Alliance & Leicester (merged)

JB31

SUCCESS

Hello everyone,

I have helped my 19 year old daughter make a claim against A&L. They took £440 off her between Feb 06 and Sep 06 when she got into a pickle with her finances; I even telephoned them on her behalf at the time, explaining that she was a single mum, and the money they were taking was my grandsons family allowance. My pleas made no difference, their money grabbing machine went into operation, and put my daughter into an unnecessary spiral of debt!
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I made the FOI request on the 19-Feb-07, started MCOL action on the 27-Apr-07, and the County Court date was set for the 14-Aug-07. There has been correspondence in between very similar to most of the other posts on this site.
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Today my daughter received a ”Without Prejudice” letter from Wragge & Co explaining that they have been instructed to offer £440 + court fee in full and final settlement; payment will be within 28 days of her acceptance.
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I was claiming interest on the £440, which amounts to approx. £33, and they are not paying this. I haven’t yet prepared the court bundle etc yet, so figure that it is worth forgoing this amount even though it galls me to let them get away with anything.
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This is my first post on this site, but I would like to thank everybody here, and on the CAG site for their words of wisdom. MimiJane in particular has provided some fantastic advice, I have read many posts, and could not have achieved this result without the help posted here and on the CAG websites.
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Good luck to all of you who are still pursuing claims,
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JB

eyeball0001

Right, anyone got any advice.

I'm just about to call Clark Sargent and have a chat - i was sent a new offer by them of only half of what i offered to settle for and i'm going to call them to reject that and see what they will give me...

any ideas/tactics??

magpie1892

is it worth giving wragg a call and asking for a settlement before sending off my bundle,im just about done with my bundle and its took 4 days,the reason i ask ,is iam off on hols on 22nd july not back till 6th aug if anything happens i wont be able to reply,ie an offer in the post,my court date is set for the 14th aug .everything is in place to send off

MimiJane

eyeball0001 wrote: »

Right, anyone got any advice.

I'm just about to call Clark Sargent and have a chat - i was sent a new offer by them of only half of what i offered to settle for and i'm going to call them to reject that and see what they will give me...

any ideas/tactics??

Mmmm, difficult one. It's tempting to say you'll only settle for the full amount and they may as well pay up now than let it go further, but he'll only say fine, see you in court I expect (then no doubt pay up near the court date, which just prolongs the agony). I'd probably start negotiations by saying you're willing to settle minus the court fee (if you are) and see how it goes from there, but I'd definitely go for the interest ... at least initially.

Good luck anyway and let us know how it goes

MimiJane

magpie1892 wrote: »

is it worth giving wragg a call and asking for a settlement before sending off my bundle,im just about done with my bundle and its took 4 days,the reason i ask ,is iam off on hols on 22nd july not back till 6th aug if anything happens i wont be able to reply,ie an offer in the post,my court date is set for the 14th aug .everything is in place to send off

Always worth a try, what have you got to lose? I don't think there's any way they'll offer you the full amount though (see post above).

magpie1892

(quick update ) just off the phone to wraggs awaiting for them to get back to me as the lady dealing with it was unavailable ? ? ?

eyeball0001

I'm the same as you now magpie - I said that i was declining the offer and i'm waiting for someone to call me.

Mimi - i had emailed a couple of times before this offering to settle for amount plus half court fees minus interest. They wrote back saying they had a different amount for the charges than i had - about £300 less, so i'm curious to find out how they added this up - i think excel does a pretty good job at addition!

They offered a lot less so i'm going to give myself a lower limit and see how close they can get to it.

scottjack

Hi everyone,

I've been reading up a fair bit after receiving my defence from Wragge & Co. As far as I can make out the particulars of my claim that I sent were fine for what I'm charing but I have received this back...

Insufficient Particulars of Claim

1. It is denied that the defendant has applied charges to the Claimant's account with the Defendant as claimed and the Claimant is to put strict proof of the amount claimed, and that such amount has been unlawfully debited from the Claimant's account

2. The Claimant has failed to particularise the claim against the Defendant adeuqately or at all and the Claimant is requested to particularise each and every charge that the Claimant alleges the Defendant has added to the account, specifiying the amount charged, the date of the charge and the explanation given for the charge.

So after already sending my charges list to A+L twice, I imagine if I send Wragge them then this will cover both points?

Cheers

CHF

To 13,000 - that A+L line is shocking as my letter says they are using the OFT ruling of £12 as guidance for their paltry offer.

daveybuh

scottjack wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I've been reading up a fair bit after receiving my defence from Wragge & Co. As far as I can make out the particulars of my claim that I sent were fine for what I'm charing but I have received this back...

Insufficient Particulars of Claim

1. It is denied that the defendant has applied charges to the Claimant's account with the Defendant as claimed and the Claimant is to put strict proof of the amount claimed, and that such amount has been unlawfully debited from the Claimant's account

2. The Claimant has failed to particularise the claim against the Defendant adeuqately or at all and the Claimant is requested to particularise each and every charge that the Claimant alleges the Defendant has added to the account, specifiying the amount charged, the date of the charge and the explanation given for the charge.

So after already sending my charges list to A+L twice, I imagine if I send Wragge them then this will cover both points?

Cheers

Yes this a delaying tactic they seem to emply with everyone, just send your spreadsheet of charges to Wragge, A + L and the MCOL / court and a short letter saying you hope this clarifies the particluars of the claim.