Charges + Account Switch with unswitched DDs

[Abandon All Fear]

Hi,

 

I have been with A&L for approximately 2 years, when I switched from HSBC (evil 's) and in 2 years have accrued about £400 in charges.

 

I also did a switch from standard current account to Premier account last year, which I understand by law all DDs and SOs should be done within 3 days on your behalf.

 

Well I also discovered this month that a number of those DDs didnt actually get transferred and now I have been charged by those creditors. So I am writing my letter to request charges + dd charges.

 

Not sure if I should contact the third party creditors instead for their charges but I thought what the heck, why not just lump it all on A&L for them to sort out because its their cock-up!

 

My Letter:

 

 

[My Address]

 

Alliance & Leicester

11th May 2006

 

Request for repayment of charges

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

Account Numbers: Premier: [Account] Current: [Account]

 

My request

I am writing to ask you to refund to me the charges which you have levied from my account over the last XX years. I now understand that the regime of fees, which 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. If you say that they are not then will you please demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put by as a result of my breaches in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs?

 

I am also writing with regards to the switching over of my account from current (XXXXXX) to Premier (XXXXXX) on [Date]. I switched with the understanding, that under law you were obliged to change over all of my direct debits and standing orders automatically on my behalf. Since then I have discovered a number of my direct debits were not changed over due to a failure of communication between Alliance & Leicester and my creditors. Due to this I have now succumbed to the following charges from creditors:

 

[Charge 1] of £30.12.

[Charge 2] of £15 suspended 14 days.

[Account] I have 7 days to re-arrange before service suspended.

[Charge 4] of £48.00 in total.

 

I believe this constitutes a breach of your agreement to arrange switch over within 3 working days. I will be contacting these creditors individually myself, however I request you dutifully contact them to arrange a switch-over of direct debit to my Premier Account, refund the charges to my account and request that any changes to my credit rating and credit scoring be cancelled due to your administrative error.

Additionally it has now been confirmed that your particularly high level of penalties are considered to be unfair per se by the OFT who reported on the 5th April 2006 and are therefore presumed to be unlawful in the absence of specific proof to the contrary.

 

Your responsibilities

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract, which 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, which 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 consider that your repeated representations that your charges are fair and reasonable are deceptive and that they have deceived me into agreeing to pay them.

 

You concealment of the true nature of your charges has prevented me from asserting my right until now.

 

What I require

I calculate that you have taken £400.00 plus interest, which you have charged me in overdraft interest for the sum, which you have taken. I also a further calculate £78.12 plus interest for direct debits not switched.

 

My targets to resolve this matter

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you will prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

 

I will give you 14 days to reply to me accepting unconditionally my request in principle and letting me know a date by which I will receive payment. If you do not respond or you do not respond positively within this time period, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Abandon All Fear

 

I will be sending this letter tomorrow, unless anyone has any suggestions or corrections to make:confused:

[Abandon All Fear]

Just an update:

 

No response from A&L, has anyone else had this problem? Anyway sent the LBA letter on 26th May with 14 days deadline!

 

Modified it just to re-iterate my point about the dd charges incurred as a result of their incompetence.

[Abandon All Fear]

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