Compensation offer from credit card company

Tabitha_T

Have received an offer of £150 compensation from a cc company who sent a letter addressed to me to the wrong number house and it was 'mistakenly' opened by my neighbour. All very embarrassing as it was concerning my financial difficulties, inability to repay cc etc (gave the o/s balance). My neighbour (dreadful gossip) has, I am sure, blabbed this along my little terrace of houses and I am mortified that now all my neighbours know the **** I am in. Does £150 seem a reasonable amount for compensation? I have no idea of such things, presumably this will be actioned by way of a credit to my balance which is approx £8K. Any thoughts please? Thanks

chattychappy

Difficult - only you can put a price on your own reputation and the value lost in having this information becoming public. The CC is not totally at fault - your neighbour opened it when she knew that she shouldn't have done.

Was there anything untrue in the letter? That would take you into a whole different area. Have you suffered any tangible loss as a result of this (unlikely)?

Personally an apology and the £150 offered would be enough for me. I'm sure you could get more if you wanted it - but would that really help (except for the cash being useful, of course)?

Tabitha_T

Well, neighbour said he didn't even look at the name/address on the front, just opened it as part of his pile of mail (yeah yeah). As regards content, no untruths, just fairly standard arrears information, confirmation of default etc. The cc concerned are beinng very pushy for me to return the (prepared) letter agreeing to their offer of £150. It seems as if they are pressurising me into accepting the amount asap. Obviously an increase to their offer would not go amiss as it will further reduce my o/s liability. Hmmm...I need to give it some more thought I guess.

KingElvis

I would act all stressed and go to the doctors, claim psychological damage, whiplash etc....... where there's blame there's a claim.

I certainly wouldn't let it go at £150...never take the opening offer.

opinions4u

If it was a "no damage done" issue and I would say accept.

Given your exceptional circumstances, I would suggest that this is worth more than £150.

While you could go to the FOS (who would probably award you £250ish) I would suggest naming £500 as the amount that you are prepared to accept .... and settling for £300 if they negotiate.

Good luck!

Tabitha_T

Thank you very much for the advice. You've made me think more about this and I'm going to dismiss their inital offer and see how negotiations go. Will keep you posted with future developments. Cheers

dgtazzman

I wouldn't get too demanding and settle for the 150 pounds and a letter of apology, in the end it's a token offer and I'm surprised they're offering that much for an honest clerical mistake. It's your neighbour that did something he/she shouldn't have at the end of the day and is more liable than anything for damages.

They probably figure with 8k outstanding, 150 is nothing and should you make a big fuss over it, it might end up costing them a lot more than the 150, though they'd probably win the case eventually. I'm no legal eagle though, so I don't know if there's any precedents etc.

YorkshireBoy

I received £150 (their standard offering) from my bank for a 'minor' DPA breach.

I tend to agree with opinions4u's advice above. However, it depends on how much distress and inconvenience you've suffered.

Should the case be investigated by a senior FOS adjudicator, the company will incur a £500 'case fee' (plus any award made/suggested), so there's your starter for ten!

sharpy2010

Seriously, your neighbour looked at your financial details, by accident or not, and now the world has ended? Get real, this is just a simple mistake, get over it, and move on with your life.

opinions4u

sharpy2010 wrote: »

Seriously, your neighbour looked at your financial details, by accident or not, and now the world has ended? Get real, this is just a simple mistake, get over it, and move on with your life.

Putting it in perspective, the card company appears to have admitted fault and made an offer to settle.

I know from personal experience that the FOS would value a typical breach of the DPA of this nature at more than £150.

The figure I suggested above (£300) is probably slightly higher than the FOS would normally recommend but, I believe, lower than they would insist on given the specific circumstances of this case.

While the OP could probably try and hold out for more than £300-£500, this would almost certainly mean going via the FOS. That would be frustrating from a time perspective and probably not worth the hassle, especially if somebody has a stressful situation in their life at the moment.

So getting real, the OP has been wronged, there are prececedents for larger settlements than £150 and I think the OP should pursue it to a point.

Tabitha_T

Thanks opinionsforyou and all other posters with constructive advice and comments. As for sharpy2010, I'm all for free speech but I don't see the need for your negative comments, if you have nothing constructive to say, I believe the phrase is butt out. It's not a case of 'get on with my life', what a meaningless expression. This is about being compensated for loss of reputation and having had my private information become public. If you read the advice from other posters, you will see that the FOS takes this seriously. I have now taken other independent advice from 2 debt charities who have both confirmed that under the circumstances, £150 is a paltry offer. As per the advice of opinionsforyou, they confirm that £300 is a more sensible amount to request at this stage. I have been wronged, it matters not that it was a clerical/admin matter, who cares, it happened and that's that. If I can reduce my cc balance a little further, all to the good, and more food on the table for my kids.