Anarchicant v Black Horse

[Anarchicant]

Took out credit agreement with Black Horse for purchase of furniture. Missed a few payments then negotiated reduced payments. I have now paid off the original amount credited but i am left with "collection activity fee" of £110. Therefore they are still requesting this total from me.

 

I am a little confused after following other threads and would like some clarity please. Should i pay the collection activity fee outstanding and attempt to get refund or should i challenge it before i pay?

 

I was going to send a complaint letter which basically will ask them to remove the charge or justify why they have calculated that figure. However seeing other threads there seems to be some sort of process in place.

 

Any advice welcome

 

Thank You

[Anarchicant]

This is the letter i am going to send. any tips or advice?

 

[YOUR NAME]

[YOUR ADDRESS]

[DATE]

 

[Co NAME]

[Co’S HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS]

 

Dear Sirs

Penalty & unfair charges – request for refund for [YOUR NAME, SORT CODE, and ACCOUNT NUMBER]

[iNSERT DETAILS of how charges were applied i.e. how much was charged, and how much over agreed overdraft or credit limit and how long did you exceed limit for etc.,].

I am of the view that your charges represent a penalty and are therefore irrecoverable at common law. In the Scottish case of Castaneda and Others v. Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (1904) 12 SLT 498 the House of Lords held that a contractual party can only recover damages for actual or liquidated losses incurred from a breach of contract. This is also the position in English law: Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79.

Your charges do not reflect any actual loss, instead they appear to represent a lucrative profit-making scheme. UK banks have recently given evidence to the House of Commons Treasury Committee on how bank charges are calculated: "The costs are going to pay for all the people we have who pursue debt, collect debt, speak to customers and chase payments. The way these charges are arrived at is by taking these total costs and making some assumptions about the volume that is going to come through to arrive at the individual charges" (2nd report, 25 January 2005, paragraph 50 - online here:

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtreasy/274/27405.htm).

 

Accordingly, the charges applied to my account are not a reasonable pre-estimate of your loss in relation to my account. Your charges would appear to represent a device to recover global losses (for example, loan defaulters, bad debt write off, including commercial lending in, and outwith, the UK).

 

Please refund these charges to my account within the next 7 days. I reserve the right to commence court proceedings without any further notice, and to seek an additional award for distress and inconvenience, together with legal expenses.

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

 

(signed)

[stevokenevo]

This is the letter i am going to send. any tips or advice?

 

My advice would be to read the FAQ's. the step-by-step instructions and the rules of engagement found on this site, before embarking on your journey to recover your charges.

 

You have obviously started your research, but it is unwise to mix and match information from various sources.

 

In this case you have sourced a template letter which is not recognised or endorsed by this site.

 

The template letters on here are tried and tested and 150,000 people cant be wrong....... ......... ...........can they!?!

 

Good luck none the less

[Anarchicant]

ok thank you

 

The problem i have had with the FAQ is that they are predominatly concerned with bank charges. I have received a refund from my bank just by using an adapted version of the above letter, and so thought it would be interesting to see response from black horse.

[stevokenevo]

you can still amend the standard letters to suit, i ammended them and used them with GHD the hair straightening people when they refused to repair the product ;-)

[Anarchicant]

Just got a reply to my letter from black horse. They have conducted a review of my account and of the £110 collection activity fee and they have established that although the charges were added within the terms and conditions of the agreement they have decided on this occasion to waive 50% of the fees as a gesture of goodwill. They enclosed a copy of the terms and conditions and highlighted the following term;

 

4. Charges if you break this agreement

4.1 If you fail to pay a monthly repayment on time then we may charge you a fee of £25 after you have been in arrears for at least 9 days. If after that you remain in arrears for this month then charge a further £30 for each month . etc etc (also mentions £15 charge for returned unpaid by bank)

 

 

So think i will settle for that and pay £55 to resolve matter.

 

Any thoughts?

[steven4064]

Their item 4 and 4.1 is effectively an admission that their charges are unlawful (although they obviously don't realise it!)

 

It says if you break this agreement (if breach this contract) we will charge you £25. If youcontinue to breach it, we will charge you £30/mnth. THey could not have made it clearer that these are penalties for breach of contract (and therefore uunlawfaul because of the cases you quoted in the OP)

 

Personally, I would ask them (via and SAR if you don't have all the statements) for a complete set of statements on your account. They have almost certainly charged you more than the £110 in penalties (eg when you didn't pay on time) and you can claim all of them back.