Alliance & Leicester (merged)

kelly's_skint

Hi everyone, hope all is well and you are all getting your pennies back.
Well it has got to the stage where I have to take Alliance & Leicester to court as they are refusing to pay up. They owe me £1,535 plus £114.69 in interest up till 20th March.
I sent the 1st letter off on the 20th March and recieved a reply stating that the charges were fair and thes charges were relating to credit cards only??? I have been told ths is untrue as it also means bank charges aswell. So I sent off another letter on the 26th March stating that I will take them to the small claims court unless I recieve the money am owed. They sent exactly the same letter as the first back to me on 31st march.
Since this has been going on I have been charged a few more times for failed DD's and unauthorized OD charges. Does anyone know whether I can up my claim to the new amount without starting the whole process again? If so I think I will just leave it and carry on with the original amount.
I have decided to go ahead and take them to court. It has taken me a few weeks to decide as I think it is quite a big step and people have reminded me that if they win then I will have to pay their costs etc. This did frighten me a little as I am a single parent family with 2 small children and am unable to work. I don't think I would be able to pay their cost's!!!
I know I shouldn't have gone OD and I shouldn't have failed DD since all of this begun and I am frightened that a court will think this also and just tell me where to go! I try so hard to make sure my funds are ok, it' just that when they fail the DD they charge you and then that maks you go OD. They make me laugh how they fail the DD and charge you £34 then take it out of your account and charge £25-£50 for being OD ????? It really isn't fair to people.
Any way enough of my rambling! Please, if anyone has any advice I will appreciate hearing it before I put the court paperwork in on Friday. Thanks for listening.

Kelly. x

eyeball0001

Just to keep everyone posted on my case...

have issued my MCOL, got a letter through saying that it will be deemed served on the 28th (this sat) and they have until 12th May to acknowledge.

Edinburghlass_2

I'll pop your post into the Alliance and Leicester thread where you'll find plenty of people who are having to proceed to court with them but you will also find lots of success stories for A&L.

When you file your claim you can add in these new charges taken at this point.

MimiJane

They've just acknowledged and waiting to see if they defend now (more than likely after refusing their ridiculous offer).

It'll be interesting to see what they do as a few service charges were inadvertently included in my schedule, though I could contest that this was never pointed out to me in their response when I sent them the schedule (just denied ALL charges were claimable of course).

eyeball0001

MimiJane wrote: »

They've just acknowledged and waiting to see if they defend now (more than likely after refusing their ridiculous offer).

It'll be interesting to see what they do as a few service charges were inadvertently included in my schedule, though I could contest that this was never pointed out to me in their response when I sent them the schedule (just denied ALL charges were claimable of course).

Now i'm thinking that i'll get a silly offer too... hmmm... Seems nonsensical for them to do it really, they should just make a reasonable offer!

MimiJane

Exactly ... all this messing around when they know, at the end of the day, they could end up paying interest, court fees, etc. on top. It all seems ridiculous, but suppose they don't want to set a precedent and, along the way, they will frighten off some people who don't have access to all the info. we have.

allegro_2

I sent off letters to A&L in February 2007, including threat of court action to which I received a curt 'no'. Unfortunately I didnt take it any further as I was unable to afford the fee to take it to a small claims court, I am now in a better position, can I do anything now? Or am I too late?

MimiJane

allegro wrote: »

I sent off letters to A&L in February 2007, including threat of court action to which I received a curt 'no'. Unfortunately I didnt take it any further as I was unable to afford the fee to take it to a small claims court, I am now in a better position, can I do anything now? Or am I too late?

Give the court a ring on 0845 601 5935 ... they are really nice and helpful

sateen

sateen wrote: »

Thanks for the A&L address at Narborough,
I have been writing my letters to the Bootle address, should I send all those letters to the narborough address first before the court claim or just start the claim using the Narborough address.
THanks

sateen

afield23 wrote: »

I have, after getting onto them, received a reply regarding my request for repayment of charges from Alliance & Leicester.

The letter says,

Dear Mr Field

Thank you for contacting us regarding fees which you feel were unfairly debited to your account.

While I understand your concerns, please be assured our fees are reasonable and competitive with those made by other financial organisations.

The Office of Fair Trading has commented that they consider the level of late payment fees to be unfair, however, they were actually referring to late payment fees for credit card payments, which are quite distinct from a bank's fees on current accounts.

Discussions are ongoing between banks and the OFT regarding current accounts and once the outcome is known, Alliance and Leicester will review its position as appropriate.

As well as making our customers aware of our fees when opening accoutns, we also continue to do so through our website, our branches, by telephone and on back of statements. In view of this, i do not feel that you have been unfairly charged and regret that i cannot agree to refund your fees.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of our response further, please contact me on the above number. I will keep your file open for 8 weeks and if i have not heard from you by then, i will consider the matter closed.




I have drafted my next letter threatening court proceedings, do i attach more copies of statements, or just list the charges i am claiming back? Is this a response hoping that i will give up hope?

Just some advice what to do next please!!

Had the same letter from A&L !
Just send them a list of the charges and the interest claimed, you dont have to send your bank statements .
sateen