Barclays Bank (merged)

Mike15979

Hi

On 13th july I got a small claim court date of 28th September for my case against Barclays.
I was expecting an allocation questionaire but all I have had is a letter saying 'each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents'.

Is this normal?
Do I just send the court my bank statements and a list of charges?

Thanks

Mike

chestnuts

Just back from Court. Four cases for Barclays were up at the same time, and they sent a barrister to ask for stay until after the High Court case. The barrister said the date has now been set for January 08 etc. etc.

The Judge agreed and said that he was granting a stay on all cases before him, and ones that had not yet had a Court date. This was despite the fact that we had not had any personal notification of Barclays taking this line (Ithink they are supposed to give 14 days notice of their defence).

The Judge asked each person to make some sort of statement, but it was obvious he was not listening on an individual basis and he had already made his mind up before we went in.

We have been taking this forward since last December, and are very disappointed. What a waste of time turning up -they could have let us know they were going to do that via letter.
:mad:

danelliott

Copy of the test letter sent out by Barclays.

Dear Mr. X

Unauthorised Overdraft Charges ("bank charges")

We refer to your complaint about bank charges. We wrote to you recently making you a goodwill offer in full and final settlement of your complaint about these charges.

We believe the charges are legal, fair and transparent.

Since we last wrote to you, Barclays (and several other banks) became involved in legal proceedings with the Office of Fair Trading ("OFT") about bank charges which we believe will resolve the legal issues on the fairness and legality of your bank charges.

We have asked the Financial Services Authority ("FSA") to suspend the normal timetable for dealing with bank charges complaints, and the FSA has agreed to this request subject to conditions which protect your rights.

However, the goodwill offer the bank made you still stands and you can accept or reject this offer.
If you decide to take up this offer, you must contact us within 2 months from the date of this letter.
You should be aware that if you accept this offerm this will be in "full and final" settlement of your complaint. This means that it is unlikely you would be awarded a further sum even if the test case indicated that you could be entitled to a potentially larger amount. Though this does not preclude you asking for repayment of any future charges if the court finds they are unlawful.

If we do not hear from you within the specified 2 months, we will assume that you have decided to reject this offe and await the outcome of the legal proceedings with OFT. This means that the bank's offer will expire (i.e. can no longer be accepted by you) and we will reconsider your complaint once the test case is resolved. We can assure you (in that instance) we have registered and stored your complaint.

Please retain your bank records, as this will make it easier for you to support your complaint on resolution of the test case.

Once the legal proceedings between the OFT and the banks finish, we will resolve your complaint as quickly as possible and apply the (test case) principles. this may produce a larger or smaller figure when compared with the current offer.

We are sorry that we have not been able to respond in full to your complaint right now, but we (together with the FSA and the OFT) think that is necessary to resolve the key legal issues before we decide how we should respond to your complaint.

Obviously exactly what will happen next depends 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 canassure 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 Finacial Ombudsman Service ("FSO") (or to the courts).

Given this case we have asked both the FOS and the courts not to proceed with any other case they are hearing untill the test case is resolved. FOS has indicated that as a general proposition it will indeed not proceed with cases which rely on the legal issues being considered in the test case.

Similarly, you should be awar that if you choose to issue a claim in the county courts, Barclays will immediately apply to the court for an order to stay your action untill resolution of the bank's proceedings with the OFT.

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

The FSA requires us to ensure that any bank charge complaint will not be adversly affected by the delay in dealing with it.

If you have recently accepted our offer please ignore this letter.

---

So who thinks we are gonns win and who thinks i should take the offer?
I am only owed approx £1700 but after some change in my circumstances after there initial offer of £200, i sent them a letter telling them that i would accept no less that £1000 just to get this over and done with, i gave them 14 days to respond which they did not now we have this issue where no one gonna get n e money for a while. I am in a position where i NEED money but i dont wanna take £200 if im gonna shoot myself in the foot.

AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH what to do?????????????????????????????

Stokey125

The general rule is that a counter offer amounts to a rejection of of the original offer which cannot then be accepted. As you have stated you will not accept less than £1000 this could be taken as a counter offer and the origial offer of £200 is not open for acceptance. In these circumstances a couny court claim would seem to be your only option it is at presentr about 50/50 whether it will be stayed assuming Barclays even remember to put in a defence.

alphahurricane

Mike15979 wrote: »

Hi

On 13th july I got a small claim court date of 28th September for my case against Barclays.
I was expecting an allocation questionaire but all I have had is a letter saying 'each party shall deliver to every other party and to the court office copies of all documents'.

Is this normal?
Do I just send the court my bank statements and a list of charges?

Thanks

Mike

Yes this is usual, carry on, although if you look at post below yours, don't expect to get a quick result

good luck

mickeymumx

well, Barclays have sent me a letter ....offering under half of my claim, i am awaiting a court date for a hearing but my local court have stayed loads of claims and people i know have had loads of problems with them ...losing paper work and giving the banks extra time etc....so , i am super stoney broke and feel i should take the offer, what with OFT and all,

any one recommend any ways of negotiating for a larger sum ?? or if i try to up the offer will they cackle and tell me to wait till after the court case ??

any advice please ????? what would you do ??

Stokey125

mickeymumx wrote: »

well, Barclays have sent me a letter ....offering under half of my claim, i am awaiting a court date for a hearing but my local court have stayed loads of claims and people i know have had loads of problems with them ...losing paper work and giving the banks extra time etc....so , i am super stoney broke and feel i should take the offer, what with OFT and all,

any one recommend any ways of negotiating for a larger sum ?? or if i try to up the offer will they cackle and tell me to wait till after the court case ??

any advice please ????? what would you do ??

See if they pay the money into your account if they do write back saying that you accept it as part payment of the sum owing. On the point about whether you should refuse the offer if you do legally you will not be able to change your mind later and decide to accept it as it would no longer be open to be accepted. Therefore you should think very carefully before rejecting the offer. As a possible way out say to them that while yu are thinking about the offer and are not refusing it would they consider raising it to then suggest a figure. If they say no then it is open to you to accept the offer as it has not been rejected.

fiveyearplan

I thought all these claims were now on hold. Are people still getting their money back. Should I make my claim against Barclays Bank now?

mickeymumx

hi, my claim was started last oct, i am just waiting for my court date, i think the offer is standard if you are going to court, if i say no then i will be waiting til ......who knows.......... you can start your claim and they may offer to settle, xx

jdm52

I received my statements from Barclays on the 39th day, using the calculater to work out interest I sent a claim in for £2070 + interest giving a total of £2597.24 I have received a letter saying that although they disagree with my claim that without any admissions of liability they are willing to offer me £1500. towards the total amount I am seeking, this is with the cost & inconvenience inherent in a further dispute in mind and is intended as a gesture of goodwill, in full & final settlement of my complaint. They then go on to say if I want to accept their offer to send the form back & the money will be in my account in 10 days. They say if I am disatified with their proposal for resolving my complaint I may ultimately be eligible to refer my complaint to the FOS.

I sent them a letter on the 26th June

Thank you for your letter dated 08 June 2007 for an offer of £1500.000 in full and final settlement to my claim.

I am not willing to accept this as full and final payment. I will be happy to accept this offer as 'part payment' to my claim of £2597.24 , without prejudice and I shall be persuing the claim by means of the Financial Ombudsman for the remainder of the money owed to me.

However, if you are prepared to pay to me £ 2000.00 within 14 days of the date of this letter, I am prepared to accept this lower figure in full and final settlement of my claim and interest.I look forward for a full response to this letter within 14 days.

They've not even acknowledged it & they didn't even pay in the £1500.00 they originally offered , advice on what to do next please