bank charges refunds challenge!

hazel09

I recently received a letter from my current bank in reply of the claim issued by my local courts:

Nationwide Building Society Account Maintenance Refund of Charges Team Kings Park Road Moultoa Park Northampton XX3 6NW

We originally responded to your claim on the 23^ Mairb 3009. if you would like us to re assess rour complaint again we will need you to complete another Statement of Means form, so we have up to date figures of your income and outgoings.
We have also enclosed a Statement of Means form which we need you to complete and return in the enclosed envelope.
Once your Statement of Means form and the information has been received, we should be able to send you a full response by 23rd August 2009. Alternatively you can contact our helpdesk on 0845 6028779 to provide this information over the phone.
The Nationwide Group uses die Financial Services Autiiority rules when dealing with customers' concerns. We've enclosed a leaflet that explains our Internal Complaints Procedure.
But in the meantime, if you'd like to raise any queries with us, our address and telephone number is at the top of this letter.



Nicol Golding Team Manager Refund of Charges Team Account Maintenance



I have been chrged once again whilst my county court was in a process of
issuing a claim against NW. I wrote to them at that time and here is their response:

Account Maintenance

Refund of Charges Team

Kings Park Road

Moulton Park

Northampton

NN3 6NW

© 08456028779 0 www.nationwide.co.uk

25 June 2009

Yout Flex Account:
Thank you for your recent letter regarding our response to your complaint about FlexAccount charges.
We appreciate that this was not the reply you were seeking, but there is very little else we can tell you at present.
As we have explained, Nationwide, along with other UK financial service providers, and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), are involved in a legal case to clarify the legal position regarding bank charges. We will not therefore be able to respond fully to your complaint whilst the test case is running. However, once a final decision on the case is reached, we will contact you again with a full reply to the concerns you have raised about charges.
We are sorry that we are unable to provide any further information at this stage. However, we will naturally keep you updated with the progress of the court case by making announcements on our internet site and in the media.
Yours sincerely
LiVa Kushniruk Customer Service Manager Account Maintenance



Nationwide Building Society is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for life assurance, pensions, unit trusts, insurance and regulated mortgages
. Natonwde House. Pipers Way. Swindon, SN38 1NW


There is another aspect of this and that is when I wrote to my bank Nationwide to make them aware that I will be contacting the courts to get unfair charges refunded back to me and their response was as follow:

<^Ji Nationwide

We are sorry that we have not been able to respond in full to your complaint now, but we (together with the FSA and the OFT) think that it is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how we should respond to your complaint.
Obviously exactly what will happen next will depend on the courts. We do not know how long the case will take — we have promised to proceed as quickly as possible but inevitably given the importance of the issues being considered this may take many months to finally resolve. But we can assure you that once the legal proceedings are completed we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. If at that stage you do not agree with our conclusions you will of course be able to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service ("FOS") (or to the courts).
Given this court case we have asked both the FOS and the courts not to proceed with any other case they are hearing until the test case is resolved. The FOS has indicated that as a general proposition it will not proceed with cases which rely on the legal issues being considered in the test case.
Similarly, you should be aware that if you choose to issue a claim in the County Courts Nationwide will apply to the Court for an order to stay your action until resolution of the proceedings with the OFT. I

We will keep you updated appropriately about the proceedings with the OFT. You can also check the latest position on our •website at www.nationwide.co.uk.
Yours sincerely

Lisa Kushniruk Customer Service Manager Account Maintenance
2 of 2
Nationwide Building Society is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for life assurance, pensions, unit trusts, insurance and regulated mortgages.
Nationwide Building Society, Nationwide House, Pipers Way, Swindon, SN38 1NW


I need an advise for what should I do at this stage? shall I wait until the courts or go ahead and fill out another hardship form to my bank.I am so sick and fed of all this!!SOME ONE PLEASE HELP ME

natweststaffmember

Can I ask which address you used to file a court claim because their bank charges team would not respond to a county court claim?

hazel09

oops, have I given the wrong address to the court...? I have given the court the above department's address and had thought they are the ones whom I have been dealing with with regards to the claim.

but then which ever the court has sent my claim. Surely, it had to be passed onto the right department by the banks staff!

can some one help,its just driving me insane!!

hazel

natweststaffmember

hazel09 wrote: »

oops, have I given the wrong address to the court...? I have given the court the above department's address and had thought they are the ones whom I have been dealing with with regards to the claim.

but then which ever the court has sent my claim. Surely, it had to be passed onto the right department by the banks staff!

can some one help,its just driving me insane!!

hazel

The bank writing to you is separate to a court claim in which the bank will apply to have a stay put on the claim which normally is automatic. However, if the address is wrong it may well happen that you might get a judgement by default however Nationwide will have the right to set aside the judgement.
Have you completed the statement of means again?

hazel09

I'v not sent or filled any form with the details of financial situation as i have already done it four months ago to the NW and have been refused.

