small claim is for a relatively small amount £130ish plus interest. Don't think it will be in their interests to employ a lawyer to fight this. But will just have to wait and see....

 

DT

[change-it]

good luck!

I also read georgemcn's post- what rotten Luck!!AGGGH feel really bad for him.Makes you wonder (if possible for people) about going down the English route to claim full amount.

[donaldtramp]

Been thinking more about my case in the light of georgemcns loss....

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/scotland/19737-george-mcm-clydesdale-bank-6.html

 

I think it's best to let my small claim and summary cause return day pass. If the BoS make any attempt to defend any of them I will just drop the small claim. It's a couple of hundred quid sacrifice to ensure I get the big claim (summary action) for 2 grand(including interest).

 

I have been reading upon the small claims guidance on the court website. You can drop a case at any point. So wait until Friday and find out what the banks response is. Getting quite excited now!!!Oh and a wee bit nervous!

 

I would hate to lose out on my big claim to win a couple of hundred.

 

Oh and a big thanks to georgemcn for making us all aware of this tactic.

 

Next move is up to the BoS........

[roadrunner]

Hi DT,

 

I'm anxious to see how you go.

I'd do the same, sacrifice the small claim and stick with the summary cause, for the bigger sum

I hope it all goes well for you, mind keep us posted.....got everything crossed for you !!

 

X

[donaldtramp]

Well I spoke to the Court Clerk today by phone and she told me that I can drop any case at any time during the procedings.She said I should at least wait till I get the defendants response. So probably think it is best to wait and see how the BoS repond on Friday. I've came all this way and if they don't put forward a defence or fail to acknowledge the claims I'll push ahead with both claims.

 

Does anyone out there think this tactic could go against me? I mean if the bank doesn't enter a defence that's me won isn't it? Once past the return date they cannot enter any further defence, am I correct?

 

So my tactics still stand unless any of you out there think this is a bad way to go forward. I mean if they defend the small claim I just drop it and push on with my summary cause.

 

Any thoughts?

Roadrunner what do you think?

[donaldtramp]

Oh and roadrunner, just to give you all the facts of my case I'm claiming against an account that is already closed. (Closed due to the robbery that they commited in my account:evil:)

 

So after reading your thread, just thought I'd make you aware that I don't have a HBOS account to check for incoming funds. So they don't really have an easy way of settling me up before court.

 

Cheers

DT

[roadrunner]

Well DT,

The way I see it at the moment you have nothing to lose. As you say, wait until Friday and if they haven't entered a defence on either of your cases...you win. I'm pretty sure that if they don't enter anything by your return date, they can't after the fact. If by any miracle they even bother to acknowledge your claim by submitting a defence, you still have the option to drop the small claim and carry on with your summary cause.

Are you worried at all about appearing in Court or not? I have to say I am bricking it but reading all the success stories does spur me on a little.

Did you close your account and open another on the off chance they'd close it first? I've actually transferred my current account but have kept my Halibags open just to make it easier for them to give me back my money

X

[donaldtramp]

Not worried that much about appearing in Court. Obviously a wee bit nervous but not overly worried. The only reason I'll have to appear in court is if they challenge the cases. If they challenge the small claim, I'll drop it. Then it's full steam ahead at court to get them to justify their charges in my summary cause. I think the BoS will be more worried than me about appearing in court!!! I can't see them wanting to appear and defend themselves and their charges. Just remember they have much, much more to lose than we have!!

 

I have done a small claim against someone before and the Court staff were very helpful and will explain everything to you if you ask. The process is fairly easy but the one thing I would say to watch out for is deadlines. You have to do certain things in a certain time or the case can go wrong and be dropped. The best way to keep on top of it is to keep asking the court clerk what the next thing to do is and when you have to do it by. It's all in the guide on the Scottish Court website as well.

 

I closed my BoS account over a year and a half ago due to charges and went over to the A&L.

 

DT

[roadrunner]

Cheers DT,

 

Yep I'm trying to be as confident as I can, never done anything like this before, so it is a little daunting!!

But as you say I'm sure there more worried than us, the Scottish Court website has a lot of good info, I have nothing to do until the day after my return date, so that will be the 23rd March I'll be phoning to see what's happening

I've left a posting on my own thread, was wondering whether it would be worthwhile popping off a letter to their legal Depart, prior to the return date, you know just to let them know that I'm organised to go to Court and to see if they want to settle beforehand??? but I do want to gee them up but dont want to shoot myself in the foot either Or best leave well alone??

Any ideas?

X

[donaldtramp]

Well guys that's the bank had their chance to reply.

 

Sitting here with everything crossed for no response from BoS!!!

 

I'll let you all know what they have replied with tomorrow as soon as I can get on t'internet.

 

DT

[change-it]

Hi DT

 

Best of Luck!

 

change-it