First Direct - Started the ball rolling, first letter

[BankFodder]

Be prepared to go to court if they should defend.

[carled]

Ah, sorry... of course!

 

Knowing my luck, I'll be the one they decide to go for... oh well, it's under £5,000 so they can't get me for anything else...

[vix2000]

Hi Carled. Look at my thread in other institutions. I'm in the same boat. My deadline runs out monday 13th march after giving them an extra 10 working days at their request. They then replied on thursday saying they need another 10 working days to investigate. Seems they're taking the pi@s of us both. Maybe we'll both be the first, hey!!!!! Just my luck too.

[carled]

Well... I decided to use the proper court forms to allow me to structure things properly and sent off the court forms last Wednesday. Not yet heard back with a case no. or anything, but will contact admins when I hear.

 

Yesterday (more than 7 days after previous letter saying they would definitely respond within 7 days) I got a letter from them... guess what? It's taking longer to investigate than they thought, they appreciate my patience (hah!) and they'll be in touch "definitely" within 7 days...

 

They're going to have little surprise when the court forms reach them shortly, aren't they?

[carled]

Court forms received back stamped. Dave PM'd with details for litigation section.

 

On dates, can someone please clarify what the timescale is as I'm a bit confused by this. On the court form, the official date of issue is 15th March. However, First Direct won't have received the forms on that day. Do I assume they got the documents yesterday (the same as I did) and the 14 days to respond goes from then?

[BankFodder]

I think that it is normally 2 working days for deemed service.

[carled]

Is that two working days from when I received my forms (ie yesterday) or from the date of issue, bankfodder?

[carled]

Got home today to find a letter waiting from First Direct written by Sam Farrell in Customer Relations... obviously they wrote this before getting the court documents served on them!

 

 

 

Thank you for your letter dated 21 February requesting a refund of £3579.31.

first direct does not agree with your contention that the charges which have been applied to your account constitute a penalty and are therefore unenforceable. The contract between the bank and its customer is governed by our Account Terms and Conditions. In respect of overdrafts, l would refer you specifically to Part 2: Operating Your Account, Clause 6.9,

which states: -

 

''If your account goes overdrawn without an agreed overdraft, or you go over an agreed overdraft limit, we will charge interest at our Unauthorised Overdraft Interest Rate on the amount of unauthorised borrowing. We will also charge you an Overdraft Fee for any statement Month-when the balance on your account exceeds your limit-, whether for one day or more. An Excess Overdraft Fee will also be charged for any day where there are subsequent increases in the excess or a reoccurrence of an excess during the statement month. Our Overdraft Fees are published in our Interest Rates and Charges leaflet.”

 

Our fees and charges are clearly stated in our published Interest Rates and Charges leaflet and the circumstances in which these charges apply are clearly set out in our terms and conditions which you will have been provided with a copy of when you opened your account.

 

We are therefore unable to agree to your request. If you wish to escalate your concerns to the next stage, you can write to Robert Kernaghan, Customer Relations Manager, at the above address.

 

If we do not hear from you within the next eight weeks, we will consider matters resolved.

 

Complaints we cannot resolve may ultimately be referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service, further details of which can be found in our 'listening to your comments' leaflet.

 

Simply astonishing to find that they took some 21 days to come up with the same letter they have written to loads of other people, isn't it?

[vix2000]

Identical to the letter we recieved today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[waynus]

Simply astonishing to find that they took some 21 days to come up with the same letter they have written to loads of other people, isn't it?

 

Is it just possible they have checked their position with their Legal bods and have decided to challenge you guys? Like you said, it has taken them over 3 weeks to decline your requests. It may be they know (or think) they are going to be safe and are happy to defend their corner. Just a thought!

[vix2000]

As I said on another thread, do you think that they send all these letters then the final one to deter the majority of people from persuing it further?

[richardc]

Yes. They will delay, obfuscate and generally try to make you go away.

 

Don't give up. You set the agenda not them.

 

Just keep to the timetable.

 

They will, in the end get the message.

[Seminole]

Of course they do. Most of the banks aren't prepared to risk things in court but they will try to grind you down, put you off, divert you down blind alleys, suggest that you make irrelevant complaints to the ombusdman, say they accidentally dropped your letter in the office fish tank, claim they don't know you, say the guy you need to speak to you has gone backpacking for six months in the Andes... you get the picture.

 

The banks do not have your best interests at heart. They do not want to "investigate your complaint" and "resolve it to your complete satisfaction". They want you to go away so that they can extort unlawful penalty charges from some other sap.

 

Take control. Set the agenda and take your money back!

[carled]

Latest update... no news is good news I hope...

 

I have the court docs in my possession from when they were issued - the court states that First Direct have "until the 6th April to respond" making that Thursday. Now onto semantics... "until Thursday"? Is that by Wednesday evening or by Thursday 6th at, say, 5pm? So far there's not a dicky bird in response, so I hope the barstewards have managed to overlook the court form and I can slap in a default judgement on them.

 

I bet they get in a response to extend their time limit JUST in time...

[MondeoST24]

Thats interesting mate, i'm just about to file my claim.

 

To answer your question I believe its Thursday at 4pm. Thats when the court staff finish.

[carled]

OK... I suppose that the phrase is, "Wahoo!" Just spoken to the county court and they have confirmed that First Direct have failed to file any acknowledgment or defence by the end of yesterday... she said, "you can now apply for default judgement."

 

Can I just clarify, before putting in the claim, that I can add on x days worth of interest (at 68p per day as specified on my claim) now? It'll add another 24 days, which is £16.32.

[MondeoST24]

Well done mate, they acknowledged mine this morning

[chriszammett]

Well done mate, they acknowledged mine this morning

 

hope this isn't the start of them going to defend all the claims!

[edinburgheire]

Congrats

[MondeoST24]

hope this isn't the start of them going to defend all the claims!

 

In light of the OFT statement, I eagerly await the defence!

[monkey_uk]

Mondeo - where are you based? i.e which court will the hearing be at if FD dare to let it go that far?

 

Reply by PrivMsg is you wish.

[vix2000]

Started the ball rolling, first letter

 

Bet this seems like a long time ago. Well done and congratulations. Have a drink for all of us!!!!!

 

Just out of interest, in case they do the same to us, and by then you'll be sworn to secrecy, what do you recon is a fair price to keep your gob shut.

 

Keep your fingers crossed for us, please!!!!!!!

 

Will keep you informed.

[carled]

Further update (good grief these things drag on!)

 

Spoke to court today and apparently "judgement was entered" yesterday (19th April). Apparently this means that a letter has been sent out to both me and the bank. I will give them until the middle of next week to cough up and then go to the enforcement people to try and sort out the next step...

 

Hopefully FD will roll over now and just pay up, although it does appeal to my twisted sense of humour to have a bailiff knocking on their door...

 

I bet that if/when they finally pay up, it'll be accompanied by a letter telling me to close my account forthwith...

[monkey_uk]

Excellent news!

 

The worst thing about all this, for me at least is that [apart from their unlawful penalty charges] they're a really good bank to deal with in my opinion!

[sharont1]

fantastic news well done, let us all know how it goes