Please accept my apology for not making things clear about the responses from NW bank I'v posted in my earlier message. I tried my best to scan and then saving them on Word. But when I pasted them onto the earlier message they are not aligned.The detail how the NW using tactics are on them.


Should call my county courts with the update?
The address I used is the "Maintance and charges refunds team based in Northampton".
regards
hazel

natweststaffmember

hazel09 wrote: »

I'v not sent or filled any form with the details of financial situation as i have already done it four months ago to the NW and have been refused.

Please accept my apology for not making things clear about the responses from NW bank I'v posted in my earlier message. I tried my best to scan and then saving them on Word. But when I pasted them onto the earlier message they are not aligned.The detail how the NW using tactics are on them.


Should call my county courts with the update?
The address I used is the "Maintance and charges refunds team based in Northampton".
regards
hazel

Hazel, check the status of your claim today.
Complete a new income and expediture form because your situation may have changed in 4 months so unless they know they will assume that the I&E is the same so they will say no again.
OK?

hazel09

hi natweststaffmember,

thanx for the feed back. i have sent my I/E form back to the NW and am waiting to hear back from them. it looks all daunting and not sure the bank will consider my financial difficulty as they have refused me in the past.

regards
ruqia

hazel09

natweststaffmember wrote: »

Hazel, check the status of your claim today.
Complete a new income and expediture form because your situation may have changed in 4 months so unless they know they will assume that the I&E is the same so they will say no again.
OK?

Hi ,
Once again I have been refused by Nationwide for the refunds of those charges which I have made a claim through my local county courts. The bank had sent me I/E sheet or form to fill out after receiving my claim from the courts. The I/E form was sent back to them. I did forget to put some of the house hold related expenses !

On the I/E form I had £5.00 surplus, could this be a problem?? Although, when the bank chrges me for the unpaid referral fee of £30.00,this does cause me to fall into unagreed overdraft for which bank penalises me further!

I just dont know what to do or what shall i instruct the courts to do next. I can not afford to pay to the lawyer charges to give the claim to them to pursue. any advice will be greatly appreciated

hazel

natweststaffmember

hazel09 wrote: »

Hi ,
Once again I have been refused by Nationwide for the refunds of those charges which I have made a claim through my local county courts. The bank had sent me I/E sheet or form to fill out after receiving my claim from the courts. The I/E form was sent back to them. I did forget to put some of the house hold related expenses !

On the I/E form I had £5.00 surplus, could this be a problem?? Although, when the bank chrges me for the unpaid referral fee of £30.00,this does cause me to fall into unagreed overdraft for which bank penalises me further!

I just dont know what to do or what shall i instruct the courts to do next. I can not afford to pay to the lawyer charges to give the claim to them to pursue. any advice will be greatly appreciated

hazel

The court claim will be stayed until the conclusion of the OFT test case issues. This is done automatically. I'm not entirely sure why you went the court route but nonetheless I will see what we can do with the I&E form. Did you have priority debt arrears notices sent in as well?
What did they say as to the reason why they were not dealing with the claim at the moment?

hazel09

natweststaffmember wrote: »

The court claim will be stayed until the conclusion of the OFT test case issues. This is done automatically. I'm not entirely sure why you went the court route but nonetheless I will see what we can do with the I&E form. Did you have priority debt arrears notices sent in as well?
What did they say as to the reason why they were not dealing with the claim at the moment?

Thanx for the reply once again, I went down this county claim route as my bank had refused to acknowledge that I was in financial hardship.I did fill the I/E then as well.
Recently,when the courts issued a claim to the bank,then bank wrote to me asking to fillout an I/E sheet. i filled it and sent it back to he bank in hope to get some money back. And ...bang!bank refused on the same basis as previousley stating I had enough to meet both ends meet!! I am surviving on a DLA though
This is not fair at all. I have ran into the unagreed overdraft on number of occasions when the bank chrged me the unpaid referral fee for my unpaid items. And no, I have no priority debt at the moment(thank god for that).
hope to hear from you soon.

regards
hazel

natweststaffmember

hazel09 wrote: »

Thanx for the reply once again, I went down this county claim route as my bank had refused to acknowledge that I was in financial hardship.I did fill the I/E then as well.
Recently,when the courts issued a claim to the bank,then bank wrote to me asking to fillout an I/E sheet. i filled it and sent it back to he bank in hope to get some money back. And ...bang!bank refused on the same basis as previousley stating I had enough to meet both ends meet!! I am surviving on a DLA though
This is not fair at all. I have ran into the unagreed overdraft on number of occasions when the bank chrged me the unpaid referral fee for my unpaid items. And no, I have no priority debt at the moment(thank god for that).
hope to hear from you soon.

regards
hazel

Hazell, the court claim will be stayed automatically since they do not deal with Financial hardship claims. The FOS can look into that once the bank have issued a final response to your financial hardship claim. My gut feeling is that the bank will reject it, not because you may not be in financial hardship but that the very things that will either lose you your house, lose you your liberty or have utilities withdrawn are not there(mortgage/rent, council tax, and utilities).
Hope that makes sense?