Cahoot/Abbey Not Playing Ball - Can Someone Advise?

Ex-Spendaholic

I have a loan with Cahoot which is with a DCA now and part of a DMP. I wrote to them in June claiming back £210 charges. They wrote to me on 19 June saying to go and boil my head, their charges were fair etc etc. So I sent them Letter 2 on 24 June and told them to pay the £210 or I'd start court proceedings on 1 August.

Today I receive a letter saying that they had already told me that the court case was on hold and that they would register my complaint now and basically I was to go away and leave them alone. It then said that if I send any further letters they will just add them to the file without further acknowledgement.

However I have now noticed that the letter talks about bank charges. They have also sent me 2 pages of photocopied information from the Ombudsman about overdraft charges.

Now this is where I am confused. I know that bank charges claims are on hold and I know that credit card charges claims aren't. I assumed that for loans the gates are still open. Am I wrong in this?

So what do I do now? Do I accept that they are doing nothing until after the court case or do I write/ring them and tell them its not overdraft charges per se but charges added to a loan.

Any advice appreciated.

esmerellda

Late Payment charges on a loan are still reclaimable under standard penalty fee arguments.

Write back and remind them that you are not claiming charges on a bank account and your complaint should be handled within the FSA guidelines (8 weeks if ur doing complaint - if you want to whack them to court then 14 days etc) and your complaint is not subject to any waiver.

shooter

I agree with Esmerelda but would add that should they continue to ignore your request that you will be contacting the FSA and the FOS this might be enough to get them to take you seriously

as an aside would you fit the criterior for hardship?

have a look at this thread to see if you do

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=893673

post 106/ page 6 gives you all the criterior

I will PM one of the mods who may be up on this type of claim

Good luck

Ex-Spendaholic

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Yes I probably would meet the hardship criteria as I did with Halifax. However I don't feel I should need to go down that line as there isn't a stay on these type of claims.

I think I'll write to them tomorrow telling them that they don't know their donkey from their elbow and that this is a loan and not an unauthorised overdraft we are talking about.

Will let you know how it goes.

Ex-Spendaholic

Wrote to them today so will see what happens now.